CSPAN - Washington Journal 01/02/2025

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Jan. 2, 2025 07:00-10:04 - CSPAN

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Washington Journal 01/02/2025

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unidentified		Along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy.
		Coming up on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, we'll take your calls and comments live.
		Then, investigative journalist Dave Leventhal discusses his reporting on who's contributing large sums of money to President-elect Trump's inaugural committee and why.
		After that, Henry Olson of the Ethics and Public Policy Center talks about his recent New York Post op-ed, in which he argues Donald Trump's White House win signals a historic realignment favoring the Republican Party.
		Take part in the conversation.
		Washington Journal starts now.
		Good morning.
		It's Thursday, January 2nd, 2025.
		At least 15 people are now confirmed dead, and dozens remain injured in that vehicle attack in New Orleans early yesterday morning.
		While the investigation continues, the FBI has called it a terrorist attack.
		In Washington, members of Congress have said the incident highlights the need to quickly confirm President-elect Donald Trump's national security team.
		We're getting your thoughts and reaction this morning on phone lines split regionally.
		If you're in the eastern or central United States, it's 202-748-8000.
		If you're in the Mountain North Pacific regions, 202-748-8001.
		Special line for New Orleans residents, 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 Thursday morning to you.
		You can go ahead and start calling in now.
		This is what New Orleans residents are waking up to this morning.
		It's the front page of the Times-Picayune.
		They're in New Orleans.
		Act of terrorism is the banner headline.
		This is the lead to that story.
		New Orleans awoke to a New Year's nightmare Wednesday with Bourbon Street soaked in blood after a Texas man mowed down dozens of early morning revelers, an Islamic State flag waving from the trailer hitch of the rented pickup in an attack that the FBI is calling terrorism.
		The FBI identifying the driver as 42-year-old Shamsu Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen from Texas.
		The FBI said they were searching for additional suspects in an investigation that has quickly spread to the Houston area.
		That's from the Times-Picayune this morning.
		President Biden yesterday addressing the nation after the attack, this is what he had to say.
joe biden ▲ ● ▼		Good evening.
		I know I can speak for all Americans when I say our hearts are with the people of New Orleans after the despicable attack that occurred in the early morning hours.
		To all the families of those who were killed, to all those who are injured, to all the people of New Orleans who are grieving today, I want you to know I grieve with you.
		Our nation grieves with you.
		We're going to stand with you as you mourn and as you heal in the weeks to come.
		I want to thank our brave first responders and law enforcement personnel who stopped the attacker in his tracks before he could kill or injured even more people.
		And I want to thank you to everyone at the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, including the FBI, for working nonstop to investigate this heinous act.
		The FBI is leading the investigation to determine what happened, why it happened, whether there was any continuing threat to public safety.
		Here's what we know so far: the FBI has reported to me the killer was an American citizen, born in Texas.
		He served in the United States Army on active duty for many years.
		He also served in the Army Reserve until a few years ago.
		The FBI also reported to me that mere hours before the attack, he posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill, a desire to kill.
		The ISIS flag was found in his vehicle, which he rented to conduct this attack.
		Possible explosives were found in the vehicle as well.
		And more explosives were found nearby.
		The situation is very fluid, and the investigation has a preliminary stage.
		And the fact is that right now, excuse me, there you go.
		The law enforcement and intelligence community are continuing to look for any connections, associations, or co-conspirators.
		We have nothing additional to report at this time.
		The investigation is continuing to be active, and no one should jump to conclusions.
		I've directed my Attorney General, the FBI Director, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the head of the National Counterintelligence Terrorism Center, and the intelligence community to work on this intensively until we have a full and complete information.
		And once we have that information, I will share that information as soon as we can confirm it.
		Additionally, we're tracking the explosion of a cyber truck outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas.
		Law enforcement and the intelligence community are investigating this as well, including whether there's any possible connection with the attack in New Orleans.
		Thus far, there's nothing to report on that score at this time.
		I've directed my team to make sure every resource, every resource is made available to federal, state, and local law enforcement to complete the investigation in New Orleans quickly and to make sure there's no remaining threat to the American people.
		And we will support the people of New Orleans as they begin the hard work of healing.
		New Orleans is a place unlike any other place in the world.
		It's a city full of charm and joy.
		So many people around the world love New Orleans because of its history, its culture, and above all, its people.
		So I know, while this person committed a terrible assault on the city, the spirit of our New Orleans will never, never, never be defeated.
		It always will shine forth.
		We've seen that time and time again throughout its history.
		And I know we'll see it again in the days and weeks ahead.
		May God bless the people of New Orleans.
		May God bless our police and our first responders.
		May God protect our troops, and we'll keep you fully, contemporaneously informed.
		Thank you.
unidentified		I was President Biden yesterday evening.
		There's some of the Associated Press pictures from the scene there in New Orleans.
		A statement yesterday also from the incoming President, President-elect Donald Trump, saying this on his true social account.
		When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the fake news media, but it turned out to be true.
		The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before.
		Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department.
		The Trump administration will fully support the city of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil.
		I mentioned comments from members of Congress as well and what this could mean for the incoming Trump administration.
		This was incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune with this tweet yesterday.
		Our hearts go out to everyone affected by the senseless terror attack in New Orleans with reports of an ISIS inspiration.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		The American people expect clear answers from the administration.
unidentified		The threat posed by ISIS will outlast this administration, and it's a clear example of why the Senate must get President Trump's national security team in place as quickly as possible.
		John Thune on X yesterday evening.
		Taking your phone calls this morning on the Washington Journal special line for New Orleans residents.
		That's 202-748-8002.
		Otherwise, phone lines for if you're the Eastern or Central time zones and Mountain and Pacific.
		We'll begin in New Orleans.
		Frank, good morning.
		Thanks for calling.
		Good morning.
		Your thoughts this morning in New Orleans?
		How is New Orleans this morning?
		Oh, well, actually, I'm living in Baton Rouge after Katrina.
		So I really don't know, but that my friends call and we talk, and they all are terrorized enough to purpose of terrorism to have everybody afraid, most of the people.
		But I'm 80-year-old now, and I worked in the quarter at 15, 16 years old.
		And washing dishes as a kid after school.
		But, you know, I'm grown now, 80 years old.
		After war, I'm a combat veteran, wounded.
		But I'm hearing all of the talk about protecting the citizens of New Orleans.
		Now, terrorists will get to you anywhere.
		I mean, they could use drones and any other kind of thing to get to you.
		New Orleans, French Quarter area, is like three or four-mile radius.
		I mean, I would say from the river to Rampart, oh, far up beyond Canal Street, back to the Region Fields or something.
		I delivered mail in New Orleans for 35 years.
		But anyway, how do you protect the citizens when you have guys riding in?
		This guy came in from Texas.
		Here in Baton Rouge, we had, after the Alton Sterling shooting, a guy came in from Texas, shot up Baton Ridge.
		I don't know what we're going to do, and I don't know what they're doing in Texas to have these guys riding down here to, you know, cause havoc.
		What about their own state?
		They're not doing it.
		They're coming here.
		But that's my main thing.
		You cannot protect the people from some guy running off in that big area.
		You could put a blockade on Canal Street, but there's so many other entrants and exits in that quarter area where you have thousands of people walking all of the time, not just New Year's celebration, but all of the time.
		Now, what you're going to do to combat terrorism, I don't know.
		It was available right now in Vietnam.
		They would have eight pens and handkerchiefs around for GIs being acquitted to pick them up and explode.
		Terrorism is something that you can't hardly stop.
		That's Frank in Baton Rouge, former New Orleans resident.
		This is Robert in Arkansas.
		Good morning.
		You're next.
		Good morning.
		If people also notice, when that happened in New Orleans, the first thing Don Trump got on there is what you read.
		And before I know, he knew anything about where the Poles are being.
		And the terrorists, and the terrorists.
		And the terrorists, what, Robert?
		Okay, and the terrorists are born and raised in the United States.
		Now, the Trump got in there was trying to blame it on the immigrants.
		And if you see Spain wants to do some statistics on how many people were killed by United States citizens, other than these people that's come in trying to find a place to live, you'll find out that more white males did more killing than any immigrants ever will be in the United States.
		But you need to check and do a test on it from last year.
		How many of white males shot people today didn't even know nothing about them?
		And that's the bad part about it.
		Blame everything on these immigrants.
		Immigrants come here trying to work.
		And you got the white males in the United States that have committed more murders than any of these immigrants ever will come in.
		That's Robert in Arkansas.
		What we know, according to the FBI, at approximately 3:15 a.m., that individual who's been identified as 42-year-old Shamsuddin-Jabbar, U.S. citizens from Texas, drove his truck into that crowd of people on Bourbon Street, exiting the vehicle, firing upon local law enforcement, law enforcement returning fire.
		He was pronounced dead at the scene.
		Two law enforcement officials injured and transferred to the local hospital.
		He had rented that Ford pickup truck, the ISIS flag on that pickup truck, weapons and potential IEDs located in the subject's vehicle.
		The investigation continues.
		That's where we are this morning in the wake of that terrorist attack in New Orleans.
		Getting your phone calls.
		This is Dan, Youngstown, Ohio.
	Good morning.
	Yes, so the previous caller keeps talking about white males.
	This was not a white male.
	So, yes, Americans can be radicalized, but we also know immigrants came to Colorado, took over blocks full of apartment buildings.
	It was an immigrant in New York that lit a woman on fire in the subway.
	It was immigrants in New York that were fighting with the police.
	So, of course, Americans can kill people too.
	But the more of these bad actors that we have brought into the country that we don't even know where they are or who they are makes things more dangerous.
	Obviously, we have a problem with gang members that have come in from other countries.
	We have a problem because millions of people were brought in who we don't know who they are.
	We don't know where they are.
	Many of them are bad actors.
	To pretend that they're not is absolutely ridiculous.
	And it is up to our government to make us safer, not to bring in people that want to kill us.
	But this is what Biden has done.
	So this guy here was radicalized.
	He was an American.
	That's going to happen.
	But we also have the danger of millions of people in this country who are not, do not have our best interest at heart.
	To ignore that and to lie about it is not going to help the situation.
	That's Dan in Ohio.
	The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, wondering what this could mean for U.S. foreign policy, wondering what the lessons of this terror attack could mean in the weeks and months to come.
	Terror strikes in New Orleans is the headline of their lead editorial today.
	A lesson in this attack is that it's still vital to stay on the offense against jihadist groups abroad, lest they be able to establish sanctuaries from which they can plan attacks on the West, as they did on 9-11.
	The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan has meant the U.S. has lost its ability to monitor ISIS or related terror enclaves in that country.
	This is a good reason they write for Mr. Trump to retain the current U.S. base in Syria, whose mission has been to deter the revival of ISIS or an al-Qaeda safe haven.
	Mr. Trump has said serious civil war isn't America's concern, but it surely is if the country becomes a jihadist state or allows new terror camps to form.
	The possible return of a jihadist terror to the homeland isn't a message that anyone wanted to hear in 2025, but it is a reality that the next administration will have to deter or defeat.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And that is the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal.
unidentified		This is Anthony in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
		Good morning.
		You're next.
		Yeah, good morning, you know.
		This is no surprise for me.
		Look at all the hatred, vitriolic rhetoric that's spewed on most media outlet news programs every single day.
		I mean, you have here you have, I hate to say it, but a lot of, I'm white Italian American.
		My grandfather came here from Italy, Sicily, and we're white, okay?
		And we went through terrible prejudice by other white Europeans who settled in New York City 100 years ago.
		But you have many now, white media journalists, they want to call themselves.
		They're so supportive of black American causes and different races.
		Do you think this terror attack was because of the media 20 years ago?
		How supportive were they then?
		Is it a lucrative job for them now with regards to money and books to act like they defend one group of people?
		And said, come on, let's be totally honest.
		Look at the hate and the vitriol and the rhetoric that's spewed non-stop on this very show.
		You guys, you know, I'm not saying you're perpetrators, but there's a lot of white.
		I'm going to tell you something.
		11 years ago, I'm not going to say any names, but there's a white journalist who's always defending African Americans.
		And I'm going to tell you right now, African Americans.
		All right, that's Anthony.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is Bill in Orange Park, Florida.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I'm sorry, John.
		I punched the wrong number.
		But I don't believe this.
		Listening to these people, I heard that lady the other day with JD Vance saying it was only one apartment building or a couple apartment buildings that were taken over by gangs.
		When are you going to wake up?
		They're going to take over Sears Tower or something in Chicago, and then you're going to have another million people that are going to be dead.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		So, Bill, what's your reaction to what happened in New Orleans yesterday?
unidentified		You know, that had to happen.
		It's going to happen a lot of times from now on.
		You better get used to it.
		And you better put those blocks, those cement blocks up at the end of each street and at the end of each sidewalk.
		That's Bill in Florida.
		This is Ray, Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
		Good morning.
		Hello.
		Yes.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		I've been hearing a lot of the callers before that the attack in New Orleans, terrible, horrendous.
		It was terrible.
		But there are ways to stop these attacks by changing hearts and minds.
		Quite simple, changing hearts and minds.
		What is being preached out there?
		What is being stood upon?
		What about people believing?
		A person can change from bad to good, and they need to focus on helping people, focus on good, focus on in the news.
		They need to have more reports on people lives being changed.
		Christian programming has that all the time, how people change from bad to good.
		And that's good.
		You need change hearts and minds and get back to loving, get back to helping people.
		Regardless of skin color, regardless of where you came from, this is America.
		And America was founded on principles of working together, building a better country, and we need to focus on that.
		Ray, as America focuses on that, what do you think of the, I don't know if you heard the op-ed from the Wall Street Journal saying this is a reason why the United States military needs to continue to have a presence in places like Syria to deter and to ensure that a country like that in the midst of change does not become a safe haven for Islamic terrorism.
		Right.
		Well, I'm a U.S. Navy vet.
		I was in the Indian Ocean in 1980 with the hostage crisis, and I totally support U.S. bases and countries to be a counter terrorist.
		Yes, I totally support that.
		We need a strong military.
		We need to secure our borders.
		That's common sense there.
		That's just plain common sense.
		Secure our borders and protect American citizens and just have mentality and strength and backbone to do that.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Ray in North Carolina.
unidentified		This is Al in Ohio, Dayton, Ohio.
		Good morning.
		You're next.
		Good morning, John.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		And what a sad, sad couple days we've had in America.
		I'm foreign born.
		I'm a vet.
		And to see this happening in this country at this stage of my life is really, really sad.
		But the other thing that bothers me is when people in political offices make comments thinking that they're making a joke at a news conference when all these people have been killed.
		This really upset me yesterday.
		I couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing.
		But we've just got to come together.
		You're referring to, was it Senator Kendi yesterday at the news conference?
		Are you talking about the reporter that was to his right?
		Yeah, and he said it's the first time they've been on the right.
		I mean, who says things like this when you've got 15 dead and 30, 40 people injured?
		You know what?
		He needs, and he's from Louisiana, isn't he?
		Yes, he's one of the two senders from Louisiana.
		Well, they should be very proud of him.
		But this is what upset me.
		I watch this news all the time, and I'm not going to live in fear.
		I got a brother that's got loaded shotguns thinking the immigrants are coming through his door.
		This is ridiculous, the fear that the fear-mongering that's going on in this country has got to stop.
		We're all Americans, whether you came from other countries, you were born here, we're Americans, and we need to protect our country.
		That's all I got to say.
		And I wish everybody a safe new year.
