| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
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Coming up live on Washington Journal, your calls and comments. | |
| Then Christopher Sands, director of the Canada Institute at the Wilson Center. | ||
| He discusses Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's resignation and the future of U.S.-Canada relations. | ||
| And the Mercatus Center's Christine McDaniel on President Biden's decision to block the $14 billion acquisition of U.S. steel by Japan's Nippon Steel and Trump trade and tariff policies. | ||
| Also, author and journalist Jonathan Alter, who wrote a biography of Jimmy Carter, talks about the former president's life and influence in American politics. | ||
| Washington Journal is next. | ||
| Number of the electors appointed to vote for President of the United States is 538. | ||
| Within that whole number, the majority is 270. | ||
| The votes for President of the United States are as follows: Donald J. Trump of the state of Florida has received 312 votes. | ||
|
unidentified
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This is the Washington Journal for January 7th. | |
| Vice President Kamala Harris presided over an uneventful electoral vote count of the 2024 presidential election in the House, a stark difference from the events of four years ago. | ||
| The events of yesterday prompted some to speculate if the events of the attack of the Capitol are fading into memory, while others, especially Democrats on Capitol Hill, promised to keep those events front and center. | ||
| We welcome your thoughts on Congress certifying President-elect Trump's victory on the following lines this morning. | ||
| If you want to comment on the events of yesterday, that's certification: 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans, and Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| If you want to make your comments on Congress certifying the president-elect's presidential win and you want to do that via text, you can do that at 202-748-8003. | ||
| You can post on Facebook at facebook.com/slash C-SPAN. | ||
| And also, you can post on X at C-SPANWJ. | ||
| Here's how the papers across the United States, the major publications, took a look at the events of yesterday in Congress with the certification of President-elect Trump's victory. | ||
| This is the Washington Post this morning. | ||
| Congress certifies Trump election without incident. | ||
| That subhead, Harris Presides as Loss, becomes official. | ||
| That's in the Washington Post. | ||
| If you look at the Washington Times, their front page headline: Trump election certified in subdued process. | ||
| Their subhead, Democrats make no objections, grouse about riot four years ago. | ||
| Turn to the pages of the New York Times. | ||
| This is their lead story there. | ||
| Peace, not mobs, as ritual seals Trump's victory. | ||
| A contrast with 2021, Congress certifies votes with no objections from Democrats. | ||
| And then this is from the Wall Street Journal this morning, a picture front and center of the vice president presiding over the electoral vote count as is part of her jobs and duties as vice president, alongside the majority leader or the House Speaker Mike Johnson. | ||
| And the headline, Congress ratifies Trump's win in peaceful session, unlike 21. | ||
| That's how the major papers played it out. | ||
| If you were watching on C-SPAN, you watched the whole thing play out, and you can still do so at our website at c-span.org and our app at c-span now. | ||
| But here is the moment yesterday after the votes are counted that sealed the president-elect's vote from the election. | ||
| The state of the vote for the president of the United States as delivered to the president of the Senate is as follows. | ||
| The whole number of the electors appointed to vote for President of the United States is 538. | ||
| Within that whole number, the majority is 270. | ||
| The votes for President of the United States are as follows: Donald J. Trump of the state of Florida has received 312 votes. | ||
| Kamala D. Harris of the state of California has received 226 votes. | ||
| The whole number of electors appointed to vote for Vice President of the United States is 538. | ||
| Within that whole number, a majority is 270. | ||
| The votes for Vice President of the United States are as follows. | ||
| JD Vance of the state of Ohio has received 312 votes. | ||
| Tim Walz of the state of Minnesota has received 226 votes. | ||
| This announcement of the state of the vote by the President of the Senate shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons elected, President and Vice President of the United States, each for a term beginning on the 20th day of January 2025, and shall be entered together with the list of the votes on the journals of the House and the Senate. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Again, those are the events of yesterday, and you can still see it on our website and our app at C-SPAN. | ||
| Now, as part of the coverage yesterday, a discussion, or at least in the papers, taking a look at how this year's electoral vote count contrasted sharply with events four years ago. | ||
| Aaron Blake in the Washington Post this morning, he writes the column, the fix under this headline, Americans' views on January 6th, riot increasingly moving towards meh. | ||
| And he writes this, saying, An economist YouGov poll released last week showed just 15% of Americans approved those who stormed the Capitol, people whom the President-elect Trump has more or less lionized and even spoken as they are kindred spirits. | ||
| But that same poll gets perhaps at the biggest story here, and that's that people probably through a combination of fading memories and Trump muddying the waters have adopted a more meh attitude towards such a seminal political moment. | ||
| After the dust settled on the insurrection and four years ago, YouGov showed Americans overwhelmingly agree the very basic threshold question of whether the rioters were bad. | ||
| More than eight and 10 Americans and even three-quarters of Republicans disapproved of them. | ||
| More than seven and ten Americans strongly disapproved. | ||
| Today, those numbers have fallen substantially. | ||
| The most recent Economist YouGov poll shows the percentage of Republicans who disapprove of the rioters has dropped to 50%, and the percentage who strongly disapprove has dropped even more from 55% to 24%. | ||
| That's part of the coverage of the events of yesterday. | ||
| You can roll that into your comments, taking a look at Congress's certification of the electoral vote count. | ||
| Again, if you want to call in and make your thoughts known on yesterday's event and some of the other stories relating to it, 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans. | ||
| And Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| If you want to text us your thoughts on the events of yesterday, 202-748-8003. | ||
| And you can also post on our social media sites at Facebook and on X. We'll hear from Mike. | ||
| Mike joins us from New York State Democrats line on the certification of President-elect Trump's victory yesterday in Congress. | ||
| Mike, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| You're on. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I've been watching your vote count and you educated me a lot. | |
| And I've been watching for the last three days. | ||
| I enjoy listening about history and politics. | ||
| And I don't really tell anyone how I vote. | ||
| But I've been watching. | ||
| Well, when it comes to the vote count yesterday, you said you've been watching a lot. | ||
| What have you learned from the process that you saw play out? | ||
|
unidentified
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I learned that it was very contentious back in the old days, like Tilden. | |
| And the process, as I watched the cameras showing the certification going on, that it's just an automatic thing. | ||
| And I saw some of the historic objections. | ||
| And I see that it's just something I didn't realize that each state. | ||
| And what I also didn't realize is that D.C. gets three electoral votes since 1970. | ||
| Okay, that's Mike there in New York. | ||
| Again, the certification playing out yesterday. | ||
| You can make your comments about those events, including the involvement of the vice president, Kamala Harris, as a part of the process there. | ||
| Independent line from Chicago. | ||
| This is Greg. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, hi. | |
| I want to say, yeah, I watched it. | ||
| Yeah, I think this was the most important election we had. | ||
| I mean, I'm not just talking about Trump. | ||
| I think Trump was the better candidate as far as this could have been our last election. | ||
| Most people feel with all the going all the way back to the Russian collusion stuff. | ||
| And it's going to take years. | ||
| And I'm sure they'll investigate it to find out what was really going on. | ||
| And most people, most people, even then, don't feel like there was no insurrection. | ||
| There was the riot against the corruption in Congress. | ||
| Some people should be punished for that, but they're just using that. | ||
| Okay, Greg there in Chicago on our Independent Line making his comments. | ||
| If you go to the website Politico, this is the story they have taking a look at part of the events of yesterday. | ||
| But going back four years, saying January 6, 2021 is in the rearview. | ||
| The battle to define it for history is in full swing. | ||
| This is about Kyle Cheney and Nicholas Wu saying that the battle of January 6, 2021 was physical, a hand-to-hand fight on the Capitol turf to stave off an insurrection aimed at keeping a defeated Donald Trump in power. | ||
| The battle of January 6, 2025 is psychological. | ||
| A struggle by Democrats, prosecutors, and victims of the violence to prevent a victorious Trump, a victorious Trump, from erasing the harrowing reality of that day. | ||
| That clash over how Americans will remember the January 6th attack raged Monday, even as the actual proceedings at the Capitol, in which Vice President Kamala Harris presided over a drama-free certification of Trump's election seemed an afterthought. | ||
| Quote, I still believe Donald Trump was the main instigator of what happened on January 6th, four years ago. | ||
| I think over time, history will record that exactly the way it is. | ||
| That's Representative Benny Thompson, a former chair of the January 6th Committee, telling Politico, going on to say, I think that effort to minimize what occurred and the fact that somehow what people saw with their own eyes really didn't happen, history will record differently. | ||
| That's in Politico this morning. | ||
| If you want to read it out, if you want to talk about the events of yesterday overall as part of the process of the president-elect Donald Trump becoming president on January 20th, Kathy in Michigan, Democrats line, you're next. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro C. Spanwell. | |
| That smirk on Mike Johnson's face as he's sitting there just makes me, it's infuriating. | ||
| He doesn't look like he's serious at all. | ||
| This is serious business. | ||
| Kamala Harris shouldn't have been the Democratic nominee. | ||
| And I'm not in support of the way the DNC runs the nomination process, the whole thing. | ||
| And I can't, and it makes me sick to think the state of Michigan went for Trump also. | ||
| But that's, it seems to be the Michigan Democratic Party is the same way. | ||
| We're not, they don't involve people. | ||
| And I live in northern Michigan, and it's semi-rural. | ||
| And everyone that I work with, and these are good people, voted for Trump for the most part because the Democratic Party is not inclusive in Northern Michigan. | ||
| The local party here in Emmett County is not inclusive. | ||
| And I don't even, I used to belong to the local Democratic Party. | ||
| I don't anymore because all they do is talk about their great retirements from education and so on. | ||
| And this is the truth. | ||
| All that said, how does this relate to yesterday? | ||
| Well, it just saddens me deeply that I don't think that Trump is the voice of the people. | ||
| I think he hustled people and he succeeded again. | ||
| And it's, and I remember, Pedro, and I think I spoke with you or something, when Trump won before, I remember watching a community in Lower Michigan flip from Clinton to Trump to Clinton. | ||
| And I saw the same thing in Pennsylvania, and it made my hair stand on end practically because I felt that the votes were being stolen. | ||
| Okay, that's Kathy there in Michigan. | ||
| One of the people commenting yesterday on the events of yesterday, the certification process was the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Capitol Hero. | ||
| Here's a portion of his comments. | ||
| We hope also we serve as an example to our Republican colleagues. | ||
| We are not election deniers. | ||
| We lost the election. | ||
| We regret it. | ||
| But we believe in the strength of our democracy and that when you lose an election, you roll up your sleeves and try to win the next one. | ||
| You don't deny that you lost and encourage people to do bad, bad things because you did not want to admit. | ||
| Any person did not want to admit that they had lost the election, even though the facts were overwhelming. | ||
| And we hope our Republican colleagues will see this and never see what we are doing, as opposed to what so many, not all, some people stood or some Republicans stood up. | ||
| But we hope that they will see what we are doing and never again allow, encourage what happened to happen and don't deny and stop denying what actually did happen. | ||
| Again, the minority leader Chuck Schumer on Capitol Hill, Congress certifying President Trump's win yesterday in Congress, 202-748-8,000 for Democrats. | ||
| If you want to comment, 202-748-8001 for Republicans, and Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| Let's hear from Chuck and Maryland, Democrats line. | ||
| You're next up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hey, how are you doing? | ||
| Can you hear me? | ||
| You're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Yeah, I just want to say it's a travesty that they ran the Capitol, beat up policemen, did an insurrection, and people trying to whitewash it, tell a lie and tell a lie and tell a lie till it becomes somebody else's truth. | ||
| If you can't stand on the truth, you can't live with the truth. | ||
| If you can't handle anything, you will make it worse. | ||
| If you can't handle a snake, you will make a situation worse. | ||
| If you can't handle somebody bleeding or blood, you can't help them. | ||
| They done lied so much. | ||
| It's just amazing. | ||
| I heard the first guy get on there and talk about, oh, they just ramped out the Capitol. | ||
| It's a travesty. | ||
| I'm kind of lost for words for the amount of lies that have been told and people believe and they come up with all kind of excuses for Donald Trump and all the things that he has done. | ||
| It's absolutely amazing. | ||
| When you take the truth and turn it into a lie. | ||
| In contrast, what did you think of the vice president's role yesterday, her performance in this process? | ||
|
unidentified
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I think Al Gore, the Carmel Harris, and the Democratic Party stand on principles. | |
| And for the Republican Party, it's no principles. | ||
| It's just power. | ||
| And do what we want to do the way we want to do it. | ||
| And if we could, we just do whatever we want to do. | ||
| And we will see that with Donald Trump and the policies he puts forth because he doesn't care about the people, especially the small people who've voted for him. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| That's Chuck there. | ||
| Let's hear from Louise in Fredericksburg, Republican line. | ||
| Louise, go ahead. | ||
| You're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I learned quite a bit from the Electoral College voting. | ||
| I learned that they changed the laws in 22 to codify into laws the ability what the vice president powers really were regarding the electoral college. | ||
| In 2020, he did have the power to request Pennsylvania to recount and to object to some of the states. | ||
| And in 2022, they codified into law, but no, he did not. | ||
| So before, the law was correct. | ||
| The vice president should have objected. | ||
| And then I learned that the power of the Democrats is actually the 82 votes that they received from California and New York. | ||
| And that's how they win, California and New York, period. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Mike Prince, former Vice President Mike Pence, who presided over the electoral vote count, you remember when then President Trump lost the election. | ||
| This is the headline from Fox News saying that the former vice president calls it particularly admirable for the vice president, the current vice president Kamala Harris, to preside over that election, saying that the peaceful transfer of power is the hallmark of our democracy. | ||
| And today, members of both parties in the House and the Senate, along with the vice president, certified the election of our new president and vice president without controversy or objection. | ||
| Mike Pence declared in a post on X, he congratulated President-elect Trump and the Vice President-elect JD Vance on their victory and hailed the quote return of order and civility to the certification process. | ||
| That certification taking place yesterday, as we've been showing you portions of it, you can still see the whole thing on our website, our app too. | ||
| You can make comments on it if you wish on the lines: Democrats 202-748-8000, Republicans 202-748-8001, and Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| Josh is in Iowa, Independent Line. | ||
| You're next up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Hi, thanks for taking my call. | ||
| I just want to say I used to be a big Democrat Party supporter. | ||
| And I think what they do nowadays is they use Donald Trump for a cover as for their own failures, their own, like they just don't do anything for the people anymore. | ||
| They used to be the party that was anti-war, pro-labor. | ||
| I mean, you name it, like they were the party of the people. | ||
| And now both parties are just basically the same where they use. | ||
| And how does that relate to the certification process yesterday? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, in some tangential way that is probably not satisfactory to the show. | |
| But yeah, that's all I had to say. | ||
| Okay, let's go to Bill in Chicago, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hi, how are you doing? | ||
| Fine, you're on. | ||
| Go ahead, please. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I just want to say that Congress certified Trump President Wayne yesterday. | |
| It really irks me because this is a rabis, a liar, a cheater. | ||
| You can cut me off if you want to. | ||
| You cut me off? | ||
| Caller, you're still there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, okay. | |
| Even though he was found guilty of, or at least charged with sexual abuse. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't care what they found. | |
| This is what I saw with my own eyes. | ||
| He's a liar. | ||
| He's a cheater. | ||
| And I was raised in the South, where white folks have always got away with that type of stuff. | ||
| And the one that voted for him was predominantly majority white males, white women, and Latinos. | ||
| So I don't say what I want to say. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Okay, Kimberly up next in Maryland Republican line. | ||
| Hi there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro. | |
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| I just want to say that I'm glad things went smoothly yesterday, and I hope everything goes smoothly. | ||
| And I just think that we need to bring integrity back into our country and, you know. | ||
| Kimberly, go ahead and finish your thought. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, good morning, Pedro. | |
| We already got all that. | ||
| Go ahead and finish your thought. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Yeah, I just want to, I'm glad things went smoothly yesterday. | ||
| I hope everything goes smoothly. | ||
| And we just need to, you know, I don't know, trust God that things do go smoothly. | ||
| And it was good that they had Harris. | ||
| Kimley, I'm going to stop you there only because I think you may be listening to yourself on television and there's a bit of a delay involved in that process. | ||
| So, callers, as you call them, make sure that you mute or you turn down your television as you wait to get on the line. | ||
| The New York Times takes a look at the role previous vice presidents placed in similar roles that the Vice President Harris was put in place yesterday, losing an election but yet having to oversee the electoral vote count. | ||
