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|---|---|---|
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unidentified
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Buckeye Broadband supports C-SPAN as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front-row seat to democracy. | |
| Coming up on C-SPAN's Washington Journal this morning, we'll take your calls and comments live, and then we'll discuss the incoming Trump administration and congressional news of the day. | ||
| First, with New Mexico Democratic Congressman Gabe Vasquez, a member of the Armed Services Committee, and later with Indiana Republican Congressman Jim Baird, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. | ||
| Washington Journal starts now. | ||
| Join the conversation. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| It's Thursday, January 16th, 2025. | ||
| The Senate returns at noon Eastern today. | ||
| The House is in at 9 a.m., which means we're with you for the next two hours on the Washington Journal. | ||
| Three stories we're focusing on today: the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal announced yesterday, President Biden's farewell address to the nation last night, and the ongoing confirmation hearings taking place on Capitol Hill. | ||
| Give us a call on any of those topics. | ||
| We'd be happy to hear from you on phone lines split as usual by political party. | ||
| Democrats, it's 202-748-8000. | ||
| Republicans, 202-748-8001. | ||
| Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| You can also send us a text, that number, 202-748-8003. | ||
| If you do, please include your name and where you're from. | ||
| Otherwise, catch up with us on social media on XITs at C-SPANWJ on Facebook. | ||
| It's facebook.com/slash C-SPAN. | ||
| And a very good Thursday morning to you. | ||
| You can go ahead and start calling in now. | ||
| This is the headline running across the top of the Wall Street Journal today: Negotiators Reach Gaza Ceasefire Deal, a pathway to end that 15-month war. | ||
| The ceasefire agreement, if agreed to, would take effect on Sunday. | ||
| And this was President Biden yesterday announcing the deal. | ||
| The deal is structured in three phases. | ||
| Phase one will last six weeks. | ||
| It includes a full and complete ceasefire, withdrawal of Israeli forces from all the populated areas of Gaza, and the release of a number of hostages held by Hamas, including women and elderly and the wounded. | ||
| And I'm proud to say Americans will be part of that hostage release in phase one as well. | ||
| And the Vice President and I cannot wait to welcome them home. | ||
| In exchange, Israel released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. | ||
| And during phase one, the Palestinians can also return to their neighborhoods in all areas of Gaza. | ||
| And the surge of humanitarian assistance into Gaza will begin, and the innocent people can have greater access to these vital supplies. | ||
| You know, during the next six weeks, Israel will negotiate the necessary arrangements to get phase two, which is a permanent end of the war. | ||
| Let me say it again: a permanent end of the war. | ||
| There are a number of details to negotiate to move from phase one to phase two, but the plan says if negotiations take longer than six weeks, the ceasefire will continue as long as the negotiations continue. | ||
| I've spoken to the Emir of Kuwait and the President of Egypt, and we have pledged to make sure the negotiations will keep moving forward for as long as it takes. | ||
| Then, when phase two begins, there will be an exchange for release of the remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, and all remaining Israeli forces will be withdrawn from Gaza. | ||
| End, the temporary ceasefire will become permanent. | ||
| And finally, phase three. | ||
| Any final remains of hostages who have been killed will be returned to their families. | ||
| And a major reconstruction plan for Gaza will begin. | ||
| President Biden announcing that ceasefire deal, taking credit for that ceasefire deal. | ||
| Incoming President Donald Trump also taking credit for the ceasefire deal. | ||
| This was his post yesterday on Truth Social saying this epic ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our historic victory in November as a signal to the entire world that my administration would seek peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans and our allies. | ||
| I am thrilled, he said, that American and Israeli hostages will be returning home to be reunited with their families and their loved ones. | ||
| He goes on to say we've achieved so much without even being in the White House. | ||
| Just imagine all the wonderful things that will happen when I return to the White House. | ||
| Donald Trump set to return to the White House on Monday. | ||
| President Joe Biden leaving the White House on Monday. | ||
| It was last night that President Biden gave his farewell address to the nation. | ||
| He talked about some of his accomplishments in his four years as president. | ||
| This was Joe Biden last night. | ||
| I'm equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country as well. | ||
| Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power. | ||
| The free press is crumbling. | ||
| Editors are disappearing. | ||
| Social media is giving up on fact-checking. | ||
| The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit. | ||
| We must hold the social platforms accountable to protect our children, our families, and our very democracy from the abuse of power. | ||
| Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is the most consequential technology of our time, perhaps of all time. | ||
| Nothing offers more profound possibilities and risks for our economy and our security, our society, for humanity. | ||
| Artificial intelligence even has the potential to help us answer my call to end cancer as we know it. | ||
| But unless safeguards are in place, AI could spawn new threats to our rights, our way of life, to our privacy, how we work, and how we protect our nation. | ||
| We must make sure AI is safe and trustworthy and good for all humankind. | ||
| In the age of AI, it's more important than ever that the people must govern. | ||
| And as the land of liberty, America, not China, must lead the world in the development of AI. | ||
| President Joe Biden last night from the White House from the Oval Office talking about his warnings for the future on his way out the door of the White House. | ||
| It's Monday when Inauguration Day starts, and we'll be covering it in its entirety here on the Washington Journal and throughout the day. | ||
| Hope you join us on Monday for extended coverage on this program and watch the inaugural proceedings throughout the day here. | ||
| Taking your phone calls this morning, we're talking about the ceasefire deal, President Joe Biden's farewell, and of course, those nominees that continue to go before Senate committees on Capitol Hill, those confirmation hearings continuing this week, some 14 nominees, 14 hearings, 13 nominees on Capitol Hill before 11 committees. | ||
| It's hard to follow it all, but we hope you do with us on C-SPAM. | ||
| We've been trying to bring you as many of those hearings as we can and happy to talk about them this morning. | ||
| The phone lines are on your screen, and we will start in Clearwater, Florida, with Robert, phone line for Republicans. | ||
| Robert, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah, good morning to you. | |
| I think that's a good thing that they cease fire. | ||
| Maybe they can stop this war altogether, have everybody come back to winning war. | ||
| It's a shame that we had to get a war like that anyway. | ||
| They attacked Israel, and that's the world. | ||
| I don't know what else to say. | ||
| Biden is leaving. | ||
| That's the best thing he did in this war. | ||
| Robert, do you think it was Donald Trump's election that was the key here to making this deal happen? | ||
|
unidentified
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Absolutely. | |
| Everybody's afraid of Donald Trump. | ||
| He won't take no whatever. | ||
| He don't take no noise from anybody. | ||
| That's Robert in Clearwater, Florida, the Wall Street Journal, in their reporting on the truce deal. | ||
| According to those involved in the negotiations, it was Steve Witkoff, a real estate mogul designated by Donald Trump as his Middle East envoy that breathed fresh life into the talks. | ||
| The Biden administration worked to advance the deal with Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, whom Arab mediator said made clear from the get-go that he was serious about pushing through an agreement. | ||
| Witcoff met Saturday in Israel with Netanyahu, and that deal being announced yesterday. | ||
| This is Doug Fairfax, South Dakota, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Yeah, good morning, John. | ||
|
unidentified
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I just heard on CNN that the deal's off now, though. | |
| Something about Israel don't mask change or plans or something, so it's off for a while. | ||
|
unidentified
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But anyway, yeah, Blinken, he gave a speech the other night at the Atlantic Consul. | |
| First time I've ever heard him criticize Israel in actuality, but Biden gave his speech on foreign policy also. | ||
| Everyone's created equal and deserves a fair shot, he said, but seems to have forgotten about the Palestine people. | ||
| And both claim to want a two-state solution, both Trump and Biden, which they know is not going to happen. | ||
|
unidentified
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Israel's not going to let that happen. | |
| And for not doing so with Trump and Huckabee, I expect Gaza and the West Bank will become all Israel with a little bit of Syria and Lebanon added and a total disappearance of Palestine eventually. | ||
| But I just think it's all wrong over there. | ||
| They've killed, what, 40, 50,000 people, I believe. | ||
| And I think ICC court should actually continue putting the crime on net and you all. | ||
|
unidentified
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And even Biden should be charged and blinking. | |
| But I just, it's not over yet. | ||
| It's going to continue. | ||
| And the next step will be Iran. | ||
| Just wait and see. | ||
| They're not going to allow nuclear weapons over there. | ||
| So that's going to be their next target. | ||
| And I just wish all the killing would stop. | ||
|
unidentified
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And they're both claiming to have done the deal. | |
| So I don't know who's going to get the credit, but kind of like a Jimmy Carter ordeal when he's going out. | ||
| But anyway, John, it's good that they're thinking about stopping it, but not going to. | ||
|
unidentified
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But have a good day. | |
| That's Doug in South Dakota. | ||
| Vince in Houston, Texas. | ||
| Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Iran. | |
| Vince, you with us? | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes. | |
| How are you doing this morning? | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
| Just a couple comments. | ||
| I am an independent. | ||
| I have voted for both Republican and Democratic presidents. | ||
| But I'm so sick and tired of everybody has to win. | ||
| If the hostages get released, who cares if Biden did it or Trump did it? | ||
| The main thing is they're getting released. | ||
| Number two, on these confirmation hearings, I am embarrassed when I hear people act so self-righteous and go after these people on their character when they don't look in their own bedrooms. | ||
| They were on hesit about having affairs. | ||
| Well, there's Bill Clinton, who I voted for, who had one, and nobody says anything about it. | ||
| And as far as yesterday's hearing with Pam Bondi, Everybody talks about how tone is so important. | ||
| Well, the gentleman from California pointing his finger at a woman who's trying to get confirmed, doesn't that show disrespect for women that the Democrats always talk about? | ||
| And I just want to send the message to Mark Cuban, Trump don't like strong women. | ||
| Well, that woman yesterday ate every man's lunch that was trying to get her to mess up on her answers. | ||
| And as far as Bloomingham is concerned, I don't want to hear from anybody that lied about fighting with our great, great veterans in Vietnam, but nobody brings that up. | ||
| I know I'm sounding negative, but it's got to stop. | ||
| And if I had to vet today, it never will. | ||
| That's Vince in Texas. | ||
| We'll take you to Pam Bondi's confirmation hearing, her exchange with Senator Alex Padilla of California this from yesterday. | ||
| I'm glad you asked the question about Pennsylvania. | ||
| Yes or no question? | ||
| I was hoping. | ||
| Do you have evidence, yes or no? | ||
| Senator, I was hoping you'd ask the question. | ||
| Do you have evidence? | ||
| Yes or no? | ||
| I traveled to Pennsylvania. | ||
| Do you have the evidence to ask? | ||
| I traveled, Senator, to Pennsylvania. | ||
| Okay, you're not answering my question. | ||
| If you have no evidence to offer, let me ask you this. | ||
| Will you now retract your previous statements that Trump won Pennsylvania in the 2020 election? | ||
| Yes or no? | ||
| Oh, Senator, I traveled to Pennsylvania, and let me tell you what I saw first. | ||
| No. | ||
| I didn't talk about California because I was not in California. | ||
| I talked about yes or no. | ||
|
unidentified
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I talked about I talked about Pennsylvania because I'm going to move on because she's not answering my questions. | |
| And I want to know, colleagues, for everybody, for everybody, members of the committee and everybody watching, that the other, the attorney you stood beside, Mr. Giuliani, was making very similar statements. | ||
| And he has since been disbarred from multiple jurisdictions for making these false claims about the 2020 election in court. | ||
| And like Mr. Giuliani, as you've noted today, you've taken an oath to uphold the Constitution just as an attorney. | ||
| And now you're asking us to consider you to serve as the chief law enforcement officer in our country. | ||