		That's Al in Ohio, and this is about a minute and a half of Senator Kendi yesterday in one of those news conferences in reaction to that terrorist attack.
		Here's what I want to ask from the federal government.
		Catch these people.
		Catch these people.
		And then tell the American people the truth.
		Now, I don't want you to tell us yet anything that's going to interfere with your investigation.
		And there's things that I've been told that I think are true that I'm not sharing with you today because it could interfere with your investigation.
		But after we get to the bottom of this, I need to tell the American people the truth.
		And the people of New Orleans the truth.
		And the people of America the truth.
		I think the mayor and the governor are very wise to postpone this ballgame for 24 hours.
		There's just too much stuff we don't know.
		And it's just not worth it.
		But just my final point is, I will promise you this.
		I will, when it is appropriate and this investigation is complete, you will find out what happened and who was responsible.
		Or I will raise fresh hell.
		And I will chase those in the federal government who are responsible for telling us what happened.
		Like they stole Christmas.
		John Kennedy, the senator from Louisiana, there yesterday, the ball game he's referring to, the Sugar Bowl, postponed from yesterday evening in New Orleans.
		It'll take place this afternoon, at least scheduled to do so.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And that news conference coming yesterday, more expected today.
unidentified		Taking your phone calls, getting your reaction to this terrorist attack, 15 dead, dozens wounded in New Orleans in the very early hours yesterday morning, the first hours of the new year, this 2025.
		This is David in Washington.
		Good morning.
		You're next.
		Good morning, John.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		My condolences go for the victims of this heinous attack.
		I lived in this kind of society before I entered this beautiful country of ours.
		And it seems like we're having the same thing over and over again.
		David, what do you mean when you say you lived in this kind of society?
		What do you mean?
		I lived in the West Bank when it took me usually about 15 minutes to get to school.
		It took me about two hours to go through checkpoints and concrete barricades.
		And I lived through all of that, John.
		These fanatics, they live for vengeance.
		We should not mess with them when we went to Iraq and started the wars with them.
		All they want is their holy sites back in Jerusalem.
		And like I said, they live for vengeance.
		And if we don't have a solution for them to leave us alone here, they will keep on going and going and going.
		David, is the solution a continued presence in the Middle East to ensure that they don't establish a—go ahead.
		Yes, the Palestinians had no human rights.
		And when you go after them like that, they're going to come after you.
		And they are allies, which is us.
		We keep supplying the Jewish state with weapons and give them easy tools to kill innocent people.
		And I left that country behind thinking that everything is gone and over with.
		Now I'm going to live peacefully in this beautiful country of ours.
		But it's a nightmare.
		It's hard to come out of it.
		You talked about the concrete barricades on the way to school.
		Do you think that's where this country is headed, David, when it comes to soft targets?
		Yes, John.
		When I go out to the airport and you have to go through hoops, you have to go two hours early to abort your flight.
		And this is so sad to see our situation like this.
		For innocent people to celebrate the New Year's Eve to get run over like this is just it's just heartbreaking.
		And I left the country when I was 18 years old.
		And I was hoping, I don't want to look back and I was hoping that somehow, somewhere, we'll find a solution with these folks so they can leave us alone.
		We're going to go bankrupt trying to defend ourselves.
		It's crazy insane.
		And my heart goes out for the victims in Louisiana and the future victims unless we find a solution.
		These people live for vengeance and they're going to heaven, they think.
		And I hope we find a solution for it soon enough.
		And I hope we save our money here without putting the defenses up, take care of our kids, the schools, and stay out of their way.
		These people have been fighting like this for ages.
		And we planted Israel on the top of sovereign country.
		They had their own government flag and all of that.
		And now they want to come back and vengeance.
		Jerusalem with the Oxa Mosque is very important to them.
		So let's find a solution and get this crazy madness out of our life in here.
		That's all I got to say, John.
		Thank you.
		It's David in Washington.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		You mentioned having defenses up.
unidentified		The fences here in Washington, D.C., around Capitol Hill are up ahead of the opening day of the 119th Congress.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Tomorrow, it's noon that the House has set to gavel in for a new Congress and the Senate as well.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Those are those security barriers that come up around some of these major events here on Capitol Hill.
unidentified		They're likely to be up as well.
		January 6th, the vote counting for the presidential election.
		And then, of course, on Inauguration Day, security expected to be very tight here in Washington, D.C. That's what it looks like.
		That's the shot to the United States Senate.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Upper Senate Park is what that's called.
unidentified		The security barriers there, splitting it in half.
		And those security fences around Capitol Hill today, tomorrow, and in the days to come.
		Taking your phone calls, this is Janet in Plainfield, New Jersey.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		You're next.
		Hello.
		Yeah, I'm not good about talking, so I'm going to keep it short.
		You know, it doesn't make any difference who's in the White House.
		As long as you have evil out there, sick people, crazy people, this is going to happen.
		I don't care what you try to do.
		I mean, yes, you have to try to take some kind of measure of defense, but it's just going to keep happening, I'm afraid.
		You know, I'm surprised it hasn't happened out in Las Vegas.
		You know, the way the people out there are doing their thing.
		I would like to go to Las Vegas, but I watch it on YouTube.
		And I'm like, all these people out there at night having a good time, it's a wonder something don't happen.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We saw yesterday that cyber truck explosion outside the Trump Hotel, Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		President Biden saying.
unidentified		Oh, I didn't see that.
		I didn't see that.
		But I'm not surprised.
		It's terrible.
		But this is sick people.
		I mean, what are you going to do?
		People who don't have nothing to live for?
		People who don't care?
		So, I mean, I hope that they could find a solution, but it's just not going to happen.
		And I told my sister, it's going to be to the point where you're not going to be able to go anywhere without being afraid.
		It's just, it's terrible.
		I'm very sorry for those people out there in New Orleans.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		In Vegas yesterday, this is some of the reporting on it, that Tesla cybertruck explosion at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas is being investigated as another potential act of terrorism, according to law enforcement officials.
unidentified		The boxy truck stuffed with fireworks and mortars and camp fuel canisters.
unidentified		That Tesla truck was rented through the Turo app.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		One person in the truck killed.
		That Turo app, the same one used to rent the pickup truck, the electric-powered Ford F-150 that was used in the New Orleans attack.
		Those investigations continuing today.
		And Elon Musk weighing in on that Tesla attack in the wake of the news reports there offering investigative officials information about Tesla trucks and about cyber trucks.
		He was tweeting yesterday about that as well.
unidentified		This is Nehemiah in Pompano Beach, Florida.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		You're next.
		Good morning, John.
		Thanks for accepting me on your show.
		I just wanted to say that, you know, it's gotten to a place that our world isn't the same anymore.
		We owe China a whole bunch of money.
		When China gets ready to come over here, they got a bunch of mad young men that they're going to send over here and they're going to take over our country.
		And all these women, the single, these are the women that they're going to take over.
		It's going to be the melting pot.
		This is what's going to happen.
		Okay.
		And I can't go any further than that.
		All I know is China is going to take us over.
		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Nehemiah, the immigration debate coming up yesterday, even though this attacker in the New Orleans attack identified as a U.S. citizen, an Army veteran, lived in Texas.
unidentified		It was the wake of Donald Trump's tweets about immigration that started some of that.
		Chris Murphy, the Democrat from Connecticut, the senator on X yesterday pushing back against Donald Trump, mentioning illegal immigration in his first words about the attack.
		Chris Murphy saying Trump intentionally lying about the attacker being an immigrant.
		He wasn't an immigrant, and why does it matter?
		He says it matters because Donald Trump is going to use the episode of violence to justify his crackdown on immigrants and attack on dissent, whether the facts line up or not.
		Saying this is just the start.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		The senator from Connecticut there on X responding to Donald Trump.
unidentified		This is Doc Baton Rouge.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		You're next.
		Good morning.
		Well, it'd be good if President Trump does take over.
		When he does take over, he cracks down on these people.
		Who are these people, Doc?
		What's that?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Who are these people?
unidentified		People coming over here killing our people.
		Did you not see what happened in New Orleans?
		I live 80 miles from there.
		And the point that the senator was making, the point the senator was making is this was a U.S. citizen.
		This was not an immigrant.
		Well, was his family from the Middle East?
		I don't know about his family, Doc, but the FBI has said he's a U.S. citizen from Houston, Texas.
		Right.
		His mother and dad came here.
		He's the first.
		Hello?
		Go ahead.
		I'm listening to you, Doc.
		You think this immigration debate is very much going to be a part of the early days of the Trump administration?
		Oh, yes.
		Yes, I hope so.
		While there's still some people alive, you know, I mean, we've got to do something.
		That's Doc in Louisiana.
		This is Keith in Bangor, Maine.
		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		I want to first wish the country a hopeful and happy new year.
		I want to say that I'm a veteran, disabled veteran.
		I served in Germany and I walked along the wall before it was tore down.
		And I reminisce about, or I go back to the reason why we were still there in the 80s, and it began with Joseph Goebbels.
		He sold Hitler to the Germans through his propaganda.
		So, Keith, bring me to the New Orleans attack.
		Yes, sir.
		I'm going back to the lady caller a couple calls ago that blamed all this on the media.
		What Joseph Goebbels did for Hitler, our media did for Biden.
		And the omission of truth is still a lie.
		And I've met people from Czechoslovakia that call it the Czech Republic now.
		When I pointed a tank at it, it was Czechoslovakia.
		And back before Biden was elected, quote unquote, these old couple that immigrated from Czechoslovakia were saying because of the news media and what they were doing to Trump then, they were talking about going back to the Czech Republic because it is so bad here.
		Trump calling it very fake news is an understatement.
		All right, that's Keith in Maine, an Army veteran.
		This is the headline of the Wall Street Journal story on the attacker.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This morning, Army veteran was beset by woes.
unidentified		They write: Shamsa din Jabbar's life appeared to take a dark turn recently with a messy divorce and his finances in a deep hole.
		According to an email he sent to his then-wife's lawyer in 2022, on paper, the 42-year-old Jabbar hit many of the milestones of a very American trajectory, a military service, including a war deployment, college degrees from state universities and ascendants through roles at Accenture, Ersten Young, finally Deloitte.
		In addition to his work and that work, he tried to make a real estate business happen.
		Jabbar grew up in the city of Beaumont, Texas.
		He joined the Army serving at bases in Alaska and North Carolina, deployed to Afghanistan in February 2009, serving for 11 months.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		In 2013, he was promoted to staff sergeant, a profile of the named attacker in that terrorist attack in New Orleans.
unidentified		This is Jim, Mount Calm, Texas.
		Good morning.
		Yeah, John.
		I'd just like to say that back in Trump's first term in 2016, he beat ISIS down.
		He beat them down and had them pretty well destroyed.
		And then when Biden took over, he has started peasing to Iran.
		And Iran funds a lot of these terrorists, Hamas and Hezbollah.
		And Biden has allowed them to come back.
		When Trump gets in, he'll beat ISIS down again and get them under control.
		And Iran, too.
		He'll go after their oil fields and destroy them.
		He'll do whatever he has to do.
		But he's going to take down Iran, the terrorist, and Obama and Biden.
		All they do is been appeasing them.
		And it allows them.
		They're like a bunch of rats in a barn.
		So, Jim, to the rats.
		To the Wall Street Journal's point today in that lead editorial we read earlier, Mr. Trump has said that Syria is not the United States problem.
		They're saying that the United States needs to maintain its bases in Syria to ensure that ISIS and other groups, other terrorist groups, don't use it as a base to train to attack the United States.
		Well, I can tell you this.
		All I know is that Trump will do exactly what he did in 2016.
		I don't know exactly what base and all that mess, but I can tell you this.
		He's going to take down ISIS.
		I don't care how he does it.
		He's just going to do it.
		He's going to do it just like he did in 2016.
		He's going to destroy them.
		He's going to take down Iran.
		And you just watch.
		Obama and Biden didn't do nothing but appease these terrorists and patty cake with them.
		That's Jim in Texas.
		This is Danny in Denver.
		Good morning.
		You're next.
		Wow.
		I'm surprised we're not blaming Hillary Clinton.
		We're blaming the Obama administration, the Biden administration.
		Everybody's to blame here.
		My call is a little different.
		What I'm sick and tired of is they hold off a press conference long enough to get the mayor or the senator or the governor out of bed, get them dressed up so they can come out there and showboat and make a picture, snapshot or whatever, get a picture shot of them out there.
		What I'm tired of is that every time there's a tragic event like this, a school shooting, a bombing, something like this, the media, or not the media, but the government officials, they parade all these people out there.
		I would like to see some of the first responders that are there come out there and speak rather than waiting forever for these guys to get out of bed and get dressed and come over there and do a photo op.
		And Senator Kennedy's just crazy.
		He wants to start other things.
		But the whole thing is, when we want information, they should be able to give us information.
		If you give us a press conference where you line up 50 people in a room and introduce everybody so everybody gets a photo op and the showboating opportunity to come out there and be a mouthpiece for some other things.
		But I think that they should have their press conferences right away, give as much information that they can to the public.
		If not, the media needs to go out there and get the information to give it to the public.
		They can sometimes put out there on TV more information than what the press conferences give us.
		I'm sick and tired of them waiting for officials to come for a photo op.
		I don't know why they carry on this way.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Danny in Denver.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is Larry in Circleville, Ohio.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Yes, yes, John.
		I'm a disabled veteran.
		And what went on in New Orleans just got radicalized.
		And he's listening to one of the other countries.
		He's for the love of his other country.
		And there's no way that, you know, he should be treated as Traitor as a traitor.
		Okay?
		Treason.
		It's treason what was happening.
		I know he was an army vet and everything.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And Larry, he's deceased now.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		So when you say treated, what do you mean in terms of how we talk about him?
unidentified		Yes.
		Yeah, he's a traitor.
		He did what he did was treasonous.
		Okay?
		And there's a lot of that that's around nowadays that's being carried by our politicians that are traitors to our nation.
		Okay?
		Including the president.
		Including the president.
		Okay.
		That's Larry in Ohio.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is John in Wisconsin.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		You're next.
		Good morning, John.
		Thanks for taking my call.
		This is a sad day in the country again with another terrorist attack, even committed by another U.S. citizen.
		My whole thing with this is, you know, it's, I don't mean to sound flippant about this.
		I'm not at all.
		It's, you know, I mean, it just goes to show that, you know, the choice of the weapon that he used was an extremely heavy vehicle.
		You know, I don't know if they chose these for that purpose, being electric vehicles, because they could maybe smash through heavier barriers and things like that.
		But, you know, I mean, was it the person driving the vehicle that did the terrorist attack and killed these innocent people trying to celebrate a new year in the country?
		Or was it the vehicle itself that did it?
		I mean, you can, it's the same thing with a gun.
		I mean, a gun is an inanimate object, but when put in the hands of a person that is mentally unstable or for whatever reason wants to cause mass harm, they, you know, they can do it.
		I mean, you can't outlaw vehicles, just like you can't outlaw guns.
		I mean, it's, you know, the hand was driving the steering wheel was the person that, you know, that's how it happened.
		Same thing.
		The trigger on a firearm doesn't pull itself.
		We need to do something in this country about mentally unstable people, and people are having problems.
		And I think a lot of it, to be honest with you, John, I don't know how old you are.
		I'm 61.
		And I didn't even have a computer when I was in high school when I graduated from high school.
		But I think all this technology nowadays is just, it's just, it's ruining the brains and the minds of our young people.
		And I don't know how old was this person?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		He was in his early 40s.
unidentified		Early 40s, yeah, early 40s.