| The New York Times highlights the fact that another vice president who lost the bid, Hubert Humphrey, in 1968, skipped the ceremony to attend the funeral of the first U.N. Secretary General, leaving the task of counting to votes to Senator Richard Russell, President Pro Temp of the Senate. | ||
| Other vice presidents had to preside over vote counts, certifying their defeat for re-election, including Walter Mondale in 1981, Dan Quayle in 1993, and of course, Mike Pence in 2021. | ||
| Both Mr. Nixon and Mr. Gore had plenty of motive to object to the outcomes that they certified. | ||
| Mr. Nixon lost to John F. Kennedy by about 118,000 votes out of nearly 69 million cast. | ||
| Advisors urged him to challenge the results, but he refused, maintaining that it would tear the country apart. | ||
| 40 years later, Mr. Gore won the popular tally by more than 500,000 votes out of the 105 million cast, only to fall short in the Electoral College. | ||
| More there from the New York Times, taking a look how previous vice presidents have handled the duties of an electoral account in which they lost. | ||
| John in Washington, D.C., Republican line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| A lot of people want to keep talking about J6, but they forget about all the ballot harvesting that prompted all the questions around the election. | ||
| I just want to say that yesterday was the first time that Kamala didn't deliver her signature cackle. | ||
| Not a single time did she cackle. | ||
| That was the first time I didn't see her cackle. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Leon in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Democrats line. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro. | |
| Good morning, America. | ||
| I've been here in Fayetteville, North Carolina. | ||
| I served in the military for 34 years. | ||
| And I want to tell you all something. | ||
| When I saw that stuff on television last four years ago, it wasn't a riot. | ||
| It was a sacking of the Capitol that never happened since 1812. | ||
| 1812. | ||
| History will remember this. | ||
| Thank you very much, Pedro. | ||
| One of the people making comments about the role that the vice president played was the vice president herself. | ||
| Here's Kamala Harris in remarks to the press after the election certification. | ||
| Well, today was obviously a very important day, and it was about what should be the norm and what the American people should be able to take for granted, which is that one of the most important pillars of our democracy is that there will be a peaceful transfer of power. | ||
| And today, I did what I have done my entire career, which is take seriously the oath that I have taken many times to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, which included today performing my constitutional duties to ensure that the people of America, the voters of America, will have their votes counted, that those votes matter, and that they will determine then the outcome of an election. | ||
| I do believe very strongly that America's democracy is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it. | ||
| Every single person. | ||
| their willingness to fight for and respect the importance of our democracy. | ||
| Otherwise, it is very fragile and it will not be able to withstand moments of crisis. | ||
| And today, America's democracy stood. | ||
| The comments of Vice President Kamala Harris yesterday as part of that certification process, we've been asking you about that. | ||
| We're going to transition and let you comment on other matters of politics, particularly as several events of news have happened in the last day. | ||
| So we will change over to open forum if you want to make comments on politics and policy. | ||
| And if you want to do that, the lines are the same. | ||
| Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002 to participate in open forum. | ||
| You can still comment on the events of yesterday if you wish on the certification process. | ||
| You can still make those comments on our various social media channels. | ||
| Texting us at 202-748-8003, posting on Facebook at facebook.com slash C-SPAN and on X at C-SPANWJ. | ||
| But we will take those calls for Open Forum in just a moment. | ||
| So go ahead and call and pick the right line that best represents you. | ||
| If you called in the last 30 days, by the way, if you can hold off from doing so today, we appreciate it. | ||
| Republican Line, this will be from Arno in Bay City, Michigan. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, how are y'all doing this morning? | |
| I'd like to comment on the way these things are run. | ||
| I mean, we live in America, and these people represent us, and we allow them to lie. | ||
| What does that show for the world? | ||
| And if we allow these people to lie and they represent us, who can trust America if everybody's lying? | ||
| There's got to be something that shows some real honesty and real. | ||
| And how does that specifically relate to the certification process of yesterday? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, the mind do my about everything that's said, just like Tamala Harris. | |
| I mean, everything that she says is either a lie or doesn't make any sense. | ||
| I mean, certifying the president of the United States, he's got over 700 million votes, and people are still complaining that he didn't win, or it was not really that way. | ||
| And then you see the certification. | ||
| She's getting all these numbers. | ||
| It's confusing to me. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Patricia, there in Arizona, Independent Line. | ||
| You're next up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hi, how are you? | ||
| I just want to say it was shameful of MSNBC to show January 6th, four years ago, and not even talk about today's 2024 win, which they're very sour about still. | ||
| And also, they were talking about all these casualties that day. | ||
| And I just want to remind America that there was only one casualty that day, and that was Ashley Babbitt. | ||
| And she was shot by a cop for breaking a window. | ||
| Also, the executive from Meta, formerly Facebook, was on Fox News this morning. | ||
| They are taking out their reduction of political speech. | ||
| There apparently, during the Biden administration, was a ban on talking about immigration and transgendering. | ||
| They're lifting that ban. | ||
| They're taking away their third-party fact checker right after Trump was elected. | ||
| Harley-Davidson, Walmart, and others came out and said they were getting rid of their very racist, equal opportunity employer that they had put aside so that they could pick people on race and gender. | ||
| Everybody felt liberated is the word I would use after Trump won. | ||
| People can free speech again. | ||
| People can hire the way they should again, and the country's back. | ||
| Okay, Patricia there entering us into open forum. | ||
| Again, the lines 202-748-8,000. | ||
| For Democrats, 202-748-8,000 for Republicans, and Independents, 202748, 8,000. | ||
| Two. | ||
| This happened yesterday, USA Today, reporting that President Biden, Monday, taking sweeping actions to permanently ban offshore oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, protecting more than 625 million federal acres from future leasing. | ||
| However, President-elect Donald Trump vowed he will work to reverse the ban, calling Biden's 11th hour move ridiculous and promising to, quote, unban it immediately. | ||
| Mr. Biden, President Biden, two weeks before his term ends, issued two presidential memoranda under the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to prohibit offshore drilling off the entire U.S. Atlantic coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific coast in the continental United States, and portions of the North and Bering Sea in Alaska. | ||
| Quote, my decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time, that drilling off the East Coast could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation's energy needs, he said in a statement, adding that it's not worth the risk. | ||
| Again, that yesterday mentioned that in open forum if you wish. | ||
| We'll hear from Vernice in Georgia, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hi. | ||
| How are you doing this morning? | ||
| I'm well, thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| All I'm calling for is to congratulate Kamala Harris of her upstanding speech, what she did yesterday. | ||
| No violence or anything like that. | ||
| That's all I call to say. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| We'll hear next from Will, then Wills in Wisconsin, Independent line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, thanks, Pedro, for taking my call. | |
| Yep, I'm 81 years old, and I feel that what has happened during these last two elections and from hearing that we are a contra of laws is what separate us from other countries, that no one's above the law. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think it's a joke for politicians to say that because it's been proven that there are some that are above the law, and Donald Trump is one. | |
| So no matter what we say about the transition of power that the Democrats are doing, which is cool, it doesn't remove the fact that we are not a country of laws and no one is above the law. | ||
| And I don't understand how politicians can continue to say those words and expect people to believe them when they've seen what has happened over the last four years. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Paul is next in New York, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I'd like to know how many people actually voted versus how many people were eligible to vote. | |
| Why is that important? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, apathy. | |
| What do you mean by that? | ||
| Well, when my son was in Iraq and they had their first voting, they had close to 95% of the population actually vote. | ||
| I'm curious as to how many people in the U.S. were eligible to vote that actually did vote. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Paul there in New York. | ||
| By the way, President Biden, you saw him make his action on drilling. | ||
| He's heading to California today for another event, creating two national monuments in California. | ||
| And the Hill reporting on that, saying that the president will announce today the creation of the Chukwala National Monument and the Satiala Highlands National Monument, protecting a combined 848,000 acres of particular significance to tribes. | ||
| They are likely one of the last, if not final, conservation action completed by the Biden administration before President-elect Trump takes office. | ||
| According to the White House, Mr. Biden, President Biden has conserved more lands and waters than any other president, adding that the 624,000-acre Chikwalla National Monument in Southern California will be located at the meeting of the Mojave and Colorado deserts and will include mountain ranges, rock formations, woodlands, and canyons, including the Painted Canyon, which is known for its colorful walls. | ||
| The president traveling to California to make those announcements later on today. | ||
| This is from David in South Dakota, Democrats line. | ||
| You're next up on open forum. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Did you say David? | |
| Yep, in South Dakota. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yep. | |
| Yeah, I hit my phone beat. | ||
| I just wanted to say that I was really proud yesterday to see how real democracy works: the transfer of power without riots and people calling for our vice president to be hung. | ||
| And I guess it's proud of the way it was handled and not the way we acted like four years a third world country or a communist country would act. | ||
| And I'm really proud of the way things were handled yesterday. | ||
| And I guess we'll live with the next four years of whoever you want to call it. | ||
| But thank you. | ||
| Kevin, up next in Michigan, Independent line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I was just kind of scanning through the numbers of the last three elections. | |
| And apparently, you Democrats have lost 20 million votes between 2016, 2020, and 2024. | ||
| Between 2024 and 2020, Democrats lost 20 million votes. | ||
| Did the rapture come? | ||
| Did they die of COVID? | ||
| Where did 20 million American votes go in the 2024 election? | ||
| Because there were, let's see, 80, I think he had 86 million votes in 2020, 2020. | ||
| And then Democrats had 60-some million in 2016, 60-some million in 2024. | ||
| So I'm just trying to curious: where did 20 million Democratic votes go? | ||
| Now, until someone can tell me where 20 million votes went, I would say that the election was rigged in 2020. | ||
| And hopefully, you know, someone out there can tell me where 20 million Democrat voters went. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That is from Kevin in Michigan. | ||
| The previous caller asked, How many people didn't vote? | ||
| If you go to USA, our U.S. News and World report a story there basing data out of the University of Florida. | ||
| How many people didn't vote in the election? | ||
| So, Caller and others who might be interested, they say that close to 90 million, according to this data, stayed out of voting. | ||
| And that's based on population, not necessarily registered voters, but there's more there at that U.S. News story. | ||
| If you want to read it for yourself, the caller who called or anybody else who might be interested in this open forum in Oklahoma Republican line, we'll hear from Jim. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, something that's repeated over and over from Democrats, which is nothing but a lie. | |
| And another reason teachers don't want the cudge repeated is when Kamala Harris talked about some democracy. | ||
| In no way whatsoever is the United States of America a democracy. | ||
| It is a republic. | ||
| Democracies are mob rule. | ||
| In a republic, you have your rights regardless of what party or individual is in charge. | ||
| It's a constant lie, mostly from Democrats, when they talk about some democracy. | ||
| It is a republic. | ||
| Okay, Jim there in Oklahoma. | ||
| This from Axios, something to look out for Congress in Congress on Capitol Hill this week when it comes to immigration. | ||
| This is from Axios, the headline, Congress launches early immigration crackdown ahead of President-elect Trump's inauguration, saying hell leaders are setting up the first votes of the 119th Congress this week on a bill that's centered of a heated political debate over illegal immigration. | ||
| The expected votes of both chambers on the Lake and Rally Act make clear Republicans plan to keep hitting the border issue, putting pressure on vulnerable Democrats trying to find their post-election footing. | ||
| The House will vote Tuesday on the bill, which requires the detention of undocumented immigrants who commit certain nonviolent crimes, such as theft, according to a House leadership aide. | ||
| Senate Majority Leader John Thune began the process to allow a vote on the Senate version of the bill, likely on Friday, according to a senior Senate GOP aide. | ||
| And the bill is named after a nursing student who was murdered last year by an undocumented immigrant who had previously been arrested on theft charges. | ||
| Again, the 119th Congress already underway. | ||
| Look for those votes to play out. | ||
| If you want to watch it play out on the House side, you can stay close to C-SPAN. | ||
| On the Senate side, C-SPAN 2 is how you can view it, as always on our C-SPAN app, too, to find out the latest of what's going on on Capitol Hill. | ||
| You can make comments on the legislative process, including these votes in our open forum, 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8000, 1 for Republicans, and Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| Let's hear from Victor. | ||
| He's in Brooklyn, New York. | ||
| Democrats line on this open forum. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Yeah, hi, sir. | ||
| I heard how they mentioned about Biden. | ||
| He wants to ban offshore drilling. | ||
| And I completely disagree with this. | ||
| Why is that? | ||
| I think, well, because it's going to take away jobs from people. | ||
| And there's a lot of unemployment right now going on in the U.S. | ||
| And Biden, he acts like he just doesn't care. | ||
| I think I'll go. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Marie, next in South Carolina, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Morning. | ||
| I'm a regular viewer, C-SPAN, and my husband and I, we're very appreciative of this channel. | ||
| We've voted since 1972. | ||
| We're regularly participating in the political system, and we're just appreciative of the fact that Ms. Harris comported herself as everyone knew she would. | ||
| You know, some of the snarky remarks and ignorant remarks never cease to astound me like the end quotes remark, cackle. | ||
| She was a happy warrior on the campaign trail. | ||
| That's what we want from our campaigners. | ||
| It's so much that is broken from our system. | ||
| I mean, so much. | ||
| There's so much hatefulness and snarkiness. | ||
| And so many people who amazed me that they call into this channel of all channels, bereft of facts in any contextual history about our country. | ||
| The gentleman that just had the little mini rant about we're not a democracy. | ||
| We all know we are a republic, but we refer to ourselves as a democracy. | ||
| Such pettiness. | ||
| It's really sad. | ||
| But we praise you and we thank you for the great job you do. | ||
| And I really can't help but believe at this point that all we can do is fervently pray for our country and be a good citizen as well as we can. | ||
| And we thank you, Pedro. | ||
| Democrats line up next. | ||
| This is from California. | ||
| Michelle, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I just wanted to point out that Donald Trump is notably the only modern U.S. president who refused to fully cooperate with the transition process after losing the election. | ||
| And I just find that so irksome because he didn't formally concede to Biden and he refused to let the Biden officials communicate so that the transition would be smooth. | ||
| And I just wanted to point out that that's a lack of class. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Again, it's open form. | ||
| If you want to participate, 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans, and Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| If you want to call in, one of the things to watch out for as the day progresses is President Carter currently in Georgia lying in state at the Carter Center, about to be taken to Washington, D.C. for a series of events there before he lies and stayed at the Capitol. | ||
| Stay close to C-SPAN for all of that. | ||
| Again, this is what the scene of the Capitol outside, the flags at half-mast because of the death of former President Carter, excuse me. | ||
| And this is from the Associated Press saying nearly 44 years after Jimmy Carter left the nation's capital in humbling defeat, the 39th president returns to Washington for three days of state funeral rites starting today. | ||
| Mr. Carter's remains, which have been lying in repose at the Carter Presidential Center since Saturday, will leave the Atlanta campus Tuesday morning, accompanied by his children and extended family. | ||
| Special Air Mission 39 will depart Dobbins Air Reserve Base north of Atlanta and arrive at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland with a motorcade into Washington and the Capitol where members of Congress will pay their respects in an afternoon service. | ||
| Mr. Carter, the former president, who died December 29th at the age of 100, will then lie and stay Tuesday night and again Wednesday. | ||
| He then receives a state funeral Thursday at the Washington National Cathedral. | ||
| President Joe Biden will deliver a eulogy. | ||
| Again, a lot of events regarding that, and you can stay close to C-SPAN to watch those events play out of former President Carter, especially as he comes to Washington, his body for those series of events. | ||
| Let's hear from Eric. | ||
| Eric in New York, Democrats line. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| My message is kind of quick, but I want to tell the politicians and all the armchair politicians that are calling in that playfare or the victory is worthless. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| What does that mean? | ||
| Okay, he's gone. | ||
| Let's hear from Bill. | ||
| Bill in Alabama, Independent line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Paco. | |
| I just want to call and say that President Biden is doing everything he can in spite and to spike the agenda of President Trump. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's just really sad. | |
