Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20171229

Social media, on twitter, at twitter. Com cspanwj and on facebook, at, facebook. Com cspan. You can start calling in now and as youre calling in, we take you to the front page of the New York Times this morning, an article thats getting a lot of attention with theyre exclusive interview with putt. He is likely to come up during this first hour of discussion on the washington journal. The story in the New York Times has Michael Schmidt and michael shear on the byline. The headline, president says inquiry makes u. S. Look bad. It is an impromptu 30minute interview at the president s golf club in West Palm Beach. He did not demand an end to the investigation but said 16 times that theres been no collusion covered by the inquiry quote. Host the story by shear and schmidt of the New York Times goes on to note that the interview happened in the grill room of the Trump International golf club as the president ate lunch with his playing partners including his son, eric, and jim harmen. No aide was present with the interview. And the president sat alone with a reporter. Were going to be going through this story throughout this first hour of the washington journal today and as were doing that, we also want to hear from you on this question as we said we ask about every year around this time. Want to know your political winners and losers. Again, phone lines, republicans, 2027488001, democrats, 2027488000 and independents, 2027488002. Dean is up first in louisville, kentucky, an independent. Deep, good morning to you. Aller good morning. My loser is President Trump and im a conservative republican. Served rump was a he this country and then we live in a very dangerous world today and i feel like President Trump is not the president i want to see right now in the white house. Thank you. Host dean, who would you like to into a who is the winner . Lost history gregory is on the independent line. Go ahead. Caller yeah, excuse me. Having a cough. Its awfully chilly this morning. Host it is, indeed. Caller for me, its trump taking well, basically trump , having with just his ego primarily. T shows how, i guess, humanity has its ultimate defaults or its ailures and its on full display with trump. And then theres the fact that he takes everything very personally so it gives me solace to consider his anxiety or frustrations that he may be contemplating at this very hour. Host well, gregory, well see what the president is think about this hour. Its the the time of day where the president often does tweet. Well keep an eye on his twitter page as we do every morning on the washington journal. But i want to hear from our viewers about political winners and losers from 2017. Dwayne, aberdeen, south dakota, line for democrats. Dwayne, go ahead. Caller yeah. I think the democrats are the losers this year because for whatever reason, i dont understand they win some, having to get 60 votes in the senate to pass up for 50 or whatever. I dont understand how that happen. Can somebody explain that to me . Host dwayne, how do you think it happened . What do you think went wrong with Democratic Candidates caller i dont know. Thats why ive been trying to figure out. Its always been they had to pass some major legislation. It took 60 votes in the congress and in senate. And now its just a simple majority. When did that change . Host the reason for that on the tax got was through the reconciliation process that republicans used for tax reform, sort of a onebite at the apple for one piece of legislation each year. This is that process that we talked a little bit about on this program but its not like they will be it will be a 51vote threshold for piece of legislation unless they change the filibuster rule. Caller thats well, i just think that they if youre going to have 60 vote, then youve got bipartisan. This is not a bipartisan deal now. Its a republican way or no way. And i dont think thats right. Host well, the gap in the senate is going to get a little bit closer yesterday. The state of alabama certified Democrat Doug Jones as the winner of that special election for u. S. Senate following a failed 11th hour challenge by republican roy moore. Mr. Jones who won the december 12 election and is expecting to be sworn in january 3 is the first democrat elected senator from alabama in more than two decades. Host the story notes that mr. Moore hasnt conceded. He lost the rates. He received about 20,000 votes out of the 1. 3 million that were cast. One story about the votes that were cast in that Alabama Special Senate election focuses on some of those alabamaians and others who got votes besides the republican and democratic candidate in that election. Mr. Jones as weve voted won by fewer than 20,000 votes and more than 22,800 residents including richard shelby, a republican in the congressional delegation elected to write in the names of other figures, whether they were dead, alive or fictional. The New York Times noting that Luther Strange, who was appointed to hold the position, hold the seat in the senate after Jeff Sessions was nominated and confirmed for the attorney general spot, Luther Strange won about 7,800 writein vote. He did run for that post in the primary and lost to roy moore. Others receiving vote, bonso the clown had a handful of alabamaians. Mickey mouse picked up some of the states host the story on the New York Times focusing on all those folks who received writein votes. Kathy is in odessa, texas, a republican. Kathy, who were your winners and losers of 2015 . 2017 . Doink the american citizens are the losers in all of this. We have a government thats infighting amongst itself. We have two parties that continuously fight. E want to Work Together. And i truly believe its the people who voted them to be in office that are the losers. Host who do you think is the winner of 2017 . Caller i dont think that there was a true political winner in 2017. Because those that were victorious were brought down and the ones that werent victorious ave won. I believe trump this trying his hardest. And i believe that the Republican Party after a while said ok, youre the president. Were going to do this. And i think that the democratic side is eventually going to come around. But i truly dont believe theres any true winners this year. Host kathy in texas. More from the president with that exclusive interview in the times. New york times. He expressed anger in democrats who he said refused on legislation he went to talk about that alabama special election. He said he supported Luther Strange because he knew that roy moore would lose the general election and he insisted that he endorsed mr. Moore at the end only because i feel like vi on the divorce republicans as the head of the party. I want to hear from you this morning. Mike is up next in pennsylvania, line for republicans. Go ahead. Caller i think winner this year was donald trump. I voted for him not because i thought he was the lesser of two evils. I thought Hillary Clinton would be a lot worse. But hes proven himself to be a pretty good p. Ive never seen a man get up every morning, get punched in the head all day by the media and get back up and do it again the next day. And hes been trying to do exactly what he said he would do. So im going to call him the winner. Host mike, you said you originally thought he was the lever of two lesser of the two evils. What were you concerned about him . Caller that he wasnt going to do what he said he was going to. Ive been lied to my whole life. Ive met many politicians in my life time. They all promise you anything when theyre running and we knew that Hillary Clinton lied all the time. I mean, shes never done anything she said she was going to do. So he was the lesser of two evils but hes turned into a really good president as far as im concerned because he is trying to do exactly what he said he would do. And he cuts so much regulation, and hes cut taxes. I just dont see how anybody can think he isnt doing what he isnt supposed to. Host mike, what do you make of these job approval numbers . Do they mean anything at all . Heres the real clear politics of the president s job approval numbers over the course of the year. It is currently at 39 of the American Public approving of the president s job. 56 disapproving of how hes doing his job. 16. 9 gap there. Caller i personally think its the same as during the election. Nobody wanted to say they were supporting him. But they did. You know, its the way it was and i think its still that way. I think people just dont want to say they support him but theyll come out and vote for him. Host mike, appreciate that call. Ahead to san marcos, texas, sam, line for democrats. Go ahead. Caller yeah, good morning. Thank you for cspan. So i actually want to say the biggest losers or two losers of 2017, roy moore and donald trump , especially with the harassing claims that were going on everywhere and how donald trump was claiming to roy moore or about roy moore that he is not appreciating roy moores values or he doesnt support him but hes still, you know, being accused of harassment. And with the recent tweet by donald trump, you can tell that hes kind of hes kind of edgy on this whole harassment thing when he tweeted out i like big host and we will move on to bill, line for independents. Bill, go ahead. [indiscernible] how can you pass a law and put a trillion dollar debt in this country . I dont understand it. And we, the taxpayers, were going to have to pay this off and by doing that, we cut the senate. We cut the congress. We cut the pay in half. We cut the per diem in half. And we cut their staff on the two people. One thats in d. C. And one in the state. If these guys tagged up together and passed a law and balanced the budget, they would all fit to be in the office. So why are we paying them 175,000 a year . Lets cut their pay in half. Lets balance the budget and if they cant do it, well draw titions and cut the pay in half and will the savings go to the budget, not do anything else. Host what did think of the tax bill that was just passed, the president touting it as one of his big accomplishments of his first year in office . Caller how can you be proud of a bill that puts the country, puts a trillion dollars in debt . And he brags about it. I didnt vote for history and i didnt vote for clinton. I didnt think either one should run this country. Its proven lately. How can you sit there and be president of the United States and brag about a tax bill that puts the country a trillion dollars in debt . You explain this to me. Host bill, who did you vote for . Caller i didnt vote for either one. Host did you vote for anyone . Caller i voted for the guys name from here. Host who, bill . Caller neither one of these, clinton or trump, i believe were able to run this country and they have proven it. They dont know how to run the country. Host thats bill in wisconsin. Tina this greensboro, north carolina, line for democrats. Tina, good morning. Caller good morning. I think the losers are the American People, our environment and good image as a reliable global leader. And let me say harming 13 million innocent Sick Children and elders that we should honor does not make our country great. Im just so saddened by it that our countrys being run like a casino by unethical people. And the winners, big business nd the rich have become more wealthy and they are highly and mightily represented by the Republican Party. Deron williams just the face of whats donald trump is just the face of it. The Republican Party is responsible for that embrace and create chaos to keep people like me off balance with the issue so we wont see how much theyre stealing of our money and theyre causing great harm to the world. Host tina, you mentioned wedge issues. Do you think Climate Change and the president s position on Climate Change, do you think thats become a wedge issue . Caller well, i think the issue is so important it should not be a wedge issue because we all want clean water, fresh air and ealthy land to grow our crops. There seems to be an unhealthy disrespect for the manifestations of the world and that is from a very dark place. And it is a wedge issue because many of the leaders have been bribed to the point to where they cannot agent responsibly. Host the president tweeting about Climate Change and Global Warming about 18 hours or so. This was the president yesterday in the east. It could be the coldest new years eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our country, but not other countries. Was going to pay trillions of dollars to protect against. Bundle up, the president tweeted. Sheldon tweeted so much his criticisms back. This is just embarrassing. He wrote, citing the president s tweet. Its clear facts dont matter to you, but heres the new climate report from your administration that affirms Climate Change is caused by human tuft and has serious health, economic and environmental consequences. Read it. And he went on to tweet that report back to the president. Taking your calls this morning. Our question is about your political winners and losers in 2017. Were going to be talking about it for the first hour of our program today. Joshua rogers, arkansas, line for independents. Go ahead. Caller yes. Thank you for taking my call. The answer is simple this year. The political losers have been, obviously the Republican Party has been embarrassed in ways i think ive never actually seen