		I mean, he grew up in the technology age.
		I don't know what else I can really say.
		I mean, it's a shame.
		And I just hope it doesn't happen again, but I fear it will.
		Thanks a lot for taking my call.
		I appreciate it.
		It's just I feel for the families.
		Maybe they should sue Ford for letting him for, you know, because he used it as a weapon to kill people.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		It's John in Wisconsin, the Associated Press, and other news outlets pointing out the rise in ramming attacks, attacks by vehicle, the Associated Press with their wrap-up of recent ramming attacks.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		December 20th, as recently as just a couple weeks ago, at least five people killed, more than 200 injured when a car slams into a Christmas market in eastern Germany.
unidentified		Police arrest a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia who had renounced Islam and supports the far-right AFD party in that country.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		November 11th of last year in China, a 62-year-old driver rammed his car into people exercising at a sports complex in southern China, killing 35 in that country's deadliest attack in years.
unidentified		Authorities said the suspect is upset about his divorce.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		He ends up pleading guilty to endangering public safety and is sentenced to death.
unidentified		And June 6, 2021, four members of Muslim family are killed when an attacker hits them with a pickup truck in London, Ontario.
unidentified		Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling it a terrorist attack motivated by hatred.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		White nationalists sentenced to life in prison in that attack.
		The Associated Press wrap-up of just some recent ramming attacks.
		This is Karma out of Florida.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		I'd like to say I'm very sorry about the people who died, but I want people to know out there I've experienced violence in my life, my entire life.
		And there is no expectation of safety when you go outside of your home or even in your home.
		No matter what era you're in now or been in or gonna be in in the future, you can't expect your government or the president or the police or anybody else actually to know what's going to happen ahead of time to protect you.
		You just have to be vigilant of your surroundings, know your neighbors, be kind.
		And God bless America, get these people off of our internet that are getting our people radicalized.
		And stop trying to say one president or the other is to blame because it's been going on since the beginning of the United States.
		So there's no expectation of safety.
		And as long as people want to just keep blaming each other, then nobody's going to come together as a community to be able to stop the hatred and the bringing down of the mental minds of people who are on the edge.
		And for whatever reason, that makes them want to kill other Americans.
		That's Karma in Florida.
		This is Dennis out of Toledo, Iowa.
		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		I have to laugh at these Trump supporters.
		Like, my ancestors came from Czechoslovakia.
		And Trump is going to put Bonesburg Trump going to protect us for the joke.
		When that Capitol got attacked, now he wants to pardon those people who attacked the Capitol.
		How is that protecting us?
		Trump's a joke.
		In this thing in New Orleans, a Republican state like here in Iowa, when Trump was president, Marty Tebbit got murdered by an old ego that rooked for a Republican farmer.
		Trump's a joke, and people who support my opinion are idiots.
		It's Dennis in Iowa.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is the headline from the Washington Times: an aspiring nurse, father, mother, football star among the victims in that New Orleans attack.
		An 18-year-old girl dreaming of becoming a nurse, a single mother, a father of two, and former Princeton football star suffered fatal injuries while the driver of that white pickup truck sped down Bourbon Street yesterday morning, packed with holiday revelers on the New Year's.
		Officials have not yet released the names of all the 15 people killed in the New Orleans attack, but their families and friends have started sharing their stories.
		The New Orleans coroner said in a statement late Wednesday that they will release the names of the dead once autopsies are complete.
unidentified		And they talked with all the next of kin.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And of course, about 30 people were injured in that attack as well.
unidentified		This is Frank, Birmingham, Alabama.
		Good morning.
		Good morning, John.
		Good morning, John.
		Thank you so much.
		And this disparity as it relates to deaths, okay?
		I'm a frequent caller in the C-SPAN, and we broke every single record Birmingham, Alabama ever had.
		Okay.
		We had two homicides every other day.
		And we just closed this year with 158 homicides in the city of Birmingham.
		And three of those were mass killings: 17 people injured, four people killed.
		Okay.
		Now, this happened every year since 2014.
		We had one little black girl inside the school, the first killing inside of the school by a young black male that went to the school.
		They would not even settle with the family.
		They were warned that they should have protectors, that something was going to happen because something had happened at one of the holiday levels.
		Bring me to how this relates to what we're talking about this morning.
		It relates that death is death.
		And again, America goes crazy when they tie the word as a terrorist.
		And we are harboring terrorists right here in America.
		I deal with it.
		I mean, you know, I've called a number of times and always just like we devoted 12 seconds to gun violence in America during the first debate.
		12 seconds right there on C-SPAN, and we went through that.
		So America is going to have to get itself together and get all crazy when we have these kinds of incidents where people die.
		And within our own country, we have just a total absurd magnitude of people dying in the city of Birmingham.
		What a 16 street, well, four little girls was killed.
		We've had over 158 homicides, and we've been in triple digits again since 2014.
		And we can do so many things.
		And when it happens, and then here's New Orleans.
		Let me hear this for instance, just to say, just to compare death.
		New Orleans is, I think, the third most violent city in America.
		Black people are dying like flies.
		And you don't say nothing.
		So when we put that little word, it's a terrorist.
		We get crazy.
		Death is death.
		And America is going through a lot of stuff because how hypocritical it is.
		So they want to get rid of terrorists, get rid of the hypocrisy that's in the hearts and the minds of these American people.
		But when it says terrorists, oh, we up.
		But when it says black boy, when it says 10-year-old shot, when it says that right here in America, nothing.
		Thank you, John.
		It's Frank in Birmingham, Alabama.
		Just about five minutes left in this first segment.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We'll have open forum later in the show, too.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		If you didn't get in this hour, you can join us later in the program out in eastern Kentucky.
unidentified		It's Pikeville.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Gary's there.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Yeah, well, I want to go back four years ago, and we know what took place: open borders.
		I mean, got a ways, gotaways.
		Then the FBI kept saying, well, there's terrorists.
		But, you know, that was what the FBI, the Homeland Security, and the Attorney General should have been doing was checking at the border and stopping these terrorist sales.
		Now they're infiltrated all across the United States.
		They don't know how many terrorist organizations they are.
		United States is being destroyed within because they allowed this to happen.
		So it's pretty obvious.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		So, Gary, the point that's been made a couple times is this was a U.S. citizen.
unidentified		The point that Senator John Thune made is that this terrorist attack and the FBI is calling it a terrorist attack is all the more reason why Donald Trump's national security team needs to be confirmed quickly in the coming weeks once he comes into office and puts his administration into place.
		Do you think that's going to happen?
		Well, sure, it's just going to happen because you got the ideology of these enemies that's over in the Middle East that are going to come here.
		The war is not going to be in the Middle East because they're coming here.
		And so, you know, and so if they could use a terrorist organization, I mean, you've got arenas filled with hundreds, maybe, well, tens of thousands of people.
		And I just don't know how they can stop it.
		I really don't.
		And it's going to all turn loose when Trump takes office.
		All these terrorists are out to destroy our country.
		And we've got so many things that's happened.
		It's just unbelievable that my orcas said everything's good.
		They know who's coming in.
		It's safe.
		It wasn't safe.
		That's Gary in Kentucky.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is Jan in Morton, Illinois.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		I just want to, first of all, say hats off to some of the news media.
		I followed the Syrian uprising carefully.
		I use AP, Reuters, and various news agencies.
		So I'm very well, I'm going to say, just a hats off to them.
		And also, this is a tragedy that happened in New Orleans.
		As soon as they started talking about ISIS, the guy carrying ISIS flag, and if you realize that in Syria we do have bases, that our bases did start sending jets off to attack ISIS strongholds that are still left in Syria.
		If we are naive enough to think that ISIS is not in the U.S., then we're naive Americans.
		And I just say hats off to the media because they've given us every information that we can possibly get about the New Orleans tragedy.
		And we should be thankful for that.
		And we should be very much aware that that can happen in our country.
		ISIS is not gone.
		It's not gone in Syria, and it's still here undercover.
		And that's why we need CIA, we need counterintelligence, we need FBI, all focused on the presence of ISIS people that have either been radicalized through the internet or whatever way, but they're still here and we need to be cognizant of that fact.
		That's mostly what I wanted to say today.
		I hope everyone has a good week.
		Jan, you mentioned the news media and them being on this story.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		There was a New York Post reporter that apparently made it to the suspect's Houston home even before the FBI showed up and had tweeted about it, wrote a story about it in the New York Post.
		Senator Marsha Blackburn, the Republican from Tennessee, said that the fact that the reporter has better intel than the FBI tells us all we need to know.
		The FBI has failed its core mission.
unidentified		Just to your point about the news media coverage of this in the little more than 24 hours since this incident happened.
		I haven't read that, but hats off to the person that was able to get to that information.
		And as I said, I think as Americans, we can't be naive about the fact that there are radical groups.
		We went after them in Syria after it, you know, became, you know, when it went through its revolution, when they stated that there were bases still in Syria, that the jets were going, they were taking off, and bidding the cells in Syria does not necessarily mean that ISIS is gone.
		And so I just think we need to be aware of that.
		Did the FBI do their job?
		Maybe not completely.
		Do we still have counterintelligence and CAI?
		Hopefully we do.
		Because those groups all have to come together and make sure they're communicating and maybe even communicating with us as Americans so that we are not naive about the fact that there aren't radical groups either in this country or being radicalized through the internet.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And this is the story from the New York Post on Shamsazin Jabbar's, as they describe it, squalid home where sheep and goats roam his yard after his financial ruin.
unidentified		Their exclusive look at his home, the New York Post, with that story.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is Roy, West Palm Beach.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning, John.
		Happy New Year.
		After all, if you want to call it that.
		Didn't start out very good here, 2025.
		I find it quite absurd.
		When I heard that woman, the first spoke person from the FBI saying, oh, this has nothing to do with terror, I said right then to myself, I said, okay, here we go again with the FBI.
		Okay, that's the first thing that's going to be gutted once our great next president, number 47, Donald J. Trump, takes over.
		And on the 20th, you're going to see a lot of things happening quick.
		But where this all actually began, and John McCain warned America about it when he was running against Obama in 2008, he warned about Tony Blinken.
		Tony Blinken and certain other individuals who I don't want to name their names because I'm certain that Tony Blinken is the one that is actually in control of America right now.
		And he's doing it secretly behind our backs.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Why do you think Tony Blinken is in control?
unidentified		Obama.
		He lives.
		Obama, hear me out, please, and then I'll let you speak real quick.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		I'm just trying to understand where you get the information from, Roy, on that.
unidentified		I feel like that would be a big story.
		John McCain, John McCain said it himself during the election when he was running against Obama.
		He warned America about Anthony Blinken, Tony Blinken.
		Just look at the guy.
		Listen to the way he talks.
		He is a communist.
		You can see it.
		And some of these people, Jack Smith, who has a name, who has a name, Jack Smith, even Trump said it himself, what's his, I wonder what his real name is.
		Okay, the southern border will be wide open.
		When Biden first came in and what he did with our southern border, of course, so what?
		That guy was in our military that did that awful deed that he did, killing all the people there in New Orleans.
		That's a shame.
		And I'm praying for their families, and I will do so for a long time.
		But what needs to be done is we need to slow down, get rid of our FBI at the top, get the U.S. Marshals to take over this investigation because even John Kennedy, Senator Kennedy from Louisiana, said it himself.
		And you can hear it between the words he spoke when I heard him speak.
		And he was talking about the FBI and about a complete investigation that is done correctly.
		And the American people being informed correctly the way they should be.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Roy in Florida, our last caller in this first segment of the Washington Journal.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Stick around, plenty more to talk about this morning, including up next, we'll take a closer look into who's donating to President-elect Donald Trump's inaugural committee.
unidentified		We'll be joined by investigative reporter Dave Leventhal, who's been following the money on that story.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And later, it's Henry Olson of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
unidentified		We'll discuss his recent New York Post op-ed piece about a political realignment in this country.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Stick around.
unidentified		We'll be right back.
		Witness Democracy in Action with C-SPAN.
		Experience history as it unfolds with C-SPAN's live coverage this January as Republicans take control of both chambers of Congress and a new chapter begins with the swearing in of the 47th President of the United States.
		On Friday, don't miss the opening day of the 119th Congress.
		Watch the election of the House Speaker, the swearing in of new members of Congress and the Senate, and the first day of leadership for South Dakota's John Thune as the new Senate Majority Leader.
		On Monday, January 6th, live from the House chamber, witness Vice President Kamala Harris preside over the certification of the Electoral College vote, where this historic session will officially confirm Donald Trump as the winner of the 2024 presidential election.
		And on January 20th, tune in for our live all-day coverage of the presidential inauguration as Donald Trump takes the oath of office, becoming the 47th President of the United States.
		Stay with C-SPAN throughout January for comprehensive, live, unfiltered coverage of the 119th Congress and the presidential inauguration, C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered, created by Cable.
brian lamb ▲ ● ▼		Brian McClanahan has a Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in history.
		Several years ago, he wrote a book titled Nine Presidents Who Screwed Up America and Four Who Tried to Save Her.
		His view on the presidency is not the traditional one you get from most historians.
		On the back of his book, published by Regner of History, the liner notes claim the worst presidents are the ones who want to, quote, reform unquote, the country through the power of the federal government, which usually means usurping the power of Congress or the people.
		Brian McClanahan focuses a negative spotlight on Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, and Barack Obama and others.
unidentified		Brian McClanahan with his book, Nine Presidents Who Screwed Up America and Four Who Tried to Save Her, on this episode of Book Notes with our host, Brian Lamb.
		Book Notes is available on the C-SPAN Now free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts.
		Washington Journal continues.
		C-SPAN viewers are familiar with Dave Leventhal, previously with the Center for Public Integrity and Open Secrets, currently an independent investigative reporter.
		Porter, his most recent piece running in the Daily Beast opens this way.
		Donald Trump's second inauguration is turning into an unprecedented pay-to-play extravaganza oozing with opulence for the moneyed elite attending and funding the Once-in-A-Lifetime affair.
		Explain.
		It's really good if you are a millionaire or a billionaire here in Washington and want to influence Donald Trump because he is offering for his inauguration a variety of ways to do just that.
		And what we're seeing on the ground is that lots of corporations, lots of very wealthy and moneyed individuals are taking him up on his offer to donate a million dollars, $2 million, and perhaps even more than that to get exclusive access to Donald Trump, Donald Trump's family, and also to the cabinet members and all the people who will be populating or likely will be populating Donald Trump's administration.
		So if you're somebody who is coming in for the inauguration from Nebraska or Idaho or Florida and you're hoping to get that kind of level of access, you will sadly be disappointed because this is going to be for just an elite few.
		When you donate to an inauguration, where does that money go?
		It goes to actually a nonprofit committee.
		And so every inauguration, whether this is Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, whoever it is, they will set up an inauguration committee, which again is formed as a nonprofit organization, and the money goes toward that and to that.
		And what does that committee do?
		Well, there's two things to know about inaugurations.
		What you see when the president puts his hand on the Bible and swears his oath of office, that's something that's actually a congressional function.
		There's a separate committee that's set up to take care of all the pomp and circumstance that come with that actual inauguration ceremony, the procession to the Capitol, the ceremonial send-off of the former president, but all of the balls, all of the dinners, the breakfasts, the brunches, the lunches, the Tony affairs, and there's going to be a lot of them this time around, all of that is funded privately.
		So that's when you get corporate donations.
		That's when you get individual donations.