| And of course, he's not doing it. | ||
| Someone else is doing it. | ||
| But that's just the way it is. | ||
| Goodbye, Paco. | ||
| That's Bill there in Alabama. | ||
| Speaking of President Biden, some of his activities yesterday included a visit to New Orleans, to New Orleans after that terror attack that killed 14 people. | ||
| He landed there Monday afternoon. | ||
| That was about 3.30. | ||
| And the president and the first lady met with grieving families and community members impacted by the terrorist attack. | ||
| And as part of those events, they also visited the growing Bourbon Street Memorial, where they placed flowers and prayed over the victims. | ||
| And the president also meeting with federal, state, and local officials before attending a prayer event. | ||
| If you go to our C-SPAN website, by the way, or at least our C-SPAN feeds at C-SPAN on X, you can see some of that video from the President and the First Lady laying those flowers at that memorial on Bourbon Street. | ||
| Again, more there on our X feed if you want to see more of that. | ||
| Let's go to Aaron. | ||
| Aaron in Philadelphia, Democrats line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Aaron in Philadelphia. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Yes. | ||
| You're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Yes. | ||
| Yes, I'm calling about the topic today. | ||
| Well, I'm calling because of Mr. Trump. | ||
| He's a good guy as far as I'm concerned. | ||
| But a lot of people don't understand why he started running for president. | ||
| He ran for president because when this reporter asked him years ago, was he going broke because of this bankruptcy? | ||
| He replied, no, I'm not. | ||
| But if I ever get broke, I'll run for president. | ||
| And I could understand it. | ||
| You know, why wouldn't you? | ||
| But no president can do nothing, you know. | ||
| And he really didn't have any ideas even when he started to run. | ||
| He didn't have no ideas. | ||
| He always said, wait and see. | ||
| And you wait and see for what. | ||
| And that's about it. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Sabrina, next, Los Angeles, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hi. | ||
| I'm just coming. | ||
| I want to comment on the transition that happened yesterday, which I felt was very fair since we didn't get that in 2000 and 2020. | ||
| And like they were saying before, an older woman was calling and she was saying that she didn't understand why they always put so much rhetoric, basically rhetoric on the statements that are made, which is he didn't hear Kemla's heckle. | ||
| And everything is so racist and so mean right now. | ||
| And it really does need to calm down. | ||
| We need to pray, as everyone stated before, that everything just transitions the way it's supposed to. | ||
| However, the individual, in my personal opinion that we have in office, that's not something that I believe we're going to see. | ||
| We're going to see something really major in his term. | ||
| My particular point is going to be when he starts to pardon the individuals that tried to tear down the Capitol that did the most damage. | ||
| That's going to get really ugly later on. | ||
| And hopefully no one will get hurt in the process in order for them to start understanding and seeing exactly what this individual represents. | ||
| Because he represents nothing but rhetoric and hate. | ||
| Again, when it comes to those January 6th criminal charges and those facing those, more than 1,500 people charged with related crimes and events connected to January 6th, about 1,000. those pleading guilty, 250 have been convicted by a judge or jury after a trial. | ||
| That's the Associated Press's take as of early December of last year. | ||
| When it comes to those criminal charges, you've heard President-elect Trump talk about the possibility of pardons of those individuals, a topic that came up in that Meet the Press interview. | ||
| Here's a portion particularly dealing with that. | ||
| You promised to pardon those who attacked the Capitol on January 6th. | ||
| Are you still vowing to follow through with that promise? | ||
| We're looking at it right now, most likely, yeah. | ||
| Those people have suffered long and hard, and there may be some exceptions to it. | ||
| I have to look. | ||
| But, you know, if somebody was radical, crazy, there might be some people from Antifa there. | ||
| I don't know, you know, because those people seem to be in good shape. | ||
| Whatever happened to Scaffold Man? | ||
| You know who Scaffold Man was? | ||
| He stood on a scaffold telling everybody to go and nothing happened to him. | ||
| Whatever happened to Ray Epps? | ||
| Now, I don't know anything about Ray Epps, but it was sort of strange the way he was talking. | ||
| Where is he? | ||
| What happened to him? | ||
| Because the people that did very little, they arrested an old woman because she, I don't think she did anything. | ||
| They don't even know what she did. | ||
| These people have suffered. | ||
| Their lives have been destroyed. | ||
| And yet in Portland, where they burn down half the city, they burn it down all the time. | ||
| It's like a routine occurrence. | ||
| They don't do anything. | ||
| They attack the courthouse, federal courthouse. | ||
| You know, they always say federal building. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| They destroyed the beautiful limestone exterior of the courthouse in Portland. | ||
| They killed people in Portland. | ||
| Seattle, people got killed in Seattle. | ||
| Seattle, they took over a big chunk of the city. | ||
| They took it over. | ||
| They took the city away. | ||
| Minneapolis, it looked like when they said this is a friendly protest. | ||
| And yet over the poor slobs from CNN, his shoulder, the entire city was burning down. | ||
| It looked like World War II. | ||
| Nothing happened. | ||
| Wait, nothing happened. | ||
| They took over the police statement. | ||
| They took over the police station in Minneapolis. | ||
| They burned it down. | ||
| Nothing happened to anybody. | ||
| And yet these people have been in jail, and I hear that jail is a hellhole. | ||
| They've done reports, and you would say that's true. | ||
| They've done reports. | ||
| This is the most disgusting, filthy place. | ||
| These people are living in hell. | ||
| And I think it's very unfair. | ||
| Most likely I'll do it very quickly. | ||
| Very quickly. | ||
| Okay, but some of them, 169 of them, have pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers. | ||
| Because they had no choice. | ||
| 900 pleaded guilty to other crimes. | ||
| They're also going to be eligible for a pardon from you? | ||
| Listen, it's a very tough system. | ||
| Do you know almost nobody? | ||
| I saw people that didn't even go into the building and they were convicted. | ||
| And you had the police saying, come on in, come on in. | ||
| I mean, you know, the police are saying, come on in, everybody. | ||
| Come on in. | ||
| They had people, you know, you have a lot of cameras. | ||
| They don't want to release the tapes. | ||
| They don't want to release the tapes. | ||
| But you're going to consider pardoning even those who've pleaded guilty to crimes, including assaulting police officers. | ||
| Sometimes they say, here's your choice. | ||
| You're not ruling it out. | ||
| Look, I know the system. | ||
| The system's a very corrupt system. | ||
| They say to a guy, you're going to go to jail for two years or for 30 years. | ||
| And these guys are looking, their whole lives have been destroyed. | ||
| For two years, they've been destroyed. | ||
| But the system is a very nasty system. | ||
| That's President-elect Trump on this idea of pardoning those involved in January 6th. | ||
| If you go to the website, Political, by the way, there's a piece by Tim Waters, a professor at Indiana University. | ||
| He makes the case for the current president, Joe Biden, to give a pardon to those involved. | ||
| He writes, amongst other things, saying this, this would achieve several things. | ||
| A political coup. | ||
| Trump can't pardon anyone if President Biden beats him to it and cover for pardoning House officials who investigated the insurrectionists. | ||
| But it would also serve a higher purpose, helping heal our national trauma. | ||
| For pardon to come from the man whose election the insurrectionists tried to steal would send a powerful message of forgiveness. | ||
| The Democrats' pardon proposals serve several goals, correcting or preventing injustice, helping friends, advancing a political agenda, but all are also partisan, and none does the other thing pardons can, promote social peace. | ||
| A general pardon for January 6th insurrectionists by Biden would. | ||
| There's more there by Tim Waters of Indiana University and the political magazine. | ||
| You can find more of his work there if you're interested in reading that. | ||
| Let's hear from Bill in Virginia, Independent Line on this open forum. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Yeah, I don't think that Donald Trump should be allowed to be president again. | ||
| He never conceded. | ||
| And he tells one lie after the other one. | ||
| He got low self-esteem. | ||
| And I think he's going to go down and say, worst president in the United States history for all that he's done. | ||
| He ought to be ashamed of himself to want to run for president again. | ||
| All the lies and all the terrible things that he's done. | ||
| Shame on Donald Trump. | ||
| That's all I got to say. | ||
| Becky in Ohio, Republican line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you for having me. | |
| Let me talk. | ||
| I am disgusted on how these people are acting like Biden and them didn't have something to do with the January 6th. | ||
| I believe they did. | ||
| And nothing will ever change my mind because they did let people in. | ||
| And there was only one lady killed in there, and that was Ashley Babbitt. | ||
| My husband's military. | ||
| And I'm telling you what, these people, I'm glad. | ||
| I hope Kash Patel gets in there, and I hope they do clean out on these people that have lied. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| From Eve. | ||
| Eve is in Grand Rapids, Michigan. | ||
| Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning, Pedro. | |
| As I was telling the receiver that I hadn't called before Donald Trump. | ||
| I haven't had anything to say since Donald Trump was elected. | ||
| But at the same time, they're talking about people breaking into the White House. | ||
| Yes, they broke into the White House, all right. | ||
| And people are coming on here day by day saying that Ashley Babbitt was the only one that was killed. | ||
| That's crap. | ||
| Ashley Babbitt was handled the way she was supposed to be handled by she was doing an insurrection at the White House. | ||
| So with that being said, these people that also coming on here talking about Donald Trump and pardoning him and parting the people that was there doing the, that was storming the Capitol. | ||
| No, none of them should be pardoned. | ||
| And matter of fact, Donald Trump should be in there with them because the thing about it is he committed a grave injustice to this country. | ||
| And there's nothing would ever undo that. | ||
| My dissatisfaction with what went on has never stumbled about what they did. | ||
| And what they did would always be a crime. | ||
| And they shouldn't be pardoned. | ||
| And Trump shouldn't be president. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| One more call. | ||
| This will be from Michael in New York. | ||
| Democrats line hi. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What I want to add to what Lucola just said is like often we cannot talking about, you know, people were burning CTs. | |
| It was worse. | ||
| But people forget that Trump was in charge during that time. | ||
| Trump was the president. | ||
| So why did he arrest those people? | ||
| Put them in jail. | ||
| Because he was in charge. | ||
| He was the president when all those bad things that he is talking about was happening. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That's Michael. | ||
| He'll finish off our open forum again. | ||
| Lots to watch for out in the day ahead. | ||
| Not only the activity of Congress, and again, you can follow along in the House and Senate C-SPANs one and two, respectively, including our app, but also the events concerning former President Carter coming to Washington, part of several ceremony events. | ||
| And you can always find more information on those and other things happening in and around Washington, D.C. when you go to our website at c-span.org. | ||
| Plenty of information there about the events of the day and things to watch out for. | ||
| Again, that is c-span.org. | ||
| Coming up, we're going later in the program, we're going to talk with former Bush trade official Christy McDaniel from the Mercatus Center. | ||
| She's going to talk about President Biden's decision to block the $14 billion acquisition of U.S. steel by Japan's Nippon Steel. | ||
| That will be later, but first, we'll talk about yesterday's resignation of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, what it means for U.S.-Canada relations. | ||
| And that conversation will be with Christopher Stands. | ||
| He's the director of the Canada Institute at the Wilson Center. | ||
| Speaking of the Canadian Prime Minister, he made that announcement yesterday. | ||
| Here's a portion from his resignation announcement. | ||
| My friends, as you all know, I'm a fighter. | ||
| Every bone in my body has always told me to fight because I care deeply about Canadians. | ||
| I care deeply about this country. | ||
| And I will always be motivated by what is in the best interest of Canadians. | ||
| And the fact is, despite best efforts to work through it, Parliament has been paralyzed for months after what has been the longest session of a minority parliament in Canadian history. | ||
| That's why this morning I advised the Governor General that we need a new session of Parliament. | ||
| She has granted this request, and the House will now be prorogued until March 24th. | ||
| Over the holidays, I've also had a chance to reflect and have had long talks with my family about our future. | ||
| Throughout the course of my career, any success I have personally achieved has been because of their support and with their encouragement. | ||
| So last night over dinner, I told my kids about the decision that I'm sharing with you today. | ||
| I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its next leader through a robust, nationwide, competitive process. | ||
| Last night, I asked the president of the Liberal Party to begin that process. | ||
| This country deserves a real choice in the next election, and it has become clear to me that if I'm having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Washington Journal continues. | |
| To talk about the resignation announcement of the Canadian Prime Minister Christopher Sands joining us. | ||
| He's with the Wilson Center. | ||
| He serves as the director of the Canada Institute. | ||
| Mr. Sands, good morning to you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro. | |
| Glad to be here. | ||
| Thank you for joining us. | ||
| I suppose that Canadians watching this event, Intently watching. | ||
| But for Americans, could you talk about what it means for Americans that this action has taken place by the Prime Minister? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sure, absolutely. | |
| So, in the Canadian system, which is like the British system, a prime minister leads a group of people from his own party to become prime minister. | ||
| The Liberals have 153 seats in Parliament. | ||
| In the House of Commons, there are 338 total. | ||
| So, for anyone who's quick at math, you'll know that you to get 50% of those seats, you need 170. | ||
| They only have 153. | ||
| This is therefore called a minority government, so it's very vulnerable to the opposition. | ||
| If all of the opposition parties vote against the government, it's a government that could fall at any time. | ||
| And Justin Trudeau has done a very good job of trying to manage issues and stay in power as long as he has. | ||
| He's been in prime minister since 2015. | ||
| And what's changed recently has been a real lack of confidence in his leadership on the part of his own party. | ||
| And so, this isn't something that the Canadian public is involved in doing, although polls show that the Conservatives, the main opposition party, are 20, sometimes 22, sometimes 23 points ahead of the Liberals. | ||
| And I think what's happened is a lot of Liberals, very concerned that they will lose the next election, which will come up, has to happen by October 20th of 2025. | ||
| So, not that many months from now, his own members said, you have to go. | ||
| And because he's struggling already with an opposition, which, if you add all those votes together, outnumbers him, if his own caucus starts bleeding away, then he gets in trouble. | ||
| So, I think he's really resigned because he's recognized inevitably, if he doesn't have the support of his party, he can't continue. | ||
| As far as the American public watching these events play out, what does it do for the relationship in the short term between the United States and Canada? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, there's a short-term and a near-term slight difference there. | |
| The short term is that in this system, the Prime Minister has said he's going to stay until he's replaced by another member of his party. | ||
| So, there's going to be a leadership contest organized. | ||
| So, until he steps down from being prime minister, technically he's still in charge. | ||
| All the members of cabinet are still running their departments currently. | ||
| What the prime minister did was he asked the governor general, who represents King Charles III, who we all know is King of England, but also is King of Canada, because they have a constitutional monarchy. | ||
| The Governor General was asked to prorogue Parliament, which is kind of like a recess. | ||
| It sets a break between the first session of this Parliament and the second session, which is coming up as soon as they come back on March the 24th, if they don't come back any sooner. | ||
| So, that means that Parliament won't meet. | ||
| There's no question period, no committee activity. | ||
| All of the elected members will be away from Ottawa. | ||
| On the other hand, it means that the civil service, members of the cabinet, and the prime minister continue to do their jobs. | ||
| So, to give an example, the Prime Minister Trudeau went to Mar-a-Lago to promise President-elect Trump that he would take strong action on fentanyl, illegal migration, and border security in order to avoid a 25% tariff that the president-elect had threatened to impose on Canada and other countries. | ||
| That deal will continue. | ||
| The government is capable of delivering on those investments and will proceed accordingly. | ||
| If you're flying to Canada, their airport security will continue. | ||
| If you're trying to visit Canada across the land border, that will continue. | ||
| So for many of the things that matter for Canada, or for Canada with Americans, we're in this phase where quite a bit of that will continue as normal, even if the political drama is going on above our heads. | ||
| Mr. Sands, when you see the response that the president-elect had to these events of yesterday, you probably maybe saw what he posted on Truth Social saying many people in Canada love being the 51st state. | ||
| The United States can no longer suffer the massive trade deficits and subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat. | ||
| Justin Trudeau knew this and resigned. | ||
| If Canada merged with the U.S., there would be no tariffs. | ||
| Taxes would go way down and they'd be totally secure from the threat of Russian and Chinese spies that are constantly surrounding them. | ||
| It goes on from there. | ||
| But despite the language, the tone, I suppose, coming from the president-elect regarding the actions of the prime minister, what do you get from that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's a funny, fine line. | |
| I think the president has enjoyed making fun, tweaking a little bit, taunting Justin Trudeau. | ||
| They've known each other for a long time. | ||
| And Donald Trump, remember, has met several times with Justin Trudeau's father, Pierre Trudeau, who was the prime minister between 1968 and 1984 with one little blip in the middle. | ||
| So this is a relationship that goes a long way back. | ||
| And I think the president has given Trudeau, Justin Trudeau, a little bit of a hard time. | ||
| In the last two years, Trudeau has tried to convince his voters that the conservative in Canada, the Conservative Party leader, Pierre Polyev, is MAGA light or is a sort of Trumpian conservative. | ||
| He's accused truck drivers who were involved in a protest in Ottawa of being an insurrection like January 6th. | ||