| So it's imperative, Ms. Fondy, that you subscribe to facts and evidence and not politically convenient conspiracy theories. | ||
| Your job will be, I'm speaking, your job will be to protect voters and election workers, not to undermine and dox them. | ||
| Now, I know that earlier you agreed that Joe Biden is in fact president, but many of the president-elect's inner circle continue to spread the big lie about the 2020 election. | ||
| Then we'll move on to a different topic. | ||
| Senator, you were speaking. | ||
| May I speak? | ||
| I'm going to ask you the next question you can speak, and I hope you answered, Ms. Bondi. | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, I'm going to speak to you. | |
| Now, when we met yesterday. | ||
| When we met yesterday. | ||
| You pointed your finger at me and said, let me answer my question. | ||
| I'm not going to be bullied. | ||
| The 14th Amendment of the United States of America, which was deeply disappointing. | ||
| I guess you don't want to hear my answer about the Pennsylvania after I gave an opportunity to study overnight. | ||
| So can you tell me and this committee what the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment says? | ||
| Senator, I'm here to answer your questions. | ||
| I'm not here to do your homework and study for you. | ||
| If I am confirmed, I want to ask you for a confirmation of the state. | ||
| Wait, you cut me off. | ||
| Can I please finish? | ||
| What does the 14th Amendment say? | ||
| Senator, Senator, the 14th Amendment, we all know addresses birthright citizenship. | ||
| I have been a state prosecutor. | ||
| I've been a state AG. | ||
| I look forward to, even given your remarks today, working with you and the people of California, if I am confirmed as the 87th Attorney General of the United States of America. | ||
| I didn't take your homework assignment. | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
| I was preparing for today. | ||
| Pam Bondi, the Attorney General nominee, yesterday on Capitol Hill. | ||
| If you want to hear and watch that hearing in its entirety, you can do so on our website at c-span.org. | ||
| And stay with C-SPAN today on C-SPAN 2 and 3. | ||
| More confirmation hearings coming. | ||
| It's Interior Secretary Pick Doug Bergham on Capitol Hill today, along with Donald Trump's Treasury Secretary Pick, businessman Scott Besant. | ||
| Taking your phone calls this morning as we talk about several topics: the ceasefire deal in Gaza, its future, Biden's farewell address last night, and those confirmation hearings, phone lines for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. | ||
| This is Shirley in Newcastle, Pennsylvania. | ||
| Republican, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning, and thank you for taking my call. | |
| I watch Fox News almost all day long. | ||
| So I try to keep up on all this stuff. | ||
| And I give Pam a lot of credit for what she went through yesterday. | ||
| I do believe she will be good when she's put in that office. | ||
| Now, what I'm calling about is this ceasefire business, this exchange of hostages, and on and on and on. | ||
| I truly believe that we need to hold this off the whole thing until Trump's in office. | ||
| And then I believe that they should bring every last one of those hostages home at the same time, dead or alive, and allow Trump to be in charge because it will be done and it will be done right. | ||
| Also, their prisoners, if they've committed murder, they don't have, they have nothing to say about those people. | ||
| And if they want their hostages back, they better do what Trump says, or they might be sorry that they did not. | ||
| Thank you very much for taking my call. | ||
| At Shirley in Pennsylvania, as a caller alluded to earlier, the deal is not done yet. | ||
| The latest reporting from NPR this morning, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that a cabinet meeting that was scheduled to vote today on the peace deal between Israel and Hamas has been delayed in a blow to the hopes for that ceasefire after 15 months of fighting. | ||
| Netanyahu is saying that the meeting will only happen once Hamas pulls back on demands for what he called last-minute concessions, adding that Hamas has reneged on parts of the agreement reached with the mediators. | ||
| So the deal, again, not yet done, announced yesterday and a few key votes and movements in the Israeli government before it's official. | ||
| We'll see what happens throughout the day. | ||
| This is Larry in Houston, Texas. | ||
| Democrat, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| Well, I mean, I hope that it is solved up in the Middle East, but I mean, it's not over. | ||
| And all these people are hollering about a two-state solution that will never happen. | ||
| It was written in 49 or 38 when this happened. | ||
| But if they think this over, they're crazy. | ||
| And I love as an ex-veteran combat veteran. | ||
| I'm so glad my kids are not in the military no more because there will be war. | ||
| And the one thing that's going to be the problem, and I want you to remember this: Syria now belongs to Turkey. | ||
| America will not fight nobody that is backed by nuclear power. | ||
| And Turkey wanted them Kurdish people out of Syria. | ||
| And they want Syria want Boland Heights. | ||
| So Israel got a problem. | ||
| Israel would not, they would not attack Turkey. | ||
| Believe that. | ||
| So all these people with all Trump did this and Trump did. | ||
| Great. | ||
| Biden administration was totally wrong. | ||
| Totally wrong with Israel. | ||
| Israel committed genocide on these people. | ||
| People talking about the hostages. | ||
| How many Palestinians have been killed? | ||
| Not just since this war started before. | ||
| Larry, how do you think this does end? | ||
|
unidentified
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Oh, it's not going to end good. | |
| Because, first of all, these people up in Palestinia, they're still oppressed. | ||
| They're still under Israel control. | ||
| Why do you think these people are fighting? | ||
| These people are not fighting just for like, oh, I want Jerusalem. | ||
| I want Israel. | ||
| These people want to be free in their own land to control they sell. | ||
| That's what they want. | ||
| You know, and like I said, people think it's over. | ||
| Hey, Biden did a terrible job. | ||
| And I'm a Democrat. | ||
| He did a terrible job. | ||
| And until America stopped backing Israel like this, we're going to stay in problems. | ||
| Larry, what did you think about what you think? | ||
| Did you watch Joe Biden's farewell address last night? | ||
| He laid out some of his accomplishments and laid out warnings for the future. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Joe Biden did a good, excellent job. | |
| Joe Biden brought this economy back. | ||
| All these people that live in this fantasy world, they forgot where he was when Trump left. | ||
| This company, this country was headed for a depression. | ||
| The economy was so bad. | ||
| It was so bad. | ||
| But just remember this, what I said about Turkey. | ||
| Just remember this when I said about Turkey and Syria. | ||
| See, Iran don't have to Israel really ain't got to worry about weapons coming through Syria no more, like how it was. | ||
| So you won't have all the weapons coming through like that through the Golan Heights and all that no more. | ||
| That's dead. | ||
| And like I said, Turkey gonna get Turkey gonna get the Kurdish people that America is backing watching Syria all fields. | ||
| They're gonna make them move out of there because they do not want the Kurdistan to have a state. | ||
| That's Larry in Houston, Texas. | ||
| This is Mike, Jarrettsville, Maryland. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| You're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| So I want to talk a little bit about Biden. | ||
| His very well addressed yesterday. | ||
| And, you know, I remember when he was a real moderate Republican, Democrat, I mean, and, you know, he wasn't this far left. | ||
| But I'll tell you, he really did seem to be very pessimistic, I thought. | ||
| And he seemed to be bitter about something. | ||
| Talking about this, you know, we're facing this oligarchy. | ||
| I mean, really, I guess, you know, I don't know where he, of course, his party kind of screwed him, but they really had no choice, I guess, in the end. | ||
| He wasn't very, very bright, I thought, you know, positive. | ||
| He did talk, he did say some couple things that I agree with about the press and fact-checking. | ||
| I mean, you know, we haven't been fact-checking the left. | ||
| But the other thing he really mentioned that I think needs attention is this dark money to PACs, political action committees. | ||
| There is such a thing. | ||
| It happens where people donate to these PACs and it can remain anonymous. | ||
| And then the PACs then don't have to report where that money came from and then contribute to the campaign. | ||
| So I think we do need to take a look at that. | ||
| And Mike left this He talks about, and this is how he defined it. | ||
| Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead. | ||
| And we see those consequences all across America. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I think it's a little extreme. | |
| I mean, I really do. | ||
| I mean, listen, we get it who Trump is. | ||
| We've seen him for years and years. | ||
| He's been around. | ||
| There's no, you know, but to say those bitter things like that, you know, to leave us as his legacy, which really was his last time to get to speak to the American people. | ||
| Last point. | ||
| The tech industrial complex, maybe we need that. | ||
| You know, I mean, think about it. | ||
| So listen, you guys have a great day and enjoy the last day of Democrats in office and sure looking forward to a safe and happy Monday. | ||
| Let's all hope. | ||
| The tech industrial complex that he talked about, hearkening back to Dwight Eisenhower's farewell address in 1961, in which he famously warned of a military industrial complex. | ||
| Joe Biden, with a 17-minute farewell address from behind the resolute desk at the Ovo office yesterday. | ||
| This is Kimberly in Las Vegas. | ||
| Democrat, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Actually, trying to save my call for when on Trump's inauguration, but I had to speak on Joe Biden's farewell address. | |
| Joe Biden actually was a good president. | ||
| I know you guys were grating him about a couple of days ago. | ||
| I think he deserves a solid B. | ||
| I think he was a good president. | ||
| But the problem was, is that he had a few issues that crisis is that he couldn't, I guess it was hubris. | ||
| I don't know what it was, but the first thing was Merrick Garland, there were four things. | ||
| Merrick Garland being the DOJ. | ||
| The Attorney General. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, when he appointed Merrick Garland for Attorney General, first mistake. | |
| It should have been either Kamala or Xavier Becerra from California, one of them. | ||
| Okay, second thing. | ||
| Why was that a mistake, Kimberly? | ||
| What would they have done differently? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Because he was basically trying to be too moderate. | |
| He was trying to be so nonpartisan. | ||
| He was like, he could have picked up those issues about the Mueller report. | ||
| Remember, there were still things that they could have charged Trump for after he got out of office, but Merrick Garland said, we're not going to charge him. | ||
| We're not going to look at that. | ||
| So at the beginning, Merrick Garland was an issue. | ||
| That was Joe Biden's first mistake. | ||
| Second mistake, Afghanistan. | ||
| He should have came in and said, it's on our timetable. | ||
| That's how we're going to do it this way. | ||
| We're going to give them enough time for our people to get people out. | ||
| That was the second thing. | ||
| It was the timetable. | ||
| He should have just said, we're going to do it on my timetable. | ||
| Third thing, pardoning of his son. | ||
| His son was going to be pardoned no matter what, whether it was Trump, Kamala, or him in office. | ||
| He's a father. | ||
| He's 82. | ||
| There's no way that he was going to let his only son rot in jail when he's that old. | ||
| There's no way. | ||
| And for people to not understand that is crazy. | ||
| He should have just said, no comment, my family's off. | ||
| I don't want to deal with, you know, I'm not going to talk about my family. | ||
| And he should have just pardoned him. | ||
| No one would have said anything. | ||
| You don't think people would have said anything? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No one who has children, people who have children who love their children, or even people who don't have children, but they understand a father and a son or a family unit. | |
| No one would have commented. | ||
| It would have been comments for 24, 48 hours. | ||
| It would have been a no big deal. | ||
| He never should have commented about it. | ||
| He should have just pardoned him, called it a day. | ||
| The fourth thing was him running for reelection. | ||
| He never should have ran. | ||
| He never should have said he was, I thought he was too old in 2020. | ||
| But the thing is, is that we needed someone to rally behind. | ||
| He was a good guy. | ||
| He was a good person. | ||
| So why not him? | ||
| And my, this is the last thing. | ||
| My life, my extended family's life. | ||
| We are all better because Joe Biden was president. | ||
| When Joe Biden, just like the last call, one of the last callers said, when Joe Biden came in, we had lost so many jobs here. | ||
| I'm in Las Vegas. | ||
| The strip was shut down for the first time in like 50 years. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| The strip was shut down. | ||
| People were unemployed. | ||
| They didn't work. | ||
| It's a service economy here. | ||
| So when Joe Biden came in, that was under Trump. | ||
| When Joe Biden came in and got the shots in arms, people, COVID, you know, people start able to see family again. | ||
| People start able to move and get, you know, go and get a different job. | ||
| You know, they were able to move and, you know, they didn't have to stay at their same job. | ||
| They were able to make more money. | ||