		And that money goes again to that nonprofit that is in charge of setting all of that into motion.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		How much do you expect Donald Trump's nonprofit that he set up is going to raise from this inauguration?
unidentified		We fully expect it will exceed the more than $107 million that was raised during Donald Trump's 2017 inauguration.
		And let's offer a little perspective here.
		Barack Obama's two inaugurations, they roughly raised about $53 million in 2009, and then actually a little bit less in 2013, about $42 million.
		Joe Biden's inauguration was $62 million roughly that was raised for that inauguration, albeit a very strange one given the fact that it was in the depths of COVID and we had just had the attack on the U.S. Capitol not two weeks earlier.
		But Donald Trump is definitely upping the ante in a major way and aggressively fundraising to ensure that his inauguration, no matter how this goes down, is going to be very, very well funded and that it is going to be glitzy and is going to be opulent at a level that would be akin with what Donald Trump usually wants and what people expect.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		The money that's raised, does it all get spent during the inauguration weekend?
unidentified		No, not necessarily.
		So here's a thing to know about the way that inauguration money works is that there is a lot of transparency when it comes to money going in to an inauguration committee.
		So for example, if ATT donates $1 million to the inauguration, which we expect and have confirmed that it will be donating a large amount of money, that is going to be public record.
		That is going to be something that will be public knowledge by April of this year because by federal rules, you have to disclose your donors if you're a committee of this sort, an inaugural committee.
		So they've got 90 days to do that.
		We'll find that out sometime this spring.
		But different from what you usually get with, say, for example, a presidential campaign committee or a political action committee.
		They don't actually have to say an account for how they spend that money.
		Ultimately, it's up to the person who's running the committee, ostensibly Donald Trump in this case, to volunteer that information if he chooses to do so.
		There's no expectation that Donald Trump will.
		Joe Biden didn't.
		Barack Obama didn't.
		So as a result, we may not have really a full accounting or a full sense of where that all money, where all of that money is getting spent and where all of that money is going.
		And to the question of, well, have they spent it all?
		Is it going to dinners and balls or is it going to something else?
		It's going to be very difficult to suss that out to a penny sense in that we don't have a federal rule or federal regulation that will compel the Trump committee to go forth and do exactly that.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Let me invite viewers to call in.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Dave Lebondahl with us until 8.45 Eastern this morning.
unidentified		A good time to call in on questions about inaugural money or money in politics in general.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is the guy you want to ask your questions to.
unidentified		He's been doing it for a long time.
		202748-8,000 for Democrats.
		202748-8001 for Republicans.
		Independents, 202748-8002.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		As folks are calling in, you mentioned, do you fully expect AT ⁇ T to give a million dollars to this inauguration?
unidentified		How do you know that?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And who else do we know is going to be giving large sums of money to this inauguration?
unidentified		So as part of my story in the Daily Beast, we contacted more than 110 corporations and companies that either have a history of donating to inaugural committees or that are very much in the news these days.
		So for example, crypto companies that have been very, very active and interested in engaging with the incoming Trump administration.
		And we put the question to them, are you going to donate?
		And if you are, how much are you going to give?
		We were able to confirm a number of companies that said that, yes, we are going to go ahead and do this.
		There's been great reporting done by Axios and Reuters and other news organizations that have confirmed other names.
		We know, for example, that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, will be donating, that Amazon will be donating money to, and a variety of other corporations, including if you're driving a GM or a Ford car, well, GM and Ford will be giving money to Donald Trump's inauguration.
		So when you add this all up, a million dollars here, $2 million there, you can see how it's going to pretty quickly exceed that $107 million record mark that Donald Trump set in 2017.
		And it's entirely possible that we could be looking at not only a historic dollar figure for the amount of money raised during Donald Trump's 2025 presidential inauguration, but we could be looking at perhaps 50% more, even 100% more than what Donald Trump was raising in 2017.
		And hey, inflation is real.
		And yes, you know, you have to take that into consideration.
		But that's still a significant, significant increase in what is already a very, very large amount from eight years ago.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And an interesting part of your story in the Daily Beast, again, the headline, why Trump is going to have the swampiest inauguration ever, was the number of people who either gave you no comment or didn't get back to you on this question of are you donating explain who some of those folks were.
unidentified		And is the idea then to go back and then check the records come April to see if they gave you no comment but ended up giving money?
		You better expect that we will be doing that.
		But, you know, this is a risk proposition for corporations.
		They have to weigh the risk of, all right, well, if I give a million dollars to Donald Trump's presidential inauguration, or generically speaking, any inauguration, is it going to be worth my while to do that?
		What is that million dollars going to get me?
		And we know from past inaugurations that it will buy companies a great deal of access.
		Make no mistake about this.
		This is about access.
		It's about being able to get your people, your executives, the folks that you want front and center in front of the president or the vice president or the first lady or any of the cabinet members and other people in that president's circle, they're in the arena on the day that that president is becoming president.
		So as it applies to Donald Trump, we know from history and don't have to read too far back to know that Donald Trump's business empire and his political ambitions, oftentimes there's no hard line between the two of them.
		And Donald Trump is very open about doing business at the same time that he will be leading the country, that he's running hotels and retail properties and golf courses and has a business that he's running.
		So as a result, you have Donald Trump very welcoming to people who are willing to do business with him.
		And again, it's becoming all too clear that many, many corporations are all too happy to engage in that type of situation.
		And just not to make it about Donald Trump or a Republican versus Democratic administration, you point out in your story.
		There are some of these corporations who give money every inauguration.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		It doesn't matter who's going to be president.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		They just want their people there.
unidentified		They do.
		And they want to make sure that they are not on the outside looking in.
		You have a certain amount of money that you have to pay in in order to be there.
		And this is part of a broader strategy that many corporations have when it comes to lobbying the federal government and attempting to influence politicians, influence policy, make sure that you are on the nice list and not the naughty list, so to speak.
		And a million dollars or two million dollars to an inaugural committee is a very good initial handshake to work with an incoming administration.
		It will also be buttressed by a whole variety of other different types of efforts that corporations will put forward, including hiring teams of lobbyists to go and lobby Congress on Capitol Hill, lobby government agencies that will be a part of the Trump administration, lobbying the White House directly.
		And that's even before we begin to talk about campaign contributions that will come during campaign season that also too will range in some pretty significant dollar amounts as well.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		It's a deep dive story in the Daily Beast, again, why Trump is going to have the swampiest inauguration ever.
unidentified		Got plenty more questions for you, but I also have plenty of callers.
unidentified		So let me get to them.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Paula in Beaumont, Texas, Independent, good morning.
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
		I just have a question about the backside of the donations for any presidential inauguration.
		The front side, you said, is very transparent.
		The second part of it is that they don't have to report what they actually do with the money.
		So if President-elect Trump wanted to, he could use some of that money to help some of his base as far as the needy part, making sure that his base supporters are taken care of, setting up some type of foundation for them or something like that.
		You're asking if that's something that he could do, Paula, correct?
		Yes, I'm saying that would be a good use of the money that he doesn't actually use for his inauguration.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Dave Leventhal.
unidentified		Yeah, the caller is correct.
		Again, just to reiterate, the transparency is on the money in end.
		There's not a lot of transparency on the money out end.
		And this was actually a big issue in 2017 during Donald Trump's first inauguration.
		There was a lawsuit that was filed by the D.C. attorney, and it was alleging that Donald Trump misused money or misappropriated money from his inauguration for the benefit of his family vis-a-vis the Trump Hotel.
		In essence, it was charging inflated rates to the Trump Hotel, and therefore his family was getting a benefit from it.
		Donald Trump denied that this had happened.
		He said he was innocent.
		They ultimately settled for $750,000 to settle the matter, and the Trump inaugural committee and Donald Trump did not have to admit any guilt, even if they had to pay that penalty.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Was that a federal case?
unidentified		No, that was a D.C. case.
		And it really speaks to the issue of how many different kind of overlapping jurisdictions also have some role in the inauguration in general.
		You have, of course, the federal government that is front and center in putting the inauguration on in the first place.
		But you also have local jurisdictions, the city of the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C., that also too has to provide incredible amount of support.
		And Donald Trump and Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, D.C., just met a couple of days ago, in fact, to discuss these and various other issues, too.
		But if you have, for example, a question about whether there's some sort of inappropriate spending that's going on, even though the public won't receive a whole lot of transparency, if there's a question about illegality that's going on,
		if there's a question about whether there is some, to use a very technical term, funky spending that is taking place, there can be other entities and there can be other law enforcement officials even that get involved in that process to determine and investigate if there were some shenanigans taking place.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Lafelle is in Frederick, Maryland.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Great.
		Good morning to you all.
		I have a quick question.
		Since as a permanent resident from Jamaica, and a lot of Magan Republicans that I've seen in America that are low-income, what are they going to do and how are they going to be able to go to the Trump inauguration?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Is it a question of who can attend an inauguration, LaFell?
unidentified		Yes.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Zoom anybody can attend an inauguration.
		That's right.
		It's just where you get to if you go to a ball or something like that.
		That all costs money.
unidentified		That's a great question.
		So if you are a U.S. citizen, if you are a citizen of Jamaica, if you are a citizen from anywhere in the world and you are in Washington, D.C. on the day of Trump's inauguration, you'll be able to attend the inauguration itself.
		You'll be able to stand ostensibly on the National Mall.
		You'll be able to view the spectacle.
		And it always is a spectacle.
		It's going to be something that will be open to the public, which does stand in great contrast to what happened four years ago when because of COVID protocols and also strict security protocols that were put in place after the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021, this was an inauguration unlike any in modern history in the sense that nobody was on the National Mall.
		I attended that inauguration and sat up front as a reporter, and it was chilling because I had attended other inaugurations, including Trump's 2017 inauguration.
		And you always see the throngs of people, tens and tens of thousands of people who are lined up on the National Mall from the Washington Monument to the steps of the U.S. Capitol.
		And none of that was present because of those extreme and extraordinary circumstances.
		We don't have those circumstances in place for 2025, so anyone will be able to attend, but there's a line there.
		And the caveat is that if you want to do more than stand on the National Mall, if you want to do more than be present in Washington, D.C. on the day that Donald Trump gets inaugurated, there's a price to pay for that.
		And you're going to have to make a donation at some level in order to get to those more exclusive events.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		When it comes to federal office, I know there's provision against foreign entities, non-citizens donating to a federal campaign that you can't take those donations.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Does that apply for these inaugural, this inaugural committee that's been set up or any of these inaugural committees?
unidentified		Yeah, that's an important point, and one where the answer is you can't if you are a foreign national.
		So that's one of the few restrictions that an inaugural committee actually has, which is that if you are a citizen of pick your country that's not the United States, it could be Canada right next door, it could be Bhutan halfway around the world, and you will be prohibited from making a direct donation to Donald Trump's inauguration.
		Now, there are some loopholes there.
		So, for example, if you are a foreign company and you have a U.S. subsidiary, that U.S. subsidiary or an employee of that U.S. subsidiary could potentially make a contribution to the inaugural committee.
		But that's a relatively narrow slice of what we're talking about.
		And foreign donations are a big deal.
		In fact, there was somebody who went to prison after the 2017 inauguration for making an illegal foreign contribution to Donald Trump's inauguration effort.
		So it's something that the federal government keeps an eye on.
		It's something that is monitored.
		But it's also something, too, that is a bit of a sticky issue in the sense that the Federal Election Commission, which also has a role in inaugurations, they don't do a whole lot of checking when it comes to whether the source of a donation is coming from a foreign entity or a legal domestic entity.
		And that's something that its own inspector general said, hey, guys, you should probably do a better job here, but it doesn't seem from the reporting that I've been able to do that there has been a whole lot of effort put forth in order to ameliorate that situation, at least as it was described by the FEC's Inspector General.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		As you can tell, Money in Politics is Dave Leventhal's specialty.
		He's with us for about another 20 minutes.
		So get your calls in.
unidentified		This is Paulette in Massachusetts Democrat.
		Good morning.
		Oh, hello.
		Yes.
		Good morning.
		How are you?
		Doing well.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What's your question or comment?
unidentified		My question is, how come, okay, my question is, first of all, I'm 77 years old and I need dental implants and I'm living on a fixed income.
		All these companies are donating millions and millions of dollars.
		And I actually am going to Tufts School of Dentistry in Boston because it's a little cheaper.
		But why can't these companies donate some of these money for causes like this that would really, really help the people who are living on a super fixed income?
		I mean, Beasles and all these people have, they're rolling in millions and millions of dollars.
		Can they help regular people?
		Do they always have to help, you know, more, more and more millionaires?
		Wouldn't that be just great if they actually helped people like us?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Paulette, thanks for the call.
unidentified		Well, to the caller's question, many corporations have philanthropic arms.
		And they do, in fact, make donations to a variety of different charitable causes.
		They have their own charitable operations in some cases.
		But to the caller's point, a lot of people would say, well, why couldn't you do more?
		Or why do you have to spend a million dollars on politics when you could be spending a million dollars doing something else?
		We could debate for, I suspect, a long time the role of corporations in society and what they should be doing.
		Of course, corporations, their first goal, especially if they're a publicly traded corporation, is to take care of their shareholders and to make money and to make sure that they continue to be a going concern.
		But yeah, there's going to be a lot of glitz and glitter, and a lot of people who are struggling in the country right now, including perhaps some people who voted for Donald Trump with the notion that Donald Trump will help get them out of their own situation, may be wondering, well, hey, what's in this for me?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		It brings up the idea that these companies probably wouldn't be spending money on this if it didn't work, right?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		During election time, we always have the question of why are there so many negative ads?
unidentified		Candidates wouldn't be spending money on negative ads if they didn't work, right?
		You know, if you're not at the party, you're not at the party.
		So these corporations know that, and they know that they really, if they don't donate, they do so at their own peril.
		And I should note that we did confirm with several companies that they have chosen to not make donations to the inauguration.
		For example, Excel Energy.
		So if that's your power company, know that they have made previous inaugural donations.
		Will not be doing so, according to them, this time around.
		If Travelers Insurance is your insurance company, they too, similar.
		They have made previous donations to inaugural committees.
		Well, not this time around.
		One of the most curious ones was Wynn Resorts.
		So if you've been to Las Vegas and you've stayed there, if you've gambled at the casino, Steve Wynn, huge, larger-than-life figure, major Republican donor, he stepped down in a sexual harassment scandal in 2018.
		Wynn Resorts was a big donor to Donald Trump's inauguration back in 2017.
		The company confirmed to me for this Daily Bee story that, no, in fact, they will not be making a donation in 2025 in part because of a different philosophy and direction that they've gone in in the years after Steve Wynn had left the company.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is Ashburn, Virginia, Joanne, Republican.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Hi, good morning.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		Thank you, CSA, for all that you do.
		I just wanted to wonder if your guest was listening to the woman who called earlier, who I don't think she was asking about the proprietor of inaugural funds.
		I think her question was, does the incoming Trump administration plan to do something historic and new and use some of these funds to help to phase that, you know,
		who's gotten him into office by maybe, I don't know, like I don't work in this area, but something creative, a way to help people less fortunate maybe to be able to attend a foundation or to help the people of D.C. specifically because they're the ones that will host the inauguration.
		That's my question.
		Thank you so much.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Dave Leventhal, have any of those plans been announced or have they said anything about that?
unidentified		So no plans of that sort that the caller mentioned have been announced by the Trump Inaugural Committee.
		It's still a little bit early yet and the inauguration hasn't happened.