| So very extreme and very critical comments that clearly show the prime minister was feeling negatively about Donald Trump and his supporters. | ||
| So Trump has turned the tables and is now tweaking Justin Trudeau. | ||
| As, you know, politicians all have egos with all due respect to the members of Congress and everyone here. | ||
| But I understand that is just kind of a little bit of taunting and relatively harmless. | ||
| The danger, and this is where I worry a little bit, is that by suggesting Canada is no more than a state or that it should be just one state, not even several, I think you diminish Canada as a neighbor. | ||
| And Canada has its flaws just like the U.S. does, but is overall one of the best neighbors we could possibly want. | ||
| A big trading partner. | ||
| Canadians genuinely like Americans. | ||
| And some of your viewers will remember come from away on 9-11. | ||
| Canadians took in, particularly Newfoundland American travelers who were stranded because of the closure of the border. | ||
| We've had a long history of working together well. | ||
| I think you can disagree with Justin Trudeau, but I think it's dangerous or, well, just bad manners to complain about the Canadian people. | ||
| They didn't do anything to deserve taunting or abuse from Donald Trump. | ||
| And I think if he's not careful, he'll alienate people who genuinely like the United States and want to be helpful. | ||
| Christopher Sands joining us for this discussion regarding the Prime Minister's resignation, also the future of U.S.-Canada relations. | ||
| And if you want to ask questions, you can do so on the lines. | ||
| 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| For Canadian viewers in the audience, if you want to call and ask questions, you can ask our guests 202-748-8003. | ||
| And you can use those same questions or you can use that same number to text us if you wish. | ||
| Let's start with Tyrone. | ||
| Tyrone's in Missouri. | ||
| Democrats line on the events of yesterday in Canada. | ||
| Tyrone, you're on with our guests. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'd like to say that I thank I'm glad that Trudeau resigned because You have to watch the language when you call in. | |
| We won't accept that kind of thing. | ||
| So, for those of you calling in, just to remember that. | ||
| Mr. Sands, then talk about what happens next and who possibly could be the replacement for Mr. Trudeau. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Very good question. | |
| So, Canada has a fixed election date four years after the prior election. | ||
| So, that's why they have to have an election by October 20th, 2025. | ||
| But it's still a parliamentary system. | ||
| And if the opposition is united, they can bring down the government. | ||
| The parliament is suspended now or prorogue until we get to March 24th of this year. | ||
| On that date, the government will be a new leader for the Liberals. | ||
| They'll have a new cabinet to announce, and they'll begin the session with what's called a speech from the throne read by the Governor General on behalf of King Charles. | ||
| And that moment is sort of like a state of the union, except the speech is written by the government and lays out their plan for how they would like to proceed. | ||
| Both chambers, the Canada has a Senate as well as a House, all gather to hear this speech, and that begins the session. | ||
| Now, you can pass amendments to that speech, and you can also vote down the speech. | ||
| There'll be a parliamentary vote after it. | ||
| So, it's possible that that moment will bring the government down. | ||
| The next thing that will have to happen is Canada's budget has to be announced. | ||
| For those who follow these details, Canada has a budget cycle, and typically they need to have the budget announced in April. | ||
| And so, you'll see very early on an update to the fall economic statement. | ||
| It was quite late this year that lays the groundwork for a budget vote. | ||
| The budget vote is also a vote of confidence and could bring the government down. | ||
| What we're seeing now is that all of the opposition parties plan to bring the government down, and that would give us a likely election in May, sort of mid to late May. | ||
| That is much sooner than October when it has to be held. | ||
| And that's to take advantage of the fact that the Liberals are lower in the polls. | ||
| People are still frustrated with Justin Trudeau, and the Conservatives have a big advantage in the polling. | ||
| They don't want this new government, the next prime minister, to get any credit or start to turn the numbers around. | ||
| They would like to have an immediate election and they hope replace Trudeau and the Liberals in government. | ||
| As far as in the Liberal Party itself, who's the emerging favorite, so to speak, at this stage, Mr. Sands. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So, there are, oh, no, sorry, I didn't mean to talk over you. | |
| So, there are a couple of possibilities. | ||
| One of the events that triggered the prime minister's resignation was that his deputy prime minister, who was also the finance minister, Christia Freeland, resigned from cabinet, very frustrated, and she resigned with a letter that she posted on X and social media so that it was very public, her criticism of Justin Trudeau. | ||
| Now, Christia Freeland, some people will remember, has been a journalist. | ||
| She wrote for The Economist, for the Financial Times, has a very good media sense. | ||
| She will immediately be one of the first people looked to by Liberals to be the next leader, in part because she broke with Trudeau and in part because she has a very different personality. | ||
| She's much more progressive, and she's held some big jobs. | ||
| She was Canada's foreign minister as well, and was the trade minister who was involved. | ||
| Some of your viewers will remember from the renegotiation of NAFTA that led us to the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement. | ||
| She was really the lead of Canada's team, not the detail negotiator, but the counterpart to Robert Leitizer, who was U.S. Trade Representative. | ||
| So, she has a lot of name recognition. | ||
| She's got a very strong personality and a lot of favorable views among Canadians for how she might do as prime minister. | ||
| There are a couple of other leading contenders. | ||
| Mark Carney, who was the governor of the Bank of England, but before that was governor of the Bank of Canada, is a very well-respected individual, works in the financial sector now for Brookfield, which is a large property company, and also for Bloomberg, an American company. | ||
| He's chair of the board there. | ||
| Very well known, very well respected, not a politician in the sense of having been elected to office before. | ||
| So that's a bit of a risk, but he is somebody that the Prime Minister, Trudeau, has tried to recruit for cabinet, and I think he'll be a leading contender. | ||
| After you get past those two, the contenders are a little bit harder to guess. | ||
| Christy Clark, who was the Premier of British Columbia, a Liberal, had nothing to do with the Trudeau government, even though she was in the same party. | ||
| Her career was provincial. | ||
| She's being mentioned as somebody who comes outside the problems of this current Liberal government, so would have a fresh start. | ||
| We've also heard from some French-Canadian voices or francophone voices, people speak French primarily. | ||
| We have François-Philippe Champagne, who is from Quebec, is a very dynamic, very engaged politician. | ||
| He's somebody who's been minister of industry, innovation, science, and economic development. | ||
| He's been leading Canada's effort on things like AI, critical minerals, trying to deal with a range of modern aspects of the Canadian economy, including electric vehicles as well. | ||
| So he has a lot of name recognition as a great, very natural politician. | ||
| Melanie Jolie, who's from Montreal, who is the current foreign minister, has been mentioned by some. | ||
| Anita Anand, who is from Toronto, not a francophone, but is currently the Minister of Transportation. | ||
| She's really sharp. | ||
| I'm not sure she's going to run this time, but she would be a great candidate. | ||
| And last but not least, I'd throw in Dominic LeBlanc. | ||
| Dominic LeBlanc is from New Brunswick, fluently bilingual. | ||
| He went with Justin Trudeau down to meet President-elect Trump in Mar-a-Lago. | ||
| And some people think of him as maybe Justin Trudeau's favorite potential successor. | ||
| But I don't see him necessarily playing the role of the next leader, but perhaps being a kingmaker in backing one of the other candidates in order to unify the Liberals for what could be a very, very rapid move to an election. | ||
| Let's go to John in Virginia, Democrats line. | ||
| Go ahead, you're on with our guest. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks for taking my call. | |
| I want to say to the guest that number one issue that the Prime Minister has is unemployment. | ||
| If you look at the housing market in Canada, young people cannot get a job. | ||
| When you see every store in Canada right now, you see how he changed the whole Canadian situation. | ||
| He's bringing more HB visas from overseas. | ||
| Kids, when they graduate, Canadian kids, when they graduate college, they can't even afford to work at McDonald's. | ||
| There's no jobs in Canada. | ||
| Number two, I want to say that this Prime Minister, the biggest mistake is while Joe Biden is the president, you have no reason to go visit another president, another elected president. | ||
| You should wait until Donald Trump becomes a president and you visit the country. | ||
| But the reality is, Canadian, if you go to Toronto right now, there is not enough housing. | ||
| People, they don't make enough income to buy a house. | ||
| People, they don't have enough income to buy food. | ||
| And he really makes open border. | ||
| He brought a lot of Ukrainian, he brought a lot of Syrian. | ||
| The whole country changed everything. | ||
| That's the biggest problem that I, when I went to Canada, that the people are talking about. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| That's John there. | ||
| And Mr. Sands, he mentioned unemployment. | ||
| He mentioned housing. | ||
| He mentioned immigration, economy as a whole. | ||
| How did that factor into yesterday's decision by the Prime Minister? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I think the caller is right. | |
| John called it just as I think a lot of Canadians see it. | ||
| Canada's had a very positive relationship with immigration over the years because they have had a point system that favored people who came with money to invest or advanced college degrees so that they were very quick to assimilate and didn't need a lot of help. | ||
| What's changed, and this has changed in some ways in the United States as well, is that according to the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees, we have as many as 120 million stateless and displaced people around the world looking for a place to start over that has an economy that's strong enough to support them. | ||
| Many of them have tried to get to Canada and they've come to the United States. | ||
| But Prime Minister Trudeau has been particularly generous in trying to bring people in. | ||
| This has led to some backlash, as John was saying, because of a concern that these are not the same kind of immigrants. | ||
| They need more help, and Canada hasn't always been able to help them. | ||
| One of the things they need help with is housing. | ||
| Canada doesn't have adequate housing. | ||
| There's sort of good news, bad news. | ||
| Part of the reason is that older Canadians are hanging out to their houses longer and they're not building houses fast enough for younger Canadians. | ||
| But then you add new immigrants who also need a place to live, of course, and that has been, it's really pushed the system over its limit. | ||
| And one of the things we've seen, and John may have seen this in the papers as well, Ukrainians who came to Canada because there are a lot of Ukrainian Canadians, but who decided to go back to Europe, maybe to Poland, maybe to Germany, because they couldn't afford to get a job and find a place to live. | ||
| I'll add one other thing, which I think John picked up very perceptively, which because economic issues are always very important, and that is young people trying to get onto the property ladder by buying their first home. | ||
| Canada's got a very conservative system that requires first that you have as much as 20-25% down payment up front. | ||
| So most people borrow from the Bank of Mom and Dad and they get that initial money, but it's very hard to qualify for a loan if you don't have that minimum. | ||
| The other thing is they don't have the 40-year fixed mortgages that we'll have here in the United States. | ||
| Mortgage terms tend to be much shorter. | ||
| And then when they come to term, you renegotiate, but at a new interest rate. | ||
| And as we've seen interest rates go up with inflation, both in Canada and the U.S., that's pushed the actual cost of renewing your mortgage higher and higher. | ||
| And for a lot of Canadians, particularly young Canadians, it's made housing unaffordable, even if it was available. | ||
| So John's quite right. | ||
| A lot of the economic issues have hurt the Liberals overall and the Prime Minister, who I think sincerely wants to respond to these, but his policies so far have left a lot of people feeling that he hasn't done enough. | ||
| We've set aside a line for those in Canada. | ||
| This is Ella from Toronto. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Hi. | ||
| Hello, sorry. | ||
| Can you hear me? | ||
| Yep, you're wrong. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, great. | |
| And good day, Mr. Sands. | ||
| As you know, Canadian, our standards are very high. | ||
| And I really take, you know, I'm really upset about the fact that Trump is always talking about taking over Canada. | ||
| There's no way on God's earth we Canadians would ever want a person like Trump and his behavior to ever have an influence over Canada or politics. | ||
| I mean, I mean, as I stated, our standards are high. | ||
| There's no way we would vote it in a guy that's convicted sexual assaulter with 34 felonies. | ||
| There's absolutely no way that's for America. | ||
| So I want to know what's the possibility of this guy ever coming close to us in terms of having any influence on our politics. | ||
| We do not want him. | ||
| For all, I mean, like all my friends of a certain age, we do not entertain Mr. Trump. | ||
| We do not want him. | ||
| To us, America has made a sad mistake of voting in someone like that. | ||
| It's really embarrassing for myself as a Canadian to, you know, when I do go to Europe because we're neighbors, you know, to actually have to explain why Americans did that. | ||
| It's really embarrassing. | ||
| Now, I just want to know, is there even a slight chance or a slight possibility of this guy ever getting close to us in terms of influencing our policy or even taking over Canada? | ||
| That's Ella there in Toronto. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, thank you, Ella. | |
| That's a very good question. | ||
| Personally, I don't think that there is much support for asking Canada to become the 51st state. | ||
| I'm here in Washington, D.C., where they would like to be maybe the 51st state, and I think they have a better case for it. | ||
| It's the kind of bluster that we've become accustomed to here in the U.S. with Donald Trump. | ||
| And I think this is something I'd said at the outset that I worry about, which is that Donald Trump in sort of mocking Justin Trudeau and his government has gone a little over the line and given Canadians some concern, as he has done on Greenland as well, talking about buying Greenland from Denmark. | ||
| I don't know that that's necessarily constructive. | ||
| On the other side, and I feel obliged to say something positive, I think that Canadians have always done a very good job of differentiating between the American president and the American public. | ||
| And while I think I have Canadian friends who didn't particularly like George W. Bush, weren't that fond of Bill Clinton and all of the shenanigans over the years, Canada has a ringside seat and certainly gets a good dose of American politics, but has made very different choices in their own setting. | ||
| Yet, despite the fact that our governments aren't aligned, we've built really the most successful trading relationship in the history of the world. | ||
| More than almost $3 billion a day crosses the Canada-U.S. border. | ||
| That means that we rarely export to each other products we make wholly in our country. | ||
| We actually make things together, and that has made us much more prosperous. | ||
| Some 37 states count Canada as their number one export market. | ||
| Many Americans enjoy going to vacation in Canada, particularly sort of early after COVID or after 9-11, when they were looking for a safe place to get away. | ||
| Canada was a very popular destination. | ||
| And of course, many Canadians enjoy coming to the U.S., whether it's Florida for Disney or California. | ||
| So we have a really good people-to-people relationship that has not only been positive, but has helped us to prosper. | ||
| And I think that's the reason, not just proximity, not just the fact that Canada's next door, that Canadians have been willing to look maybe more at their American friends, less at who the president is at any given time. | ||
| And while I find the president's rhetoric on Canada's 51st state is unfortunate, I also don't think that it has much reality to it. | ||
| First, I don't think the president is correct that if Canadians had a straight vote, a national referendum, they would choose to join the United States. | ||
| But second, I don't think the U.S. is prepared to do what it would need to do to take over Canada. | ||
| So certainly we're not going to invade. | ||
| And beyond that, a purchase of a country like Canada would, if we decided to put money down, would balloon the deficit. | ||
| It just isn't practical. | ||
| So my feeling is that Canada should be safe. | ||
| But I share what Ella is saying, that there's a certain insult that comes with talking about Canada as a 51st state, which is really unfortunate and unacceptable. | ||
| Nonetheless, Canada-U.S. relations are good. | ||
| No, this is Alan from Ontario joining us. | ||
| Alan, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning, and thank you for taking my call. | |
| I just wanted to speak about what I've learned as a Canadian in the last 10 years or so. | ||
| I've been on disability, and I've gotten to see a lot more than I would have if I had not been on disability. | ||
| And one of the things I have seen is that we don't have politics in Canada. | ||
| Our political system is a uniparty, and our government is being controlled by the World Economic Forum. | ||
| And I would like to see C-SPAN speak more about that because the World Economic Forum is taking more and more control over countries, citing vaccines, mandates, et cetera, et cetera. | ||
| So I'd like to see a conversation at a higher level, please. | ||
| That's Alan Bear in Ontario. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, thank you for that comment, Alan. | |
| I think that this is one of the things that we're grappling with at this particular time, so early in the 21st century, which is the debate about how accountable our governments are to their voters. | ||
| And I think populism is driving a lot of politics. | ||
| And I don't mean populism in a pejorative sense. | ||
| Populism is about doing things that are popular. | ||
| It's the opposite of elitism. | ||
| And I think we've had a period in both of our countries where we've had elite governments that have thought they were making the right decisions because they felt they knew better. | ||
| And yet, in the big first wave of globalization that we all experienced, a lot of blue-collar workers lost their jobs. | ||
| And in the election we just had in the United States in 2024, both parties, President Biden's campaign, then Vice President Harris's campaign, but also President-elect Trump's campaign, sought to reach voters who had been displaced by globalization and automation. | ||
| I think that's a trend that's going on worldwide. | ||
| Some people say, well, it's a conservative shift worldwide. | ||
| I don't think so. | ||
| I think it's a shift of more populist politics that can manifest themselves on the right or on the left. | ||
| But I'm pleased to see that people are concerned about those voters. | ||
| What I think is coming, which we're going to have to really struggle to deal with, is trying to adapt to things like artificial intelligence and the challenges that puts on white-collar workers, people who spend a lot of money on their education, probably have very big student loans, and are trying to figure out how they can find their way in the world and avoid being replaced by a chat bot or some other device. | ||