| That was under Joe Biden. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| And people need to understand that, yes, he had hubris, certain things he should have been more straightforward with and just have red lines with a lot of things, but he was a good president. | ||
| He wasn't ever the smartest guy in the room, which he always thought he probably was, which he wasn't, but he was a good president. | ||
| My life, my family's life, my extended family's life, was better because he was president. | ||
| That's Kimberly in Nevada giving Joe Biden, as she said, a solid B. Here's the numbers from the Washington Times story on it, on Joe Biden's approval ratings at the end of his presidency. | ||
| An Associated Press poll found last week that 47% of respondents rated Mr. Biden as poor or terrible as president. | ||
| Only about 25% of respondents said Mr. Biden was a good or great president in comparison. | ||
| 36% of Americans said Mr. Trump was good or great when he left office four years ago. | ||
| 52% said the same thing about Barack Obama in 2016. | ||
| That from the Washington Times story today. | ||
| Taking your phone calls. | ||
| It's just 7.30 on the East Coast. | ||
| It's a two-hour Washington Journal today. | ||
| The House Senate at 9 a.m. Eastern, of course, will take you there for live gavel-to-gavel coverage when they do come in taking your phone calls throughout these two hours. | ||
| This is Tedla in Flushing, New York, Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning to you. | |
| I followed Joe Biden's farewell speech. | ||
| It's a little bit short, but he should have started with what's going on in California. | ||
| You know, this is what Joe Biden should have done. | ||
| America is on fire. | ||
| The whole world is watching this. | ||
| America on fire. | ||
| This was a big thing. | ||
| Whether he believed that, that was not a major thing, I don't understand. | ||
| But he should have started because he wrote it as an environmental issue. | ||
| So why not start with that one? | ||
| And then show that he came from America. | ||
| That was this president's problem. | ||
| He did a lot of things. | ||
| I mean, you cannot blame him on the economy. | ||
| He did long-term investment, like chips or whatever. | ||
| He did something. | ||
| But the question is, the way he put it, as a people's man, was not there. | ||
| So for me, I was disappointed. | ||
| Well, it's good what he did with the Palestinian issue. | ||
| It took 10 months. | ||
| He worked very hard. | ||
| Anthony Blinken, how many times he did a lot of good things. | ||
| Would he involve in the war early on and stop these things? | ||
| I don't know, maybe, maybe, maybe, but it is sad. | ||
| This man, maybe we don't think him now as a good person, but I can tell you that most of the things he did in the long run, like this investment, infrastructure investment takes environmental issues, it will be there. | ||
| Now this man is a failure because Americans worry about their pockets and the economy was bad. | ||
| But one thing which really struck me is that the way in 2020 I called your program, when Joe Biden talks about COVID, he never gave credit for Donald Trump's vaccination. | ||
| I was so disappointed. | ||
| Vaccination was done under President Trump and then he took that one. | ||
| The same thing with this issue of now peace negotiation. | ||
| I hope it will hold on. | ||
| Who did it? | ||
| President Biden did it, his team. | ||
| Now he took over it. | ||
| So we should be humble in respecting who did what. | ||
| So I will give you credit. | ||
| We'll take your point. | ||
| You talk about how Joe Biden put it last night. | ||
| He was laying out his accomplishments at the top of that speech. | ||
| Here's President Biden from his farewell address. | ||
| You know, it will take time to feel the full impact of all we've done together. | ||
| But the seeds are planted, and they'll grow and they'll bloom for decades to come. | ||
| At home, we've created nearly 17 million new jobs, more than any other single administration, a single term. | ||
|
unidentified
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More people have health care than ever before. | |
| And overseas, we've strengthened NATO. | ||
| Ukraine is still free. | ||
| And we've pulled ahead of our competition with China. | ||
| And so much more. | ||
| I'm so proud of how much we've accomplished together for the American people. | ||
| And I wish the incoming administration success because I want America to succeed. | ||
| That's why I've upheld my duty to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition of power, to ensure we lead by the power of our example. | ||
| I have no doubt that America is in a position to continue to succeed. | ||
| That's why my farewell address tonight, I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern. | ||
| This is a dangerous concentration, and that's a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people. | ||
| The dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked. | ||
| Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead. | ||
| President Biden last night in his farewell address in this morning's Washington Post, George Will has a different take on Joe Biden's four years in office. | ||
| The headline on his piece, A President's Road to Ruin. | ||
| George Will writing, several issues led to that road to ruin. | ||
| Two months into his presidency, the seeds of its ruin were sown with the American Rescue Plan, which pumped up demand for goods and services beyond the capacity of the economy to produce them. | ||
| The predicted results, inflation, was exasperated by the Inflation Reduction Act's torrent of subsidies in the service of industrial policy. | ||
| He goes on to write, no prior president used mass communication more insultingly to more Americans than Joe Biden did with his hyperbolic warnings about the dangers of Americans imposing Jim Crow 2.0 and voting for semi-fascism. | ||
| Democrats, Biden said, would save American democracy in 2024. | ||
| The saving would presumably begin after Democrats finished trying to ban Biden's opponents from the ballot and incarcerating Donald Trump. | ||
| That's George Will writing in today's Washington Post. | ||
| Back to your phone calls. | ||
| This is David in Salisbury, Maryland, Republican. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah, thanks for taking my call today, sir. | |
| Just want to talk about the speech last night. | ||
| That was one pathetic speech by Joe Biden. | ||
| You know, thank God we get Trump in there next week, Biden talking about, you know, the oligarchy, you know, a small group of, you know, rich people, you know, that wants to, you know, be dictators and things like that taking over our country. | ||
| That is totally absurd. | ||
| You know, he's got it all wrong. | ||
| This guy was so negative last night. | ||
| And the lady earlier was talking about, you know, Joe Biden being such one of the best presidents we had. | ||
| That is totally asinine. | ||
| I mean, that is ridiculous. | ||
| You know, look at the borders being open. | ||
| You know, look at, you know, these poor, you know, mainly females being killed by these illegal immigrants. | ||
| Look at the fentanyl being coming to our country. | ||
| Look at the condition of our country now. | ||
| The jobs, you know, despite the fact what Joe Biden says, you know, our jobs have, you know, been lower since Trump's been in there. | ||
| And we just thank God, you know, that we get a decent president that actually loves America. | ||
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| Jim next in Wisconsin, Butler, Wisconsin, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| First, I want to talk about the nominations. | ||
| When we look at Pam Bambi, Bondi, whatever her name is, I mean, come on. | ||
| When you're an election denier and you're going to be the head, I mean, that's a joke. | ||
| Then you look at Hessbot. | ||
| He said himself he was denied protection for Biden because he had a tattoo about some religious that they call fanaticism. | ||
|
unidentified
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What you got to remember about America, it was set up and realized by the founding fathers that it's going to be a problem with all these different religions. | |
| People left other countries in Europe for freedom. | ||
| Even though I don't believe in the southern trash religion, they have the right to believe what they want. | ||
| That's America. | ||
| That's Jim in Wisconsin. | ||
| This is Dwayne in New York, Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning, Steve. | |
| Trump nominations or pre-nominations, it's kind of funny how we all look back and say, well, he's trying to make America great again or whatever his phrases are. | ||
| But his cabinets are not a reflection of America. | ||
| I understand most people, black folks, didn't vote for him, but look at his whole entire cabinet. | ||
| His cabinets are older white men sprinkled in there with white women. | ||
| I mean, he shows who he is. | ||
| And we are accepting. | ||
| Like the guy from Maryland, he can't wait for Trump to get into office. | ||
| Are you serious? | ||
| You can't wait for a man like that. | ||
| Well, he's like a grandson, a grandfather, but the Trump. | ||
| I think we're losing your line there, Dwayne, but got your point. | ||
| This is Roger in Middleton, Ohio, Republican. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| I would take away all the stuff I have to say, but I'm going to start with the new job situation. | ||
| There's no new jobs. | ||
| All we're doing is replacing the ones that COVID eliminated. | ||
| So, Mr. Whatever his name was, President Benedict, not a president. | ||
| I'm a Korean veteran. | ||
| The Hamas did the smartest thing on earth. | ||
| They started a stopplay for a while so they could reinforce all their important areas of fighting. | ||
| And as soon as they go, they'll come back to it again. | ||
| We did that in Korea. | ||
| We'd get the Koreans to agree to a peace for a few minutes, and we'd bring all the heavy equipment up. | ||
| So that's an old 1600 situation. | ||
| Joe Biden was the worst president we've ever had. | ||
| He made no sense. | ||
| And in his little talk the other day, he wasted 15 out of 17 minutes. | ||
| The two minutes he should honor was when he said hello and he said goodbye. | ||
| People that were in his outfit, Obama, and all these people that destroyed America, things were going great until the COVID situation came in. | ||
| I'm a military man. | ||
| I have some serious situation from combat. | ||
| But anyway, they made me take these two shots. | ||
| So I took the two COVID shots. | ||
| Within six months, I had a massive heart attack out in Phoenix, and I had to pay $1,100 to get flown back to Ohio so I could be treated. | ||
| The situation with the Democrats, they're living in 1948, and Harry Truman was probably the last good Democratic president. | ||
| Roosevelt, when the Japanese attacked us, they knew they were coming. | ||
| How could you let 4,000 votes leave Japan and us not know about it? | ||
| We had spies all over the place. | ||
| Well, Roger, we'll stick to the news stories from yesterday just because there were so many. | ||
| It was a big news day yesterday. | ||
| We're focusing on the ceasefire deal, the Biden farewell, the confirmation hearings. | ||
| You talked about your concerns about the ceasefire deal. | ||
| It is Brett Stevens writing in the New York Times today saying, in this deal, the price for Israel will, in many ways, be very heavy for every Israeli hostage released by Hamas. | ||
| Israel will release several fold Palestinian prisoners, many of them with Israeli blood on their hands. | ||
| It was through one such release that Yahweh Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7th massacre, was freed. | ||
| The phased nature of the agreement, which begins with the release of 33 hostages, most of them living but some most likely dead, will leave another unknown number behind, raising the political value of them and giving Hamas an opportunity to extract additional concessions. | ||
| His concerns about this agreement and what it might mean for Israel. | ||
| This is Stan in Florida Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah, how are you doing? | |
| That report that was put out by the guy said if he didn't win the election, he would have been in prison because what he did on January 6th. | ||
| And I'm lady that watches Fox News. | ||
| They got sued for $800 million for the wrong information. | ||
| And Donald Trump was ran to stay out of prison. | ||
| I hope he stopped selling guns and watches and frogs, all the stuff he sells. | ||
| Jerry Kushner got billions of dollars from Saudi Arabia. | ||
| Stan, any thoughts on Donald Trump's nominees on Capitol Hill this week? | ||
|
unidentified
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They can't say he, every one of them has to skist the ring. | |
| They can't say he lost an election because he still hasn't admitted. | ||
| He lost the election. | ||
| Is there any nominee that you've seen so far that you think is qualified? | ||
|
unidentified
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Marco Rubio. | |
| Why do you like Marco Rubio? | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, he's been around. | |
| He's a good guy. | ||
| He's from Florida. | ||
| Pam Bondi was on, got $25 million to stop the university thing when she was there. | ||
| If Trump University, he got sued for, he gave her $25 million. | ||
| She couldn't admit that he lost the election. | ||
| He still can't admit he lost the election. | ||
| There's a thousand people in prison now. | ||
| They're going to release them all. | ||
| He wants to release them all. | ||
| You ask them. | ||
| And Elon Musk gave him a half a million dollars. | ||
| Half a million dollars. | ||
| That's to run around and pay all those lawyer fees. | ||
| If he didn't pay all those lawyer fees, he would have never been able to run. | ||
| At Stan in Florida, you mentioned Marco Rubio, the one that you think is qualified. | ||
| This is Senator Marco Rubio yesterday, been nominated, of course, for Secretary of State. | ||
| The Communist Party of China leads PRC, is the most potent and dangerous near-peer adversary this nation has ever confronted. | ||