		We don't know if there are going to be surplus funds, for example, where in essence there has been more money raised than they could spend during the inauguration.
		The inaugural committee, and we mentioned before that it's a nonprofit organization, it would have options.
		So let's just say for the sake of argument that the Trump inaugural committee raises $200 million, but they only need to spend $100 million or $150 million.
		What could happen to that excess extra money?
		One option for it, because it is a nonprofit entity, is it could donate that money to charitable causes.
		It could donate that money to help people in Washington, D.C. or Florida or anywhere else in the country.
		There are certain limitations of how that money could be used.
		It couldn't, for example, by law directly be donated to the Republican National Committee.
		But at the same time, too, there is a way for the Trump inaugural committee as a nonprofit to legally spend that money down and not spend it on things that are directly related to the inauguration itself that will be taking place on January 20th.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		So it passed this prologue.
unidentified		What happened with excess funds in 2017?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		How much was spent down during the inauguration?
		How long was that inaugural committee around?
		Is this the same committee from 2017 that Donald Trump is donating to, or is this a new entity?
unidentified		It's a new entity.
		It was established in Florida.
		It has an address in Massachusetts.
		And it's a different entity, separate and apart from what we had in 2017.
		There's nothing uncommon about that.
		If you have a new inauguration, then you typically have a new committee.
		But that's where we get to the issue of, well, where is the money going?
		Where is the accounting, the dollars and cents on the ledger?
		We don't know.
		And that's something that Congress, for example, could have addressed in previous years.
		They could have passed a law that said, well, we're going to have more transparency.
		We're going to require inaugural committees to have a public accounting similar to the public accounting that they have for the money coming in for the money going out.
		That did not come to pass, even though some Democrats in particular were agitating during the first Trump administration and even in the four years that Joe Biden has served as president to strengthen some of those requirements to make sure that there is going to be some sort of record of where this money is being spent.
		And we talked to a number of ethicists for the story that has been published in the Daily Beast.
		And they brought this up really in unison, but independent of one another to say that's one of the biggest issues that inaugural committees in general face that is not in the public's interest because you don't have that transparency because inaugural committees are black boxes.
		It really sets a situation in motion that really is tantamount to committees doing the wrong thing or at least having the potential to do the wrong thing and spend money in ways that the public may not be crazy about, but not know and not really have any sense of, again, where that money is ultimately going.
		Germantown, Maryland, and Democrat.
		Good morning.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		You're on with David Leventhal.
unidentified		What I cannot understand, and so I'd like to say Happy New Year.
		And my heart goes out to the New Orleans folks.
		Where does character fit into any of this?
		They're giving all this money to the biggest grifter of the world, most dishonest human, well, he's not human, most dishonest thing ever to walk into the White House.
		Questionable, any money he's received from people who don't have a pot of pissing or a window to throw it out or paying for his legal fees, and he couldn't give a damn.
		What a joke.
		And, by the way, Mr. Wynn, I know of many people he has helped and thank god he solved the ill of his ways.
		Cheeto man ain't never gonna find it till he's in jail.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Ann in Marilyn.
		She mentioned um paying his legal bills.
		Uh, and you touch on this in the story about how some of Donald Trump's legal bills in recent uh, in these recent cases have been paid for.
		Can you just walk through that a little bit?
unidentified		Yeah, the inaugural committee it is not set up to pay Donald Trump's legal bills.
		That money should probably not be going for that purpose, or at least it is understood by people who are making donations that they're not donating specifically for the reason of paying Donald Trump's numerous legal bills for any of the criminal cases that, of course, he's been dealing with or the civil cases that he's been dealing with at all.
		Although we do know, and the article touches on this, that if, for example, you buy merchandise that's related to the inauguration, so there might be wine glasses or buttons or t-shirts or any of a number of different things that the inaugural committee is peddling at this point.
		And again, very typical for inaugural committees to do this.
		But there's a weird wrinkle.
		The money, at least as of the writing of this article, was not going to be going directly to the inaugural committee.
		If you bought a $50 or $100 piece of inaugural branded merchandise, that money would actually be going to, in primary form, the Republican National Committee.
		And a portion of that, about 20%, would be going to a political committee that Donald Trump himself actually lords over and has responsibility for.
		And that committee has a history of paying Donald Trump's legal bills.
		So there may be some ways with inaugural money going into the inauguration where money does go back and help Donald Trump in some form or fashion.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		To Newport News, Virginia, this is Abram in the Republican line.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Go ahead.
unidentified		My question was to your guest, David Leventhal.
		I see he's an investigative journalist.
		And my question to him is, have he investigated the Bidens or the Obamas and see where, if then there's money for inauguration for the swamp, they did anything illegal?
		It seemed like he's gloating about Trump and what he's done.
		How about the rest of them?
		Yeah, we're focusing on Donald Trump now because it's his inauguration.
		That's the news of the moment.
		But to the caller's question, absolutely.
		During 2021, wrote a series of articles about Joe Biden's fundraising and fund spending, going back to Barack Obama.
		Absolutely that too.
		This is something every four years that I pay very close attention to because of the financial issues that arise every time you have an inauguration and that there's a whole lot of money sloshing around in a very short period of time in a very directed way.
		And we know one thing for sure, which is true, and this is not false equivalency, it's just fact, that corporations and special Interests love to give to inauguration because of that instant access that they get to a brand new set of political players with a great deal of power here in Washington, D.C. About 10 minutes left with Dave Leventhal.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Always fun to ask you, what else are you working on with your focus on money and politics?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		There's always some good stories.
unidentified		Absolutely.
		I had a recent article in Rolling Stone, for example, about the National Rifle Association, the NRA, and that is a story about money, but it's also a story about power.
		And if we were having this conversation, John, say, 10 years ago, we'd be talking about the NRA as one of the leading lobbies in the United States of America with just incredible amounts of power, incredible amounts of money, really at the height of its game and its strength.
		And a document that I obtained through a kind of an odd, obscure filing in the state of North Carolina included an audit, an independent audit that revealed some new details about the NRA's financial state.
		And the headline from that was that the NRA was basically having a fire sale of many of its stock and fixed income investments to the tune of almost $50 million in a very short period of time early this year.
		And they were doing that, according to the audit, to pay down debt, number one, and number two, to just simply run its operations.
		And the NRA, which also too is a nonprofit, if anyone knows anything about nonprofits, if you're burning through your investments just to pay your bills and keep your operation running, that is not a sign of financial help.
		So the NRA has been subject to a number of legal actions against it.
		It has had great tumults at its leadership ranks.
		Wayne LaPierre, who had led the NRA for many, many years, stepped down under a cloud of scandal.
		And many of those legal actions continue forth to today.
		So the NRA remains a big power and a very influential power here in politics in Washington and across the country, but it is not the same NRA that it was from a political influence perspective than it was even a few years ago.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		John, New York Independent, good morning.
unidentified		Yeah, thanks for taking my call.
		Let me turn this.
		Okay, I got it.
		No, I was just curious.
		I've been listening to this, and the staff of the Washington Journal, I have all the confidence in they would never have somebody that was politically biased, especially a investigative journalist on this show.
		But this thing is being focused only on Donald Trump and the money and this, that, and the other.
		But there's other candidates that ran.
		It was Kamala Harris.
		He spent a billion dollars in less than three months.
		And everybody's wondering where that money went.
		And I'm just curious if you could just spend maybe a couple minutes or a minute of discussions on what you found out.
		You're an investigative journalist.
		You must have been investigating that aspect.
		And I'm curious about where did the billion dollars go?
		How could you spend that in three months?
		And it was a total failure.
		And I'm just curious what your outlook on that was.
		But listen, I have all the confidence in the staff of the Washington Journal that they would never bring any kind of a bias or investigative journalists on this show.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		John, we bring plenty of investigative journalists on, and there's actually plenty of people who come on the show who have bias, who are talking from a point of view.
		I encourage you to go look at Dave Leventhal's work and his work over the years.
		One of the best in the business when it comes to looking at campaign finance and cash.
		Did you look at the Harris campaign's spending?
		Is that something that you've investigated?
unidentified		Absolutely.
		And I would encourage the caller or anyone else to look at some of the articles that I've written on exactly that topic.
		There were major, major questions about Kamala Harris's campaign spending under the very bizarre circumstances of her running a 100-day campaign as opposed to a years-long campaign.
		But yeah, one of the biggest questions even coming from Democrats was: well, why were you spending a million dollars here and a million dollars there on Oprah and big rallies and celebrities?
		And why not invest more in grassroots and ground-level type operations?
		So, you know, many of these questions were bubbling up after her loss and in the wash, and will continue to do so as Democrats figure out, well, what went wrong and what can we do in the future to fix that and to make that from happening again?
		But Kamala Harris, when she ran for president in 2020 and wrote a story on this too, she's had some financial troubles, to say the least, when it comes to running her political campaigns.
		And 2024 was a very, very notable example of a campaign that was run and money that was spent in ways that not everyone agreed with.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Explain what Open Secrets is.
unidentified		Open Secrets is a nonprofit organization.
		They do research and reporting.
		They've been around since 1989.
		Full disclosure, I used to be the editorial director there several years back.
		And they, I would consider to be the gold standard of tracking money in politics.
		They are incredibly neutral.
		They are truly independent.
		And it's an organization that if you want to know more about how corporations attempt to influence politics, if you want to know how much money is being raised and spent by any political committee or any political candidate, if people are running up debts, really anything that you could fit under the money in politics heading, you're going to find in Open Secrets.
		And I would fully encourage people to go check out their website at opensecrets.org.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		OpenSecrets.org.
unidentified		There you go.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Your home for money in politics.
		This is Lewis in Glendale, California, Democrat.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Yeah, first of all, Happy New Year, Dave.
		Happy New Year.
		My question is: I heard a lot of people, there's a lot of negativity and a lot of money involved here, but it's a debt ceiling that the government and our country has been going through for more than five years.
		Trillions of dollars are being invested abroad on countries that are in need.
		So what is a government and who investigates on how they can return a lot of the money that they're going to owe the country and the government and the president that provides those fundings for the needy countries?
		And why not these trillionaire billionaires can't supply a president in those countries to help rebuild those countries so one way or another that money can come back because a lot of the money is being spent out there.
		The taxpayers, and like the lady earlier called about her dental issues, she's a taxpayer.
		We, the taxpayer, the people that make under $500,000, deserve to get the credit and not have to be too much concerned about what's going on in our country, but abroad with all these other countries that are finished.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Running short on time.
		Let me give Dave Leventhal a chance to respond.
		I think the question was about replacing foreign aid with private investments overseas as well.
		Is that how you took it?
unidentified		I suppose so.
		But I would say this: that the general question of, well, how should the United States be interacting with foreign governments and helping, or for that matter, not helping foreign governments?
		That's going to be a core question of the Trump administration.
		It's one where you're going to hear Elon Musk's name, the richest man in the world, with his sort of unofficial official role in Donald Trump's administration, looking at government efficiency and how we spend our money and whether certain government agencies should be doing more or likely government agencies doing less and whether there should be a redistribution of the way that money comes into the government and also how money is spent by the government, helping other countries, providing foreign aid.
		These are things that Donald Trump has talked about a great deal over the past 10 years of his time in federal politics and expect that you're going to be hearing a lot more from him about, well, hey, we got to make America great again.
		We got to make America go first and all the other countries going second.
		And that really plays into even the debates that we've been having about him saying we would love to have Greenland become part of the United States or take over the Panama Canal again or Canada becoming our 51st state.
		A lot of that is, of course, hyperbolic and there's no real serious chance, at least at this moment, that that's going to happen.
		But it speaks to sort of the deeper issue of Donald Trump's intentions on the foreign policy stage.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Last call, Noel in the Empire State Republican.
		Noel, go ahead.
		You're on with Dave Leventhal.
unidentified		Hey, good morning.
		Yeah, I want to say happy new year to everybody.
		And I am so glad that Donald Trump is going to be taken over.
		He is the greatest president since Washington, it looks like.
		And I sure am glad that Biden is out.
		And I hope they check his pockets to make sure he's not stealing silverware.
		And that's all I got to say.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Noel in New York.
unidentified		Dave Leventhal.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		I'll give you the final minute here in case there's anything in that very deep story in the Daily Beast that we didn't get to.
unidentified		Yeah, well, to the caller, one thing to note, Joe Biden has said that he will be at this inauguration.
		So that will be different from the inauguration that Joe Biden had in 2021 when Donald Trump was not there.
		So there will definitely be some Trump-Biden interaction of some sort at the inauguration.
		But yeah, really, there's a lot we don't know at this point about the inauguration funding in the sense that not every corporation has said what they're going to do.
		They have not all telegraphed their intentions, and it will be a few months yet before we get that full, full list of who donated and how much.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And we'll have you back on the program to talk about it when you get that list.
		Dave Leventhal, Daily Beast is where that story is.
		It's DaveLeventhal.com if you want to check his workout.
unidentified		Always appreciate the time.
		My pleasure.
		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Coming up next, we'll be joined by Henry Olson at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
		A conversation about his recent piece on a political realignment in this country.
		Stick around.
unidentified		We'll be right back.
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		Each weekend, listen to inaugural speeches from Franklin Roosevelt through Barack Obama.
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jimmy carter ▲ ● ▼		Democracy is always an unfinished creation.
ronald reagan ▲ ● ▼		Democracy is worth dying for.
george h w bush ▲ ● ▼		Democracy belongs to us all.
bill clinton ▲ ● ▼		We are here in the sanctuary of democracy.
george w bush ▲ ● ▼		Great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies.
barack obama ▲ ● ▼		American democracy is bigger than any one person.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected.
unidentified		We are still at our core a democracy.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		This is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom.
brian lamb ▲ ● ▼		Brian McClanahan has a Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in history.
		Several years ago, he wrote a book titled Nine Presidents Who Screwed Up America and Four Who Tried to Save Her.
		His view on the presidency is not the traditional one you get from most historians.
		On the back of his book, published by Regnery History, the liner notes claim the worst presidents are the ones who want to, quote, reform unquote, the country through the power of the federal government, which usually means usurping the power of Congress or the people.
		Brian McClanahan focuses a negative spotlight on Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, and Barack Obama and others.
unidentified		Brian McClanahan with his book, Nine Presidents Who Screwed Up America and Four Who Tried to Save Her, on this episode of Book Notes with our host, Brian Lamb.
		BookNotes is available on the C-SPAN Now free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts.
		Washington Journal continues.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Joining us now for the first time since before the election, it's Henry Olson, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, podcaster, columnist.
unidentified		He wrote this recent piece in the New York Post, the headline, A Realignment If Trump Can Keep It.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Henry Olson, explain the political realignment that you saw in the results of election 2024.
unidentified		The biggest thing about this election is not that Donald Trump won, it's that it's the first time since 1928 that there were more people saying they were Republicans than Democrats.
		And that's true in both the exit poll and in the AP Vote Cast poll.
		And so when something happens for the first time in 100 years, you should sit up and take notice.
		Because typically when this happens in American history, what happens is the party structures realign, that new voters come into another party and leave the old party, and a new party becomes dominant.
		And I think that's the possibility, if Trump has a successful term, that we're looking at the first change in that since the Reagan administration.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Explain, for folks who may be scratching their head right now, saying, well, Republicans have been elected since 1928, what do you mean by what you just said?
unidentified		Yeah, what I mean is that when people say they're part of a party, they tend to vote up and down the line for that party.
		So what Republicans were doing in winning elections really since 1946, because there was about a 20-year period during World War II and the Great Depression where they didn't win national elections, was they've been getting a lot of independence and a lot of Democratic votes, particularly early on.