| We were talking in an earlier segment about the problems of expensive housing in Canada. | ||
| There are a lot of expenses that come with people, and I think we need to make sure that we have economies that work for all of us. | ||
| And one way, it isn't an economic policy that solves the problem, but it is an important one, is to listen to the public and make sure that the public has a chance to know what's going on and to do so in a very transparent way. | ||
| And Alan, if I can just add one thing, I think a lot of Canadians look at U.S. politics, and we do everything out in the open. | ||
| All of the fighting, all of the arguments, any member of Congress brings up an idea, it can get into the headlines, and we battle it out very much in public. | ||
| And I think it can be nerve-wracking if you want to see which way the U.S. is going to figure out who's influential, who's doing the better job in American politics. | ||
| Canada has a more Westminster model where all that fighting occurs in cabinet. | ||
| It occurs behind closed doors. | ||
| So I think Alan's right to say that there are a lot of influences that aren't clear at who's running the show, whether it's Trudeau or people behind him. | ||
| Americans' openness creates a lot of conspiracy theories, too. | ||
| And we sometimes wonder whether we're being told the truth. | ||
| But I think the fact that the U.S. system lets it all hang out can be scary, but I think it's one of the virtues of our system because it has made it relatively more accountable. | ||
| I'm Christopher Sands with the Wilson Center. | ||
| He serves as the Canada Institute Director. | ||
| Mr. Sands, how did you develop such an interest in Canada that you got the position? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I still feel lucky that I got it. | |
| I grew up in Detroit in Michigan, so a border kid, I guess. | ||
| And when I was coming through, this is a very academic-y answer, but when I was coming through undergraduate years, political science was rediscovering a kind of political economy approach that tried to link politics and economics that prior to the 1980s in the U.S. was mostly associated with Marxism. | ||
| And so it wasn't very popular, but it started to come in in a new way, being interpreted without the deterministic lens of Marxism. | ||
| So that we were starting to look at how do money and power interact. | ||
| And I think those are important questions. | ||
| Most of the smart kids that I went to school with were using those tools to understand European integration and the emergence eventually of the European Union. | ||
| I grew up near the border. | ||
| I knew that we had a 1956 Defense Production Sharing Act that integrated a lot of our military production with Canada. | ||
| We had the Auto Pact 1967, which integrated the auto industry, which is my hometown industry. | ||
| And shortly after I graduated from college, we had the Canadios Free Trade Group. | ||
| So what struck me early on was that the U.S. and Canada were either walking down a road similar to Europe's or going their own way. | ||
| And that would be a fascinating thing to build a career on. | ||
| So I was lucky to be able to come to Washington. | ||
| I went to grad school at Johns Hopkins. | ||
| They have a great foreign policy school. | ||
| I know you have a lot of our faculty on the show, so your viewers will know some of them. | ||
| It was a great place to go to school. | ||
| I thought maybe I'd go into government, but by that time I was so specialized in Canada, the government didn't necessarily want me that way. | ||
| So I started working in think tanks and had the chance to be at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Hudson Institute, and finally found myself here at the Wilson Center. | ||
| And it's a great honor to be here. | ||
| I still find every morning something fascinating is going on in Canada. | ||
| And yesterday morning, it was Justin Trudeau resigning. | ||
| So you just never know what you're going to get. | ||
| Well, thanks for the expertise in sharing with our audience, those events in Canada. | ||
| Christopher Sands, thanks a lot. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you very much. | |
| Coming up on the program, we're going to talk with a former trade official in the George W. Bush administration, Christy McDaniel. | ||
| She's at the Mercatus Center now, and she's going to discuss President Biden's decision to block the $14 billion acquisition of U.S. steel by Japan's Nippon Steel. | ||
| Later on in the program, author and journalist Jonathan Alter, he wrote a biography of former President Jimmy Carter who'll discuss Carter's life and influence in American politics. | ||
| Those segments coming up on Washington Journal. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Experience history as it unfolds with C-SPAN's live coverage this month 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 Monday, January 20th. | ||
| Tune in for our live all-day coverage of the presidential inauguration as Donald Trump takes the oath of office, becoming President of the United States. | ||
| Stay with C-SPAN this month for comprehensive, live, unfiltered coverage of the 119th Congress and the presidential inauguration, C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered. | ||
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| It's time to make your voice heard. | ||
| C-SPAN Student Cam Documentary Contest 2025 is here. | ||
| This is your chance to create a documentary that can inspire change, raise awareness, and make an impact. | ||
| Your documentary should answer this year's question. | ||
| Your message to the president. | ||
| What issue is most important to you or your community? | ||
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| Student Cam is your platform to share your message with the world. | ||
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| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Our next guest is Christine McDaniel. | ||
| She's a senior research fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center. | ||
| She served as the senior trade economist in the George Bush W. Bush administration at the White House from 2005 to 2007, here to talk about a pending decision concerning U.S. steel and protest and pushback from the Biden administration. | ||
| Ms. McDaniel, thanks for giving us your time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thank you for having me. | ||
| For those who are maybe not following as close as you are on this story, explain what has happened in the last few days concerning U.S. steel. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, the last few days, on January 3rd, President Biden officially blocked the deal. | |
| The Japanese steelmaker, Nipbone Steel, had made an offer to acquire U.S. steel, and they were trying to work the deal out. | ||
| The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, it's called CPIUS. | ||
| You'll hear a lot about that in this case, Cypheus. | ||
| The Treasury-led, it's an interagency group of people that make sure that large enough deals or deals that might give off a red flag are legit and credible and don't pose any national security risks. | ||
| So CPHIS did their investigation. | ||
| They were, they couldn't come to a conclusive result. | ||
| So they and they kicked it up to the president and President Biden blocked it. | ||
| So President Biden said that there was credible evidence that the Japanese steel maker might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States. | ||
| And that's where we are now. | ||
| Both sides have taken this to court. | ||
| People say it'll probably be held up in the courts for a while. | ||
| And then the next administration, the Trump administration, will likely play a key role in deciding how this ends up. | ||
| Why was Nipon Steel interested in U.S. steel? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I mean, you know, foreign mergers and acquisitions, you know, cross-borders happen all the time. | |
| You know, somebody sees an opportunity and they propose a merge or acquisition. | ||
| In this case, it sounds like, at least what Nippon Steele said, that they saw an opportunity to invest in U.S. steel in terms of their comparative advantage was Integration into global value chains and arguably, | ||
| you know, superior firm-specific capital and technology and more advanced innovative production techniques. | ||
| They wanted to bring that to U.S. steel. | ||
| Plus, U.S. steel being inside the U.S., you know, they are protected from the tariffs, right? | ||
| So somewhat similar to remember in the Reagan years when Reagan started putting up all those barriers for imported automobiles. | ||
| And then what happened was, you know, Japanese automakers jumped over the tariffs and started making the stuff, making their cars in the U.S. Kind of the same thing going on here. | ||
| You know, they see the U.S. getting more and more protectionist. | ||
| So they want to invest in the United States and be kind of protected themselves, not be harmed by those tariffs. | ||
| So it has the potential to be a win-win for the Japanese steel maker and the U.S. steelmaker and the workers, because with that huge capital injection, it could keep U.S. steel going. | ||
| When you say keep U.S. steel going, can you elaborate? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, you know, U.S. steel has been struggling on and off for decades now. | |
| The steel industry in general in the U.S. has been asking for protection from import competition for also for decades. | ||
| Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. | ||
| Even if it works in the short term, eventually, you know, global economic realities catch up and they come back asking for more production. | ||
| In President Bush's administration, that happened. | ||
| And then a lot of anti-dumping counterbailing duties continued before and after that, special Bush safeguard case. | ||
| And then, of course, President Trump used a national security tool, Section 232, for more tariffs for steel. | ||
| And so there's just been this industry is one that just is constantly seeking protection from foreign import competition. | ||
| And whether that's right or wrong, that's just the reality of the situation. | ||
| And U.S. steel, for the most part, is not necessarily globally competitive. | ||
| There are components, parts of the sector that are fairly competitive globally. | ||
| But overall, U.S. steel prices do tend to be higher than global prices. | ||
| Christine McDaniel, for this conversation concerning this potential sale of U.S. steel to a Japanese company, if you want to ask her questions about it and the issues that she's talked about, 202748-8000 for Democrats, 202748-8001 for Republicans, and Independents 202748-8002. | ||
| You can text us your questions or comments at 202-748-8003. | ||
| Ms. McDaniel, here is the part of the statement from President Biden concerning his concerns about the sale, saying this: a strong domestically owned and operated steel industry represents an essential national security priority and is critical for resilient supply chains. | ||
| That's because steel powers our country, our infrastructure, our auto industry, our defense industrial base. | ||
| As a committee of national security and trade experts across the executive branch determined, this acquisition would place one of America's largest steel producers under foreign control and create risk for our national security and critical supply chains. | ||
| So that is why I am taking action to block this deal. | ||
| That being said, has there been a specific given about what the national security concerns are? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, we haven't seen anything publicly given yet. | |
| No publicly available details on that so-called credible national security threat. | ||
| So they don't necessarily have to make it public, but maybe it's there, maybe it's not. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| But so far, it hasn't been publicly detailed what that credible national security threat is. | ||
| And it was interesting, too, that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States is a committee out of several agencies, Treasury, Pentagon, State, Commerce, et cetera. | ||
| And this time, there was some reportedly some, it wasn't unanimous consent among all the members. | ||
| And reportedly, Treasury State and the Pentagon all agreed that there was no national security threat. | ||
| So that's why it was kind of surprising that the White House did say there was a credible national security threat, when the Pentagon themselves say there isn't. | ||
| But that's all we know publicly. | ||
| Here's the response from the U.S. Steels President David Burrett. | ||
| He also serves as CEO. | ||
| He said this, President Biden's actions today are shameful and corrupt. | ||
| He gave a political payback to a union boss out of touch with his members while harming our company's future, our workers, and our national security. | ||
| He insulted Japan, a vital economic and national security ally, and put American competitiveness at risk. | ||
| The Chinese Communist Party leaders in Beijing are dancing in the streets, and Biden did it all while refusing to even meet with us to learn the facts. | ||
| Our employees and communities deserve better. | ||
| Ms. McDaniel, what do you think of that response? | ||
| What's interesting of that response to you? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, you know, both sides are going to be making their statements now. | |
| But look, I mean, you know, when this deal was first announced as an idea, was it last year? | ||
| My, you know, my gut reaction as an economist who's been studying this industry for a while was like, oh, you know, that could be a great opportunity. | ||
| Good for the workers, good for the company, good for the U.S. steel industry. | ||
| You know, we have a fresh injection of capital, fresh technology, you know, new innovative production processes. | ||
| Also a really good, strong ties to such a strong steel maker in a very strong allied country like Japan. | ||
| And given, you know, notwithstanding any credible national security threat, you know, it should be up to the companies to decide what they want to do. | ||
| And if they think it's a win-win, you know, based on the market conditions, then it's a win-win. | ||
| So, you know, it's not surprising he's saying this. | ||
| There's also been some reports, you know, that there has been some, you know, extra lobbying on this case by the unions and then by another company called Cleveland Cliffs, which is another U.S. steelmaker. | ||
| And so it sounds like that is being cited a lot in some of these court cases that are being filed. | ||
| So it'll be interesting to watch how this plays out. | ||
| That's the court side, Ms. McDaniel. | ||
| We have a new president coming in in just a matter of weeks. | ||
| What's the president-elect's take on this deal? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, so President Trump has said publicly that he does not like the idea of a foreign entity taking ownership of U.S. steel. | |
| But during campaign days, people say a lot of different things. | ||
| So we'll have to wait and see. | ||
| Also, President Trump is someone who really seems at core to respect the market. | ||
| I'm not want to disrupt the market. | ||
| So he's going to have a lot of competing interests here. | ||
| So far, he says that he's opposed the deal, but we'll see when he gets in and his team gets in, and maybe they'll have a fresh take on it. | ||
| We'll have a closer look at all the information, not just the information that they were privy to. | ||
| And who knows? | ||
| I don't think this is over yet. | ||
| In fact, what would change the situation on the ground? | ||
| Either, I suppose, a change of position by either this president or the next, but what other factors could change? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I mean, to the extent there's a credible national security threat reported by Biden, perhaps the Trump team will have a different lens through which to view national security. | |
| What is seen as a national security threat to President Biden may not be seen as a national security threat to President Trump and his team. | ||
| So the criteria might be different for Trump and his team. | ||
| And we'll just have to wait and see. | ||
| Ms. McDaniel, was there a sense if this deal were to take place, how those employed by U.S. Steel would be affected? | ||
| Would those lose jobs? | ||
| Would they be able to keep their jobs? | ||
| Any sense of what would happen to the employees? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, yeah, that was what was so striking here. | |
| Peter, because the Nipbone Steel, in their proposal, committed to honoring all of the labor unions terms and conditions that they had already worked out. | ||
| So they weren't going to touch any of that. | ||
| They keep all those employees, keep all their salaries, benefits under all those terms and conditions. | ||
| And they also agreed, this is unprecedented. | ||
| I personally have never seen this before. | ||
| They agreed to give the U.S. government veto power over any potential plant closures in the United States. | ||
| And that was interesting because that touches on U.S. government's interest in keeping up that industrial capacity, that plant capacity running for steel in the U.S. | ||
| So, and that was a big thing driving the Trump's Section 232 on steel, right? | ||
| That was a big thing. | ||
| They wanted industrial capacity to be at least, it was a certain percentage. | ||
| I think I want to say 85%, something like this. | ||
| And Trump saw that industrial capacity being a certain threshold and not going below it as a really important in national security. | ||
| So maybe if they still have that criteria, maybe they can work through that. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| It's also, you have to remember, I mean, these are still market forces at the end of the day. | ||
| These are private investors, private shareholders. | ||
| So even if Nippon Steel doesn't buy them, if U.S. steel is no longer viable, they're not going to survive in the long, long run, regardless of how many tariffs go up. | ||
| So if you really want the best for U.S. Steel, that may or may not be a merge with Nippon Steel or an acquisition, but it might be. | ||
| And you got to be open to this if you really want a vibrant U.S. steel company continuing. | ||
| Our guest served as the former White House Senior Trade Economist in the George W. Bush administration. | ||
| She's currently a senior research fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center. | ||
| Christine McDaniel for this discussion. | ||
| Let's hear from Richard in Pennsylvania. | ||
| Democrats line your first step. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| What I'm wondering is why the politicians and everybody thinks that we can't take our steel plant and make it work. | ||
| I mean, with the trying to sell half of our steel plant to the Nippon, I don't understand what makes everybody think that buying half of our steel and buying all this equipment of our stuff. | ||
| It's just like Bethlehem Steel years ago in Buffalo, New York. | ||
| They wanted them to clean up their admissions through the taking care of the, I guess, the stacks and stuff. | ||
| And I didn't know exactly what. | ||
| But then Bethlehem Steel was paying so many taxes up there for the area around their steel plant up there. | ||
| Bethlehem Steel asked the politicians, says, could you give us a break on our taxes? | ||
| They said no. | ||
| They said, well, we'll just close the plant. | ||
| There was about five miles on Route 5 up there that was Bethlehem Steel. | ||
| And we can't keep giving away all our industry and these companies. | ||
| I mean, Bethlehem Steel is gone. | ||
| And now U.S. Steel, now Nippon wants to come into it. | ||
| You mean to tell me it's going to guarantee that because Nippon came in and bought our steel plant, that we can't operate in a productive way to make money? | ||
| I don't understand. | ||
| Okay, we got the point, Caller. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| We'll let our guests respond to that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, these are legitimate questions. | |
| But look, I mean, nothing's guaranteed. | ||
| I mean, these are private capital owners. | ||
| They're going to put their money where they can get a return. | ||
| So, look, the U.S. has a long history of acquisitions of U.S. firms by foreign firms. | ||
| And remember back when Chrysler filed for bankruptcy, was that 2009? | ||
| And then Fiat, Italian fiat, came along. | ||
| They acquired a majority stake. | ||
| And then about five years later, that was a huge success today. | ||