| They have elements that the Soviet Union never possessed. | ||
| They are a technological adversary and competitor, an industrial competitor, an economic competitor, a geopolitical competitor, a scientific competitor now, in every realm. | ||
| It's an extraordinary challenge. | ||
| It's one that I believe will define the 21st century. | ||
| When they write the book about the 21st century, there's going to be some chapters in there about Putin. | ||
| There's going to be some chapters in there about some of these other places. | ||
| But the bulk of that book about the 21st century will be not just about China, but about the relationship between China and the United States and what direction it went. | ||
| If we stay on the road we're on right now, in less than 10 years, virtually everything that matters to us in life will depend on whether China will allow us to have it or not. | ||
| Everything from the blood pressure medicine we take to what movies we get to watch and everything in between, we will depend on China for it. | ||
| They have come to dominate the critical mineral industry supplies throughout the world. | ||
| Everywhere in the world, they've now established critical mineral rights. | ||
| Even those who want to see more electric cars, no matter where you make them, those batteries are almost entirely dependent on the ability of the Chinese and the willingness of the Chinese Communist Party to produce it and export it to you. | ||
| So if we don't change course, we are going to live in a world where much of what matters to us on a daily basis, from our security to our health, will be dependent on whether the Chinese allow us to have it or not. | ||
| That's an unacceptable outcome. | ||
| Marco Rubio yesterday on Capitol Hill. | ||
| Back to your phone calls. | ||
| This is Sam, Fayetteville, North Carolina, Republican. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning to you, sir. | |
| Hey, morning, John. | ||
| Hey, thanks for letting me talk. | ||
| Yeah, I hate to say Biden's going to go down as the one of the worst presidents in the history of the United States, one of the most corrupt presidents. | ||
| He weaponized the DOJ to go after his political opponents, particularly President Trump. | ||
| He knew about the raid on Mar-a-Lago and didn't do a darn thing about it. | ||
| And I think the only happy person is President Carter. | ||
| He went to his grave knowing that he is no longer the worst president of the United States. | ||
| That's Sam. | ||
| This is Ann in Clinton, Maryland, Democrat. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| I hope I'm clear. | ||
| Yes, ma'am. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes, I just heard one of the persons who spoke about Biden being the worst president and his time in service. | |
| I also had brothers who were in service. | ||
| And the worst part about that is there were those who were killed in service. | ||
| I had an uncle who, I'm sorry, a great uncle, great great uncle, in fact, who was killed during the war, not World War II. | ||
| He was killed earlier. | ||
| These people never ever had a chance to even collect insurance money or to have their souls to be in a better place on this earth for the services that they've given. | ||
| We've got to be thankful. | ||
| To say that President Biden is the worst president, I think, in my opinion, we can name other people, but I'm not going to talk about what happened with them. | ||
| When Nixon had to resign, President Nixon, I was in college, and I was blessed enough by my mom, who was very thrifty, black African-American, to encourage me to continue college while others had to stop. | ||
| There have been some wonderful things to happen, but we've got to take advantage of the wonderful things and not concentrate always on the bad things. | ||
| And when they said President Biden didn't do anything with the documents, you've got to look at the number of Republicans or those who did not want anything done versus those who wanted to have things done. | ||
| Those numbers were outweighed. | ||
| It's sad. | ||
| I don't want to go into a whole dialogue about that. | ||
| But the opponents during the campaign were called these very profane names. | ||
| Kamala Harris, Vice President Kamala Harris, is a female. | ||
| Yet these people said that they respect females. | ||
| The way that they called her names, I don't understand. | ||
| Yes, I do understand. | ||
| I believe that karma will come for them, not Kamala Harris, Karma, K-A-R-M-A. | ||
| That's Ann in Maryland. | ||
| You mentioned your memories of Richard Nixon's resignation. | ||
| That, of course, happening on August the 9th of 1974. | ||
| That same day, Gerald Ford is inaugurated. | ||
| The Ford inauguration, known as the warmest inauguration, it took place in August. | ||
| The temperature was 89 degrees. | ||
| It's expected to be much colder on January 20th this year. | ||
| Predictions for the weather in the 20s and low 30s in Washington, D.C. | ||
| A story from USA Today looking back at various Inauguration Day weather forecasts, the warmest, more traditional inauguration, the January 20th inauguration, 1981, Ronald Reagan's first inauguration, noon temperatures were 55 degrees. | ||
| The coldest, it was also Ronald Reagan, 1985, his second inauguration, the noon temperature, just seven degrees. | ||
| It was so cold that the inauguration was moved indoors, Ronald Reagan taking the oath of office under the Capitol dome and a much smaller ceremony, of course, because they could only fit the number of people who fit inside the dome. | ||
| The rainiest inauguration, 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt's second inauguration, 1.8 inches of rain fell that day. | ||
| The snowiest inauguration, 1961, eight inches of snow fell the night before John F. Kennedy was sworn in. | ||
| And of course, his famous statement, ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country, part of that 1961 inauguration. | ||
| Mark in Hampstead, Maryland, Republican. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning, John. | |
| How are you doing today? | ||
| Doing well. | ||
| Hey, so Biden's speech last night, of course, he, you know, he uses that speech to preach what the left has fomented for the last 60 or 70 years, which is the ideology of envy. | ||
| He kept mentioning oligarchs and we need to watch out for the rich and powerful. | ||
| You know, it's funny because Democrats never seem to actually know the tax code. | ||
| They don't seem to realize that the so-called 1%, the rich, actually pay the lion's share of taxes in this country. | ||
| There are many people who pay no taxes whatsoever. | ||
| Yet the left is always preaching we're going to make them pay their fair share. | ||
| If you go back and look at Russia, what they did when they got rid of the czar is they decided they were going to make the 1% pay their fair share. | ||
| What they did was they put about six million farmers on trains for Siberia so they could freeze to death. | ||
| Hitler did the same thing in Germany. | ||
| He, of course, by the way, was a socialist. | ||
| He wasn't right-wing. | ||
| He was a socialist. | ||
| And he said, look around, the 1% are taking advantage of us. | ||
| And he proceeded to put them in internment camps. | ||
| So I have a question for Democrats. | ||
| And I'm going to, and I hope somebody calls in and can give me a number on this. | ||
| Not a lecture, not a speech, but just an actual number. | ||
| What exactly is your fair share of what somebody else has earned? | ||
| Thanks. | ||
| I'll wait for my answer. | ||
| Mark in Maryland, this is Jerry Winston-Salem, North Carolina. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thank you for having me. | ||
| I'd like to say that the ceasefire in Israel, I don't believe it would have come to this part. | ||
| I know they're still negotiating except for Donald Trump being president and giving them the warning that all hell will break out if they don't release the hostages because he keeps his word. | ||
| Biden talked about in his address that he would keep his word, but he didn't keep his word. | ||
| So the ceasefire wouldn't have happened unless Donald Trump had got involved. | ||
| Biden, in his address, once again, was making up fantasies and then wanted to warn us about the rich and all of that when he and their party spent billions of dollars, over a billion dollars in their campaign for a woman that was absolutely not qualified. | ||
| And then the confirmation hearings, the way they've attacked the Democrats, Donald Trump's nominees, is totally embarrassing for the Democratic Party. | ||
| You can tell that they still don't understand why they lost the election, why their agenda for transgenders and all of that is such an important part to the true Americans that don't want their daughters in the bathrooms with men or boys or in sports. | ||
| I mean, it's common sense why Donald Trump has won the election and why the Democrats have been so out of touch with the normal people of the United States of America. | ||
| It's Jerry in North Carolina. | ||
| He started by talking about who this is the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, their lead editorial today saying, naturally, President Biden took credit, quoting him and saying, I laid out the precise contours of this plan back on May 31st of 2024. | ||
| They asked, so why is it happening now instead of then when Hamas rejected it? | ||
| For a year, Biden's administration pushed this rock up the hill, only to see it roll back down each time. | ||
| Then the U.S. election changed the regional calculus, threatening all hell to pay if hostages weren't freed by January 20th. | ||
| Mr. Trump and American power changed the incentives for the parties. | ||
| The key variable, they write, will be Mr. Trump's willingness to back Israel if Hamas refuses to return the rest of the hostages, disarm, and agree to non-terrorist government in Gaza. | ||
| Six weeks from now, will Mr. Trump give Israel the backing to exit the deal and finish Hamas? | ||
| He pledged Wednesday to work closely with Israel and our allies to make sure Gaza never again becomes a terrorist safe haven. | ||
| The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal. | ||
| This is Scott in Florida, Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All right, good morning, guys. | |
| Good morning, Suspam. | ||
| First thing is that speech last night. | ||
| He warned us about rich oligarchs coming in. | ||
| Let's not forget, they had twice as much money in their campaign. | ||
| They put twice as much money and lost. | ||
| They literally gave the Medal of Freedom to George Soros, the man with the darkest money on the planet. | ||
| So talking about speaking out of his rear, and also, I'll tell you what, did you see Joe's wife and son sitting down? | ||
| Did you see Kamala and her husband? | ||
| They looked bad. | ||
| They looked worried. | ||
| They looked like they were up all night for nights. | ||
| They looked scared. | ||
| And let me tell you one last thing. | ||
| We're going to find out about COVID. | ||
| We're going to find out the truth about January 6th. | ||
| We're going to find out. | ||
| And Uncle Sam took an uppercut from this communist left. | ||
| But four days from now, they're going to get hit with an overhand right. | ||
| And I promise you, I promise you, the administration's going to change. | ||
| This country's going to change. | ||
| And everyone listen loud and clear. | ||
| This world is going to change. | ||
| Remember what I just said. | ||
| That's Scott in Florida. | ||
| You talk about campaign spending in 2024. | ||
| One of the best places you can go for that for accurate numbers, openseecrets.org. | ||
| The amount raised by candidates in 2024, over $1.8, $1.9 billion. | ||
| The Kamala Harris campaign with some $1.1 billion in candidate money and Donald Trump $463 million outside money also contributing to the race. | ||
| The candidates equal, almost equal, and that's spending to close to a billion dollars. | ||
| That's the amount of money there. | ||
| OpenSecrets.org, you can click through all their numbers throughout the 2024 campaign. | ||
| It's not just presidential. | ||
| It's the Senate candidates and the House candidates as well. | ||
| Again, opensecrets.org. | ||
| This is Russell in Winchester, Virginia. | ||
| Democrat, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Meant to call on the Independent line, but no big deal there. | |
| So, Russell, actually, we do want people to call in on the lines they identify with just because it takes a call away from somebody who calls in on their lines. | ||
| So do me a favor, call back on your line. | ||
| We'll go to the Independent line where John's waiting in Pennsylvania. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, good morning, John. | |
| I think the historians will rank Biden in the top 10 of all the presidents, mainly because of what he's done in the four years that he's been on. | ||
| So I'd like to just mention also about Tam Bondi in her testimony yesterday. | ||
| She keeps bringing up Pennsylvania like there was some kind of fraud in Pennsylvania. | ||
| The only fraud in Pennsylvania was a Republican man put his mother and his mother-in-law on the ballot. | ||
| They both were dead. | ||
| And that was the only fraud that was in Pennsylvania in the 2020 election. | ||
| So I don't know where she comes off with this Pennsylvania thing. | ||
| I'm a Pennsylvania resident, and in Pennsylvania, it was a fair election. | ||
| And as far as Biden's speech last night was terrific, you know, the guy has done his, and in four years, he's done more than any other president probably in existence. | ||
| And to put him down to make him sound like he's some kind of gangster, you know, the guy that's coming in the office now has some kind of reputation. | ||
| You know, I mean, I can't believe people even voted for this guy. | ||
| But anyway, it's going to be voters' remorse for the next four years, believe me. | ||
| That's my call for today. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Grant is here in Washington, D.C., Independent. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Hey, John. | ||
| I just wanted to say it's really remarkable that Joe Biden chose to highlight tech oligarchs as a threat to democracy. | ||