the Republican Party embarrassed in my lifetime which that hasnt been very long. But still. Trump is an embarrassment to this country. And hillary was not set to do the job either, which is why im an independent. And the result of this this mess, this chaos that we are all in the midst of, we are going to get a more informed voter. We are going to have a Younger Generation that is going to step up and do their research, do their homework on the people theyre voting for. And so in other words what, im trying to say is bear with us through this terrible time and there will be a time when you to have a more informed voter going into the booth and that person thats going to vote based on what the pulisic willing really able to get us rather as opposed to what theyre promising us and somebody thats willing to vote with their head and not their heart and not in an emotional state which i think it happened in this election. Host you brought up generations and age. Do you mind if i ask how old you are . Caller yes, sir. Im 29 years old. So i would tend to be falling in the umbrella of millennial. Host went did you start really paying attention to politics and why . Caller i was probably actually in my mid 20s when i started paying attention and the reason is because it began to affect my daytoday life. I was in college. I was entering the job market. I was looking for insurance. Things of these nature. And i found it extremely difficult that an adult in this country, on this economic climate to find good employment to get health insurance, to just do the basic things that an american person should be able to do. I have an extremely difficult time and i think the Republican Party has made it to where it is very difficult for someone like myself to make it in this world. Host joshua, i know were talking about 2017. But wow who did you support in 2016 . Caller in 2016, i was very much mr. Sanders to be honest with you. Sanders was kind of more hes leaning in the direction of what the young people are looking, ill just say that. Host so you would disagree then with this newsweek story as the headline old people like Bernie Sanders should get out of politics for 2020 quoting howard dean on nbc newss morning joe. He ced i think someone of my generation needs get the hell out of politics, he wrote. Caller i think im going to have to agree and disagree with that statement. Bernie sanders is one of the special few in this generation hat understands my generation. But experience always important. And lets not forget that the older generation always has something to teach us. Lets not forget that. But at the same time, a younger politician getting in there, it could not be the worst thing either. Kind of a duality out there. Host who is the young politician that you would like to see come out of 2018 . Caller im going to be honest with you, theres nobody i see right now. Host jonathan, my choice for 2017 winner is Bernie Sanders for never giving up and my choice for loser is donald trump. Marie says the media are the political losers. Very embarrassing for the u. S. To have a corrupt democrat owned hostile media. The loser of 2015 is the American People. Racism is in pennsylvania, line four for revpbles rachel, good morning. Caller yes, good morning. How are you today . Host im doing well. Go ahead. Caller thats wonderful. Yes, i was excited to see this live comment going on about the question at hand and i believe that the American People are winners with donald trump having been elected, hallelujah, and im just so glad about it. Hes got the backbone to stand up and defend the moral standard of god. And he has the backbone to go forth and do what is right. You know, what is absolutely right. Hillary clinton if she were elected would have tried to shut down preachers speaking the truth of god, hallelujah, upholding the bible, and she would have made it a crime to speak against the wickedness in the world going on today whereas donald trump is descending the moral codes of god and host can i ask, rachel, in what way she would make it a crime to speak against wickedness in the world . How would that have happened . Caller well, her being backed by the lesbian coalition. She is for abortion, the murder, premeditated murder of innocent babies in the world and she is and silence to try preachers speaking againsted so mites and lesbian behavior, which is against the bible, which is against gods natural order and through the prayers of prophet walker in spartanburg, north carolina, she was defeated. And god, through circumstances of the popular vote being slayed toward her, supposedly, she allowed for donald trump to be elected. He is defend the moral codes of god. He stands in allegiance with gods marriage being between a man and a woman. And not between anything else. And he defends that and the whole world, actually, is able to thrive and flourish in truth because donald trump has been elected. God put him in office. Nd thats just selfevident. Host the president is defending himself against that russia probe. It was the focus of that New York Times front page story thats getting a lot of attention. And the president also focused some of his comments on paul manafort, his former campaign chairman. Mr. Trump tried to put distance between himself and mr. Manafort who was indicted in october in that russia probe. Paul only worked for me for a few months, he said. Paul worked for ronald reagan, his firm worked for host he added when you look at the things that they did and holder protected the president and i have Great Respect for that. Ill be honest. And thats the president in his New York Times interview that exclusive interview in the green room of the Trump International golf club. Happened yesterday, front page story today getting a lot of attention. Janet this tacoma, washington, line for democrats. Go ahead. Who are your political winners and losers at 2015 . 2017 . Caller i think that the republicans are persuading trump to do everything, especially paul ryan. Because hes doing everything [indiscernible] the republican is in. And they say they want to help the middle class. No, they dont theyre help the rich and not the middle class. They dont want to help the disabled. And jesus said we have to help the poor and kennedy said we have to help the poor or we cant survive. And jesus said its easier for a cam toll get an eye in the needle than your chance to get to heaven. And they dont want to do it. And i i dont want a [indiscernible] but i am a democrat. My family were always democrats and i want to get that i want a democrat that will not go against the law of god. The republicans and the democrats are going against the law of god. The republicans always work for the rich. Kennedy said [indiscernible] eagan helped the rich so much. He lost we didnt have a cent when we got out of office. Host youre looking for a certain kind of democrat. Who do you think that could be in 2018 . Is there anybody right now in he Democratic Party . Caller who is the one that was the Vice President . Wanted to run for Vice President for hillary . Host tim kaine of virginia . Caller yes. I think he would be a good one. And i think hes catholic and i think he would go along with the right way of god. I really do. And theres another catholic in there that i think would. I think we would have to get a religious democrat that would go against all this abortion and everything and host all right. Got your point. I appreciate your call. Were going to go to frank in beverly, new jersey, line for republicans. Frank, go ahead. Caller yeah, good morning. A great show. Host appreciate that. Caller ive been listening to the show, ok, and youve been having some millennials call in. It makes me sick to hear what these millennials have to say because im going to tell you right now. Im a boomer, ok . And ever since the great society, this countrys been in decline. He only reason why the millennials supported Bernie Sanders is because he was given everything giving everything away for free. Nobody wants to earn anything anymore in this country. They all expect it for free or on the back for somebody else. And the furthermore, the winners are the American People because finally, we have a president in the office that doesnt want to kowtow to every other president or other countries. Host as a republican, would you like to see Bernie Sanders run again . Caller absolutely. You know why . Because then he can espouse more of his socialism and more people can really see what its all about. Thats why the millennials voted for him. Nobody wants to earn anything anymore in this country. Everybody expects somebody else to pay for it or give it to them for free. Whatever happened to good old work . Host frank, do you think the Republican Party has a problem with attracting millennials . Do you think that they will eventually come and join the Republican Party, the Research Polling shows that that generation more inclined to be democrats than republicans. Caller i think you will get some because you know what, when look, especially about the new tax laws and all that, when they start seeing their paychecks go up more and other stuff thats going to be good for the people, maybe they might have a change of heart. Maybe they might. Because, look, i dont care what anybody says. The democrats indoctrinate people about the rich getting all the money and the poor getting nothing. Thats not true because who do you think gives people all these jobs . Its the people have the money that have the money that can oy employ people and open up factories and businesses for people to work in. You have the haves and the have knots and thats the way its going to be until the end of the world. Host thats frank in new jersey. Its just after 7 30 on the east coast. Were asking this morning for you to name your political winners and losers from 2017 as we said that the question we often ask this time of year. A few tweets on this topic. Robert where is in that Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi are the losers. Trump won hands down. And jerry where is in political viewer spanl im sure viewership was up this year. Crystal is up in washington, d. C. , line for independents. Crystal gogs ahead. Caller good morning, good morning. Host good morning. Caller yeah. I think the political winners definitely trump because all the hate and everything that we see from the past and the losers are efinitely American People. Host and why, crystal . Expand on that a little bit. Caller were getting further and further away from each other. I work in restaurants. I work with all kinds of people from all over the country, all over the world. And they come here because no matter where youre from, with a your belief, the core most people feel is if you come here and work hard, you can make something of yourself. But trumps making it like if you are muslims, if you are trans, if you are not like me in those i know and youre different, then you should be shunned. Hes encouraging that kind of behavior. And thats not what americas about. Host thats crystal in d. C. Janet is in west virginia, a odell. Janet, go ahead. Caller well i think frank from new jersey said a lot that i would say. Host how would you say it, janet . Caller in these colleges. These people in these colleges shouldnt even be in there teaching. And i dont think trumps had a chance. They should be able to, they want to impeach him before they ot in. There was 10 kids in my family. When my children worked in the summer and went to school paid a lot of their tuition and stuff for books and these kids today, they just want everything given to them. And i think trumps great and hes trying. And the congress is should stand behind him. The democrats are just so torn up because hillary didnt win. I think if she won, we would be taken over. I just thing its terrible about what theyre doing to trump. Thats all i got to say. Host janet in west virginia. Janet mentioned the congress. Cspan putting out some end of year stats, the pregnancy of the procession of the congress. The debate took up 289 hours. Some other stats from the cspan archives and from the year end stats. President ial nominations and confirmations in the first year. President trump had 558 nominations, 322 confirmations. Thats a 57. 