| Now they're called Stellantis, one of the world's largest automakers. | ||
| Chrysler may not have made it had it not been for that acquisition. | ||
| But other times it doesn't always work out. | ||
| Remember when China acquired, China's TCL acquired RCA back in 2004, that did not really work out. | ||
| So sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. | ||
| There are particular, there's usually a list of things that rule of thumb tend to be happen when things do work out and then when things don't work out. | ||
| One question is, you think as an economist, is Nippon Steel overpaying for this? | ||
| Not all of Japan's investments in the U.S. have worked out well. | ||
| On the other hand, some have worked out very well. | ||
| But Nippon Steel isn't just paying a big premium for U.S. Steel. | ||
| I mean, they've pledged to invest $2.7 billion in the U.S. Steel's union represented facilities. | ||
| That is more than what U.S. Steel was planning on doing. | ||
| So if you are, to the extent one is concerned about the long-term viability of U.S. Steel, this is consistent with that notion. | ||
| There's a viewer on X who makes the comment: it's better that U.S. steel sells to an ally countries like Japan rather than a communist adversary like China. | ||
| How do geopolitics like that work into these kind of deals? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I mean, absolutely. | |
| I mean, Japan is such a strong, I mean, one of strongest allies, arguably the strongest ally in, you know, in Asia, you know, and they're one of the largest investors in the United States in terms of foreign direct investment. | ||
| Had it not been for, I don't know, maybe sort of a protectionist mood in the U.S., you know, it'd be interesting to see what would have happened, how this would have gone, say, 10 years ago, you know, but the mood just seems to be a little different now. | ||
| But no, absolutely. | ||
| And if you look at the deals that there's been about seven or so deals that U.S. presidents have said no to that they've blocked. | ||
| And most of those have been with countries, you know, that are not close allies. | ||
| In fact, I was just looking at a list last night and about half of them were with China. | ||
| So absolutely. | ||
| I mean, Japan is a huge ally, an important ally. | ||
| And if there's anyone that can be a good, strong partner for U.S. steel and their viability, you would think that they're definitely at the top of that list. | ||
| This is from Carol in Ohio, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello, thank you. | |
| I wanted to know what role the United States International Trade Commission is playing in some of these deals, if any. | ||
| I was concerned. | ||
| I learned about a year ago that the Trade Commission denied Weird and West Virginia tin plant of getting tariffs and subsequently the plant and all the employees lost their jobs. | ||
| It was shuttered. | ||
| And my concern is that sometimes these agencies created in the U.S., like the International Trade Commission, will deny American companies protective tariffs, therefore undermining U.S. workers and U.S. companies in supporting these foreign companies that sometimes are rather immoral and unethical the way they exploit workers overseas. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That's Carol. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, Carol has a great point on that. | |
| The International Trade Commission has an important role in anti-dumping, countervailing duty cases. | ||
| I think she probably, Carol, you're probably referring to the anti-dumping, countervailing duty case. | ||
| So the ITC, they do rule on those particular dumping and countervailing duty cases. | ||
| But for this issue, there is no direct role for the International Trade Commission. | ||
| This is more of a, this is an issue for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States by agencies, departments within the administration. | ||
| The ITC is an independent agency, so they're outside of that circle. | ||
| This deal is within the administration. | ||
| So, you know, you get like Treasury, Pentagon, State, Transportation, et cetera. | ||
| So, yeah, so ITC was not involved directly in this decision. | ||
| Lewis in another Pennsylvanian joining us on our line Independence for Christine McDaniel. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| It had been reported on the internet, some internet sites, that Nippon initially made an offer to U.S. Steel to purchase it, but initially they only wanted to purchase the modern, up-to-date many mills that are in non-unionized areas. | ||
| And then that U.S. Steel came back and said that you had to buy all. | ||
| And so Nippon did come back and make that offer. | ||
| I imagine some concerns are that if Nippon really didn't want the older type of steel mills that are unionized, but yet had to buy them to make the deal work, that maybe somewhere down the road, Nippon will find a way to close those mills, keep the many mills that are modern and that are in non-union locations, and that ultimately these mills are in Western Pennsylvania that people are so concerned about, they will close. | ||
| Because even if you guarantee that you will do something in the future as part of a contract, you can always break the contract and pay the damages if you really want to get out of it. | ||
| And I think that's something that people are concerned about. | ||
| It doesn't get mentioned much. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Lewis, they're in Pennsylvania. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Yeah. | ||
| I mean, who knows what they would do? | ||
| You know, I mean, would they abide by that or break that and then pay the fines? | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| But, you know, it kind of makes that's a good point about, you know, that it's true. | ||
| In the beginning, they just wanted the higher tech ones. | ||
| You know, and that's frankly, you know, that's just a higher, you know, higher productivity level, lower cost point, relatively speaking, steel. | ||
| Nippon Steel's technological advancements, I mean, are amazing. | ||
| I mean, they have these advanced blast furnace operations. | ||
| They've done digital transformations, you know, using digital technologies in their production processes. | ||
| They've invested heavily in these, developing these new steel alloys and materials, you know, tailored to specific specifications, high-strength, lightweight steels. | ||
| I mean, that would just be a huge plus for U.S. manufacturers, especially at a time when the past administration, the coming administration are so focused on rebuilding manufacturing in America. | ||
| You know, you really do want a vibrant steel domestic or, you know, you want U.S. manufacturers to have access to globally competitively priced steel, right? | ||
| Wherever it's made. | ||
| But if you have a preference that it's made in the U.S., then you want those U.S. steel producers using the best technology for best quality and best price point. | ||
| So, yeah, look, I get there's a lot of political pressure around these particular workers, but it's not a God-given right, you know, to have a particular job at a particular wage with great benefits for your whole life. | ||
| I mean, who wouldn't want that? | ||
| You know, I get it. | ||
| But in terms of the rest of the economy, you know, and U.S. manufacturing, you know, if we want U.S. manufacturing to survive, you know, we've got to give them access to globally competitive price inputs. | ||
| And, you know, this seems to be consistent with that notion. | ||
| Ms. McDaniel, before we let you go, I do want to ask you, because of your previous experience as a trade economist in the White House, what do you think about the president-elect's general approach to tariffs? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, he is a tariff man. | |
| He thinks tariffs are beautiful. | ||
| You know, but like he's a self-described showman. | ||
| You know, so I think we often tend to overreact to things he might say here and there. | ||
| But he does see tariffs as an important tool. | ||
| He's also made very clear he wants reciprocal trade relations. | ||
| And look, if he can use a whole toolkit, maybe including tariffs or the threat of tariffs, to get better trade deals for the United States, why not? | ||
| On the other hand, so it could turn out to be a win-win. | ||
| On the other hand, if it doesn't work out and other countries retaliate, then it could turn into a global trade war. | ||
| So we'll see. | ||
| We have seen President Trump in the past use tariff threats very successfully with Japan and agriculture. | ||
| On the other hand, we've also seen tariffs just kind of stay on with no real immediate benefit. | ||
| So we'll have to wait and see. | ||
| But he does seem to use tariffs. | ||
| And that I think is going to make it a little hard to keep his promise on bringing down inflation. | ||
| So he's got his work cut out for him there with fiscal discipline and energy policies. | ||
| But he does seem to think tariffs are going to be a big part of that plan. | ||
| There's a story in the Washington Post this morning saying that there's a possibility that there is going to be a sharpening of the president's approach to tariffs, only applying to what's known as critical imports, according to those interviewed for the story. | ||
| If I may ask, what would be considered a critical import? | ||
| And if tariffs only applied to them, what do you think the impact is on the United States? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| Well, applying a broad-based tariff, it's going to have a different economic effect than just particular tariffs on particular sectors. | ||
| Although I did, you know, I saw that Washington Post piece, but then right after he tweeted out, you know, I don't know how this got out. | ||
| You know, this is not true. | ||
| But so I think a lot of things are being said right now. | ||
| But in terms of the defense industrial base, I mean, look, those are the key, those are the industries around AI, semiconductors, you know, maybe other advanced technologies, precision instruments, you know, used in defense manufacturing. | ||
| Those are the types of supply chains there that they may be referring to. | ||
| That, you know, some are black and white parts of those supply chains. | ||
| Others are very gray area. | ||
| So there'll be a lot of room for, you know, how do you really define where it stops being defense industrial base and non-defense. | ||
| Let's hear from Brenda. | ||
| Brenda is in Florida, Democrats line for our guests. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| I went to work at Bethlehem Steel in Baltimore in 1978. | ||
| They employed over 30,000 people. | ||
| 25 years later, due to imported steel, they closed. | ||
| They could no longer compare their prices with the prices of imports. | ||
| My question is, before these companies are bankrupt and close down, do they consider what it does to the economy in the area? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I have moved from Baltimore since then, but that's my question. | |
| Thank you, Caller. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, absolutely. | |
| I mean, it's the effects on people and communities are definitely real. | ||
| I mean, I grew up in Rockford, Illinois. | ||
| My dad was a union electrician. | ||
| My sister is also a union electrician. | ||
| But my dad had to move around a lot. | ||
| Sometimes we had to move with him. | ||
| Sometimes he would just leave for a few weeks or months. | ||
| It's it can be jarring. | ||
| I mean, everyone's just trying to do the best they can. | ||
| And I do think that the last administration, but the Biden administration and the Trump administration, these days, I think Washington policymakers tend to have a more heightened awareness of those hardships than they used to. | ||
| But there's still not that much that Washington can do to change the fact that at the end of the day, we're all subject to competition and technology changes. | ||
| In terms of unfair foreign competition, yes, we have a trade policy toolkit for that, and they try to do that the best they can. | ||
| But at the end of the day, no job is ever 100% secure. | ||
| And that's why we've got to keep thinking, focus on growing the economy instead of how to divide it up. | ||
| With a growing economy, the transition costs tend to be a little bit easier. | ||
| Finding a new job tends to be a little bit easier. | ||
| And that's why economists are always so focused on economic growth, because it really helps ease the adjustment costs of these types of changes that you've talked about. | ||
| Ms. McDaniel, I want to ask you, there's a viewer of X asking this question, saying, or at least saying this. | ||
| It would be pretty ironic to call it U.S. steel if it's owned by foreigners, but he makes the statement, it costs more to produce steel in America because of all the environmental regulations we've established that don't exist in other countries. | ||
| Are regulatory issues a factor here? | ||
|
unidentified
|
To some extent, yes. | |
| I mean, the U.S. regulatory regime tends to be stricter than in many other countries, especially other low-cost countries like China. | ||
| But for Japan, I don't think that's the case anymore. | ||
| Usually as countries get richer, they tend to get cleaner. | ||
| But then also just using more and more technology. | ||
| And now they're actually also using AI to monitor the emissions during the whole production process. | ||
| So we just have a lot more tools now to make regulatory compliance easier and finally less costly in the United States. | ||
| This is kind of a cool area that a colleague of mine is looking into. | ||
| So yes, regulatory issues are there. | ||
| Some regulations are probably not necessary. | ||
| But at the same time, we do need to keep water clean, air clean, and safety in place. | ||
| So you're always trying to balance those competing interests. | ||
| But in terms of Nippon Steel, it doesn't seem like they would have any problem complying with U.S. regulations. | ||
| You talked about the legal challenges that Nippon and others are going to push back against the administration and perhaps the next administration. | ||
| What's the legal argument facing these companies that want to buy U.S. steel? | ||
| What do they have to prove in a sense? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, well, look, I am not a lawyer. | |
| But look, I mean, Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel, they both filed lawsuits against the Biden administration. | ||
| They've alleged unlawful political interference and violations of due process. | ||
| They've also initiated legal action against Cleveland Cliffs, another U.S. steel maker that has reportedly been reportedly excessively involved and unduly involved in these negotiations. | ||
| Cleveland Cliffs would be a rival steel producer. | ||
| They've accused them of anti-competitive actions aimed at undermining the proposed merger. | ||
| So it looks like in terms of what they've filed, They're going to be focused on anti-competitive actions by the union and Cleveland Cliffs and also unlawful political interference violating the due process. | ||
| So I haven't seen anything about the national security concern, but in terms of the due process, the U.S. has a very black and white process for these things. | ||
| And it's really important those rules are followed. | ||
| And apparently, Nipon Steel and U.S. Steel believe that in this case, they were not. | ||
| So it sounds like that is what the lawsuits will be focused on. | ||
| Did you ever face a similar type of situation when a foreign company wanted to buy a U.S. company during your service at the White House in the Georgia W. Bush administration? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, not really. | |
| I mean, not one that really seemed to get like get this much news. | ||
| I was looking at the, trying to remember the cases we had. | ||
| There was a deal, I'm sorry, trying to think, there was something where, you know, Chrysler filed for bankruptcy in 2009. | ||
| So that was like one year after the financial crisis. | ||
| You know, that seemed to go through pretty well. | ||
| The UK's Barkley acquired Lehman Brothers in 2008. | ||
| You know, that went well. | ||
| That went over pretty well. | ||
| I think there was something, though, that Bush, I think Bush, when the UAE, they tried to acquire the P ⁇ O ports in 2006, and President Bush did block that deal, citing national security concerns regarding a foreign entity having too much control over critical U.S. infrastructure. | ||
| Before we let you go, I want to get your thoughts on some of these names that have been floated by the Trump administration, particularly in trade, in the matters of trade. | ||
| Jamison Greer, the appointee to be the next U.S. trade representative, and then Kevin Hassett serving at the White House. | ||
| He would serve at the National Economic Council, but I suppose he has some interaction with that. | ||
| These choices, what do you think they reflect about the president-elect's position on trade? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, it's really interesting. | |
| I mean, Jamison Greer, you know, his colleagues from the former days say he's just a great manager, really great to work with, work for. | ||
| And, you know, of course, he was with the previous administration. | ||
| And Kevin Hassett is just a great economist. | ||
| So I think, you know, both of these choices are consistent with a very strong trade and economic team. | ||
| This is Christine McDaniel. | ||
| If you want to see her work concerning trade and related issues, mercatus.org is the website. | ||
| She serves as the Senior Research Fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center, also a former White House senior trade economist in the George W. Bush administration. | ||
| Ms. McDaniel, thanks for your time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you so much. | |
| Again, the things to watch out for as the day progresses, not only in the House and the Senate as they work on various pieces of legislation, but also former President Carter, his body set to come to Washington, D.C. for a series of state-related funeral events. | ||
| Currently, he lies in state at the Carter Center, expected later on today to board a plane to come to Washington, D.C. Several events set to take place over the next couple of days. | ||
| And you can see them all play out on C-SPAN. | ||
| If you want to monitor that, you can always go to our website for more information and also follow along on the app. | ||
| You can talk about President Carter as he comes to Washington, D.C. and other matters of public policy and politics in open forum. | ||
| If you want to participate, here's how you can do so. | ||
| Democrats, 202-748-8000. | ||
| Republicans, 202-748-8001. | ||
| And Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| take those calls in open forum when Washington Journal continues. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It isn't just an idea. | |
| It's a process, a process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few with guarding its basic principles. | ||
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| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| We were scheduled to have Jonathan Alter join us, who wrote a biography on Jimmy Carter, a bit delayed in doing that. | ||
| If he does come in in the next 45 minutes or so, we will bring him into the program to talk about the events concerning former President Carter. | ||
| But otherwise, we will go to Open Forum 2027 for Democrats, 202748-8001 for Republicans, and Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| Here's the schedule of events concerning former President Carter. | ||
| This is from Atlanta News First that today, as of right now, he's lying in repose. | ||
| That continues a departure ceremony scheduled about 11 o'clock at the Carter Presidential Center. | ||
| 1130, a motorcade departing for Robbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia scheduled to take place. | ||
| It'll be about 1210. | ||
| According to Atlanta First News, that the late president will arrive at the Air Reserve Base. | ||
| What's known as Special Air Mission 39 will depart for Washington, D.C. He'll arrive at Joint Bains Andrews, Maryland. | ||
| His remains transferred to the ceremony for a rehearse will depart to the U.S. Navy Memorial. | ||
| There, a motorcade arriving at the U.S. Navy Memorial and President Carter's remains transferred from a hearse to the horse-drawn caisson with ceremony. | ||
| The funeral procession will begin marching up to the U.S. Capitol on Pennsylvania Avenue. | ||
| Upon arriving at the Capitol, the late president carried up the stairs by military bodybearers into the rotunda, and Congress scheduled to pay their respects during a service at the rotunda, particularly for those Washington, D.C. events. | ||