		And what that meant was they had to be campaigning on Democratic themes.
		They had to be saying things that Democrats believed in so that they could get Democrats plus Republicans.
		And what that means is that they never have really run the federal government.
		You know, they win elections, but you look at how many times Republicans have had trifectas in the last hundred years.
		The answer is about nine years out of that 100 years.
		They can block Democratic things.
		They can advance some small things, but they haven't been able to run the government.
		The Democrats have had the upper hand for a century, and it's possible we're looking at a reversal for the first time.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We're coming off the death of Jimmy Carter.
		Take us back to the 1980 election, and Ronald Reagan comes in at 1981.
		The Senate flips to Republicans.
		Was that not a realignment at the time?
unidentified		It was a partial realignment.
		So what happened was when Reagan was elected, Democrats had, depending on the poll, a 20 to 25 point lead in partisan identification.
		They had run the House since 1954.
		They had run the Senate since 1954.
		And moreover, it wasn't close.
		Republicans had never gotten more than 192 seats during that period.
		They had never gotten more than 41 Senate seats.
		I'm old enough to remember 1980 as an adult, and no one saw it coming.
		It was a complete sea change.
		What Reagan did was pull the Republicans from a 25-point gap to a five-point gap.
		And what that meant, it made it possible for them to be competitive, but they weren't on top.
		They were always still looking up.
		And this is why Romney could win 95% of the Republican vote, win the independence, and lose to Obama, because there were 6% more Democrats.
		They're always fighting uphill, just a smaller hill than it was before Reagan.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		The headline again from the New York Post, a recent piece published on Christmas Day, a realignment, if Trump Can Keep It.
		2024 results signal a new political era.
		Explain that part, if Trump can keep it.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		You have to have a successful term.
unidentified		When Obama won in 2008, Republicans were at their lowest ebb since before Ronald Reagan.
		They had fewer House members since before Reagan.
		They had fewer Senate members since before Reagan.
		Their party ID was low.
		The Democratic advantage was the largest since 1983.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		And what Obama did was throw it away.
unidentified		He had campaigned to heal the economy and as a centrist.
		And instead, whether you're for Obamacare or not, what was clear politically was the American people in 2010 wanted other things addressed.
		And you had the biggest swing against a first term president in decades in 2010.
		And it completely wiped out his chance to realign the country along a Democratic line.
		Trump faces the same challenge.
		If he pursues base concerns rather than the things he ran on, the people who voted for him will reject him.
		And that they'll do is move back into either independence or the Democratic Party.
		And the chance for a realignment will have been thrown away.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Give me some of the base concerns that you could be referring to here versus the things he ran on.
unidentified		Yeah, there's no interest, for example, in the sorts of things Chip Roy wants to do in slashing the federal government.
		That's not what Donald Trump ran on.
		That's not what the American people want.
		If Donald Trump is going to pursue a Chip Roy strategy to the federal budget, he will throw away his advantage.
		There's no interest in fighting a religious conservative culture war.
		Protecting liberty, yes.
		Fighting against progressive excesses and things like transgender issues, yes.
		Fighting a religious culture war to reestablish traditional Christianity as the social norm in the country, which is something favored on the right?
		No.
		So those are two examples of things.
		You want to walk down those paths, you're going to throw away your chance for a center-right political realignment.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		How important is tomorrow's Speaker vote to Donald Trump keeping this realignment?
unidentified		You have to have a successful presidency, and that means you have to have control of Congress.
		If the Speaker's vote ends up whether Johnson wins or not, with the same sort of mess that we've had for the last few years, where there's no Republican majority that can push things through, that impedes Trump's ability to succeed.
		So if Republicans want a realignment where over time they will move the country to the right, they should stop fighting and start talking.
		And that means a uncontroversial reelection of Speaker Johnson, whether he's the perfect person or not, because the long-term interests of the party dictate a successful first term, and that means fighting together, not at each other.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Henry Olsen with us until 9.30 Eastern.
		So go ahead and get your calls in.
		202748-8000 for Democrats, 202748-8001 for Republicans.
		And it's 202-748-8002 for Independents.
		As folks are calling in, what do you make about this inter-party battle over H-1B visas right now in the Republican Party?
unidentified		Yeah, well, there's a lot of tension within the coalition, as there always is.
		You know, when Abraham Lincoln created the Republican Party, he had to combine people who were immigrants and anti-immigrants into one party.
		The Know-Nothings and the German immigrants had to be in the same party.
		So there's always tensions within a party.
		But what we know from other countries is that if you're going to create a working-class party, which is what Donald Trump is doing, you have to lean into that realignment, which means that whether it's H-1V visas or not, you have to have a much more restrictive immigration policy than what you had before.
		If he's going to give the old guard, the Libertarian Guard, the H-1B visas, he has to be even tougher on the other aspects to keep this coalition together because the new voters he got are working-class voters who want actions on their issues, and that includes shutting down the border, having a tight labor market, and real growing wages for the lower middle class and the middle class.
		And you can't do that with a loose immigration policy.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		You mentioned Obama in 2008 and then to 2010.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Are there other places where you see there was a realignment possible that did not happen, that was squandered on the 2000s?
unidentified		Bill Clinton also ran as a uniter, not a divider, and then pushed things that his base wanted, most notably what was called Clinton care at the time, which was that era's version of dramatic federal government expansion in health care.
unidentified		He also pushed an increase in taxes, including an energy tax, the BTU tax that would have hit everybody.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		And what happened was Republicans drew even in party alignment, and in some polls, passed the Democrats for the first time.
unidentified		Even Reagan hadn't been able to do that.
		And then Gingrich takes in, and immediately moves to start cutting the budget, which is not what those former Democrats who were willing to give him a chance wanted.
		By the end of 1995, the Democrats have their partisan advantage again.
		Clinton wins an eight-point reelection and the chance for a mid-1990s realignment thrown away by recklessness.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Do realignments happen more often these days or the possibility of realignments than in the past?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And I'm thinking back to a very long period in which Democrats controlled the House and Senate here in Washington.
unidentified		Well, typically realignments for whatever reason tend to happen at a 40-year cycle.
		That used to be almost exactly a 36-year cycle.
		And what we've been overdue for another realignment for quite some time, meaning that the old questions that drove the old party allegiances have faded.
		The new questions that drive new party allegiance become crucial.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		And neither party has taken advantage of it.
unidentified		And what we've seen is growing people, numbers of people who say they're independents, growing people who say they distrust institutions.
		What they want is a realignment.
		What they want is both parties to stop fighting their base wars and start answering the new questions that the people in the middle want answered.
		And the first party that does that will have the realignment.
		What we saw was that Biden chose to govern a little bit more from the base.
		His party lost.
		Trump has a new historic possibility.
		If he governs to answer those questions, he can give his party a multi-decadal gift.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Callers lined up for you.
		Henry Olson with the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
		His podcast is Beyond the Polls.
		He's a columnist.
		C-SPAN viewers familiar with him.
		Susie here in Georgia is up first.
		Republican, go ahead.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I am very grateful for this speaker this morning because he is getting down to the basics, common sense.
		I do have a question, but before I ask it, I have a concern about give an inch, take a mile, the old adage.
		And we have been watching the current administration, give everybody an inch, and they take 10,000 miles.
		So I am concerned.
		But my question is, with this change coming from the Democratic view, more active in our government to a Republican conservative view, what is that going to do to the progressive agenda?
		We've had the progressives ruling us since for over 100 years now.
		Do you feel that is going to be fixed?
		Thank you very much.
		You know, what we're going to be seeing if Republicans are successful is establishing a new default definition of what it means to be American, what it means to the relationship between the state and the individual.
		It's going to be one that is much more accommodative of helping people who need it and not helping people who don't.
		You know, when you have a state-driven system, what you find is a lot of people who get government protection or government subsidy who don't really need it.
		You know, you take a look at the millionaires who are getting the housing mortgage deduction.
		They don't need a tax cut to afford a house.
		You know, the big universities with $55 billion endowments who get taxed at the rate of 1%.
		You know, Warren Buffin says he doesn't think that his secretary should pay a higher rate than he does.
		Well, he pays a 10 times greater rate than Harvard, but he has the same amount of wealth.
		Why is that?
		So a Republican-led solution will start to chip away at that sort of thing.
		It's not going to throw away the New Deal.
		I mean, Americans want an extensive government social safety net and protections.
		What they don't want is a cocoon or a blanket that suffocates them or that gives their money to people who don't need it.
		A Republican direction will chip away at that excess and return that to the average person.
		And that's one way in which what's happened over the last hundred years won't be eliminated because Americans want a lot of what's happened over the last hundred years.
		But you will stop seeing the progressive state-first government always solution being the answer.
		Instead, you'll look to, does somebody need help?
		They'll get it.
		Somebody doesn't, we'll say no.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		To the first state, this is Edward in Dover, Democrat.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Oh, yes.
		I'm calling.
		How do you respond to people who call in on C-SPAN, for example, today, and say that Donald Trump is the greatest president in American history since George Washington?
		How do you respond to that kind of ignorance?
		Well, I would call it exuberance.
		I think Trump and some of his fans are a little bit exuberant in their support.
		It's difficult to say that Donald Trump has had a more impactful presidency than the man who founded our country, than the man who saved it during the Civil War, and so forth.
		So I would call it exuberance rather than ignorance.
		And if a fan of Trump calls in and asks me, how can you say that, I'll respond to the question directly.
		But that's how I'll respond to this call.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Do you have a ranking of your top three or four favorite presidents?
unidentified		Oh, gosh.
		I think the top three or four most impactful presidents are the sort of people who created realignments because they solved the major political questions of our day.
		Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan.
		I think they're the five presidents who have ever had significant realignments.
		And I think anyone who looks at them would say, yeah, they really changed the direction of the country.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Felix in Montgomery Village, Maryland, Democrat.
		Good morning.
		Go ahead.
unidentified		Hi, Speaker.
		I hear your background is research as a senior fellow.
		And I wanted to get your input on policy changes for realignment, especially regarding immigration.
		So with stricter immigration, which is the direction it sounds like that the country is going to be heading into, in my profession in accounting, the AICPA recently changed from the American Institute of Certified Public Accounts to the Association of International Certified Public Accounts.
		So from a micro perspective, we're seeing this realignment sort of occur already with the licensure being offered overseas.
		So I was kind of curious how you would, how do you feel about that?
		Yeah, so immigration is clearly tied with trade, which is clearly tied with offshoring and the ability to not manufacture goods, but manufacture ideas overseas, which is the sorts of things that an accountant would do.
		And Donald Trump, a lot of Republicans in 2016 were talking about immigration.
		Only Donald Trump made the necessary connection of immigration and trade.
		You can't be free trade in goods and ideas in anti-immigration.
		You have to be both or neither.
		And I think what you'll see is, as Trump understands that, is that you'll see attempts to make sure that trade in ideas and goods only happens when Americans are already assured of rising job opportunities up and down the educational spectrum and rising real incomes up and down the income spectrum.
		And that'll be a sea change in economic thought.
		It'll be a direct assault on the post-1944 and post-1989 global consensuses.
		And if it is successful, it will produce a prosperous and socially cohesive America.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		The caller mentioned your day job at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a senior fellow there.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Explain what EPPC is.
unidentified		EPPC is a think tank, that unique Washington institution where we make policy recommendations and arguments that policymakers and thought leaders listen to and incorporate.
		We have a Judeo-Christian perspective, which is to say one informed by the anthropology of the whole human person.
		We think there's a body and a soul, not just looking at material concerns.
		And my particular expertise is politics and public opinion and how that shapes the sort of policies that can be considered and adopted.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And what do you talk about on Beyond the Polls?
unidentified		On Beyond the Polls, what I usually talk about is elections.
unidentified		I try and dig really deep if you're the sort of person who likes to look at crosstabs and precinct returns and understand polling methodology.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And we have several that do.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		Yes, we do.
unidentified		And this is the podcast for you.
		I'll also this year be looking at the intra-party fights.
		That what is it, you know, we talked that you talked about the H-1B visas.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		I'm going to have Republicans from all sides talking about whither the new party.
unidentified		And I'll have Democrats on all sides talking about which direction should the Democrats go.
unidentified		And I'll be covering some international elections starting with Germany on February 23rd.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Anywhere you get your podcast, you can find Beyond the Polls.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		Pretty much.
unidentified		I don't know of a platform that doesn't have me.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Tony in Houston, Texas, Independent.
		Good morning.
		You're on with Henry Olson.
unidentified		Yes, good morning, sir.
		So far, I've not heard anything specifically that I disagreed with.
		I called in on the independent line, but I did vote for Donald Trump.
		I hope you're right in everything you've said.
		The insanity that we live under in this country each day has got to stop.
		It has got to stop.
		The government, something in the government, whether it's the deep state or whether it's the corporate interest, is bent on ruining this country.
		This is the only country that we have.
		We can't go anywhere.
		I turned on the TV yesterday morning.
		I see this insanity of this man.
		What is going on in this country?
		What is happening to America?
		This is a wealthy, powerful country.
		There is no reason for Americans to live this way.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Henry Olson.
unidentified		I think the caller expressed the concern that's in part driving the realignment, which is that this is an economy that no longer works for everybody.
		This is a social culture war that's been going on that makes millions, tens of millions of Americans feel like they're strangers in their homeland.
		And increasingly, we feel unsafe, whether we feel unsafe in the New York subway system because somebody throws somebody under the bus or lights them on fire, or we feel unsafe on our streets because somebody makes a right turn onto Bourbon Street and plows them down.
		And that's the questions people want solved.
		And they don't want the base concerns solved.
		They don't want ideological concerns solved at the expense of their concerns.
		And that's what Donald Trump was elected to solve.
		And if he does that, he will bring in a Republican realignment.
		And if he doesn't, he won't.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, we have it here somewhere amid this pile of papers, makes the point today that Donald Trump has said that Syria should not be the United States problem.
		In the wake of this terror attack, they make the point that this question of whether the United States should have bases in the Middle East as a place to keep terrorism from forming and eventually coming overseas.
		We need to rethink this and possibly have that foothold in Syria and think about this in other countries as well.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		Okay, so the question I will pose to the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board indirectly through you is, what size of the American military do we need in order to do that?
unidentified		America made a series of commitments during the Cold War that was undergirded by defense spending of between 6 and 12 percent, depending, you know, more in the 1950s, less in the 1980s.
		It made additional commitments during the war on terror.
		What size military do we need if we're going to have bases in Syria and a robust presence in Europe and bases and military forces in Africa to fight the terrorists there and a force that can fight Iran and in the Middle East and a force that can rise, contain China.
		What size of the military do we need?
		To say we should have these actions without specifying the ability to fulfill all of these desires is imprudent.
		And if the Journal Editorial Board wants to advocate for these things, they should be responsible and tell us what the means are necessary to fulfill the ends.
		Nobody does that.
		And what Donald Trump points out is, and many of the people he has appointed to positions, is we don't have a military that can afford bases in Syria and bases in Africa and a NATO that is like 1985 and face China's rise and have two carriers stationed in the Indian Ocean at all times so that we can strike Iran.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		We don't have that military.
unidentified		So if you want to do what the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board does, they should tell us what it's going to cost and they should have the sorts of public opinion mobilization that they employ for things like lower taxes towards defense spending increases so that the ends hit the means.
		Because right now they don't.
		And when Donald Trump says Syria is not our problem, it doesn't mean he thinks that Syria is something he should just never take a call about.