7 clip. You can see that compared to past president s. And if you want to see all this information in chalk form, you can go to the cspan website, cspan. Org. We have all the information there. One of the charts shows the hours and session the house versus the senate. The senate with more hours in session. You can remember over the past year, some of those very late nights in the senate. Some 1,045 hours in session again, compared with the house in the past year. So go to cspan. Org to check out all of those charts, all that good information. Weve compiled it there for you. In the meantime, give us a call about your political winners and osers. Whose political capitol rose and fell the most . Davis in jackson, mississippi, line for republicans. Dave, go ahead. Caller its jackson, michigan. Host oh, jackson, many. Sorry about that. Caller yep, youre good. Host go ahead. Caller so my political winners this year is definitely going to be trump with the Republican Party. I think there hadnt gotten a good road. Theyre fighting tooth and nail. You talk about bipartisanship but there is none. They tone want to Work Together. They hate each other. Its ridiculous and its sickening. I personally am a millennial. I want to defend the millennials on this because no, not all of us are leaning towards democrats are independents. Whoever thinks that, i think youre a fool. I grew up in jackson. A small town. Were a manufacturing town. Everything we , to were making parts and growing up with the clintons in office and with obama in office, with a small break with bush in the middle. The one thing i can tell you, man, is everybody telling us that we cant make a life without going to college, you know . Look, man, college aint for me. I dont want to sit on my butt and sit in front of the computer all day. I want to work. And its just not right. Host you started to comment talking about bipartisanship and the lack of bipartisanship. Do you think people in this country want to see bipartisanship . Or do you think they dont like it when the two sides Work Together . Caller i think its foolish not to look, man, you ever watch an investigation with police . I love the work that the police to i really do. You look at the good detectives and theyre going to take two sides of the zpoir they always say the truth lies somewhere in the middle. And i believe that to be true. Host what do you think President Trumps accomplishments were in the past ear . Caller probably getting his tax cuts passed. People say its for the rich and im looking at it and its going to help me and my family. Its going to help my company succeed more. Were going to be able to grow. Im a supervisor. I did it the hard way. I came in knowing nothing. I learned how to make these parts in extremely precision labor and we became good at it. Host how much do you expect to it help you in terms of bottom line . Caller our company or me personally . Host you personally and the company. Caller me personally, close to 1,000 a year in my pocket roughly. Maybe not quite that but right around there. Host and what does that mean for you in jackson, michigan . Caller oh, what that means for me in jackson, michigan, im going to pay off my tractor a little early. Im going to be able to take my wife out and family out to eat once a month or something, you know. Something a little extra. Host davis, appreciate the call. Good luck to you in 2018. Rob this phoenix, arizona, line for december. Rob, go ahead. Caller good morning, john. Host good morning. Caller id like to say that the winners would be injustice and the loser is justice here in phoenix. We had the pardon of and this was a couple minute nation of many years of struggle to bring justice and then one fell swoop, he escapes the Justice System thats supposed to work for the eople. Having a hard kinds ofveling all the conditions that joe left and weve been complaining about the unsanity e conditions and in the jails. Its just a real horrible situation. We have a Court Appointment monitor whos still working with federal judge murray snow whos tried the case that joe piyo was guilty of since 2011. And theres a team of at least 10 Law Enforcement processional ho is are rewriting the rules. So these situation with pardon joe piyo was really a slap in the face to everybody whos worked to bring justice for joe iyo. Host with a do you think the court and specifically the president s nominee and confirmed nominee Justice Neil Gorsuch . Caller this is another heavy handed politics. John, can i make one more comment . Can i take a minute . Host sure. We got a whole lot of other callers, rob. Go ahead. Caller yesterday, i met the mother of a young man whos being held for four years in the jail. There was a death of a detention officer four years ago in watch dale and his name is larry moreno and he was held as 15 years old as an adult and they not have brought him to trial and he never is distraught and he talked to me yesterday about the issue. And so remember the name in phoenix, arizona. Host thats rob in phoenix, arizona, this morning. Talking about the justice and neil gorsuch. Here is Justice Gorsuch during his nomination process when the president introduced him. He talked about his judicial philosophy. Heres what he had to say earlier this year. Ive had the privilege of working as a practicing lawyer and as a teacher. Ive enjoyed wonderful colleagues whose support means so much to me at this moment. As it has year in and year out. Practicing in the trial work, trenches of the law, i thought when we judges don our robes, it doesnt make us any smarter but it does serve as a remind over whats expected of us. Impartiality and independent, collegially and courage. As this process now moves to the senate, i look forward with speaking with members from the both sides of the aisles to answering their questions and to hearing their concerns. I consider the United States the breath body of the world and i expect the Important Role the confirmation of our judges. I respect, to the legal order, it is for congress and not for the courts to you new laws. It is a role for judges to apply, not alter the work. A judge who likes over outcome he reaches is very likely a bad judge. Stretching for results he prefers rather than those the law demands. I am so thavepblg tonight for my family, my friends and my fate. These are the thangets keep me ground at lifes peaks and it sustained me in its valleys. To louis, my incredible wife and companion of 20 years, my checkered daughter who is are watching on tv and all my family and friends. I cannot thank you enough for your lover and for your prayers. I could not attempt this without you. Mr. President , im honored and i am humbled. Thank you very much. Host neil gorsuch went on to be confirmed to the supreme court. If there are any of these end of the year videos that you want to see, theyre all available you to at cspan. Org. I want to encourage you to go here and check them out. It is very easy to use. Its about 745 on the east coast and the question we have for you on the washington journal. We want to hear about your political winners and losers in the past 12 months. Republicans, 2027488001, democrats, 2027488000, independents, 2027488002. A lot of viewers have focused on President Trump as both a winner and loser over the past 12 months and President Trump, the subject of an exclusive interview by the New York Times that ran in todays times. Weve been reading parts of that interview with a wide ranging 30 minutes that New York Times reporters had with the president in the grill room in the Trump International golf club as the president ate lunch this week, part of that interview note that the president says he believes members of the news media will eventually cover him more favorably because they are profiting from the interest of his presidency and thus would want to see him reelected and newspapers, televisions and all forms of media will tank if im not there because without me, their ratings are going down the tubes, the president said. And then he invoked one of his preferred insults. Without me, the New York Times will not be the failing New York Times but the failed New York Times. He added so they basically have to let me win and eventually probably six months before the election, theyll be loving me because theyre saying please, please, dont lose donald trump, ok . That was the president in his interview with New York Times. Want to hear your thoughts this morning on the political losers and winners in 2017. Paul has been waiting in portland, maine, line for independents. Paul, good morning. Caller good morning. Hank you for taking my call. You know, that gives me some insight into Donald Trumps mentality. Without me, the ratings will tackle. It was unbelievable when they compared the amount of coverage he got during the when he was running for president compared to other candidates like Bernie Sanders. Without me, the ratings will tank. You know, to the gentleman who said he and his family will get 1,000 more a year because of the new tax cuts. You know, for a hardworking guy with a family, that works out to about 21 a week. 21 a week. However, 86 of the tax cuts will go to the top 1 . But back to the question at topic. The biggest losers to me are people like paul ryan, mitch mcconnell, that it was against every fiber of their being to still reluctantly support President Trump. Its almost as if they had to sell their souls. Their whole careers, theyve been against the deficit, the national debt. Now they just passed a tax plan thats going to increase it by at least 1. 5 trillion. I mean, these guys, i think back to the late 1930s and the early 1940s in germany. And it is easy to see how things can get out of control. You know, naturally, the Republican Party is a huge winner. But come, you know, midterm election, 2012, maybe theyre not the winners. Aybe, you know maybe in the end, this is going to hurt the Republican Party a lot. Host paul in maine this morning. To alabama, where david is waiting. Line for democrats. David, who are the political winner and loser in your mind this year . Caller good morning, john. Thanks for cspan. I think the big winner would be doug jones. He really pulled off a big upset in a ruby red state. D probably the loser is host david, are you still with us . David was talking about doug jones. On twitter, thomas lewis says greed. The political winner of 2017 is doug jones and the people of alabama who made the impossible possible. Here is doug jones from his acceptance speech. He was talking about finding Common Ground after winning that Senate Special election earlier this month. Heres what he had to say. As we approach this history, as we approach this crossroads, we have work to do. We have work to do in this state to build those bridges within this state. To reach across with those that didnt vote for tus, to try to find that Common Ground. Im pledging to that tonight. [applause] but i will tell you. Tonight is a night for rejoicing because as dr. King said, as dr. King like to quote, the moral arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice. [applause] tonight, tonight, ladies and gentlemen, tonight, tonight in his time, in this place, you help been that moral arc a little closer to that justice d you did it, that moral arc not only was it bent, not only was it aimed truer, but you sent it right to the heart through the great state of alabama in doing so. [applause] host and that was now, senator elect doug jones in his acceptance speech earlier this month, expected to be seated in the senate in early january. Will be sworn in by the Vice President after winning that special election. As weve been having this conversation, the president up and tweeting out his thoughts this morning. Want to keep you up to date on his tweets. This is about 7 46 this morning. While the fake news loves to talk about my socalled low approval ratings, fox and friends just showed that my rating on december 28, 2017 was approximately the same as president obama on december 28 which was 47 and this despite the massive negative trump coverage and russia hoax. In the meantime, more of your thoughts on your political winners and losers in 2017. Tanya is in georgia, line for independents. Tanya, go ahead. Caller good morning. Host good morning. Caller thank you so much for aught my call. Taking my call. I was a democrat and switched over to republican this year. I think the biggest winners, trump and the American People. And the reason why i say that is because despite of the fake russia story, the illegal sign on trump and his campaign and the fake letter to create russia to , trump was still able pass the tax bill. He got rid of all kind of regulations to steer a million jobs and the American People like myself, its also benefiting from this tax bill because a lot of the democrats are saying that its not enough money, 1,000, 2,000. Oh, the guy said 21 a day. Well when youre poor and youre low, that does make a difference. Actually, 2,000 in my pocket and i dont have to pay the obama mantaed care dated care is a big loser. And the loser are the democrats and the media. Host if the American People were the big winners this year, explain to me this poll, these polling numbers on right track and wrong track for the country. This showing over the course of the year. The real clear politics average of poms just 32 of americans say the country is going in the right direction. Some 59 say its going off on the wrong track. Caller ok. Yeah. Well, most americans do not believe the media or the polls because of the fact that we feel that our country as been invaded tpwhi outsiders, the state polls. If you look at President Trump, he won the election on the polls. So we would honor polls to actually have marriages documentation, proof backing them. Thats how i feel. Host do you ever dive into those numbers or do you tend to not look at polls at all . Caller i look at all the polls. In order to do research, you should not look at one source. So what i do is it look at every course and i look at how they accumulated it and i look at the track record. Thats the only way that you can see if a poll is accurate. Host thats tanya in georgia. Sheila is also in georgia, a republican. Sheila, good morning to you. Caller hi. How are you . Host im doing well. Caller thank you very much for having your show. Yes, you know, whats interesting is it see no love in the world. Theres no love coming from either party. Theyre just so seems like the political media are the losers. Because theyre not giving fair coverage. Theres so much hate in the media. And the media expects us to be blind, to turn