| You know, if JFK had had the opportunity to give a farewell address, he would have highlighted his fight for the Palestinian right to return, U.S. opposition to the Israelis building nuclear weapons, and his own fight to register the Israel lobby and proto-AIPAC in the U.S. as Israeli foreign agents. | ||
| Of course, he wasn't able to do that, and here we are. | ||
| And if people want to read the Senate record about how all this happened, you should pick up a copy of How Israel Made APAC about the $60 million Israel paid to set that operation up. | ||
| It's Grant in D.C. | ||
| This is Constance in Virginia, Democrat. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Well, I wanted to say that I was quite irritated listening to some of these people saying bad things about President Biden. | ||
| President Biden is a moral and wonderful man, and we're sorry to lose him right now. | ||
| Very sorry. | ||
| And Jimmy Carter, my dad helped put him in the White House, and he was a wonderful, moral man. | ||
| And again, the Republics couldn't stand it. | ||
| And both parties have been corrupt, both of them. | ||
| And they threw our rights away to the tech companies. | ||
| So if the people of America want your rights back, throw that phone away and the TV and tell that those people Ithaca, New York, apologize for the language. | ||
| This is Lenny, Republican. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, John. | |
| How are you doing? | ||
| I'm doing well. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I just wanted to point out something that the news media really hasn't been touching on because of all the highlights that have been going on lately. | |
| And that is the fact that Michelle Obama. | ||
| Well, I tell you, Lenny, what we're trying to do this morning is sort of focus this discussion because there's a lot that happened yesterday, the ceasefire deal, Biden's farewell address, the confirmation hearings. | ||
| Do you want to chat? | ||
| Do you have any comments or thoughts about those issues? | ||
| Okay, we lost Lenny. | ||
| This is Mark in San Jose, California, Democrat. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Thanks for having me on. | ||
| I'm in the Silicon Valley. | ||
| I'm a retired marketing manager and I owned a business here. | ||
| Plus, I'm a New York Jewish boy. | ||
| And what I've been watching in these confirmation hearings has been a joke that these people are kissing the ring. | ||
| They're doing whatever Mr. Trump seems to want. | ||
| And it's very, very upsetting. | ||
| Enough so I'm considering leaving this country. | ||
| Where would you go, Mark? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Canada, Mexico. | |
| I used to have a place in Mexico. | ||
| I'm very fond of those people. | ||
| And they have a female president now that seems to have the right idea. | ||
| In Canada, the only thing I'd have to fear, I think, is invasion from the United States. | ||
| So this is not the country that I fought for. | ||
| I'm a Vietnam veteran. | ||
| I was wounded. | ||
| And what I see now, it horrifies me that I see a Congress moving towards autocracy and enabling and supporting it. | ||
| Well, he's very, very plain in his language about what he's going to do from day one on. | ||
| And I don't understand. | ||
| I still have a lot to figure out as to how the American people supported this. | ||
| A criminal. | ||
| And I mean, he talks about all kinds of other things, except he's been found guilty of 34 felonies. | ||
| He's a sexual predator. | ||
| He owes a ton of money. | ||
| I'm not impressed with him as a businessman. | ||
| I never was. | ||
| And at this point, we're in real trouble. | ||
| That's Mark in California. | ||
| It's just after 8 a.m. on the East Coast. | ||
| We're with you this morning for another hour till 9 a.m. | ||
| And we are taking your phone calls throughout this morning. | ||
| Three big news stories yesterday, the ceasefire deal in Gaza. | ||
| It's yet to be officially a done deal and has run into some trouble today, as NPR and other outlets, Al Jazeera, has reported as well. | ||
| The Biden farewell address was last night. | ||
| We'll take your calls on that as well, or these confirmation hearings that continue today on Capitol Hill, including this morning, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Interior Secretary, Doug Bergham, is on Capitol Hill for his hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. | ||
| Live coverage on C-SPAN 2 at 10 a.m. Eastern. | ||
| And Scott Passent's confirmation hearing, Donald Trump's pick for Treasury Secretary, will appear before the Senate Finance Committee. | ||
| That is live at 10.30 a.m. Eastern on C-SPAN 3 for the House and Senate schedule today. | ||
| The Senate's in at noon Eastern. | ||
| And of course, the reason we're leaving you at 9 a.m. is because the House is in at 9 a.m. | ||
| Stay here for gavel-to-gavel coverage. | ||
| Harry is in Philadelphia and Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I wanted to focus on Biden's farewell speech. | |
| I give him a C because even though he did a good job on the economy, he gave us cost of living increases for federal retirees. | ||
| You know, he stabilized as far as all the sectors are concerned, as the economy is concerned. | ||
| He did a great job there. | ||
| But he failed on borrowed security. | ||
| He failed on foreign policy, two wars. | ||
| The wars would not have happened if President Trump was in office. | ||
| He also failed on the immigrant issue and crime in our country, which was really crime is unforeseen. | ||
| It just disinfected our communities so much. | ||
| That's all I got to say. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That's Harry in Pennsylvania. | ||
| This is Rob in California, Stockton, California, Republican. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| I hope you give me a little bit of time here. | ||
| Number one, I think if you pull up the deck clock, we're so many trillions in debt. | ||
| And it's when Trump handed this thing over three or four or five months before COVID-19 hit, we had the lowest unemployment ever in the United States. | ||
| I'm so tired of hearing the Democrats and the liberals put Trump down. | ||
| He had the finest economy going. | ||
| Everybody's working. | ||
| He made deals to bring United States companies back into the U.S. and manufacture in the U.S. | ||
| And nobody remembers that. | ||
| If we didn't have that strong economy, we would have been devastated through COVID-19. | ||
| Gas doubled out here in California. | ||
| $7.65 for a bag of potato chips. | ||
| Give me a break. | ||
| Beef doubled. | ||
| The inflation, everything went up. | ||
| So don't give me that. | ||
| And also, the only reason Joe Biden did the amnesty for his son was so that the money they brought in through Ukraine and China is cut off and we don't expose. | ||
| But he's going to be exposed after this Donald Trump going in. | ||
| They're going to expose him and his son. | ||
| That's why he cut the deal for his son to protect himself. | ||
| That's Rob in California. | ||
| This is Bonnie in Florida. | ||
| Independent, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'm calling in reference to the gentleman who asked someone to call in and make a statement about how much taxes the wealthy should pay. | ||
| He made the comment that 1% of our country is paying all of the taxes, the majority of the taxes. | ||
| Well, any mathematician could tell you that, of course, the rich are paying more because they make more. | ||
| The problem I have with the tax system and Biden's, I mean, excuse me, Trump's desire to continue to lower the taxes for corporations and Americans in general is the fact that look at what Trump did. | ||
| When he was in office and he was finally able, or we were finally able to get a record of what his taxes were paid, how much money he paid in taxes. | ||
| If anyone recalls, in a six-year period, if my memory is correct, he paid a total of $750 in taxes. | ||
| Give me a break. | ||
| If the rich are going to pay, they should all pay fairly, and there's too many tax loops. | ||
| So my recommendation would be to have some kind of a table where you pay a set amount of taxes and they don't get away with all of these loopholes. | ||
| Secondly, relating to the hearings, when it comes to all of these people that are being presented on the Republican side of the party, and I am an independent, I believe in many of the Republican policies. | ||
| I'm very concerned about this nominee, Hagsteth, if I'm saying his name properly. | ||
| All the Republicans could tout was his wonderful war record, you know, that he was a veteran. | ||
| My concern is his managerial experience and the disaster apparently that was reported and is documented regarding the lack of financial well-doing with the two nonprofit organizations he worked for. | ||
| So to me, if the Republicans are in such a rush to get these people through that they're not even allowing people to speak to the Democratic side of the party, like Hagsteth only spoke with Reed, then why don't they select candidates that aren't going to be challenges in the process? | ||
| And that's all I have to say. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| It's Bonnie in Florida. | ||
| You talk about what Republicans are saying about Donald Trump's nominees. | ||
| And we're going to talk to one Republican House member, Jim Baird, Republican of Indiana, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. | ||
| That's coming up at about 8.30, 8.45 this morning. | ||
| In about five minutes or so, it's Democrat Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico who will be joining us, a member of the Armed Services Committee. | ||
| Conversations with a few members of Congress happening in this hour ahead of another busy day on Capitol Hill. | ||
| And as we continue to take your phone calls, this is Henry in Clovis, New Mexico. | ||
| Democrat, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Government of the morning, and thank you for taking my call. | |
| I have a special request like a bank of C-SPAN. | ||
| I would like to see C-SPAN do a history, a chronological history of Social Security, because this is one of the things on the hit list, and I'm quite sure that we're going to get some serious changes with regards to this particular system. | ||
| The reason I say C-SPAN is because you probably would be able to post it on your website or whatever, and a lot of people would have access to it. | ||
| Henry, I always appreciate suggestions. | ||
| Do you have any thoughts on the hearings that are happening on Capitol Hill or Joe Biden's farewell address? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I oftentimes wonder whether or not any of the nominees for the open positions would be able to pass a background check that includes the president for the office. | |
| I don't think that any of them would be able to pass a background check. | ||
| I don't know how they would be able to function. | ||
| But at any rate, I appreciate you taking my call, and thank you so much for C-SPAN. | ||
| That's Henry. | ||
| This is Annie in Milltown, New Jersey. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, and good morning, and happy new year. | |
| I just want to say that when the election, after the election, I was very sad, but I had to turn off the news and just enjoy my holiday. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Joe Biden was still our president, and I was very, very happy about that. | |
| So the thing is, is I want to say a fond farewell. | ||
| Joe Biden, you did a great job. | ||
| And I just want to say to Democrats and anybody who disagrees with Trump, it's time to come back now, support Democrats, okay? | ||
| Because, look, I don't want to see a lot of fighting and gossip and, you know, nail biting. | ||
| I just want to see healthy debate about what the American people want in America. | ||
| And I say, God bless to America. | ||
| We're still a great country. | ||
| And don't lose hope. | ||
| Keep the faith. | ||
| Annie, you talk about Democrats coming together come Monday after noon. | ||
| Who would you say would be the leader of the Democratic Party? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's hard to say. | |
| I think they're all great. | ||
| I love Kamala. | ||
| I was very sad that she did not win the election, but she is a wonderful, she's so strong. | ||
| And I also like Michelle Obama. | ||
| She's another one that is so strong and so faithful. | ||
| She's got such strong intestinal fortitude. | ||
| And I love that. | ||
| That's what we need Democrats to do. | ||
| Stop with the gossip and the nail biting and just be strong. | ||
| Be who we're meant to be. | ||
| You know, show the humanity. | ||
| Show what's going on with the American people. | ||
| And stop every time Trump does something stupid or say something, just ignore it. | ||
| You know, because what he says and what reality is could be two different things. | ||
| Okay, and they could work with Republicans, and I say this to Republican Party too. | ||
| Okay, work with Democrats. | ||
| Forget about Trump. | ||
| Work with Democrats to make America great. | ||
| Okay, you want to make America great? | ||
| Stop with all the tax gutting and all of these things that are hurting our people and making us poorer, not richer. | ||
| Why should Republicans forget about Donald Trump if he just won every swing state in the 2024 election? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, to be honest with you, I'm just going to say this. | |
| I don't know that he really got all those votes. | ||
| I can't believe so many Americans. | ||
| Annie, you don't believe that Donald Trump won in 2024? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I'm going to say, look, if they say he won, he won. | |
| But look, all the gerrymandering and the things that Republicans did prior helped get Democrats elected. | ||
| How did you feel when there were some Republicans saying that they didn't believe that Joe Biden won in 2020? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, look, we know all the lies and Trump telling them, oh, find 10,000 more votes and all of this other stuff. | |
| And everything, he went through the courts and the courts said there was no voter fraud. | ||
| Okay? | ||
| But I don't want to get into that. | ||
| That's the past. | ||
| The past is the past. | ||
| I'm saying we have to work together. | ||