		What it means is it's not worth the expenditure of American troops and American money that are better deployed elsewhere.
		The Wall Street Journal and their allies think differently.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		They should tell us what we need to fight their battles.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Fort Lauderdale, Florida, this is Melvin, Mine for Democrats.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Yep, good morning.
		First of all, I want to start off with his opinion about Reagan being the top five.
		Everyone wants to forget that Reagan tripled the debt and the deficit in his eight years in office and also did away with a lot of expenditures that the regular homeowner was using at that time for tax purposes.
		And then we're going to get to Trump.
		He has also spent twice as much as any president in eight years has spent.
		He spent that much in four years.
		Lastly, he was talking about Obama changed his, he had to change his administration, what he was planning on doing when he came in office.
		Yes, he did, because George Bush had taken the country into the second worst financial disaster in the history of the country, and therefore businesses were going bankrupt in a lot of the other places if he would have followed with some of the information that came up in the meeting that him and John McCain had to attend before the election was even finalized.
		That's how bad the situation was.
		And he's trying to talk to, say that Obama didn't keep up with his initial promises in the election.
		No, he had to change it.
		And lucky he got in there when he did because a lot of these other programs or these companies would have been out of business.
		And he took a lot of flat from helping the financial disaster, I mean, the financial banks and also the automobile dealership.
		So let him answer these questions.
		I'm tired of hearing this Reagan stuff with a man triple the debt and deficit.
		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Mr. Olson.
unidentified		What I was trying to say with my top five was the impact they had on America.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		Is that, you know, if a Republican called in, the Republican could say, what are you talking about with FDR?
unidentified		He changed the direction of the country.
		He increased the power of the state.
		Some people would say he threw away America.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		But no one can deny his impact.
unidentified		America was a different place.
		And that's what I was trying to say with Reagan.
		I happen to like Reagan.
		I understand that many callers, like many people like the caller, don't like Reagan.
		But the fact that he's so agitated about it demonstrates, again, Reagan's impact.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		Nobody's agitated about Gerald Ford.
unidentified		With respect to, all due respect to a very decent man, no one, when you look at Obama, would say that Obamacare, although at the time he said health care is economic care, none of the problems that the caller was talking about, the collapse of the economy, the financial problems, and so forth, were addressed by Obamacare.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		None of them.
unidentified		That was the American Recovery Act.
		That was things like Dodd-Frank.
		That was things like the implicit or explicit bailouts through loose monetary policy of our financial institutions.
		Had Obama stuck to that, he might have gotten his realignment, but he didn't.
		And that's the point I wanted to make.
		Yes, Obama had to adopt a number of policies to help stabilize the global economy.
		But he was said by, there's an article that I quote in my Reagan book that Timothy Geithner, the Treasury Secretary, says that he's going to be judged by avoiding a second Great Depression.
		And Obama supposedly says, that's not good enough for me.
		Well, he got what he wanted, but he threw away the Democrats' chance for multi-decadal realignment in the process.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We're going to see a state funeral next week.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We are going to see a lion state in the rotunda at the Capitol.
unidentified		What's Jimmy Carter's legacy?
unidentified		Jimmy Carter was a decent man who was a poor president.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		I can't say he was a poor politician because here's a man who pioneered the modern presidential campaign model.
unidentified		Before Jimmy Carter, you didn't start your campaign two years before the convention.
		You didn't hang out in Iowa trying to win the caucuses.
		He changed American politics.
		He got himself elected at a time in 1975.
		If you had had Washington Journal then, only the nerdiest of nerds would have even known who Jimmy Carter was, yet he's the president a few years later.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		But the fact is, on Jimmy Carter's watch, the Soviet Union, which was then a serious power, was expanding.
unidentified		Unemployment was high.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		Inflation was growing.
unidentified		Energy prices were going through the roof.
		People had to stand.
		Nobody under the age of 50 remembers this anymore.
		But we had such a shortage of gasoline that you had to park in line for hours just to fill up your tank.
		Americans saw this was a failure.
		And I haven't even mentioned the Iran hostage crisis, which was an unbelievable humiliation of the greatest nation on earth.
		His failure set up the stage for Ronald Reagan, because Ronald Reagan then successfully answered all of those questions.
		He answered the problems and solved the problems Jimmy Carter exacerbated and helped create.
		And he's an incredibly decent man, well-intentioned, great political, or good to great politician in some respect, but a poor president.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		By the way, on Reagan, you mentioned your book, but you missed the opportunity to say the title.
		The working class Republican.
		Always say the title.
		Ronald Reagan and the Return of the Blue Collar Conservatism.
		Henry Olson, with that book, 2017?
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		Yes, 2017.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Back to Calls Ted.
unidentified		Available on Amazon.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Back to Call's Ted in New Hampshire.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Republican, good morning.
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
		My thing on the way these presidents get elected, especially this past one when Trump and Kamala Harris was running, is all the bickering and all this tack ads on TV.
		You know, these people are setting examples for our children in high positions.
		They jam our mailboxes with all kinds of junk mail, and every five seconds on TV, they bash.
		What is the voter and the people supposed to expect from these leaders that want to run the country when they have this kind of attitude?
		It's almost, you know, you talk about in the world all the hatred.
		Well, you're seeing it right on TV.
		If they can stop this and work it together and really focus on the policies and stuff, this country would be far better off because, you know, if you badger a kid enough, he's going to be awful angry at you and just not pay attention.
		And you may see that at the polls.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Henry Olson.
unidentified		Negative advertising and attacking often annoys and bothers people.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		But people do it because it's effective, particularly in a bipartisan system.
unidentified		You know, if we had a system like many European countries where you get the number of seats that you get the share of the vote and there's like six or seven parties, there's a lot less negativity there because if A attacks B, the voters who get angry might go to C.
unidentified		And that's why you see less negativity in presidential primaries until it gets to the end because you don't know where the voters you get angry are going to go.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		But this is just part of politics.
unidentified		If you go back and take a look at the most famous speech in Lincoln's career was the House Divided speech, the one that arguably set him on the course for the presidency.
		And if you read the House Divided speech, what you find is that he was accusing the current president, the past president, the prospective nominee of the Democratic Party, his opponent, Stephen Douglas, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, of a conscious conspiracy to bring slavery to the North.
		There is nothing that anybody said in the last election on an attack ad that is more negative than what Abraham Lincoln accused those people of doing in the House Divided speech.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		This is part of politics.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		How do you feel about ranked choice voting?
unidentified		I am not.
		I don't think it's a panacea.
		I don't support multi-candidate general elections that, you know, some of ranked choice voting say we'll have a top four primary regardless of party.
		I don't favor that.
		But in party primaries, you know, we have a lot of states with runoffs where the top two go on and then you have another election.
		Ranked choice voting would get rid of the need for a runoff.
		And in the general election, where you already have gone through the primary process, I would have no problem with ranked choice voting because then if people wanted to cast a second vote, you know, say, well, yeah, I'd rather have X, but I don't between Y and Z, I'll choose Z.
		I don't have a problem with that.
		But it's not going to solve the problems that ranked choice voting advocates say it will solve.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Less than 10 minutes left with Henry Olson.
		This is Linda in Massachusetts.
		Good morning.
		Go ahead.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I live in a very liberal state, Massachusetts, and I'm a retired teacher.
		I've been listening to what you're saying about past things that have happened in the country that had a big impact like the gasoline lines, Vietnam War you didn't mention, but all the things that have happened in the country over the years that I've been alive.
		But I've never seen the country as divided as we are now.
		We are losing family members, friendships, relationships due to the division in politics.
		It's not just politics any longer.
		What do you think about the chance or the possibility of perhaps becoming two different countries or three different countries at this point?
		I don't see peace being possible.
		Thank you.
		Well, that is something people talk about is if the country is too divided, maybe different halves or different parts should go their own way.
		What that would require is a general acceptance of both sides, which is to say you have going to have a red America and a blue America, or you're going to have blue Americas or red Americas.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		I think that's highly unlikely because we have a 200 and something year history of getting along.
unidentified		But I study history and the sort of battles that we have now are often solved by separation.
		Two sides go their own way.
		Or victory.
		One side wins, suppresses the other, which is also really hard in a democratic system.
		Some type of federalism where you have a weak central government and a strong regional government so you can basically live on your own.
		Or, and this is what America's always done, the creation of a new idea that unifies people.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		And I think that's what Americans want.
unidentified		They want to get beyond red and blue into red, white, and blue.
		And the party leaders over the last 30 years continually fail to do that because instead of building a new coalition that answers new questions with new solutions, they keep fighting old wars with old solutions and that just makes the battles harder.
		And that's Trump's opportunity.
		If Trump doesn't do that, then he'll have a failed first term.
		More people will be independents.
		They'll be looking for that.
		Americans are looking for that person.
		And if they can't find it in the two-party system, they will form a third party.
		But we're not there yet.
		We're not there yet.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Beat Trump or some other president down the road, what is the new idea that you think Americans want to build on?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What's that thing that unites?
unidentified		I think they believe in the innate human dignity of every individual.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		It comes from our Declaration of Independence, that we believe in certain truths, that all men are created equal.
unidentified		That's the first truth the Declaration starts in.
		I think what you find is that the division is over people who say, you're not treating me equally.
		You're not treating me equally if you're outsourcing my job and importing labor because you don't care about me as an American.
		You're not treating me equally if I'm a non-traditional person who doesn't want to live according to 1950s morality.
		Or on the other side, you're not treating me equally if you try and take away my children or suppress my ability to talk because I want to live that way.
		I think Americans...
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Is it libertarianism then?
unidentified		No, not libertarianism.
		It is Americanism, which is Americans want a limited but active federal government.
		They want a federal government that steps in to remove barriers that they can't handle on their own.
		And then they want it to get out of the way.
		And this is the problem of both parties faces.
		One side wants it to get out of the way all the time.
		And the other side wants it to solve all or most of the problems.
		And Americans want what they've always wanted, a limited but effective federal government that removes barriers to them living dignified lives they can't deal with on their own.
		And then they want to get on with their life.
		When they get that, the divisions will cease to be as violent.
		They will cease to be as intense.
		And we'll go back.
		There's always going to be sharp opinions in politics, but they won't be divisive in the way that today's are.
		And I think we are moving in that direction, but it may take us a while to get there.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Got two callers that have been waiting a while for you.
		First, Joseph in Florida, Republican.
		Go ahead, Joseph.
		Thanks for waiting.
unidentified		Thank you.
		I've got one question for Mr. Henney here.
		I'm 80 years old, and I lived just about all that 100 years you've been talking about prior.
		And I'm from the South.
		I was raised in the Southern Baptist Belt.
		And as I go through life, I've seen it change dramatically.
		The standards have dropped and everything else.
		But my main question is, why do the government, why does the government divide the country like it has?
		The standards, Christianity standards, and this other standard that's trying to invade our children and everything else.
		How are you going to, you said just your prior caller, that there was a medium in there somewhere.
		Us people, we don't see a medium in it.
		I was a Democrat for 50 years.
		I was a union, I carry a union card for 60 years.
		So I've always voted Democrat, but the standards of the Democrats have dropped so low that the Southerners, and you know that for a fact, you've checked it all out, we've changed our minds about the standards that we have to live with.
		How do you solve that problem?
		Well, that's one of the great problems that America faces is, you know, first of all, what you have to recognize is that Americans are not uniformly Christian anymore.
		That the median voter in America is a person who says they're Christian but also says they never go to services.
		Okay, that's a different country than one that says they're Christian but attends services relatively frequently, which is where we were in the 1950s.
		So a modern American morality has to reflect that.
		It doesn't mean that you need to have a world that oftentimes Christians find progressives adopting, which is we're going to disregard your beliefs and we're going to force you into public professions of faith about things that you find contrary to your religion.
		But it doesn't mean the contrary, which is we can return to the 1950s.
		We can't because the public opinion that undergirded the 1950s and the 1920s isn't there.
		I think it's interesting that the gentleman talked about being a Democrat and holding a union card, but presumably he wouldn't want to overturn the Social Security Act.
		Presumably he wouldn't want to overturn a lot of the reasons why he was a Democrat for all those years.
		And that's another thing we have to recognize is that Americans don't want the Chip Roy Barry Goldwater government.
		Ronald Reagan didn't offer them that.
		That's what my book was about.
		It explains how Reagan was an interpreter of Franklin Roosevelt, not his Goldwater-esque opponent.
		And so I think we can see if we understand that all Americans are created equal and that progressives and Christians have rights of conscience and action and that they're not the enemy.
		They're just a different type of American.
		And we understand that the federal government has a role in protecting all of those rights, economic and social, that's where Americans are.
		That's the median ground.
		That's where Donald Trump is getting to.
		And I think that's where JD Vance is.
		And I think if they can have a successful first term, you'll start to see that more clearly by the end of the term than you can see it now.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		I know we're a little past time.
		Can we take Chris?
		He's been waiting for.
unidentified		We can do whatever you all want.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		In New Mexico, Democrat, go ahead, Chris.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I've been absolutely appalled by the anti-immigrant rhetoric on the part of Mr. Trump and people like Steve Benn and Stephen Miller.
		I was a post-war kid.
		I got a lot of information about what happened in Germany before and during World War II.
		And I see extremely close parallels between anti-immigrant, especially undocumented immigrant propaganda and what Germany was doing to the Jews.
		Is that consistent with the Judeo-Christian tradition in America, this kind of demonization, dehumanization, and scapegoating?
		There are many, many people who agree with the caller.
		It's one of the big dividing lines between partisan Democrats and the center of America.
		I think what we have to recognize is that over the last few years, the influx of illegal immigrants, what the gentlemen and people on the Democratic Party called undocumented immigrants, has changed public opinion.
		If you take a look at exit polls, exit polls have many years asked the question, do you favor a pathway of citizenship or deportation?
		In 2016 and 2020, it was about three to one in favor of pathway to citizenship.
		Now it's 60-40.
henry olsen ▲ ● ▼		When Donald Trump left office, a majority, a firm majority of Americans were opposed to his idea of building a wall.
		Now a majority favor it.
		And I think what you have to recognize is that Americans aren't anti-immigrant, but they want the laws respected, and they want the number of immigrants who are admitted to this country to be done according to American interests, American decisions, and through the legal process.
		Donald Trump is saying more of that than he did when he started.
		And I think that is where he is moving towards.
unidentified		When he says, I want immigrants, but I want them legally, he favors H-1B visas.
		I think that is where he is moving towards.
		I do not see parallels between what Donald Trump is doing and what the American people want with the rampant anti-Semitism and murderous intention of the Nazis.
		I think that is a gross inaccuracy and a calumny against Trump and against people who sincerely want to protect American interests and America's nationality at national borders.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Henry Olson is a senior fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		His podcast, if you want to take a listen, beyond the polls, available wherever you get your podcasts, always appreciate the time.
unidentified		Thank you for having me.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		About 25 minutes left in our program.
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		We'll put the numbers on the screen.
		Go ahead and start calling in, and we'll get to those calls right after the break.
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		Washington Journal continues.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Here's where we are on the Washington Journal this morning.
		About 25 minutes left here for open forum.
		Any public policy, any political issue that you want to talk about, now's your time to call in.
		A note that today at noon on C-SPAN 2, there'll be a brief Senate pro forma session.
		There will be, that will be one of the final ones of the 118th Congress.
		The House and Senate will come in tomorrow just before noon to officially end the 118th Congress.
		And then at noon Eastern time in the House and Senate, it's the start of the 119th Congress.