a blind eye to the hate that they are projecting when they are the news commentators. I mean, when i was 13, kennedy was shot. We understood that the world is corrupt. I came from a republican family. But we loved kennedy. Kennedy was a democrat. Till the time i was 16, i became a democrat. And as i was growing and learning and understanding and experiencing life, wisdom comes from experience, not just from book knowledge or watching the news. And the young people, today, think they have the answer just like i thought i had the answer when i was young when i was 16. I became a republican. I marched for civil rights, immigration in schools. You know, for equal rights, for all, for women, for children, for all colors, for race, for, you know, for creed and for different religious. I religions. I was a baptist and then became a buddhist. Thats unheard of in the south. Try putting that on your school record. Youre going to be laughed out of town. But i was very bold and i stood up for what i felt was right and what you know in your heart thats right. Not, you know, worshipping and loving our Political Parties because it seems as though we have, you know, the political media and the different parties have become elected themselves as gods and demigod. Host who do you think is standing up for whats right right now . Caller whats right . You know, i think Everyone Wants to be right. Thats the problem. No ones willing to admit theyre wrong. And yes like i said, i became a emocrat when i was 13 or 16. And then i didnt become a republican until george jr. Bush ran and went through all the putin episodes with bill clinton, having his infidelity in the white house. That was an insult and a slap to women. That was an insult. A complete insult upon our female gender and im, you know, i think that being and just letting that pass by without even recognizing that it really existed, it happened. But yet were still in denial. And its happening and i find that we need to love each other. We need to love people, not our parties. Host thats sheila this morning. Essie is in greenville, north carolina, line for democrats. Essie, go ahead. Caller well, thank you for letting me being on this morning. Ive just got up and decided i want to say a few words. Us really biggest loser that the tax bill and the sick people. There are a lot of people are going to die because of this tax bill. Nobody seems to care. And there are no winners. To me, there winners. Let god be the judge, not republicans. Let god be the judge of all of us. He said he would come back and judge the world. Thank you. Valley springs, california, the line for independents. Who is your political winner and loser of 2017 . Caller i think the losers are the American People. I am really starting to wonder, has anybody ever recently read the constitution of the United States . Have they ever looked at the declaration of independence . Appallede, i am just at how many people call in and show their complete ignorance on what our country is all about, and the constitution is what describes what we are all about. Stompingrump is just on the constitution. Thes just continually, first amendment, the very first amendment, the one that was most important for this country was freedom of the press. Here he is calling the press the enemy of the people. Come on, people. You cannot support a person like that. Host do you have a political winner of the year . Caller there are no winners. There are none. It is only losers in this country right now, because we are all being hurt. Host skip in california, our last caller on this segment, but we will return to this question on our last hour of washington journal from 9 00 to 10 00. Ullah joins uson to discuss his book. That is all coming up in just a minute on washington journal. Which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] coming up new years weekend 8 00 p. M. Saturday at eastern, north Korean Refugees describe life under the kim regime. China, tens of thousands of north korea defectors are leaving without papers and are being physically or sexually exploited. While the u. S. Should continue urging china and russia to support more economic sanctions, it should also do more to stop beijing repatriating defectors back to north korea. Six 30 p. M. Eastern, James Clapper on his career in the intelligence community. We call that paradigm immaculate collection. I mean it. It makes a point about the difficulty of being so precise, given the global interconnection represented by the internet. It is where everyone communicates. And the difficulty of sorting out good people and bad people. A. M. , on monday at 10 00 a tech fire summit on the south driving revolution, and at noon, former Clinton Administration officials on the legacy of bill clinton. He knew who he was fighting for. He got there every day and he knew the people he wanted to help. Through thick and thin, when times were good and times or bad , all he cared about was could he deliver for the people who needed the government to be on their side. Watch this new years weekend on cspan. Cspan studentcam, the tweets say it all. Studentcam in action, Video Editing and splicing for constitutional documentaries. This group showed us how it was done, two stellar interviews in one day, and the students asked hardhitting questions about Immigration Reform and the dream act. We are asking them to choose a provision of the u. S. Constitution and create a video demonstrating why it is important. Competition is open for grades six through 12. 100,000 in cash prizes will be awarded. The grand prize of 5,000 will go to the student or team with the best overall entry. The deadline is january 18. Get contest details on our website at studentcam. Org. Washington journal continues. Host we continue our authors series, welcoming haroon ullah. His book is called the Digital World war, islamist extremists and the fight for digital supremacy. Before we get into the fight for that digital battlefield, first define some terms for us, especially the important distinction you make in the title and throughout the book about islamists and extremists. Guest i am thrilled to be here to talk to you about something im passionate about. Part of it is that i think islamists, when you think distinguished from extremists you look on a couple of different dimensions. Do they play by the rules of the game . What do they say about the constitution . Do they use extra electoral means . The big one is do they use violence . Do they think violence is a legitimate way in terms of communicating and achieving their goals . When you look at those markers, iu will find by and large think of as lummis as a group that have the foundation and a religious orthodoxy islamists as a group that have the foundation a religious orthodoxy but play by the rules. Violences want to use in their views are different. Host how do they use the digital battlefield here . What are the goals of these types of groups . I know it is a spectrum. Are interesteds in audience segmentation, and what they are trying to do, oftentimes they have been historically not as influential so they see this information battlefield as a new era in a dish arena to recruit arena to recruit people and raise money. An identity so they want to recruit people where there is no borders. Extremists are different. They use things like black swan incidents, because the return on investment for doing a big terrorist attack or suicide bombing is just exponential. Isis is getting a lot of free media when they were doing these beheading videos, producing game of thrones type apps for young people. There audience was on their end a very low investment and they put themselves on the map. Host has isis proved to be the best at using the tools on the digital battlefield . Guest they have. If you think of taliban as Elementary School and al qaeda as middle school, isis is in college. They have taken it to the next level, build an ecosystem, fan voice. They think differently about the ways to communicate their message, and that the end of the day, this is a content war. This is why this information battlefield, which is not as well understood. We know about social media, but i am talking about the whole spectrum, social media, deep web, dark web. They have found a way to reach people in a way that is sophisticated, and with the mantra that the narrower the audience, the bigger the impact. Host i want to talk about some of the specific platforms that you go into in your book, and how these groups use different platforms in different ways, whether it be facebook or twitter or youtube or dark web spaces. Lets start with twitter. How do the extremists and islamists use twitter . Guest twitter is interesting, because they are able to use a lot of computational tactics. What they are trying to do is amplify their message, trying to get folks out there. They will put up something that they know will violate twitters terms of service and it will get taken off, but then they regenerate. The other way they use it as they will have some of their key influencers put out things that do not cross the terms of service. , the number one person on twitter, and extremist religious leader in saudi arabia, he will put a picture of a bushel of apples and say the caliphate is bouncing. Does that violate the terms of service . Not necessarily. It is not that he is advocating anything violent, per se. They will come up to the edge and they know they will reach one audience on twitter, and then move them to a more encrypted app like whatsapp or telegram or Something Else. They have a whole range of how to reach people. Host go to facebook. Is it a different tactic and strategy being employed on facebook . Guest i think on facebook, they are looking for facebook is great for them in terms of how they can see where they can get the likes and see where they might be able to get people that are sympathetic, that engage with them in discussions. It is finding the needle in the haystack, somebody that is sort of reaching out, somebody that might be interested in some of that content. It might people that liked something that seemingly is proisis, so for them it is really about targeting and that is where facebook is important. Twitter is about amplification, facebook is about targeting. Host youtube is another platform. Guest they can visually tell the narrative. Even if their videos get taken down, they can regenerate and be put on other places. They do everything from two minute highlight reel clips to video on the street type of video. They are attuned with visually telling the narrative, because for the young people they are trying to reach out to, they will not read a 100 page book but will watch a three minute video. Host haroon ullah is the author of the book that is the topic until 9 00. We invite our viewers to call in with your questions and comments. Republicans, 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. Ndependents, 202 7488002 how long have you been studying this digital battlefield . Guest probably too long in some ways. Alwaysinteresting that i thought about what drives young people toward extremism. I grew up in Rural America in a small town, and grew up intellectually curious. And lookuld see haroon at me and say, what is going on in the middle east . I would say, i dont know. I drive a truck. I play tennis in baseball. And baseball and i dont know. I have no idea. That planted a seed in me because i wanted to go abroad and make sense of what is happening in iran, pakistan. Could this be the black box for people, like we saw the soviet union 50 years ago . I went abroad and a lot of times i went into caps, tell a band and al qaeda camps and i would ask people, what made you join . Tell me your journey of how to get here. First we need to understand what is going on if we want to counter the dynamic. So often, i think we miss out on the first part and jump to because really my goal as a policy practitioner, i do not want to just write about this, i want to solve it. I want to put together a project to mobilize people, because there are thousands of malallas. How do we mobilize all these pieces . That is what i talk about. Host how did you make it into those caps . Camps . Guest i was doing doctoral work and as a student and many people do not go in that area. There is restrictions. I tried to take the chance to get into the Northern Area of pakistan and i came to them almost as a journalist saying, explain to me why you are doing what you are doing, and they wanted to talk. Nobody ever asked that question because of the danger and what they represent, so i was able to get access. In that area of pakistan and afghanistan you have to have a political family, so if you do not have that, you are in trouble. I had people who looked out for me and believed in my aim so i was able to interview them. In my earlier book, that is what i talked about, which led to this book, how do we explain that idea, the mentality, almost like a Customer Journey . A Young Persons journey. Did a job in the state department under secretary tillerson and he recently left. What was your role . Guest we produced white papers, tried to coordinate National Security and think about ways of , how do we tackle the main key issues facing u. S. National security . Host you are now at the broadcasting board of governors. Guest it is an 800 million global media industry. Voice of america. Middle east broadcasting network. It is really an amazing platform , producing over 7000 hours of broadcasts a day in 71 languages, original content. For me, the work, the stories that the broadcasting board of governors is telling his fascinating. It is reaching audiences all around the world. How can we audience . How can we be more effective . Host haroon ullah is with us for the next 45 minutes, taking your questions and comments as we talk about the digital ward war world war. Republicans,gain, 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. Independents, 202 7488002. Likean start calling in tom did from florida on our line for democrats. Caller i wish you could elaborate on the use of lots bots. It and aretouched on putting a Purchase Price of about 58,000. I wish you could elaborate on it a tad bit. Guest that is a great question. They are a big piece of this. I had a piece that came out yesterday in vanity fair which looked at isis 3. 