| And where he is causing division, we have to, Democrats and Republicans have to say, no, we're not playing this game anymore. | ||
| We got to do what's right by the American people. | ||
| That's it. | ||
| You know, but I just want Democrats, because I know a lot of Democrats have turned off the TV. | ||
| I love C-SPAN. | ||
| I hope C-SPAN, I'll be watching you this next four years because I really feel like you guys really rapport. | ||
| You really unbought, you know, fair and equal. | ||
| And I love that. | ||
| I'm turning everything else off because it just turns, it sounds like a lot of gossip to me, you know, and I don't want to hear that. | ||
| Annie, in Milltown, New Jersey, we'll get to more of your calls in just a few minutes. | ||
| But we want to take viewers now up to Capitol Hill to the Cannon Rotunda, where we're joined ahead of a day in the House by Democrat Gabe Vasquez. | ||
| He represents New Mexico's second district on Capitol Hill. | ||
| Congressman Vasquez, we've been talking about President Joe Biden's farewell address last night. | ||
| How did you think he did? | ||
| How do you think America's 46th president will be remembered? | ||
|
unidentified
|
John, well, thanks for having me on. | |
| Look, I think certainly President Biden leaves a legacy behind him that it's going to take several years, if not decades, for the American people to fully realize some of the historic investment that this administration made in things like infrastructure and climate change. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But look, I have really been focused the last two years on my district and the progress that has been made in my district. | |
| You know, just recently we announced almost $62 million in infrastructure dollars to repair roads in my hometown city of Las Cruces, New Mexico. | ||
| That was through the Department of Transportation. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And there's so many more success stories from this administration that have touched rural communities, that have touched everyone from farmers to farm workers to small business owners to international trade. | |
| It's going to help our district. | ||
| And so I was really focused on how we could get the administration to match some of their ambition to actually making those dollars float to the ground. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I think we're starting to see a lot more of that now. | |
| You talk about your district, the second district, runs along the entire length of New Mexico's border with Mexico. | ||
| Donald Trump has promised executive orders on day one, having to do with immigration, having to do with securing the border. | ||
| How are you preparing in the second district? | ||
| How are your constituents preparing? | ||
| What are you expecting? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, look, I come from an immigrant family. | |
| I have the story of the American dream that a lot of immigrants hope to reach when they come to this country. | ||
| The truth is that in my district and many other places around the country, we depend on immigrant labor. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But it's not just the labor itself. | |
| It's those Hispanic families that come from immigrant backgrounds that help power our small businesses. | ||
| It's veterans. | ||
| It is folks from all across every spectrum, education and health care, that contribute to this nation and contribute to this country. | ||
| And so what I'm focused on is finding bipartisan solutions to where we can actually meet the nation's workforce needs. | ||
| And in a district like mine that looks like farm workers, that looks like rural health care workers in our tribal communities, in our rural communities. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And so international trade is also a huge part of how our economy works along the U.S.-Mexico border. | |
| We have one of the fastest-growing ports of entry, and our largest trading partner here in the U.S., of course, is Mexico. | ||
| And so we have to think about diplomatic solutions to grow our economy, to reform our immigration system, and to finally have a system that's humane and that also helps contribute to our economy. | ||
| And I think that's what I'll be focused on in terms of working with the Trump administration and Republicans in the upcoming two years. | ||
| Staying on the second district for a second, you're one of 11 Democrats who won in a district that Donald Trump won in the 2024 election. | ||
| So what lessons do you take from that? | ||
| Does that influence how you will be representing the 2nd District on Capitol Hill? | ||
| Well, look, our approach in this election may be different than other Democrats' approach, but for me, it was really showing up to the district first and foremost. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Second, is not excluding the Latino electorate as a separate electorate. | |
| I do have a majority Hispanic district, and the issues that impact Hispanic folks in our community, who may be third or fourth generation, fifth generation, or new folks that are coming to this country, the issues that they face are the same. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And pocketbook issues in my district were the biggest thing. | |
| If you can't afford a place to live, if you can't afford health insurance, if you're going broke for medical bankruptcy, can't afford a car payment. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, those are the things that people are facing. | |
| And whether you're Hispanic or you're not, those are the real issues for Americans. | ||
| And that's what we focused on here in the first two years of my term. | ||
| And I think that was a successful formula. | ||
| And I think it's going to continue to be that way for me with Republicans holding the Senate and the House and, of course, the administration, is finding bipartisan solutions to the things that people care about the most. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I think once you start to separate a specific electorate away from the actual issues that matter to people, you really gain some traction. | |
| And so I was very happy that we actually won our re-election campaign by 500% more than I did in my first term, and that was being an incumbent Republican in what has traditionally been a Republican district. | ||
| From the 2nd District back up here to Capitol Hill, you're on the Armed Services Committee. | ||
| I know you don't get a Senate vote as a House member, but what did you think of the confirmation hearing this week for Pete Hegseth? | ||
| Well, look, I think national security for me and the military installations that we have in our district, including White Sands Missile Range and Holloman Air Force Base, are keys to national security, whether it comes to nuclear weapons testing or the development of new technologies. | ||
| It's incredibly important for me to honor the role that I have serving for the Armed Services Committee, and that includes military families and quality of life issues as well. | ||
| And so I'm looking for a leader that is going to take this job seriously, that has the qualifications to actually run what is essentially a $900 billion a year budget through the National Defense Authorization Act. | ||
| And it is troubling to see that Mr. Hegseth does not have the qualifications and the experience to run both a budget that's this big or handling this many employees. | ||
| And so obviously the President has his choices to make of who he appoints, and the Senate then has to do their due diligence and process to confirm those nominees. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But I will look forward to working in good faith with Mr. Hegseth should he get confirmed. | |
| But I have serious concerns about his ability to lead the most important part of our country, which is national security. | ||
| Do you think he will be confirmed? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, look, I can't speculate on what the Senate's going to do. | |
| It certainly seems like he has the Republican support to do that. | ||
| And again, that's why I want to make sure that if he is confirmed, that we actually get him up to shape to actually be the leader of our nation's national defense system. | ||
| If somehow you could have asked a question in that hearing, what would you have asked him? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, I think probably there have been a lot of questions I would have asked him. | |
| You know, I don't care too much about the personal stuff. | ||
| What I care about is national security. | ||
| So, as we face adversarial threats from the Communist Chinese Party and other threats across the country, clearly developments in the Middle East, and of course the war in Russia and Ukraine, I'd like to learn more about his approach to those issues, how he's going to work also in a diplomatic way, because certainly use of force is the strength that we have as a country to be able to negotiate with other countries to achieve diplomatic outcomes that bring peace to these regions. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And that's really important to me. | |
| So, I would have asked his strategy on how to use diplomacy as a tool to be able to help negotiate, you know, whether it's ceasefires or end the war in Russia and Ukraine and learn his strategy about those things. | ||
| Gabe Vasquez, I know you have to get to a busy day. | ||
| What's on tap for you on Capitol Hill today? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sure. | |
| Well, look, it's just like any other day, but today I'm really happy to receive a lot of my constituents who are coming from New Mexico that are here to participate in the inauguration activities. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's a great day for us. | |
| We're having some activities at our office to welcome folks from every part of our district. | ||
| It's a district bigger than the state of Pennsylvania. | ||
| So, as you can imagine, when folks make the trek from a place like Reserve, New Mexico, or Lordsburg, New Mexico, or Deming, New Mexico, to watch this historic event, we want to welcome them with open arms. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And so, that'll be a large focus of what we're doing today. | |
| Are you going to be at the inauguration on Monday? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, you know, I think what's important here is to recognize that obviously these ceremonies are really important. | |
| And, you know, we'll see what the cards have in stock for us. | ||
| Congressman Gabe Vasquez, Democrat of New Mexico. | ||
| It's the second district. | ||
| Appreciate your time this morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you so much. | |
| Back to your phone calls as it is just about 8:30 on Capitol Hill. | ||
| The House is in at 9 a.m. Eastern, and we'll take you there when they do gavel in. | ||
| This is Jim in Florida Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| First of all, this is my first time calling in, and I just want to appreciate the time. | ||
| For the hearings, you know, when it comes to the hearings, is that these people are being appointed under President Trump, and then we have them be confirmed. | ||
| Unfortunately, both sides have to confirm these candidates. | ||
| It's just that the gaslighting on these candidates in personal life is unprehensible, in my opinion. | ||
| When you say both sides need to confirm these candidates, Republicans have the votes if they wanted to to confirm all these nominees. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Correct. | |
| You're right. | ||
| They have the vote. | ||
| They have the numbers. | ||
| 100%. | ||
| 100%. | ||
| In that sense. | ||
| Now, when it comes to the Biden administration, as an independent, you know, I look at both sides. | ||
| Unfortunately, in my opinion, Biden should have got out and had a primary or didn't run at all, have a primary. | ||
| Who do you think would have emerged from that kind of situation, Jim? | ||
|
unidentified
|
If they had a primary, if Biden decided to step down and not run again a second term, Democrats have their chance. | |
| So, for example, you know, Harris maybe had a longer cycle to be disciplined enough to run her campaign. | ||
| And you have, you know, maybe Governor Shapiro or some other Democrats who can put their name in the hat. | ||
| But that's my opinion. | ||
| But to have someone just literally step down, have someone come up, that's very hard. | ||
| But once again, I voted for Trump because of the policies. | ||
| I'm not a big fan of him personally, but when it comes to policies, that's what I vote for him for. | ||
| So, unless sake. | ||
| And the thing is that you need to have a strong leadership who can communicate. | ||
| And unfortunately, Harris was able to communicate, in my opinion, through the interviews and what have you. | ||
| I know she had a good decent debate with Trump the first time around, but that's for me. | ||
| And, you know, the Democrats need to have soul searching here to see whether they can get back the coalition that they lost. | ||
| The Latinos, working class. | ||
| And the Republicans flipped it. | ||
| They're the working class now. | ||
| No more of the elites. | ||
| Union workers, Latinos, minority worker people. | ||
| So the Democrats are really, in my opinion, a very challenging time to bring that coalition back and not stay away from what Kai said, the woke stuff that turned people off, in my opinion, during the election. | ||
| Jim, before you go, always interesting when people say it's their first time calling in. | ||
| How long have you been watching and why did you make today your first time to call in? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Confirmation hearings. | |
| And honestly, I was flipping through the channels and I didn't realize that C-SPAN had the ability to take a call. | ||
| So I really appreciate that. | ||
| Sure. | ||
| Well, Jim, tell you what, you can do it once a month. | ||
| We'll hear back from you hopefully next month and you can continue to do so. | ||
| There's callers out there who literally wait until their 30 days or so and then they call in and we have regular callers. | ||
| So hope you join in that effort and hope you keep watching. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Will do. | |