		We'll be with you all morning long tomorrow on the Washington Journal leading up to the beginning of the 119th Congress.
unidentified		We'll be taking your phone calls.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We'll be talking about the new Congress, the issues, the road ahead.
		Hope you join us tomorrow morning for that.
		But still, sometime this morning for you to call in for any public policy, any political issue that you want.
		Ben's up first out of Connecticut and Independent.
		Go ahead.
unidentified		Yeah, good morning and happy new year to all.
		My question was: the people voting for Trump were wearing these hats called Make America Great Again.
		In my opinion, American has been great all the time.
		What they should replace it with is make Americans great again.
		It's the 49.9% of the people who voted for Donald Trump, who is obviously we all know his resume.
		And he's the one who has now managed to get us from a democracy to a khaki stroke called khaki dustrophy.
		Basically, we are now in a situation where we're no longer democratic.
		We're being dictated by the richest of the world and all the millionaires and cillionaires who are in his cabinet.
		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Ben.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is Steve out of Illinois, Sheridan, Illinois.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning, John.
		Happy New Year.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Same to you.
unidentified		It's always good to see you, bud.
		I would think that yesterday's terrorist attack might have been prevented had the police put a vehicle on that sidewalk instead of leaving a space for that truck to do what it did.
		It's just deplorable that they didn't have better security there.
		And I know everybody's saying it's a terrorist attack.
		The police said it's pure evil.
		And I'd like to just state a Bible passage, Isaiah 45:7.
		I form the light and create darkness.
		I make peace and create evil.
		I, the Lord, do all these things.
		So if you're wondering how this happened, God made it happen.
		Have a great day.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Steve in Illinois.
		A story in the Washington Post today on how that truck got onto Bourbon Street.
		A key piece of the protective infrastructure that was on that street was undergoing repairs in New Orleans when that driver slammed into the crowd of New Year's revelers in the city's famous French quarter.
		New Orleans began to install new vehicle bollards around its most famous streets and hotspots ahead of the Super Bowl in February, according to the mayor.
		And the short, sturdy posts made of metal concrete and wood often lie in the perimeters of public plazas and spaces or the entry points of famous streets.
		They're meant to block vehicles from accessing those buildings.
		Terrorism experts say bollards are among the most reliable means of preventing assailants from using vehicles to run down members of the public.
		A story on that aspect of this attack from today's Washington Post.
		This is Dan in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, Independent.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Hello, John.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		In my opinion, until we get rid of Citizens United, we overturn that because unlimited money into politics is going to keep up the biggest war, which is the war on poverty or a war against poverty, so that they can promote corporate welfare.
		It's like socialism is okay in our country for corporations, but they don't want any handouts for people.
		And as long as money's in there, they're going to control the strings of what's going on.
		And our politicians are always for sale.
		So I just wanted to say that, and I thank you, and have a great day.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Dan in Ohio.
		This is Greg in California, Republican.
		Go ahead, open for him.
unidentified		Yeah, I just wanted to ask your guest there.
		He said that he doesn't see any similarities between Hitler and Trump.
		And I was just wondering how he would respond to his propaganda and statements such as that people are eating cats with that's not true and making statements about gold star families, their wives having to walk behind them, and other statements like that he could,
		that he could shoot somebody on Fifth Street in New York and he wouldn't lose one vote, or how he would respond to that.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Greg in California, our guest, Henry Olson, no longer with us this morning.
		He'll probably be back down the road though, if you want to call in the next time he's on.
		This is Robert in Ohio, Democrat.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Morning.
		I got my comment about Mr. Olsen himself.
		He's talking about everybody's being treated equally in this country.
		I don't see how he can sit there with a straight face and say, is everybody been treated equally in this country?
		This country has had a history of discrimination ever since the first black man put his foot on this continent.
		That's all I have to say.
		Have a good day and God bless America.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Jordan in New York, Independent.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		Thank you for taking my call.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What's on your mind, Jordan?
unidentified		My question is: with the recent attacks in New Orleans, there were reports the I'm sorry, the senator was talking to the media and was talking about holding the FBI accountable.
		Do you think that was a smart idea to talk about this early on in the process?
		Because in response to that, multiple news anchors were talking about a possible division caused from calling out the federal government instead of unifying.
		Do you think it was a good idea, Jordan?
		I think it was a strong idea because it's important to hold them accountable because he mentioned past incidents in which the public opinion showed they were left accountable.
		So I think it was strong to hold them accountable early to show his point of view and how he's supporting the citizens.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Jordan in New York.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This was Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, yesterday at one of those press conferences in the wake of that terror attack in New Orleans.
unidentified		Here's what I want to ask from the federal government: catch these people.
		Catch these people.
		And then tell the American people the truth.
		Now, I don't want you to tell us yet anything that's going to interfere with your investigation.
		And there's things that I've been told that I think are true that I'm not sharing with you today because it could interfere with your investigation.
		But after we get to the bottom of this, they need to tell the American people the truth.
		And the people of New Orleans the truth.
		And the people of America the truth.
		I think the mayor and the governor are very wise to postpone this ballgame for 24 hours.
		There's just too much stuff we don't know.
		And it's just not worth it.
		But I guess my final point is I will promise you this.
		I will, when it is appropriate and this investigation is complete, you will find out what happened and who was responsible.
		Or I will raise fresh hell.
		And I will chase those in the federal government who are responsible for telling us what happened like they stole Christmas.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Senator John Kennedy, yesterday, that's the front page that folks in New Orleans are waking up to this morning.
		The Times Picayune act of terrorism is the banner headline: truck slams into crowd, killing 15, injuring dozens.
		Driver shot and killed by police.
		FBI says explosive devices found at the New Orleans scene.
unidentified		This is Mary in Virginia.
		Democrat, good morning.
		Good morning.
		Thanks for taking my call.
		Happy New Year to everyone.
		Live like it, love like it, and keep grace in your living.
		And most of all, keep peace.
		All of us, God loves us all.
		It's not according to the race or the color.
		God loves us all.
		Amen.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Mary.
		This is Maynard in Louisiana.
		Good morning.
		You're next.
unidentified		Hello.
		Yeah, I would like to just make three points about the next administration or the next people going to be in charge of our citizens.
		Number one, make education our top priority.
		An educated citizenry is very, very hard to deal with if you're a person in power and like to manipulate the system.
		Number two, a flat tax system.
		Flat tax remove all of the tax loopholes that corporations and rich individuals, powerful people use to their advantages.
		And number three, term limit.
		Mr. Trump mentioned term limit back in 2016, but that's the last time I heard of it.
		Term limit would be very, very powerful thing to push, and I think the American people would go for it.
		And one last final thing is push the points about no one above the law.
		No matter what your position is, no matter how much money you have, no one in this country should be above the law.
		And those are the three points, four points that I like to make.
		I appreciate that.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		On term limits.
		On term limits.
		Term limits for who?
		Members of Congress, Supreme Court justices, both?
unidentified		Congress, U.S. Senate, and we got it on the president.
		We got a lot of it on our governors and our senators, state senators.
		Why can't it be for the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate?
		Why should those guys get in there, go in with several hundred thousand in their bank account?
		20 years later, they come out of there with $200 or $300 million in their bank account.
		There's something wrong with the system.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What's a fair term limit for a member of Congress, Maynard?
unidentified		I would say two terms, no more than three would be plenty.
		It's very sufficient.
		If you're going to do something, that passionate about serving your community and your people, no more than three terms ought to be plenty.
		Then give someone else a chance to go in and serve.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Three terms in the Senate, Maynard, is 18 years.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Is that too long?
unidentified		No, I don't think so.
		I mean, if we make it short, I wouldn't have a problem with that.
		But 18 years wouldn't be too long.
		That's plenty of time to get your programs in place and push what you think you're passionate that you're strongly about and push those issues through.
		And 18 years is plenty of time.
		And then you can come out and do your own job, work for a living like the rest of us, and abide by those same laws that you push and pass by.
		We can go a little further and talk about investment on the senators and representatives part.
		Limit those things that their friends and families can get in, have influence with.
		We need to limit that kind of actions as well because right now the U.S. government is geared toward making individuals very, very wealthy, and the masses will be being taken advantage of.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Maynard, Louisiana.
		This is Richard in Brooklyn, Independent.
		Good morning.
		Go ahead.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Happy New Year to you.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		I would like the American people to get their heads out the sand because, for the life of me, I cannot comprehend why it is that we keep calling this a democracy.
		This is not a democracy.
		This is a republic for the people and by the people.
		So, just by virtue of people constantly using the term democracy, that tells me, you know, you're an enemy to your country right there because this is supposed to be a republic for the people and by the people.
		And the second thing I want to address is this Doge thing with Elon Musk and Vivac.
		Is that going to allow these individuals to operate outside the Constitution, which the president takes a sworn oath to uphold that Constitution?
		And it seems like in this country, they are no longer respecting that.
		And I think the American people need to pay close attention to what's happening because these people that are advocating democracy, these people are actually open enemies of this country because this is supposed to be a republic.
		Biden said it, and other presidents have said it as well.
		So why do we keep calling this a democracy?
		And I understand.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Richard, how do you define a democracy?
unidentified		Democracy is controlled by the wealthy, the aristocracy.
		And I also want to add that I understand that they have a doge digital coin that they're supposed to be rolling out.
		The elected officials are not informing the people that they're supposed to be rolling out a digital currency that's connected with blockchain that's going to be monitoring the masses of the people in all the transactions that you're doing.
		And I think people need to be aware of these things.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Where did you hear that, Richard?
unidentified		Excuse me?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Where did you hear that?
unidentified		Oh, they mentioned it on one of the news programs that I was watching it, that they were going to roll out a digital currency, which is going to be attached to blockchain, which is going to be monitoring everything that the American people do with this electric currency, and they could shut the currency down.
unidentified		Now, you can fact-check it for yourself.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Richard, New York.
		This is Miguel in Gambros, Maryland, Republican.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Hi, how's it going?
		Thanks for having me.
		Yeah, I guess my first point is about this guy in Louisiana with this, you know, ram in his car.
		I think this has a lot to do with multiculturalism.
		You know, it's becoming a failed trajectory for our country.
		You know, when you bring all these people together, it doesn't cause happiness and people coming together, it causes conflict.
		You know, you got different relationships.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		So, Miguel, what are you advocating for?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Some sort of ethnic separation in this country?
unidentified		Well, yeah, in a way.
unidentified		I think that people should be allowed to make those choices on their own.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		All right, that's Miguel.
		This is Mary Ellen, Homestead, Pennsylvania, Democrat.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
		I think many Americans, certainly not all, but I think disproportionately Trump voters simply aren't honest or unable to admit the truth about their racism.
		The southern gentleman that called in and said he was a Democrat all his life and he's changed.
		He changed when Johnson decided that all of us had to be or more of us had to be treated equally.
		And these so-called Christians, there are reports and even postcards that show that these people would leave churches and attend lynchings.
		Trump, a man who has, what, five different children by three different women, if Obama had done that, if Obama had had 34 felonies, you know he would never have been elected president.
		And those are the kinds of things that many of us see.
		Racism is embedded in the cultural fabric of America.
		And until, you know, we realize about the indigenous genocide and the slavery and decide to treat everybody equal, until we realize we're all Americans, it's going to be pretty hard to change things.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Ed Troy, North Carolina, Republican.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, John.
unidentified		How are you?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Doing well.
unidentified		Well, you're doing good this morning.
		What the comment I've got to make is that guy in New Orleans and the one in New York last night that drive by, as long as we've got people like Governor Cooper, President Biden, that do not believe in the death penalty,
		crime is never going to get no better.
		I remember my granddad, he was born in the mid-1800s.
		He saw one hanging, and that lasted him the rest of his life.
		When people are going to do this crazy stuff and not have to pay for it, they go to jail, they get to stay in jail, have better medical care, and all the stuff like that, than people like me that have worked hard all my life, and it's not going to get any better, John.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Ed, Louisiana is a state that has the death penalty still.
		There are some states that no longer have the death penalty, but Louisiana is not one of them.
		The red states on that map, this is from the Death Penalty Information Center, are states that still have the death penalty.
unidentified		Yes, North Carolina is one that still got the death penalty.
		And you saw what Cooper did yesterday, and Biden did the same thing.
		Why should the American people have to pay for somebody?
		Say they get incarcerated in their 20s.
		They live through in their 80s.
		Why should the people of the state of North Carolina and the United States of America have to use taxpayer money to keep these people up all these years?
		I don't see nothing wrong with minor infection, minor convictions of either people doing their time or get paroled.
		But when it comes to deliberate, I mean deliberate murder, and they are guilty whenever they get arrested, we should not have to keep them the rest of their life.
		And a lady a while ago said something about us Trump Republicans.
		I am the least racist person, probably, in the United States of America.
		When I was in high school, back in the early 70s, I had the bus routes for the colored kids, both elementary and high school.
		Yes, we went through walkout, everything else.
		I had police escorts carrying those kids home in the afternoon.
		But me, being a 72-year-old man, my best friends, and a man that helped me more than my own daddy was a black man.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What's Ed in North Carolina?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is Virginia in Houston, Texas.
unidentified		Go ahead.
		Yes, I was just calling to answer the question to a guy that called earlier and says, what's happening to this country?
		What's happening to this country is we have people coming over here expecting us to change our America to their needs, to what they want.
		America has one rule of law, and that is under God we trust.
		And when people are staying out of their churches and not bringing their children up to know the way that they should live, then we are always going to have trouble and fusion, hate, and everything else that goes with it.
		We have to get back to the American way.
		And if people don't want to do that, go back where you come from.
		This is America for freedom.
		And God we trust.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Virginia in Texas, our last caller in today's Washington Journal.
		We will be back here tomorrow morning.
		It's a five-hour program tomorrow ahead of the start of the 119th Congress.
		Hope you join us then.
		In the meantime, have a great Thursday.
unidentified		And looking ahead at our live coverage coming up this afternoon here on C-SPAN.
		At 2 p.m. Eastern time, President Biden will be delivering remarks from the White House on his 235th confirmed federal judicial nomination.
		And then at 5, the president will award the Presidential Citizens Medal to 20 recipients, including former Wyoming Republican Representative Liz Cheney and Mississippi Democratic Representative Benny Thompson, who led the January 6th Committee.
		You can also watch these events live on the C-SPAN Now app or online at c-span.org.
		Experience history as it unfolds with C-SPAN's live coverage this January as Republicans take control of both chambers of Congress and a new chapter begins with the swearing-in of the 47th President of the United States.
		On Friday, don't miss the opening day of the 119th Congress.
		Watch the election of the House Speaker, the swearing in of new members of Congress and the Senate, and the first day of leadership for South Dakota's John Thune as the new Senate Majority Leader.
		On Monday, January 6th, live from the House chamber, witness Vice President Kamala Harris preside over the certification of the Electoral College vote, where this historic session will officially confirm Donald Trump as the winner of the 2024 presidential election.
		And on January 20th, tune in for our live all-day coverage of the presidential inauguration as Donald Trump takes the oath of office, becoming the 47th President of the United States.
		Stay with C-SPAN throughout January for comprehensive, live, unfiltered coverage of the 119th Congress and the presidential inauguration, C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered, created by Cable.
		Jimmy Carter has died at the age of 100.
		Here are some of the events and services that will lead up to his burial.
		On Saturday, the Carter family will be part of a motorcade that goes first to Atlanta for a stop at the state capitol and then on to the family home in Plains.

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