0, the role of silicon valley, and bought on the information battlefield. 2014 startedn, in using confrontational tactics cheap, itecause it is scales up exponentially, and they are able to reach an amplification and resonance in the way that they normally would not. Back then, some of the Companies Like twitter and facebook were a little slower and did not have the teams to take them off the internet, so their ability to live on and able to gain traction was much higher. Bots,he sophistication of they learn from the russians and the elections last year, so they use those tactics because they are able to reach key audiences in urban areas. Host explain isis 3. 0. Guest the way i thought about it was in early 2014, most people were caught off guard by the rise of isis. We were still talking about al qaeda and taliban. The people that noticed isis where the web operators, people that sought them online. They started seeing virtual beheadings, and it took a long while to mobilize against that. In my head, now we are talking three to four years later, what is next on the horizon . Ul and pictures from mos people want to say mission accomplished, but it is not because isis has continued to adapt. What are the next iterations around the corner . When we thought of al qaeda, we were thinking cameras and caves and an ice came along. Isis came along. We are seeing that new iteration and whether they have the staying power is a new issue. I think of them as kind of a cloud caliphate. They are thinking about the information battlefield in a unique way and they are using crowdsourcing to recruit people, using bitcoin to raise money. This is the new iteration, and they are thinking about extremism on a new level. Host they are not as interested in creating a physical caliphate that they would have to defend physical space . Guest that is right. They are almost exclusively in this virtual space. You do not have to travel anywhere. You can stay where you are. It is a different approach and they may be realizing there is a whole suite of things they can do like shutdown electrical grids or steal intellectual property, things that have an effect. U. S. O we as the government, international community, mobilize . We have the best thinkers in silicon valley, the best tech people, the best military. Young people all over the world are trying to get on the front lines of this, that we have a collective action issue. That is why i advocate for a new manhattan project. We have that type of urgency. Host pittsburgh, pennsylvania, james is waiting on the line for independents. Caller my name is james and i do not think there is a politician out there better than me. My thing is why . Why are we still wanting to blow each other up . Why are these young kids wanting to commit suicide, putting on vests and blowing up themselves . These are children. What is so wrong in the world now that people feel so depressed they want to kill themselves . What is wrong . President trump is out there golfing. We got your question, the why is what james wanted to know. Guest that is a key question and a subject of my research. The why part of it is identity grievances. These young people grow up and see a system that does not change around them, lets say in the middle east. They grow up with dictators and being a failed arab revolution, so they want to do something. A lot of young people a lot of the work i did was interviewing defectors. I wanted to understand why young people went to isis. I want to ask them, what was it about their propaganda that attracted them. Many of them said, we want to get rid of bashar assad. They got sucked in and by the time they got there, it was too late. There are a lot of dictators in the region, and they feel like if i play by the rules of the game it will not work. They oftentimes are not very religious at all, are not appealing to that idea. A lot of them have criminal backgrounds and Mental Health issues, but they get recruited because they want to try to do something. To me, the idea is these honorable the youths, we have to provide them with a positive alternative narrative. Host if they can find their way to an isis recruiter, why cant the United States Government Shutdown those avenues . Guest part of it is it is hard to find oftentimes. They oftentimes are communicating with an encrypted platforms, tweeting on things that it is difficult to get access to, and many groups are using coded language. They will use things like kitten , two of my favorite things. Kind of like gangs, using colorcoded things and visual things. It is almost like a see something, Say Something. The same ways you think about child pornography and identifying diseases, we have to have a new approach, almost like a Public Health approach to thinking about getting leaders on the front lines. Oftentimes, i make a point that all radicalization is local so if you look at it, you start seeing patterns. For example, in tunisia, 80 of foreign fighters come from one small neighborhood in tunis. If you look at the same thing in belgium, you start looking at the pattern. This is not everybody is a potential extremist, it is a small sliver coming from one area. It may be a charismatic leader. There may be a chain of people being recruited. Connecticut, avon, line for democrats. You are on with haroon ullah. Caller i have a question regarding viruses on websites. A lot of them can come from downloads, but these click save advertisements, do you think these will change . I want to believe i have been randomly selected to win two free ipods. I like to believe i am the 999 thousand 999th visitor on this website. , do youest question is think this will change and there will be viruses out there . Guest you bring up an important point. The click bait attracts people for a variety of different reasons, and i think there is something being pioneered by google and other folks called the redirect method. It is using this idea of click. Ait to identify vulnerable use when i Google Search something about syria or about identity grievances, on the righthand side it will come up ads. Those can be targeted, because you can see what people are searching for. Maybe on google, how do i buy a ticket to go to syria . The ads on the righthand side, through this redirect method, it makes it so that people think they are speaking to them and when they click on it, it leaves them down a path that gives them information. Often information they are seeking can move them away. Isis is not what you think it was. It is not club med for foreign fighters. Here is another thing if you want to do something productive, here is a peace corps or something productive, because young people do not want to be told no. I want to do something. Host a part of your book focuses on the history of this digital battlefield. In every country in which they have a presence, islamists have proven more adept at using established then governments, and indeed almost all other politically active forces, crippling ruling parties first in the court of Public Opinion and then on guest they had to go underground because there were no Public Forums to congregate. They were banned or censored. They had early on to look for ways using cassette tapes, using other means of going underground because they were afraid of statesponsored violence. So they were able to pioneer certain things on the internet before others as it was about survival. Host you mentioned cassette tapes. Talk about the history with the iranian revolution. Play a bigette tapes role in spreading the message, because as many people know, the ayatollah was abroad and exiled in europe most of the time. How do you get lectures he was giving to people that were hungry for this content . It literally was a whole system of basically cassette tapes traveling in suitcases and carryon baggage, and people taking it all over and making copies in their basement, and people congregating in a basement to listen to lectures. That is how, early on, how communication traveled and how these lectures modal dated motivated and mobilized people. I must 30 years later, the information battlefield is so much wider. Host lewis is in pikesville, maryland, line for independents. Caller i think the whole mantra is common sense. , you have interviewed those students in the areas, but the americans need to hear some of the students answers, and this is what i mean. You need to substitute the word radicalize for pest off pissed off. They have seen their homes destroyed, their fathers and mothers destroyed, and leaders decapitated. If you keep decapitating the leaders, you have no one to talk to, and they see desperation. It is like somebody in 1776, the british came in with central georgeand killed off washington, thomas jefferson, so they had no leaders to negotiate freedom. You need something with the word radicalized and put in the word pissed off. Cause. Will die for their when is the last time you heard someone say they will die for jesus . And let usmmon sense hear some of the answers the students have. Host dr. Ullah . Guest you are exactly right, defector stories are so powerful. Oftentimes times when i would speak to them, i would ask them in one word describes isis. I thought they would Say Something like dangerous or horrid or horrible, that they would say words to me like trust, the longing, identity the longing, identity belong ing, identity, and i am talking to them almost like there is a disconnect. I am listening to their narratives, what is the propaganda they are reading and what are they consuming . The factors need to be on the front line. I took a datadriven approach. Might doctoral work was that defector stories are the most popular antidote, and it is important to understand their grievances. That is the first step. Host what is the flames of war video series . Guest that is a sort of whole suite almost like a game of thrones type video series, where extremist groups are smart and realizing, we cannot reach out to young people with a 140 page book, but we need to reach out with something visually interesting, that is entertainment, that is drama, because they are coming out of the videogame generation. And are playing video games a lot of it, it is my cheese know and adrenaline filled, and they want to see machismo and adrenaline filled, and they want to see something that will get them excited. Host the daily mail focuses on isis propaganda posters, some of their recent propaganda pieces targeting attacks in the west in the new year. I am wondering if you are seeing qs same thing in the visual cues that they are giving out, talking about attacking the west. I know you have seen this series. Guest the thing that you can see from this is they are doing things that are visually provocative. They are doing things that they know this is the main generation. They are reaching out to gen y z and millennials so they are doing things that are planting the seeds for young people who have identity grievances, and that is why it is so key. The more i talk about this manhattan project, we have so many people on the sidelines ready to fight against this. We have religious leaders all over the world and in the u. S. We have thousands of young malallas. On social media, by Research Shows 1 of people are content creators. 