| And you guys are doing a great job. | ||
| Appreciate it. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| It's Jim in Florida. | ||
| This is Susan in Milford, Pennsylvania. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| I want to say that I'm very thankful to Joe Biden. | ||
| When Trump was the president before, and I was getting so tired of his cruel ways, when Joe Biden came in, the humanitarian in him, he's such an honorable, caring person, putting the American people first. | ||
| With Donald Trump, I'm still, I remember his last inauguration, the speech he gave, when he said he really wasn't the president of all the people. | ||
| He really was against Democrats, and I never felt comfortable with him. | ||
| And I'm sort of a fair person. | ||
| I like to listen and hear what people have to say. | ||
| But let's see what's going to happen because I've been watching these hearings. | ||
| And the people like Pam Bondi and the way they're afraid to say anything that Trump might be offended by, that saying that, no, the election was fair and that you didn't win Trump. | ||
| I don't think they could say that to him. | ||
| There's certain things that they're not going to be impartial. | ||
| Hank Seth, her, the other one they want to put in as the FBI guy. | ||
| I'm worried that they won't be fair and impartial. | ||
| And because the American people, we need a leader that cares for the people. | ||
| Joe Biden, God bless him. | ||
| I love him. | ||
| I'm going to miss him. | ||
| But I'm very worried. | ||
| Also, one thing I want to say real quick, the dark money that the Koch brothers, they started this decades ago to arrange for these billionaires, these wealthy, to get in charge. | ||
| Trump came along, very clever, very slick, able to fool the American people, I think. | ||
| He, watch out. | ||
| I'm afraid of what's going to happen. | ||
| Him with the big tech billionaires, what they're going to do. | ||
| God help us all. | ||
| We all have to watch out for each other, care for each other. | ||
| Like Joe Biden said, we all have to take care of ourselves and watch out and protect democracy, America, liberty, freedom, the things that are important for the American people. | ||
| Democracy, God bless us all. | ||
| So that's what I want to say. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That's Susan in Milford, Pennsylvania. | ||
| More of your phone calls in just a couple minutes, but we're going to go back up to Capitol Hill to the Cannon Rotunda. | ||
| It's Congressman Jim Baird joining us. | ||
| Republican represents Indiana's 4th congressional district, also a member of the Foreign Relation Committee. | ||
| Congressman Baird, good morning to you. | ||
| On foreign relations, can we start on that ceasefire deal that was announced yesterday? | ||
| Sounds like it's hit some snags today, but what was your reaction to that deal's announcement? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I think that's a real opportunity for that area to come to an understanding on how they're going to get along. | |
| And yet, I do not criticize Prime Minister Netanyahu for what he's resisting because he's asking for all the requirements of that agreement to be complied with. | ||
| And so I think that's an important aspect to make sure that we recover those hostages, which I've heard President Trump say that they should never have been taken. | ||
| And I don't disagree with that. | ||
| But now that it's where we are, then I think they need to be released. | ||
| An interesting dynamic yesterday, Joe Biden taking credit for this deal, and then President-elect Donald Trump taking credit for this deal coming together in his truth social post. | ||
| Does it matter and who do you think should get the credit? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, you know, to me, sometimes it really doesn't matter who gets the credit for some of this stuff, at least from my perspective on some of the things that I do. | |
| But in this case, I really think that President Trump has put a pressure on the situation, and I think that's going to be a real, as far as trying to reach a compromise, and I think that's appropriate. | ||
| Look ahead to Monday, beyond the inaugural ceremonies here on Capitol Hill. | ||
| What are you expecting to see from then-President Trump on Monday in terms of executive orders? | ||
| What does he need to deliver on his first day in office? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think he's been working on that. | |
| We've been working on that, in fact, in the House. | ||
| And Speaker Johnson has done a good job of keeping us informed of what the president, incoming president wants. | ||
| And as of today, I think we're pretty well in conjunction with each other. | ||
| And that's going to be important to make sure we move this through fast and through appropriately. | ||
| Do you think it's going to be immigration and border control? | ||
| Is it energy? | ||
| How many things can he do on day one? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I don't know that there's a limit on how much he can do, but certainly the things you've just mentioned about the border, I mean, there's never been a situation or a country that didn't know who was coming in and who was leaving and all of that. | |
| And in military, my military background would say you never moved into a new area and established a perimeter so that you could tell who was coming and who was going. | ||
| And so this is important for this country. | ||
| So controlling the border, energy is going to be a major factor when we shut down the pipeline at the very beginning of this administration. | ||
| Then that really started the inflation process. | ||
| And everything in this country moves by either ship or air or by rail or truck, and that takes fuel. | ||
| And so as soon as you put a war on fossil fuels, you're going to have inflation as a result because everyone's going to pass that expense down for the products that they produce and haul. | ||
| So That's going to be an important aspect of what we try to do in this first 100 days. | ||
| You talk about your military background. | ||
| I want to focus on your farm background and also your service on the Agriculture Committee. | ||
| What is the status? | ||
| Can you just bring viewers up to date on the status of the farm bill? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, we did such a good job in the 118th with the farm bill, and we had a lot of support from various organizations across the country. | |
| So I'm hoping that we can use that as a real strong base. | ||
| If there are some things that we need to tweak because of the changes in the economy, you know, the agricultural community has not had a lot of commodities that have had good prices in recent times, and so it is important that we provide that safety net for them to get through this. | ||
| And a lot of us don't really appreciate where the food comes from and how hard those individuals, ranchers and farmers, work to produce that food that we all eat. | ||
| And we take it for granted sometimes. | ||
| And so back to your original question, the farm bill, I think we're going to move that forward because it's so important. | ||
| And we're almost, what, a year late already? | ||
| So it's time to get that moving. | ||
| And we have a lot of support out in the rural communities and in the farm communities to want us to do that. | ||
| Are you concerned at all about what Donald Trump's promises on tariffs and mass deportations, how that could impact the agriculture industry in this country? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, you know, the deportations, I think interested in those people that are criminals and been doing bad things for some of the citizens in this country, I think we need to find them and get them out of this because our families aren't safe, our children aren't safe. | |
| And so I think that's an important aspect. | ||
| And then as far as agriculture is concerned, yes, we do need employees, but we need legal workers and laborers to handle our farm and work in our farm economy and our farm industries, really. | ||
| Before you go, I did want to ask you about the confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill this week. | ||
| A lot going on. | ||
| Which ones have you been able to watch? | ||
| What are you focused on? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I think they've all been interesting. | |
| I mean, certainly you have to have an interest, but Pete Hegseth, you know, did a great job in his answers. | ||
| He was well informed, well prepared. | ||
| Pam Gondi did a great job. | ||
| I mean, she answered the questions, and you got to be proud of her for the way she stood up for her beliefs and aspects that she intends to improve the Department of Justice. | ||
| But all of them were important. | ||
| I think President Trump has done a good job of selecting individuals that can bring the kinds of common sense to our government and do the efficiencies that are important. | ||
| Come Monday, are you going to be at inauguration? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I am. | |
| Do you know where your seat is going to be? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Is that okay? | |
| Do you know where your seat's going to be? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I know where it's at, but I'll have to look for it a little more. | |
| Concerned at all about the weather come Monday? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I did. | |
| I'm looking for a pair of heated underwear. | ||
| How about that? | ||
| Congressman Jim Baird of Indiana Hoosier joining us this morning, Republican and member of several committees on Capitol Hill. | ||
| Appreciate your time, Congressman. | ||
| We'll let you get to your work on Capitol Hill. | ||
| Come join us again and stay warm on Monday. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You betting. | |
| Thank you very much. | ||
| 20 minutes left this morning taking your phone calls, phone lines. | ||
| As usual, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, the three topics we've been focusing on throughout the morning, the ceasefire deal announced yesterday when it comes to Gaza and the hostages release. | ||
| Joe Biden's farewell address last night from the Oval Office and those ongoing confirmation hearings. | ||
| There are plenty more happening today, and we hope you follow C-SPAN, C-SPAN 2, and C-SPAN 3 throughout the day to stay on top of those hearings. | ||
| William's been waiting in the Buckeye State Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you today? | ||
| I'm doing well. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I got to say one thing about Joe Biden. | |
| He did one fantastic job when he was in there for the four years. | ||
| He should have let other people in sooner. | ||
| And then we could have got a guy like Newsom in there or Sapiero or maybe even Kamala would have had a better chance. | ||
| And about the confirmations, he's picking all the sycophants. | ||
| And the orange monster scares me. | ||
| I think he's going after democracy. | ||
| And we cannot lose my beautiful democracy that's been in this country 248 years, especially my family's been in this country since the 1600s. | ||
| And he's a Johnny come lately. | ||
| And, you know, that's about all I got to say about it. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| It's William in Ohio. | ||
| Ralph is next in Florida, a Republican. | ||
| Ralph, good morning. | ||
| Is it Hamasasa, Florida? | ||
| How do you say that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Homasasa. | |
| Homasasa. | ||
| I'll remember that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's correct. | |
| I'm calling about the ceasefire deal, which I think is disgraceful for both sides taking the credit, Republicans and Democrats. | ||
| Everybody forgets what happened October 7th, that how many women and children were murdered and how many people were taken captive and the women were raped and also murdered while they were in captivity. | ||
| And I thought it was also disgraceful that on our soil that we had Americans saying death to America while they were pro-Hamas. | ||
| Now, as usual, the Hamas gets the better of this hostage trade back and forth. | ||
| Again, we know that Israel will give up one person for a thousand terrorists, but they forget that these terrorists then come back. | ||
| And how many of those people that came in October 7th may have been released in the past? | ||
| And here they come back and they murder. | ||
| Far as I'm concerned, there should not be any trade agreement or hostage trade-off the way they're doing it. | ||
| And I feel that Netanyahu was pressured to give in to make either side, Republicans and Democrats, look like they were, what should I say, they were the peaceful bargainers. | ||
| And as far as I'm concerned, Netanyahu should never give in to this hostage agreement. | ||
| That's all I've got to say. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| In Florida, that agreement, not a done deal yet. | ||
| As we found out early this morning, Israel delaying a cabinet vote on the ceasefire deal and with concerns being expressed by Benjamin Netanyahu about Hamas's actions and what they're asking for. | ||
| We'll see how that plays out. | ||
| I want to take you back, though, to yesterday, Joe Biden announcing the ceasefire and then taking questions on it from the reporters gathered on the deal, but also the role of the incoming Trump administration. | ||
| Here's just a minute or so from that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The implementation of this deal will be the hands of the next administration. | |
| And basically, they will shape the future of Gaza. | ||
| So, how do you see this future? | ||
| And also, how much credit do you give to the Trump team for this deal? | ||
| Trump's already taking credit for it. | ||
| Well, you know, this is the exact framework of the deal I proposed back in May. | ||
| Exact. | ||
| And we got the world to endorse it. | ||
| Secondly, it's America Support for Israel that helped them badly weaken Amas and his backers and create the conditions for this deal. | ||
| And thirdly, I knew this deal would have to be implemented by the next team. | ||