| Stay close to C-SPAN for coverage of those concerning these part of President Carter's funeral services and special events concerning that. | ||
| Again, you can talk about that as well. | ||
| 202-748-8000 for Democrats. | ||
| Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| On this open forum, we will hear from Loretta in Ohio, Democrats line. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro. | |
| Good morning, America. | ||
| Yesterday, the topic was what does January 6th mean to you? | ||
| And there was a problem with my line, and I really wanted to speak on this topic. | ||
| And I think that January 6th represented like a rise of white supremacy and fascism. | ||
| A lot of people want to compare January 6th to George Floyd and the Black Lives movement, but they are two different and separate things. | ||
| And I don't know how people can come to such a false equivalency when after George Floyd, we had that Rittenhouse guy who killed protesters in the street. | ||
| And then not long ago, we had Daniel Penny kill a homeless, hungry black man asking for money on the subway in New York. | ||
| I just have one question, and that is, what is it with Republicans that make them want to run everything? | ||
| Okay, let's hear from Max in Georgia, Valdosta, Georgia, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hello, good morning, and thank you for taking my call. | ||
| I was just mentioning on this open forum: I think that we need to look beyond government, look beyond politicians for our salvation, for our freedom. | ||
| It doesn't matter who's in the White House per se. | ||
| Our salvation comes from the Bible and from Jesus, and we need to put aside some of our differences, put aside some of our things we disagree on. | ||
| There are major disagreements. | ||
| I understand that. | ||
| But we need to really get back to treating each other as we treat ourselves and loving our neighbor and looking beyond superficial things like the previous caller had mentioned racism. | ||
| We really need to look beyond skin and look to the heart of the problem. | ||
| In the Bible, it speaks about how God looks at the heart. | ||
| Well, we need to look at people's heart and their actions instead of just the skin color of whoever we're talking about. | ||
| So that's what I would just like to say. | ||
| Just thank you for taking my call and have a great day. | ||
| Let's go to Ray. | ||
| Ray in Arizona, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro. | |
| Just a couple of things to say. | ||
| First off, I'd like to say you are who you support. | ||
| Then I've done a couple of songs that I've rewritten. | ||
| Mine eyes have seen the downfall of the Democratic state. | ||
| Trump has loosed his cult-like hordes to wreak his vengeance and his hate. | ||
| He's enabled all the whack, who's done his best to segregate the people from the truth. | ||
| I despise the city. | ||
| Okay, okay, okay, we get it, Ray. | ||
| That's Ray there in Arizona. | ||
| Speaking of President Carter, one of the things that you can do if you're interested is go to our C-SPAN archives available through our search engine on our C-SPAN website concerning former President Carter, interviews he's done, events he's had, all archived there. | ||
| One of those things, an interview with then with Brian Lamb back in 1999, part of that interview in which President Carter was asked about how he views the office of the presidency. | ||
| For a moment, talk about the American presidency, the office of the president. | ||
| Would you change anything if you could? | ||
|
unidentified
|
And is it as powerful as it should be? | |
| Well, the American presidency is extremely powerful in the arena of foreign policy. | ||
| For instance, when I decided to normalize diplomatic relations with China, the Constitution gave me unilateral right to do so. | ||
| The Congress had no role to play in that decision. | ||
| If I had wanted to send troops into battle, I could have done so, as has been done many times since I left office without consultation with or getting permission from the Congress in advance. | ||
| So in foreign policy, the president is it. | ||
| In domestic legislation, almost all the legislation that was passed during my four years originated in the White House. | ||
| I can't remember a single major bill that originated in the Congress. | ||
| The Congress expected me to present to them, this is what I want you to do about these subjects. | ||
| And then we had a very good batting average, as I said. | ||
| The thing that the president has practically no control over is the economics of the nation. | ||
|
unidentified
|
He has an equal role to play with the Congress in taxation. | |
| But the Federal Reserve Board, you know, really determines the rate of inflation and the tightness of money, which results in the growth of the economy. | ||
| Even greater than that, though, is the free enterprise system of our country. | ||
| What the conglomerate mass of major corporations do, General Motors and IBM and so forth. | ||
| I need not name the others. | ||
| And the other factor over which the president has no control is the international situation. | ||
| You know, if a war erupts or if you have a so-called Asia crisis, which we've had lately, the President of the United States has nothing to say about that. | ||
| When Nixon was in office as president, I was governor, and we had the formation of OPEC and the oil embargo against anyone who traded with Israel. | ||
| And we had long guess lines and the price of oil went sky high. | ||
| That was not Nixon's fault. | ||
| He didn't have anything to do with it. | ||
| So the president gets blamed for economic changes. | ||
| If they're bad, he takes credit for them if they're good. | ||
| But for all practical purposes, I would say the president plays maybe a 10 or 15 percent role in a nation's economy. | ||
| So foreign policy, the president is it. | ||
| Domestic policy, 50-50. | ||
| Economy, very little. | ||
| Again, President Carter back in 1999 in an interview there, his remains now at the Carter Center as part of a series of ceremonies coming to Washington later on today. | ||
| And we told you some of those things that you can watch out for on C-SPAN. | ||
| Let's hear from Jimmy. | ||
| Jimmy in Athens, Georgia, Independent Line. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro. | |
| Briefly, before I begin, I want to say I'd love to see an interview with the great Brian Lamb at some point this year. | ||
| I hope you can arrange that. | ||
| When I was a little boy, I didn't know much about politics. | ||
| I was eight years old, but I wanted Jimmy Carter to become our president because his name was Jimmy and he was from Georgia. | ||
| And when I was eight-year-old, my name was Jimmy and I was from Georgia. | ||
| That was a long time ago. | ||
| I have one great memory of when I went to see a Bob Dylan concert in 1994-ish in Atlanta. | ||
| And the show was late starting. | ||
| There were some seats being held. | ||
| And then right before it began, Jimmy Carter and his wife and Congressman John Lewis and his wife came and sat down in the front row and the whole crowd cheered right before Bob Dylan performed. | ||
| And that's just a great memory. | ||
| And Jimmy Carter was a great man and a pretty good president. | ||
| Thank you for C-SPAN. | ||
| Zach, up next in Oregon, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, good morning. | |
| I'm calling because this is kind of a message to any lawmakers that are listening with any dignity left or, you know, ones that ain't, that still care. | ||
| I think that the media, you know, mainstream media is so important still, not just social media, but I think that it's such a fuel for the hate fire that's burning in this country. | ||
| Like, so I think that there should be like a federally enforced fine for any false headline. | ||
| And like, for instance, when the Fox headline of when they led everybody to believe that the New Orleans, the guy, that what happened in New Orleans, the guy was from across the border. | ||
| I mean, that is such a sensitive subject right now. | ||
| And that just, it does absolutely no good to steer people wrong. | ||
| So I think that a fine should be enforced to these media companies and the money should go into like a fund or a separate account that's dispersed to public schools across the country. | ||
| I don't know how that would happen. | ||
| That's for the smarter people in Washington to figure out. | ||
| But that was just my message. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| That's what I had to say. | ||
| Zach in Oregon, part of this open forum. | ||
| And if you want to participate again, it's 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans and Independents. | ||
| 2027 8-8002. | ||
| This coming across Newsweek's website and others that Mark Zuckerberg announcing on Facebook that he will roll back a number of its censorship policies to become a free speech platform. | ||
| The Meta CEO said he would get rid of the social media platforms' fact checkers and replace them with a community notes system similar to the one used by Elon Musk, his ex, that was formerly of Twitter. | ||
| He posted a video, Mark Zuckerberg, posting a video about these changes. | ||
| Here's a portion of that video. | ||
|
|
So we built a lot of complex systems to moderate content. | |
| But the problem with complex systems is they make mistakes. | ||
| Even if they accidentally censor just 1% of posts, that's millions of people. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And we've reached a point where it's just too many mistakes and too much censorship. | |
|
|
The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech. | |
| So we're going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms. | ||
|
unidentified
|
More specifically, here's what we're going to do. | |
|
|
First, we're going to get rid of fact checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X starting in the U.S. After Trump first got elected in 2016, the legacy media wrote nonstop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy. | |
| We tried in good faith to address those concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth. | ||
| But the fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the U.S. | ||
| So over the next couple of months, we're going to phase in a more comprehensive community notes system. | ||
| That was posted by Mark Zuckerberg. | ||
| There's follow-up on the Axios website saying that Joel Kaplan, Meta's chief global affairs officer, said on Fox and Friends today that Meta's third-party fact-checkers have demonstrated, quote, too much political bias. | ||
| The story adding that Kaplan, a prominent Republican, replaced Meta's policy chief Nick Clegg last week. | ||
| Rules governing content on platforms become too restrictive over time, he said, including about those kind of sensitive topics that people want to discuss and debate, immigration, trans issues, gender. | ||
| He added that if you can say it on TV, you can say it on the floor of Congress. | ||
| You certainly ought to be able to say it on Facebook and on Instagram without fear of censorship. | ||
| So look for that story to play out over the next several days. | ||
| You can bring it up during this open forum if you wish. | ||
| This is Terry in Atlanta. | ||
| Democrats Lying, you're next up. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro, and happy new year to you and everyone. | |
| I've got a couple things I want to talk about. | ||
| The first one is to give condolences to the family of our President Carter, a peaceful man. | ||
| And I think what he stood for in terms of bringing his faith and his attitude towards humans to bear during his presidency and after his presidency is something that we can all take away from and use. | ||
| In terms of January 6th, I didn't get a chance to get in on the call yesterday. | ||
| And I just want to say that January 6th was a horrible day in our history. | ||
| We cannot sweep it under the rug. | ||
| We cannot and should not compare it to anything else. | ||
| A lady called in earlier and said people want to talk about Black Lives Matter and compare that or distance it from January 6th. | ||
| I would like for you, C-SPAN, to get one or all of the founders of Black Lives Matter on the show if you possibly can and allow them to talk about their platform, why they founded it, and what their goals are. | ||
| I'm very familiar with that, but I think a lot of other people are not because the press has so negatively speculated about what they are and what they do. | ||
| And other than that, I just want to say, everyone, I hope we can come to terms with what we have as a result of the election and move forward as a country. | ||
| And I hope that our politicians will stop bickering amongst themselves. | ||
| They come on, and these are all the parties. | ||
| The Democrats talk about the Republicans are doing XYZ. | ||
| The Republicans talk about the Democrats are doing XYZ. | ||
| Stop talking about what they're doing. | ||
| Tell us what you plan to do, what your plans are, what your goals are, and how you plan to achieve them. | ||
| Because the other, what you're doing. | ||
| Gotcha, Terry. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| You heard us talk about the resignation of the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada. | ||
| President Biden weighed in saying that he praised the Canadian Prime Minister, recounting a variety of issues leaders worked on together over the years, emphasizing he's proud to call him my friend. | ||
| Quote, the last time I visited Ottawa, I said that the United States chooses to link our future with Canada because we know that we'll find no better ally, no closer partner, and no steadier friend. | ||
| The same can be said of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. | ||
| Said in a statement that was released this morning, the outgoing president said that Trudeau, who announced his resignation Monday, was the first world leader with whom Mr. Biden spoke when he took office in 2021. | ||
| President Biden spoke with Canada's Liberal Party leader Monday, showing appreciation for partnership over the years. | ||
| Again, that's from the Hill. | ||
| On this open forum, we'll hear from Anthony in North Carolina, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I'm going to talk about this small thing. | |
| Good morning, everyone. | ||
| But we as Americans need to come together, work on things that we need to get better on. | ||
| We're going to pray for the president-elect putting in office. | ||
| But also, we need to understand that this is, we need to be prepared for the chaos and the other things that may come along with this. | ||
| The robbing of American systems, especially when it comes to taxpayers' money, because we've got a lot of billionaires. | ||
| And I think a lot of Americans think that billionaires will be able to take care of them, which they're not. | ||
| They actually, they're standing out there. | ||
| That's how they go, rich don't stay rich by giving to the poor. | ||
| This is probably going to be one of the things that we need to look at as taxpayers and understand that, hey, they're not passing these laws and restricting these programs and stuff like that. | ||
| That's going to hurt us in the near future down the road. | ||
| We have to be very careful. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| It's Anthony there in North Carolina. | ||
| Again, he's part of calling in on this open forum. | ||
| We've been talking about the events concerning former President Carter, particularly with the events that are set to take place in Washington today. | ||
| It was back in 2010 he appeared at the Smithsonian, and one of the things he talked about during that interview was his particularly his impact, his accomplishments on the international stage. | ||
| Here's part of that conversation. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Was there a point where it just seemed like you picked up the next day's newspaper and there was more bad news that maybe you had nothing to do with? | |
| A lot of people still go, well, okay, okay, but had to deal with as if it was somehow something that you were responsible for because you were the occupant of the Oval Office when it happened. | ||
| Well, I kept on my desk the sign that was on Harry Truman's desk, the buck stops here. | ||
| And I realized that no matter what happened in the world, if the United States was even tangentially involved in it, the responsibility was mine. | ||
| And that relate, in my mind, to successes and also to failures. | ||
| And one of the failures that I had, obviously, we've already discussed at length, and that is the hostage crisis. | ||
| And we had some successes that I wasn't able to emphasize adequately, obviously, because of the outcome of the election. | ||
| But we normalized diplomatic relations with China. | ||
| We kept the world at peace. | ||
| We had some very trying times. | ||
| We brought peace to other people. | ||
| During my four years, we never dropped a bomb. | ||
| We never launched a missile. | ||
| We never fired a bullet at another one. | ||
| We brought diplomatic relations with China for the first time in 35 years. | ||
| We resolved the Panama Canal treaties. | ||
| We started the path toward doing away with apartheid in Africa. | ||
| We brought peace within Israel and Egypt, and we got along well with the Soviet Union, even in the Cold War. | ||
| So we had some successes as well as some problems. | ||
| There's more available if you want to see former interviews with President Carter. | ||
| If you go to the website, that's at cspan.org. | ||
| You can type in the search box there for previous things we've taken in concerning the former president. | ||
| John in Syracuse, New York, Democrats line on this open forum. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| How ironic that Jimmy Carter, one of the truly honorable human beings that ever was in the White House, is being buried and they're getting in the most corrupt, immoral individual that watched the face of the earth is going to be going in. | ||
| It's like bad, defeated, good. | ||
| But now my comment is, and a suggestion for C-SPAR, which you won't do, but to me, mega, these MEGA people, they're not Republicans. | ||
| To me, a Republican, and I voted Republican many times, like a lot of people, I split here and there, whoever I like. | ||
| But to me, a Republican is Mike Pence, you know, Mitt Romney, you know, John McCain. | ||
| I mean, these are great Republicans. | ||
| I don't recognize these mega scums as Republicans. | ||
| To me, they're not Republicans. | ||
| And I would like that, if you could, in your vote, to instead add a category. | ||
| Democrats, Republicans, MAGA, and then Independents. | ||
| Because to me, MEGA is not Republicans. | ||
| I don't recognize you as Republicans. | ||
| To me, you'll never be Republicans. | ||
| You're just zealots, crazy flying monkeys. | ||
| That's what you are. | ||
| Okay, that's John there in New York. | ||
| We just had elections, but at the pages of roll call on their website, they're already taking a look at the 2026 midterm elections, particularly when it comes to who might be vulnerable in the House and the Senate. | ||
| And they focus on a couple of different categories. | ||
| You can find this online at roll call, particularly in states of New York and California. | ||
| That's one of the categories, saying that eight districts in California were decided by five points or less in 2024, including the Central Valley seat of Democrat Adam Gray, who defeated Republican John Duarte by fewer than 200 votes. | ||
| Two Southern California Democrats, George Whitesides, who knocked off the Republican Mike Garcia and Derek Tran, who unseated Republican Michelle Steele by just 650 votes, likely start off a list of most vulnerable members, saying that a handful of districts in New York will likely be competitive again, too. | ||
| Democratic Representative Laura Gillen, who defeated Representative Anthony Diasposito in Long Island, will fight for a second term. | ||
| And while fellow Democratic Representative Tom Swazi could also face another close race, districts north of New York City, like the 17th, where Republican Mike Lawler won a second term, and the 19th, where Democrat Josh Riley ousted Mark Malaro, will likely be on party targets. | ||
| It also targets a category as they describe as blue dogs and rural Democrats, saying that Representatives Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Perez of Washington State have proved they can succeed in Republican-leaning territory, although both can expect to once again be GOP targets this cycle. | ||
| Golden won a fourth term in November by less than a point as the president-elect carried his seat by 10 points. | ||
| So even in the end of this just cycle when it comes to elections, already taking a look at midterms on the pages of roll call. | ||
| Talk about that if you wish during open forum again, 202748-8,000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans, and Independents, 202-748-8,0002. | ||