9 share content and 90 are passive consumers like me and you. We need to get more people off that 90 into the front lines of the battle, because those stories are organic and articulate and can turn the tide. Host speaking of threats during the holidays and the new years, the story from the New York Times the ball dropping in times square has long drawn heavy security but this year the send rooftop observation teams and counter snipers into more buildings. Officers will be patrolling hotels leading up to the ball drop on new years eve. For the first time, the Police Department is planning to attach reflective markers to the outside of buildings at certain intervals so that in the event of an attack, officers can quickly figure out what floor a gunman is on. There are no direct Credible Threats to new york city, to times square specifically, or to our new years eve events generally, james oneill, the new york police commissioner. We have about half hour left in this segment. We are talking to her room,uthor of haroon ullah asking viewers to call in. Bill called from mount airy, maryland, a republican. Caller good morning. I wanted to ask do you look at the war as more of a means of suppressing or cutting off the message, or by countering the message and showing how they are losing the war or that they will not win or that there is a better way to go . How do you measure success . Host fantastic questions guest fantastic questions. We have to think about what they have done on the physical battlefield. The have set up a david and even ifnarrative so they lose on the physical battlefield they can win on the informational battlefield. We have to think broader than the war. God bless our military and our folks on the front lines. They are doing their job, but the problem is what we are finding is that in the virtual caliphate, in the virtual sphere they are able to build on these identity grievances. They want a war with the west. A want a civilizational war. I think it is important not to buy into the rhetoric of feeding into what they want. They want that because it legitimizes their viewpoints. I think it is very important to understand we have to present alternative, positive pathways for these young people. My work and this gets to your tatnd question tit for messaging does not work. Somebody telling me the caliphate is bountiful and i am like, no, we will oftentimes have in that titfortat that i am reinforcing someones predisposed belief, and they are more stronger. Host does it matter who the messenger is . Guest yes, that is why defector narratives are very important because they have credibility. Let me tell you why this path does not work. The messages are important, but it is also about content. A lot of people say u. S. Government produced content does not work. I will tell you, bad content does not work produced by anybody. That can be effective. We have to think of it in a way that is almost in terms of a content war, in terms of media savvy, interns of in terms of, in the middle east the number one drama is a drama called selfie. It is making fun of isis, a an going around with a take on isis, and it was incredibly popular. 20 Million People watched her episode. That is incredibly important. They made death threats. 10 selfieed programs as they are directly tackling, dispelling the narrative in a smart way that is entertaining. Host on the issue of counter and article focuses on this issue. Many experts and radicalization are asking a question if you cannot beat them, why not ban them . Instead of coming up with more theirt, why not make toxic material much harder to find on the internet . Better yet, why not just remove it altogether from the web . I am unconvinced counter ridratives work, hany fa says. Guest i think there is a role for censorship and a lot of the Internet Companies have realized , from their Business Model they do not want toxic stuff on their ecosystem, but oftentimes we overplay the role of censorship. These groups are evolving really quickly and using a coded language. Are we going to stop start nutella and kittens . This is a content war. You can see about taking stuff down, but at the end of the day it is about producing content that overwhelms them in this Freedom Exchange of ideas, and that is why we have to think of war in terms of aggregating and distributing content, and mobilizing people. Host pennsylvania, on the line for democrats, good morning. Caller i am a student at the university of pennsylvania and a have to say part of my week i will sit down and watch [indiscernible] fccsaying because of the Net Neutrality rules, a fast lane and a slow lane, so i would like you to talk about that. About to talk standardized host you are going in and out a little bit. Did you get the question . Guest i think he was talking about censorship and information battlefield. The main thing is we need to mobilize young people to tell their own stories. That is the key thing. Things like the selfie stories malala, these dry out isis. I have taken a datadriven approach and the voice of women, young women, mothers, moves the needle. Im not just talking about behavior change, i am talking about something that can stop young people. Host what is the medium that we send that throw . Pointtopoint contact . Largescale facebook blasts . What is the best way . Guest if you think about the Customer Journey and audience segmentation, oftentimes the large blasts do not work as well. I think the redirect method that google has done is very influential and is very targeted. It is looking for people that are already searching. You have people going along this journey. You have to think about, where do people consume their information . We go places to consume it information that reinforces our ideas. I could blast something out on fox news or cnn, but young people may not be watching that. They are watching Something Else , the middle east broadcasting network. We have to think more carefully about how to reach those key audiences and the stories we want to tell. Host are we doing that in the Trump Administration . Did we do that in the Obama Administration . Guest i think there is some issue of that. It was not until this past august that our Cyber Command became a unified command. Host explain that. Guest it became a full Operational Command within our out things onrry this informational battlefield before they needed others authority. We are coming to understand the seriousness of what to do on this information battlefield. Under the Previous Administration we created the Global Engagement center, based at the state department, which is an idea of it takes a network to defeat a network. To me, we have to put more resources in and that is why i come up with the manhattan project. Our military band is about 400 million. Llars 400 this is time intensive, peace people intensive. We have to think about the 1940s. We need the best and brightest, to recruit them from the private sector, combine them with what we have in government, and mobilizing the young people stories. Host what did the Trump Administration request for this specific task in their budget request . Guest the budget has been increasing. I think this year they are around 60 million and they have requested more money. It is moving in the right direction. We have to work with partners, this is a key part of it. It takes a network to do a network. Largesty as good as the Civil Society group in the world. That is our diplomat in all of our embassies and conflicts, they will be able to strike those partnerships whether it is with them or content hubs in the middle east, that is where the real key is. Arizona,ve in phoenix, on the line for democrats. Caller i have kind of a twopart question. I hear that a lot of people get radicalized online, so it does not seem to matter when they are from if they can just get online. The other one is, you mentioned the fact that before the internet came along, they had to use cassettes and things that had to be distributed which took longer and therefore made it even harder to spread the ideas in a timely manner. Is an effective strategy, how come they just dont shut down the internet to religions . Guest you know, i think that a lot of my Research Shows, the lone wolf phenomena actually does not play out. T is a bit of a misnomer young people do not get radicalized sitting in a basement watching videos. They often have hundreds of people in touch with them to convince them and recruit them and get them, play on their identity grievances. We have to think about that sort of local radicalization. Again, on censorship, i am pretty clear. It has a small role but we cannot overemphasize that. It is a content war. You can spend all your time trying to take down content that you will never be successful because they are already three steps ahead thinking about contact content that does not violate the services. Host we are talking with haroon ullah. If you want to call in with your questions or comments, republicans, 202 7488001, democrats, 202 7488000,. Ndependents, 202 7488002 on the line for independents is brian. Caller what i would like to comment on, in addition to what you are discussing, all of the other problems that have evolved with the internet hacking, Identity Theft what bothers me is the goliaths that control the internet and make piles of money. Apple, google, microsoft, bill gates, on and on. These people are sitting on piles and piles of money. Why arent these Large Organizations spending some of that money they are sitting on fighting extremism, fighting hate, fighting people that caused the death of other people , fighting the cyber criminals . We do not hear anything about it. They have literally, between the five biggest companies, they are sitting on trillions of dollars of profit. What are these five organizations doing . Guest great question. They are better understanding it, and i have to say i have seen over the years they were slow to recognize it but have really come to the forefront. Facebook had their head of global policy, a fabulous job of putting money toward projects to fight extremism. They recognize as much as anyone else, from a business standpoint it does not make sense for these people to be polluting their ecosystem, so we have to continue to push them. We need to continue to push the companies to put more resources into this. We do find that they are now starting to put more money in it , and the reason is because of a business standpoint. Host to linda in truman, arkansas, the line for democrats. Caller i would like to know what the author thinks about video, aish bin laden propaganda video that stated that what they were fighting for was to overthrow white world rule, that they were tired of white people ruling the world and that they wanted equal treatment. I would like to know if that that is not and if what they are actually fighting over. Guest interestingly enough, when we look at al qaeda and isis, they want a war with the west. They think everybody in the west is a culprit. In a lot of ways, they are sort of racially neutral. They see anybody living in the west as sold out and try to make them the other. That is the civilization of war they want. I will tie back to something brian mentioned. Recently in the last few months, Internet Companies created something called a global forum for fighting extremism. They set appendix consortium and they are putting money into it because they recognize they need to be on the front lines of this and cannot be just relying on government. Host another piece from your book rather than pushing islamic parties further into the arms of extremists through policy suppression, western earners powers would be wide tensions between these groups and to look for point of shared interest with islamist parties, interests that basis ofserve as the dialogue and cooperation. Guest when i was working in pakistan, i had to make a decision. I might disagree with a religious leader or somebody on almost every point, but if they are antiviolence, antiextremism, that they are advertising antial qaeda, they may be homophobic and they may not believe the same Democratic Values i do. On the ground, i want to find a way to work with that person because they are able to stop young people from joining these groups that ultimately could harm National Security. Those are the tough decisions we have to make, but i think we have to think about where those points now . It is a great line and that is why we rely on our diplomats. Ofhink the hallmark protecting u. S. Security is making those decisions. Host who are the best groups we should be looking for looking to to help us question mark guest a lot of Islamist Groups we have an uneasy relationship with. What i am advocating for is that we at least have dialogue to try to think about it, whether it is back channel, is often times these groups are able to moderate the more extreme element in their country, or have a conduit to talk those people off of the fence. We have to understand where these young people, where are their grievances coming from . Host is that happening . Guest to some extent, that is much as i would personally like. We have to allow our diplomats to do that kind of work, because that is the real hard work of diplomacy. I think of diplomacy as not jazz concert in budapest, but doing the hard work that protects u. S. National security. Host at what point could that backfire . Guest if you end up supporting or enabling a group that is able to not just demonize americans, but really ends up hurting u. S. National security, because if you enable a group that is recruiting and their sole purpose is to hurt our National Security interests, it can backfire. Oftentimes, we are too risk averse because often times we block out this whole segment of people dealing with religion. Is where our diplomats have done some of the best work they have done. , it a question on twitter believe talking about United States content. When does content become propaganda . Guest when you think about it, taking from isis, content becomes propaganda in terms of what the aim is. The aim of propaganda is often to confuse people. Defectors who give me a oneword answer, propaganda would drive them to do something they knew was not authentic, but would buy them a ticket. Oftentimes they lured them there and gave them jobs, so for young people, it is too late. Host how do we get them to see what we are putting out as content, as a different way of living and not just as u. S. Propaganda . Guest the message is important, key influence is important. Thinking about, where do people get their information . Many people are willing to be key influencers. Religious leaders, community leaders, women that are leading. We have