| So I told my team to coordinate closely with the incoming team to make sure we're all speaking with the same voice. | ||
| Because that's what American presidents do. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Brown, how many Americans will be in the how many Americans will be released when the hostages are being released? | |
| All the exact detail of how many people are being held, how many bodies will be returned unless will all be forthcoming. | ||
| All of it. | ||
| All of it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Mr. President. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What's your level of confidence that this deal will hold? | |
| I'm confident. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Who is the country folks' credit for this, Mr. President? | |
| You or Trump? | ||
| Is that a joke? | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| President Joe Biden yesterday, taking your phone calls this morning as we wait for the House to come in in about 15 minutes or so. | ||
| This is Amid in LA. | ||
| Democrat, Amid, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, peace be unto you. | |
| Yes, the last caller talking about that Netanyahu should not take this deal. | ||
| I believe the deal will not go through because the terrorist state of Israel wants to exterminate all the Palestinians. | ||
| 34,000 Palestinians have been murdered. | ||
| The Palestinians have been under oppression for 75 years. | ||
| Their property, their land has been taken away from them. | ||
| And to think that they are the terrorists, it is the European Jews who are on Arab land who are the terrorists. | ||
| And if they wanted to partition some land, they should have partitioned Germany because Germany is the one who committed the crimes against them. | ||
| The Palestinians are innocent victims of white supremacy. | ||
| And the reason why Donald Trump, the liar, the Antichrist, won is because the foundation of America is white supremacy. | ||
| All right, that's a mead. | ||
| This is Russell in Winchester, Virginia, Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'd like to talk about a different news story from yesterday, if that's okay with you. | ||
| I'll tell you what, can we keep it to the ceasefire or the farewell or the confirmation hearings just because that's a lot already to do with the House and Donald Trump instructing Mr. Johnson to fire the intelligence chief? | ||
| And it's just, you know, the chairman of the intelligence committee, another Republican. | ||
| This really bothers me. | ||
| Why would someone do this? | ||
| There has to be something that he wants to cover up, and he is afraid this man is too honest. | ||
| But we can go back to the confirmation if you want. | ||
| I think Miss Bundy's extremely qualified, but I think she might have been soiled by the touch of the Trump. | ||
| And Mr. Hagseth, evidently managing money from the little bit I got out of the confirmation hearing was pretty poor. | ||
| How many of these hearings have you watched? | ||
| You still with us? | ||
| Then we'll go to Tony in Minneapolis, Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, John, and thank you for taking my call. | |
| Thank you, C-SPAN. | ||
| John, I'm slightly disappointed with your information you provided this morning. | ||
| You briefly just touched on the ceasefire deal being delayed. | ||
| I don't feel like you're updating the viewers that in the last 24 hours, over 81 people have been killed by bombs since Netanyahu has delayed this ceasefire due to what he's considering blackmail by the Hamas leaders. | ||
| All 81 of them, none of them, are Hamas members. | ||
| And so I'm just wondering if you can briefly touch on that with maybe a foreign news circuit, maybe Al Jazeera or Sky News or someone that covers it more intensely. | ||
| 46,000 people have been killed since this unintended or unneeded campaign against the Palestinians has been broadcast. | ||
| Over 100,000 have been injured. | ||
| And so I'm wondering if you can update the viewers up to the minute, possibly with one of those sources. | ||
| Thank you and enjoy your day. | ||
| Tony, appreciate it. | ||
| Up to the minute, hard to do on a live call-in show, but we do try. | ||
| And I had this from the previous caller, this story coming late last night. | ||
| Representative Mike Turner, the Republican of Ohio, ousted in his role as intelligence chair. | ||
| Speaker Johnson, removing him, bowing to Trump, as the New York Times puts it. | ||
| He had at times been critical of the president-elect. | ||
| He told people that he was axed after an edict from Mar-a-Lago, the reporting from the New York Times, but that story in several of the papers this morning. | ||
| This is Judith in Northeast Maryland, Republican. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, my comment today focused on the confirmation hearing for Bindi. | |
| Everyone who questioned her, it seems their only aim was to get her to admit she would do to the Democrats if she's confirmed what they did to the Republicans for the last four or twelve years. | ||
| Also, the Biden farewell speech, he has welcomed so many killers to our country, and that's not enough. | ||
| He had to pardon death row. | ||
| In the Constitution, it must have slipped everybody's mind in the White House. | ||
| It says the president shall protect us. | ||
| And clearly, welcoming in killers and pardoning death row inmates who are killers and worse is not keeping us safe. | ||
| And in time, I would like very much to know who wrote the fantasy farewell speech. | ||
| That's it. | ||
| That's Judith in Maryland. | ||
| We've been focusing on Biden's farewell address, the confirmation hearings, and the ceasefire deal in Gaza and showed this earlier on the latest on that deal, noting that it's not a done deal yet. | ||
| Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Nenyal, who holding up the cabinet vote on that deal, that's, as Al Jazeera puts it, prompted premature celebrations in Gaza. | ||
| It was expected to take effect on Sunday. | ||
| The Israeli military, they write, has stepped up attacks on the Gaza Strip since that announcement, killing at least 81 Palestinians in the past 24 hours. | ||
| That's according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. | ||
| That's the Al Jazeera headline. | ||
| This is Beverly in Wyoming. | ||
| Democrat. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Good morning to you. | ||
| What's on your mind, Beverly? | ||
|
unidentified
|
What's on my mind is my beautiful family. | |
| And they are, most of them are Republicans. | ||
| And, you know, maybe it wasn't fair or was, I don't know. | ||
| But I'm hoping that the president that comes before us, I'm hoping he has better solutions than the hate that he fuels. | ||
| And I just wish the best for him. | ||
| And, you know, I have no hate for no one. | ||
| But, yeah, I just want to enjoy my day. | ||
| You know, I'm turning 62 today. | ||
| Happy birthday, David. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I thank you. | |
| And I wish the president that comes in the best. | ||
| And I also thank Joe Biden for being our president and being a real decent man. | ||
| And Kamala Harris, she was a very decent woman. | ||
| And, you know, people don't get it. | ||
| She's a woman. | ||
| Men don't want women in power. | ||
| So God bless all of you. | ||
| And I hope he straightens up the border situation because there is a lot of people that came in. | ||
| But, you know, to blame President Biden for that kind of stuff, that's just like saying, oh, yeah, that's too deep for me. | ||
| Because he was a good president, and he doesn't have followers that want to destroy the nation. | ||
| He doesn't have followers like that. | ||
| That's Beverly in the Cowboy State to the Hawkeye State. | ||
| This is Floyd in Ottumwa, Republican. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| C-SPAN, the first thing I want to get at is this nomination business. | ||
| They had this Pam Bondian for Attorney General, but what I want to get in is this Matt Whitaker. | ||
| They've got him tapped to be ambassador to NATO. | ||
| We need Matt Whitaker to be the director of the FBI. | ||
| FBI has that counterintelligence mission and law enforcement mission. | ||
| Matt Whitaker, Iowa native, he knows both. | ||
| But let me get to something else right quick. | ||
| He was acting United States Attorney General for Legal. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, he was. | |
| Yes, he was. | ||
| The first Trump administration. | ||
| So what we wanted to get is this, this Middle East business. | ||
| You know, Trump's been complaining about him saying that Canada is going to be the 51st state and it wants to take Panama. | ||
| You know, what he could do is just go for this Middle East. | ||
| Why not just take the 51st state over there and just move in and impose order over there and get things straightened out? | ||
| But there's a big mess over there. | ||
| Something else that happened over there years later is pertinent to today. | ||
| The lies were being told by the IDF. | ||
| Now, that's not the same thing as their civilian leadership. | ||
| But we had an incident 8 June 1967. | ||
| The USS Liberty was attacked by the IDF. | ||
| And that was intentional. | ||
| They said it was an accident. | ||
| Thought they were going to get away with it. | ||
| We had eyes on it, seen it happen. | ||
| Bring me back to Trump. | ||
| I'm bringing it up today. | ||
| Why it's pertinent. | ||
| They lied to us then about what's going on with their military actions. | ||
| They're lying to us now. | ||
| That's why I believe that Trump is going to have to get over there. | ||
| When he talks, people think sometimes he's brash. | ||
| He makes big bold statements. | ||
| Those statements he makes can cut both ways. | ||
| They could get in there and get those terrorists for the Arabs, but they can also get in there and they're going to make people on the Israeli side get nervous because this guy might do what he says. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Goodbye. | ||
| That's Floyd in Iowa to New York City. | ||
| This is Mary Elizabeth, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Happy 2025 to everyone. | ||
| I hope everyone remains healthy and safe. | ||
| I'm calling one to comment on the Hayseth hearing and looking at his responses. | ||
| I'm wondering if he's suffering from PTSD based on his military service. | ||
| That's number one. | ||
| And the second question. | ||
| What specific responses concern you, Mary Elizabeth? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Just his whole demeanor, his whole demeanor. | |
| And he was very combative. | ||
| He was talking over the questioners, the senators who were asking him questions. | ||
| Do you think that's unusual in confirmation hearings, regardless of the administration coming in? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I do. | |
| I do. | ||
| I'm very concerned about him. | ||
| I'm very concerned about him. | ||
| My intuition says that he's possibly suffering from PTSD. | ||
| The second point is this whole business about who's the criminal, criminal president. | ||
| People may feel that about the president-elect and the comments that people are making about Biden and his family and calling them crime family, et cetera. | ||
| What's the evidence? | ||
| I'm just concerned about the hatefulness that the president-elect has for the FBI. | ||
| And I've been thinking that I would really like to see his FBI file from 1988 to 2015 to try and figure out so that we could all read about it to find out why he hates the FBI so much. | ||
| Because I grew up watching The Untouchables, and Elliot Ness always got his person. | ||
| So people talk about warfare or lawfare against the president-elect. | ||
| But the primary question that I would have is why he hates the FBI, and I really would like to see his FBI file from 1988 to. | ||
| I got your point, Mary Elizabeth. | ||
| This is Brenda in West Milford, New Jersey, Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I wanted to talk about the confirmation hearings. | |
| And I just didn't like the way, like, I watched the Bondi and the Hagseth hearings, and I thought the Democrats were so rude. | ||
| Like, they were, it was just like all gotcha questions, trying. | ||
| And I thought both Hagseth and Bondi did great jobs. | ||
| And I, you know, I heard the last caller saying that, you know, Hagseth has PTSD, and I didn't see any of that. | ||
| And my friend is. | ||
| Do you think gotcha questions are unique to this round of confirmation hearings? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't think they're unique, but the way the Democrats were phrasing the questions were, I thought it was very rude. | |
| Like they said, some of them sounded unhinged. | ||
| And it just, to me, it was very off-putting. | ||
| And my second thing is that I think the reason that the ceasefire is happening is because of Trump's threat. | ||
| Explain what you mean, Brenda. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, when Trump said if the hostages aren't home, there's going to be hell to pay. | |
| All hell to pay, saying that. | ||
| Yes, his quote. | ||
| Do you think that's what made it happen? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think so because the offer was out there since May or March or whatever. | |
| But I think that Hamas sees the writing on the wall with Trump coming because they know he's going to do what he says. | ||
| That's Brenda in the Garden State to the Peak State. | ||
| Kevin, Independent, good morning. | ||
| The House is getting ready to come in in just a couple minutes here. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks. | |
| I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you and the public. | ||
| I wanted to comment specifically on the confirmation hearing for Pete Hankseth. | ||
| It was sad to see that there's been such a groundswell of support for the idea that we need to make America great again and the general consensus that we could make America great again by putting in such a high office a man who clearly does not value and respect the oaths he took to the multiple women that he married and while out one side of his mouth claims that he loves and supports the military, | ||
| has utilized his existence as a veteran to bankrupt a company that was supposed to support veterans. |