| Dan is on our Republican line. | ||
| He's in Florida. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
| Dan, you're going to have to either get closer to a window or come closer because you're coming in and out. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Can you hear me better now? | |
| Yes, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, one of the MAGA scum. | |
| I'm calling in on the MAGA scum line. | ||
| Yeah, just wondering why were the immigrants allowed to come in if it's not for them to vote? | ||
| I mean, what was the main reason? | ||
| If someone could tell me what a main reason why they let in all the immigrants, you can't tell me it's just because Democrats are people. | ||
| There's got to be something else besides voting. | ||
| I mean, if it's not voting, right, then what was the reason? | ||
| If someone can tell me that, I would appreciate it. | ||
| Okay, we'll go to Sharon, Sharon in North Carolina, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| I have two questions. | ||
| I'd like to see you have more black representation for your guest speakers that come on. | ||
| I've been watching you guys for a while on and off, and you really don't have anybody that addresses African American needs. | ||
| Not people of color, but black African Americans. | ||
| And the other thing that a lady called in earlier to talk about Black Lives Matter and the surrectionists, you guys, you need to have someone on to represent what Black Lives Matter, the difference between the two. | ||
| Clearly, we can see that there was a riot, okay, with the surrectionists. | ||
| And anybody who does harm to anything, whether it's Black Lives Matter, rioting with the surrectionists, need to be in jail. | ||
| As simple as that. | ||
| I don't understand how people can condone one thing and discondone another thing. | ||
| It's just ridiculous to me. | ||
| That's pretty much all I have to say. | ||
| The president traveling to California today to name those two national monuments. | ||
| It was yesterday he traveled to Louisiana to talk about the events in New Orleans, to also appear at a ceremony and make comments there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Here's a portion of that from yesterday. | |
| I know events like this are hard, and the shock and pain is still so very raw. | ||
| My wife Jill and I are here to stand with you, to grieve with you, to pray with you, to let you know you are not alone. | ||
| The rest of the nation is looking at you as well. | ||
| It's not the same. | ||
| We know what it's like to lose a piece of our soul. | ||
| The anger, the emptiness, the black hole that seems to be sucking you into your chest, the sense of loss, the questions of faith in your soul. | ||
| I know it's been five days staring at that empty chair in the kitchen, around the kitchen table, not hearing the voice. | ||
| You think of the birthdays, the anniversaries, the holidays to come without them. | ||
| You think of everything, everyday things, the small things, the details you'll miss the most. | ||
| The morning coffee you shared together, the bend of his smile, the perfect pitch of her laugh. | ||
| Rest of America has learned about them as well. | ||
| Students who dreamed of becoming engineers and nurses. | ||
| Star athletes who worked on Wall Street or helped coach small children. | ||
| Warehouse managers, bluegrass fans, cook engaged to be married. | ||
| Single mom just remoted at work and teaching her young son to read. | ||
| They came from different states, even different country. | ||
| There were children at dinner with their parents, be sure and before joining their friends on New Year's Eve. | ||
| Some even ran toward the chaos, tried to help save others. | ||
| We remember them today. | ||
| We also stand with the 35 people who were injured in the attack. | ||
| And we think of the brave responders and law enforcement officers, officials who risked their lives to stop the terror and save others, including two of those officers that I met tonight injured in the firefight. | ||
| Now, thankfully, both are recovering their home. | ||
| I'm directing my team to make every resource available to federal, state, and local law enforcement to complete this investigation quickly and do whatever else we can. | ||
| French Corridor is also home to so many people. | ||
| We will support everyone who lives there, all the people of New Orleans, as they heal. | ||
| This open forum, this is Doug from Maryland, Republican Line. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
As I was noticing when I was watching the voting confirmation the other day, three out of the four names, there were people in that building, but the people, the American people, wanted a president that wasn't in that building. | |
| Out of all of those representatives, we picked Donald Trump instead. | ||
| You'd think that they would notice something. | ||
| Okay. | ||
|
unidentified
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Like, such as what? | |
| If not, the Americans. | ||
| Gene is up from Michigan, Democrats line. | ||
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unidentified
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Hi. | |
| Bro. Gene, you're on. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
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unidentified
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Yeah. | |
| The gal who was on earlier, she was talking no job was ever secure for life and all this. | ||
| Where I live at here, Whirlpool was the first washer that they made was made in a garage, invented in a garage across the street from where they used to have a facility that produced these washing machines and dryers. | ||
| 2,000 people in this community of 15,000 worked in that plant. | ||
| They not only took their stuff overseas, they took over a lot of stuff here in town. | ||
| They built a Jack Nicholas golf course with a whole community of new homes, maybe some 75 homes or so. | ||
| None of them to lower income folks or middle-class folks, all to wealthy individuals. | ||
| I fish. | ||
| It's along a river. | ||
| I fished for 50 years down there. | ||
| It was all swamp trees and beautiful along through there. | ||
| Lots of wildlife. | ||
| It's all gone with this golf course. | ||
| And they send these wash machines and dryers back here like we have a decent job still to buy them. | ||
| They're more expensive, of course, than they used to be, but they act like union wages are still making these things. | ||
| They're not. | ||
| They're being made by these people in China for a little wage. | ||
| There's Gene there in Michigan giving his thoughts on this open forum. | ||
| We showed you some of those house people who might be vulnerable when it comes to 2026 midterms. | ||
| Roll call also turning attention to who might be vulnerable when it comes to the Senate. | ||
| You can find it on their website saying Maine Senator Susan Collins, who has said she intends to seek a sixth term, is the only Republican running in a state won by Vice President Kamala Harris, but Collins has long proved a difficult target for Democrats. | ||
| North Carolina Senator Tom Tillis is another likely Democratic target, although President-elect Trump won his state by three points. | ||
| Republicans are now likely to try to grow the majority in competitive states like Michigan and Georgia, both carried by President-elect Trump, and where Democrats Gary Peters and John Osoff are respectively up for re-election. | ||
| Quote, what we're going to do is defend the seats that we have and expand the map so that we can increase the majority brought to us by the Trump victory. | ||
| That was a comment made last fall by the National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Tim Scott of South Carolina. | ||
| Again, if you want to read more about those senators who might be vulnerable when it comes to those 2026 elections, rollcall.com is where you can find that. | ||
| Let's hear from Janet in Vermont, Independent Line. | ||
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unidentified
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Hi. | |
| Hi. | ||
| Good to be with you today. | ||
| I'm very concerned about Trump's administration wanting to get rid of ATF, FBI. | ||
| ATF was the first one on the scene in New Orleans, and they're going to be gotten rid of. | ||
| And Trump will just, he will be vulnerable also if he tries to get rid of ATF and FBI, making himself a target most easily if you don't have the FBI to assassination attempts. | ||
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So he got to think long and hard about these people that he wants to get rid of. | |
| And I hope and pray we have a strong America because this is the only country in the world that has freedom. | ||
| So let's hold on to freedom for 2025 and beyond. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| We'll hear from Ronald in Haines City, Florida, Republican line. | ||
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unidentified
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Yep. | |
| I'm with you. | ||
| Yep, you're on. | ||
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unidentified
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Go ahead. | |
| Okay. | ||
| Just wanted to think about the Democrats in Bible Belt down in the South. | ||
| What they think of Biden using GD in his little speech, you know, breaking the Ten Commandments. | ||
| And of course, he's so crooked and corrupt. | ||
| But what I would really like for Biden to do is go home and go to bed with some ice cream and park that plane because all these little trips he's making are costing the people a lot of money. | ||
| He's not doing anything but causing more destruction. | ||
| The sooner this is over, the better. | ||
| We're done with him. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That's Ronald there in Florida. | ||
| You heard about the Republicans' effort to pass a reconciliation bill in order to get a lot of the president-elect's legislative priorities through in one bill. | ||
| At least that's what he's saying in recent days. | ||
| This is a story that comes from Politico saying as House Republicans publicly grapple over how to advance the president-elect's agenda, House Democrats are looking across the aisle with some Schrudenfraud. | ||
| Just four years ago, Democrats were hotly debating how to enact President Joe Biden's ambitious legislative agenda as they face similar problems. | ||
| A tiny legislative majority and the gauntlet of the Senate parliamentarian. | ||
| Democrats ultimately ended up splitting the agenda into two separate bills, pandemic aid legislation and a massive spending package. | ||
| The legislative wrangling consumed with the first two years of the Biden presidency. | ||
| Hill Republicans are debating whether to try to pass one budget reconciliation bill, and some Democrats are doubting Republicans will be able to get anything done. | ||
| Quote, I'm counting on them to be ineffective as they were in the last Congress, but some of the stuff they're talking about is really beyond the pale. | ||
| That was Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts. | ||
| Representative Richard Neal, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, saying it seems to me that they're having a great deal of difficulty in terms of sequencing what they want to emphasize. | ||
| The story adding, while Democrats wish they held the gavels, they don't envy the monumental task of trying to enact legislation through the budget reconciliation process to circumvent a Senate filibuster. | ||
| Political there, if you want to read more about what's expected, that legislative effort on President-elect Trump's main goals. | ||
| Rick in Colorado, Republican mind. | ||
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Yeah, I'd just like to comment on the debt and how we got to, how did we go from 32 trillion to now report it to 36 trillion in just a year when these so-called Infrastructure Act and these things are supposed to be paid for. | |
| I think this just happens over and over again on these bills where there's, I don't know, fancy math done that says that they're going to be paid for. | ||
| And then the reality is it just adds more and more to the debt. | ||
| So there's something needs to be done about the way these things are reported in these bills and how they're handled. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Rick in Colorado there. | ||
| We've been showing you and telling you about former President Carter's series of events plans once his body comes to Washington, D.C., the special events that are planned for that against the close to C-SPAN to watch those play out. | ||
| It was at the Smithsonian back in 2010 in an interview there. | ||
| He talked about, amongst other things, his reelection defeat in 1980. | ||
| Here's some of his remembrances from that time. | ||
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As 1979 became 1980, this began to eat heavily into the political year of 1980, the year for which you had been planning to run for re-election, fighting off primary opponents from your own party. | |
| Well, one, yes. | ||
| And well, two for a while, and then one. | ||
| And did you, was there a point where you realized they're still there, and now this is really starting to be a problem for this enterprise? | ||
| I want to stay president. | ||
| I think I'm doing a good job. | ||
| Well, I would say that even eight days before the election, it was very close. | ||
| But you mentioned November the 4th, right? | ||
| And November the 4th, 1980, was the anniversary of the hostage taken, as well as Election Day. | ||
| So all the news media were completely fascinated with the anniversary of the hostages and paid very little attention to what I was saying, or even President Reagan. | ||
| But that was a burning issue in the American people's mind, is these hostages are still there. | ||
| And President Carter has been unable to get them free. | ||
| And that was the major issue. | ||
| The second major issue was one you almost mentioned before, and that is for the last two years of my term, Senator Kennedy was running against me. | ||
| And very effectively, whenever Senator Kennedy made any comment, every news media in America covered him word for word. | ||
| And so he was a very formidable opponent. | ||
| And he never really was reconciled to me. | ||
| And so the Democratic Party was split to the very end. | ||
| And then the other thing was that Iraq invaded Iran. | ||
| And so all the oil supplies from Iran and Iraq were lost to the world's oil supplies. | ||
| And so the price of oil more than doubled in just 12 months. | ||
| So there was enormous inflation. | ||
| And interest rates went up all over in all the nations of the world. | ||
| So those three things combined to cause my defeat. | ||
| But I've had a good life since then. | ||
| More available at the C-SPAN website. | ||
| The president's body lying in repose at the Carter Center there in Georgia. | ||
| It was weather that made some delays to his travels to Washington, D.C. That's being picked up by the Atlanta Journal Constitution saying that biggest event of the day, however, to watch out for is the 4:30 afternoon service at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, where Vice President Kamala Harris, Health Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Leader John Thune are scheduled to deliver brief eulogies and lay reefs near his casket. | ||
| The former president will lie in state from 7 p.m. to midnight as scheduled, allowing members of the public to pass by his flag-draped remains and pay their respects. | ||
| Public viewing will resume Wednesday at 7 a.m. and Thursday at 7 a.m. | ||
| And then, according to the new schedule, a departure ceremony will be held at the Carter Presidential Center. | ||
| That's at 11 o'clock this morning. | ||
| His remains will be transported to Dobbins Air Reserve Base, then flown to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. | ||
| From there, the motor cable head to the Nava Memorial. | ||
| That's where Carter's cask will be transferred from a hearse to a horse-drawn caisson. | ||
| There's more there. | ||
| Watch out for it as it plays out later on and throughout the day on C-SPAN. | ||
| Let's hear from Dave in Florida, Republican line. | ||
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unidentified
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Hi. | |
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| The reason I called was about abortion. | ||
| For the last couple weeks, nothing has been mentioned about abortion. | ||
| I know that it's been moved to the States, but nothing has been mentioned in the last two weeks about abortion. | ||
| Do you know that in 2023, there were over a million babies aborted? | ||
| There were close to 2,000 people requesting babies. | ||
| What's the problem here? | ||
| Can you imagine in 2024, the average daily abortion was 1,500 to 1,700 babies a day? | ||
| I mean, what's going on here? | ||
| This is murder. | ||
| And we just let it go. | ||
| Okay. | ||
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unidentified
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What's wrong with this? | |
| Okay, Dave in Florida there. | ||
| When it comes to events concerning the president-elect's legal issues, this is from The Hill this morning saying that President-elect Trump and his two co-defendants in the classified documents case are working to block special counsel Jack Smith from releasing his final report that would review the documents as well as Mr. Trump's efforts to block the transfer of power after the 2020 election. | ||
| The motion was filed late Monday, the fourth anniversary of the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. | ||
| Asked Judge Eileen Cannon to bar Smith from his plan to release his two-volume report. | ||
| An accompanying letter from Mr. Trump's lawyers to Attorney General Merrick Garland reveals they've already reviewed a draft of the report asking Garland to fire Smith and leave the decision on whether to release the report to the president-elect's incoming Attorney General. | ||
| So look for that to play out in the days ahead as well. | ||
| That's it for Open Forum, and that's it for our program as well. | ||
| Another edition of Washington Journal comes your way at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning. | ||
| We'll see you then. | ||
|
unidentified
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Washington Journal continues. | |
| President Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States and the nation's longest-lived leader, passed away last month at the age of 100. | ||
| Join C-SPAN for live coverage of the state funeral. | ||
| Today, his journey continues to Washington, D.C., where he'll lie in state at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda with a service attended by members of Congress. | ||
| The public will again have the chance to honor him on Wednesday as his body remains in state at the U.S. Capitol. | ||
| On Thursday, the national funeral service will take place at Washington National Cathedral, followed by his final resting ceremony at the Carter Family Home in Plains, Georgia. | ||
| Watch C-SPAN's live coverage of the funeral services for former President Jimmy Carter on the C-SPAN networks, C-SPAN now, our free mobile video app, or online at c-SPAN.org. | ||
| Democracy. | ||
| It isn't just an idea. | ||
| It's a process. | ||
| A process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few with guarding its basic principles. | ||
| It's where debates unfold, decisions are made, and the nation's course is charted. | ||
| Democracy in real time. | ||
| This is your government at work. | ||
| This is C-SPAN, giving you your democracy unfiltered. | ||
| In about an hour, the U.S. House is coming in to debate legislation requiring the Homeland Security Department to detain undocumented immigrants for theft-related crime. | ||
| This is named after Lakin Riley, a 22-year-old University of Georgia nursing student who was murdered last year by a Venezuelan migrant who entered the country illegally. | ||
| We'll have live coverage here on C-SPAN. | ||
| Well, the House and Senate yesterday certified the election of Donald Trump as the next president and JD Vance as the next vice president. | ||
| Coming up next, we'll watch the joint session of Congress to count the 2024 Electoral College votes. | ||
| Mr. Speaker and members of Congress, pursuant to the Constitution and laws of the United States, the Senate and House of Representatives are meeting in joint session to verify the certificates and count the votes of the electors of the several states for president and vice president of the United States. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| After ascertainment has been had that the certificates are authentic and correct in form, the tellers will count and make a list of the votes cast by the electors of the several states. |