to think about those partnerships, because it takes a network to defeat a network. Is in manning, South Carolina on the line for republican. Caller good morning. War, dideft the iraqi we leave the encryption devices with iraq . Did isis get a hold of those . Do we have any way of detecting if they use those . Guest that is a good point about encryption. Very simply, isis recruits people with technical backgrounds. They are recruiting engineers and young people that are coders and have access to build these programs and infrastructure. Host who is an example of someone you met . Guest i met a young person in dubai who was recruited by isis. He had gone to university and was an i. T. Specialist. They recruit young people with these backgrounds so they can use these new apps. We are talking about twitter and facebook, but they have moved on. They are using things that a lot of people do not know. It has more downloads than snapchat in 25 countries. They are using new apps that are more sophisticated and provide them a different platform. Host explain what these different platforms are, what are they doing that people are not seeing from facebook or snapchat . Guest it was designed by a saudi entrepreneur, young person, to give honest workplace feedback. It is almost a version of your Old High School Bulletin Board when we were growing up, for people to put things on anonymously and say, do not wear pink shirts or ripped jeans. App happened was that the the game a forum for bullying, and isis and others use it for recruiting because you can target vulnerable use. The design is different but the way it is being used is the same as twitter and facebook. Is on the line for republicans in South Carolina. Caller did it have anything to do with us possibly going to war with iran . Guest the one thing that we find is that the iranians are very good at propaganda. The t out a lot of using various outlets and proxies to put out propaganda. A lot of it is mobilizing this manhattan project. How can we be ahead of it . Host to jeff in california, line for independents. Caller i came in a little late, so i did not get your educational background. I am very interested whether you have an intelligence background as well. Georgetown. Ch at i did my doctoral work as a senior fellow at harvard. I was there for many years, did my graduate degree. I do not have an intel background, but i served shoulder to shoulder with many intel officers when i was at the embassy. I worked with our special forces. That is where my perspective comes from. I think of myself as a field person. I look at myself as not being done from d. C. The work in the field. Host is that something where you will continue your work . Guest absolutely, and that is why it is a fantastic platform. They are out there telling stories. There is over 2600 affiliates throughout the world. We are partnering with radio stations and tv as well as digital platforms. Been waiting has in malden, massachusetts, line for democrats. Caller hello. With theem here violent extremism and the terrorism is all brought on by this country. E go over there we have been over there since world war ii and we have killed more people over there. Aboutman that called up the white world taking them over, and embassy in iraq is bigger than vatican city. We are infested with cia and contractors, soldiers of fortune. Host what is your question . Caller my question is, that is why we are being bombed, being attacked. We are over there pushing up around. Thus pushing them around. They will push back. Until we get out of there and come back, and then they come after us we are legit. We are the problem. Host your thoughts . Guest at the end of the day, it is about understanding the narratives and grievances. That is why defectors stories are so important. We do have to understand. It is easy to otherize and demonize. They direct a lot of their most gruesome content in english. These young people that were telling me trust and belonging were not looking at beheadings. They were looking at isis handing out candy at circuses or talking about rooting out corruption. 80 of their messaging in arabic is positive. They are using this scary, bloody, gory, horrific stuff to scare me and you in english. Int david is waiting california on the line for independents. Caller i want you to give me a second or two, because what you have here is a lot of islamophobia. He is contributing to it. All of whatd that he is saying for this propaganda and his take on everything, is from a Granite Point of view that islam equates with terrorism. S identity grievant stuff grievance stuff, and it makes it where anyone who is a muslim who has a grievance, a true and natural grievance as one of your callers pointed out, about the things of the american foreignpolicy than they are suspect if they go online and pronounce some of these tagsances, things that them. When i am suggesting to this guy is that what he is doing is , andtuating islamophobia making it where muslims do not have freedom of speech. Host haroon ullah, is that what you are doing . Guest no, i fully agree with what you said. Islamophobia contributes to supporting isis. They use those narratives and pick up what islam of folks are using in their propaganda to use it in their war. Part of what i found in my work is the stories of american muslims serving in the military, as teachers and doctors and engineers, have been here for hundreds of years, though stories are incredibly powerful as isis propaganda will say things like there are no mosques in the u. S. Than is more in the u. S. Anywhere else in the world because of freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Thomas jefferson had a copy of the carranza. That is koran. Factor of integral who we are and it tackles their core thesis. Host the book is Digital World war, islamist extremists, and the fight for digital supremacy. Guest thank you for having me. Host in our next segment, we will return to the question we talked about at the beginning of our program, asking for your political winners and losers for the past 12 months. Lines for republicans, democrats, an independents. Whoat down with tom stier launched a campaign to impeach President Trump. During the interview which airs in full on sunday, he addressed criticism he is receiving from democrats. Quotes from Democratic Leaders do not suggest timing but others. I wrote down a comment, unhelpful, a vanity project, futile. When you hear those critiques, what are you hearing . I hear two Different Things one, that it is not good timing and the other i hear a question about questioning my motives, and trying to question me. From my standpoint, i my standpi dont spend any time on that. This is not about me. This is about whether or not what were doing is right and the American People having a voice in this. It is supposed to be a democracy. We believe we are trying to provide an avenue for the direct voice of the American People. If you take a look at the zip code of the people who are saying those things and where they spend their time, we are trying to talk to people all over the country and allow them to have a voice. Im not going to spend one second worrying about people who argument, whether this is true, urgent or right. One of the people she was just quoting was nancy pelosi who represents where you are sitting right now. What has she told you about this effort . What if you heard from Chuck Schumer, the Democratic National committee about this effort . I have never talked to nancy about this a single time. I would say it again. Thinkur standpoint, we the strongest power in the United States should be the voice of the American People and that is what we are trying to enable and activate. Ultimately, that will be an overwhelming power. We have seen it in the elections that it happened in the time that weve started and now we think that will continue to grow and build and ultimately, elected officials have to respond. If you look, when we started on october 20, there were two people in the house that had spoken publicly about impeachment. They held a vote a few weeks ago. The othersr it and abstained. That is not a fluke. They are seen, wow, the American People are energized about this. And they are. Washington journal continues. Host we end act where we started. Looking back over the past 12 months and tell us who the political winners and losers were in 2017. Republicans can call in on 202 7488001. Democrats on 202 7488000. 2. Dependents on 202 748800 several viewers mentioning president donald trump, in several categories, the president has been tweeting throughout the morning. Here are a few from earlier. Why is the United States post office which is using many billions of dollars of your while charging amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making amazon richer and the post Office Dumber and poor . One more treat from the president this morning at 8 15 a. M. The democrats have been told it fully understand there can be no deferred action for childhood arrivals without the desperately needed wall at the southern theer and they and to horrible chain migration and ridiculous lottery system of immigration etc. We must protect our country at all costs. We will keep you updated. In the meantime we want to hear from you. Your political winners and losers of 2017. James is in apple valley, california, democrats. Go ahead. Guest caller thank you for taking my call. The losers for last year. For now, the American People. The reason host why are they the losers . Caller the reason is, of what they have done to themselves by letting this political situation get out of hand. One, they did not take an interest in the vote. They didnt get out and vote. Rough name with my son, 22 years old, getting him to vote. In the last two elections. If that is any indication of what is going on across america, people need to get off their couch, get out and get registered and vote. Host why didnt your son want to vote and what finally drove him to it . He figured Hillary Clinton had it in the bag and he did not like her. He was a Bernie Sanders person. Joe biden didnt run. The democrats missed a good bet there. Said to joeuld have biden, i think your son would have wanted you to do this. I dont know. I spent 32 years defending the constitution. It is disappointing what i see happening in the world today with our young people, with the older people even who are so set in their ways, my god, open up your minds. We are not living in the 40s anymore, the 20s or the 30s. Those days are gone, thank god. Anyway. That is about all i have to say. Host that is james in california. James is concerned about the number of people coming out to vote. The final total, number of voters in the 2016 election, over 136 million from the fec website. Rachel in spartanburg, South Carolina, line for independence. Go ahead. Caller how are you today . Host im doing well. Caller i am so glad for you hosting this live broadcast, the winners are all of the true believers in god. Donald trump was put in the presidency by god due to the prayers of gods prophet and final messenger, profit walker, overseer of true light of the church of spartanburg, South Carolina. Hillary clinton forwarding the agenda host rachel, i think you called in on our first segmented today, we do have a 30 day rule about when you can call in to this program but we got your thoughts on that first segment. We will go to steve in indiana, line for democrats. Go ahead. Caller the big losers are the American People because they believe stuff like that lady that was just on there. And this has a right gaysey, the heck with the and lesbians, get over it people. Everybody in this country has a right and the billionaires are the winners because they are hoarding all of the money in this world. I dont see why we should be giving them more money. Thanks. Host jennifer in florida, line four independents. Line for independents. Caller thank you so much for the opportunity to thank the American People because it was in fact, a populist movement that shows a crossover candidate. Donald trump was a democrat. He became a republican because the clintons basically had control of the Democratic Party. I really think that people need to remember that donald trump was somebody who created a club on an island where, the main country club, the everglades, would never take someone in who was of jewish descent or even catholic. He created a club to give an alternative to other people. I think he is the man of the people and not a member of the council of foreign relations. If anyone wants more information on that organization, there is a and they can learn more about what fake news really is and how they try to control the narrative. Host that is jennifer speaking of President Trump getting a lot of attention for an interview he gave with the New York Times that happened at the Trump International golf club in florida after he ate lunch with his playing partners including his son, eric and a pro golfer. The story noting that no aids were present for the interview no aides were present for the they ate lunch. The caller was talking about the media, in that interview the president talked about his relationship with the media. He believes members of the news media will eventually cover him more favorably because they are profiting from the interest in his presidency and will want him reelected. Isnother reason i will win because newspapers, televisions, all forms of media will tank because im not there, their ratings will go down the tubes. He invoked one of his preferred insults. Me the New York Times will not be the failing New York Times but the failed New York Times. He added that they, have to let me win. More from that interview in this to taker as we continue your calls on political winners and losers from 2017. Housekeeping, a brief session in the house around 9 30 a. M. This morning, we will take you there housecoverage of the floor, when that ends we will come back here to finish our program until 10 00. That is happening in about 20 minutes and we will be back with you on the washington journal. Matalin is waiting in california, line for republicans. Matalin, good morning. Caller good morning. My comments, thank you for being there. Second, republicans won. That has to be accepted and we have to support. On the local level, i dont see republicans really trying to educate children in schools to be republicans. I grew up in Beverly Hills School System and we knew all the representatives, part of our spelling lessons, everything. Done, anywheret in the United States, there is not that push in grammar school. We also had maps. Puzzles. So children would learn about government. That is not happening on the local level and that is what republicans need to do. Thank you. Host that is metal line in california. Tom is in that is meta adeleine in calcutta. Caller the winner is trump and the loser is the earth. Country opposing the paris climate treaty. We are a laughingstock to the rest of the world. I am so ashamed of the American Public. Most of the American Public voted for hillary. Trump won the presidency and now the earth could perish sooner with that clown in the white house. Host i assume you have thoughts on the president s treat from yesterday. That it could be the coldest new years eve on record, perhaps we could use more Global Warming that other countries were going to pay chileans of dollars going to pay trillions of dollars. Caller what an idiot. He is braindead. He doesnt even think before he says something. He is such an embarrassment. I am so depressed we have a clown in the white house. Host that is tom in florida. Mark is in new york. Line four independents line for independents. Caller good morning. I would like to thank you for having cspan, keeping all these people informed. The big losers are working people that make under 400,000 a year, no savings. The winners and also, we are , mr. Pruitt in the epa cutting loose all our coal, pollution, i guess we will really hurt our children in the future. The big winners are republicans and trump, taking everything from our childrens future and mortgaging our whole future and it is a shame. Thank you very much. Host david is in columbus, georgia for republicans. Caller good morning. You, the appreciate only tv show i have ever seen you can call in, it is like tweeting trump you can get your voice heard. Host appreciate that. What do you think . Considering myself and the American People a loss. I dont know if anyone knows the tax plan but i was just advised yesterday, im an independent salesman and every year my experiences are extremely hydro travel cost. They are taking away every deduction i ever had in the tax plan. Me 10,000 a year. Taxes, i wills my get back about hundred dollars more next year without the tax plan. Host that is david. Diane is in washington. Line for independents. Go ahead. Caller i just wanted to say, i am one of the biggest losers of 2017. Worst year of my entire life. Im 63. Have a buffoon for a president , goons in the administration, religion is shoved down my throat and a regressive congress, i dont know where they are taking us. It is not a life i know and want. It is not what i thought america was about. Host are there any winners . Caller yeah. Progressives. Regressives. Congress. They religious caliphate nation of all white people. I dont fit here anymore. I would love to leave if i could. I dont know where to go. This is not my america. Welcoming kind and generous people, that is how i lived my life. All my life that is what i thought i was living for, to be kind and generous and open and welcoming. I spend more time crying and in distress, agony, im drinking more. What a goon. Host do you have any hope for 2018 that things might change . Caller well, i am always hopeful. I am an optimist. Ive lived my life that way. We march. I get my grandchildren involved. They are out there. I talk to people. In theo go out and about community and be kind and generous and reach out to people. There is always hope. Host how many marches were you in in 2017 . Caller i was able to participate in 2. I have a degenerative illness, so i cant get out for all of them. My husband went to five, he went up to new houses deal up the valley. They would not come here as our representative. He would not come to the tricity. He went up there and that was a weird situation up there. We participate as often as we can. I dont have any computers, cell phones, electronics. I have to rely on other people. Where is there a march, a gathering . Where can we get together to protest or be involved or get out the vote . To make us athings kind and generous people again . Host caller it is not about money. Morningme tweet this talking about the failing post office. I love the post office. I think it has been great all my life. To be able to go down, put a letter down there and it goes someplace. It is fantastic. It is not just about money. It provides a fabric for us to be together, united as a community. It is wonderful. I love my postal workers, dont run them in the ground, what the hell is the point of that . Host diane was talking about congress at the beginning, her statement, we pointed out earlier, we will take you to the cspan website for our year end 115th congresshe in their first session. You can see stats on hours congress was in session, votes held, there have been plenty of stories. Said in an era where the press is maligned, a bastion of cable tv neutrality offers the yearend scorecard. It is a feast for the average citizen wondering about elected officials in the capital. The first year of the new president s term is a major. Period for nominations to the senate. The president has submitted fewer and has had fewer approved than previous first term president s. Bush in 1989, 4 . Bush in 2001, 70 6 . Obama in 2009, 60 9 . One more metric of productivity, the number of hours the house and senate were in session continues to decline. All those numbers and metrics available for you at www. Cspan. Org if you want to check it out. Were going to a session in the house in 10 minutes this morning but then we will be back to get more of your thoughts on the political winners and losers of 2017. Keith is in mt. Berg, arkansas, line for democrats. Who is your political winners and losers . Caller yes sir. How are you doing . Host doing well. Caller i love cspan with all my heart. We are cspan junkies. Host appreciate that. Caller i appreciate everything you all do for the American People. I wanted to say, before the election, i live beside a bunch of republicans. Three that i know real well. They are law men and firemen and they wanted to vote for bernie. They are republicans. Bernie has the right idea. He says, rich people cant have it all. That is the way it should be. You know, all of us has to live in this nation and i have served my country and i live in this nation and i love everybody. Everybody. They were staunch bernie supporters but clinton did not want to get out of the way and that really let trump get in there. He is our president and i am a marine so i respect him for being our president. I want to say, i love all you folks and i dont know where all the hate comes from. I have lacked folks in my family i have black folks in my family and i love everybody. Host that is keith in mt. Berg, arkansas. We will show you a you more calls. Political cartoons from usa today, their selection of toitical cartoons relevant politics and policy issues of the past year. Titus, west bloomfield, michigan, independents. Who are your political winners and losers . , i voted am a democrat for jones in alabama. Host that he in betty in illinois. Democrats line. Caller the losers are the poor people who voted for donald trump. I will be 79 years old next week. I was born and raised in greenfield, South Carolina. In aember living segregated town and i believe that is what trump is trying to bring things back. When you look at trump, you see , heperson, dr. Ben carson was a brain surgeon and trump has demoted him down to being over section eight. I used to go to the store with my mother in greenfield and the lady would be waiting on my grandmother and a white person would come in and they would stop waiting on my grandmother. And wait on the white person. I think that is what trump is trying to do with america. Take it back. He says he wants to take the country back. He want to take it back to the 50s and 40s. Have a happy new year. Host before you go, you think a cabinet position is a demotion for ben carson . Caller yes. If you are a brain surgeon and you down tos section eight, wouldnt you think so . Host would you like to see him as Health Secretary . Caller anything better than section eight. Ahead, caller. Caller the winners for this year, number one, President Trump. The losers, the people that call negative, they sound like there is nothing going for them. People from california. I dont blame them when you have losi and brown pardoning a hundred 32 criminals. I talked to people from west virginia, pennsylvania. The jobs are unbelievable. Even from my state, wisconsin. There are jobs, if people wanted to work, there are so many manufacturer jobs open right now , a lot of businesses are absolutely looking for people to work. Anyways. All this negative stuff about trump. Can you imagine if Hillary Clinton would have been president . Not to sound negative about obama, to realize what obama did to this country one revelation on top of other regulations to draw down United States . Host that is ted in wisconsin talking about President Trump, that exclusive interview he gave to the New York Times today. The front page story on the New York Times getting a lot of attention. The headline, the president says, inquiry makes the country look bad. Duringin West Palm Beach which the president did not demand an end to the Russian Investigation but insisted 16 times that there has been no collusion discovered by the inquiry. It makes the country look bad and puts the country in a very bad position. The sooner it is worked out the better it is for the country. Remainmp appeared to focused on the russia investigation. Have the absolute right to do what i want with the justice department. He claims that as the president he has the power to open or and an investigation. An investigation. The New York Times today. St. Louis missouri, independents. Who do you have for your political winners and losers . Caller happy new year, john and all cspan watchers. I enjoy this program very much. Country clubs. Host why country clubs . You are acause, if country club owner like President Trump, you will have a lot of business with the new tax bill. The loser is the constitution anduse he is colluding well, i dont know if he is colluding with russia but he is colluding with politicians to make sure he gets his pockets lined. I dont know who is not paying attention but apparently the people at fox news dont pay attention. They are off and la la land and some of these collars, the guy from wisconsin, la la land watching fox news. My heart goes out to the people who thought the right would fade away they come back with a vengeance. Host joe in alabama, line for republicans. Go ahead. Republicans arent going to go away either. The loser, cnn. The winner, trump. That cnn is biased in their reporting compared to what they report on with obama. That is my pick. Host cnn is the only network or news outlet that the president is biased . Caller msnbc also. Host is that the extent of the ones you dont trust anymore or is there anyone else . What about the New York Times which he gave this interview to yesterday . Has suspended brian ross for lying about trump. Host who do you trust . Caller i listen to a lot of them. When they get up there and Start Talking about how many scoops of ice cream the president had, trying to make them look bad, petty things. About melania trump. A hit job all the time. Ost that is joe in alabama speaking of alabama, news yesterday, the state of alabama certifying Democrat Doug Jones winner of the special elections for u. S. Senate following an 11 hour legal challenge by republican roy moore. Mr. Jones who won the december 12 election is expected to be sworn in on january 3 i Vice President like pence. He is the first democrat elected senator in alabama for more than two decades. Almost 23,000 right in votes in that election. The New York Times with a story on Luther Strange, winning 7800 votes. The New York Times, if you want to read more, the pro forma session in the house about to begin. We will take you there for gavel to gavel coverage. Stay with us. We will be back with you on the other side of that until 10 00 this morning on the washington journal. [no audio] the house will be in order. The chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. Speaker, washington dc, december 29, 2017. I hereby appoint the honorable Alexander Mooney t