Your thoughts on whether Mick Mulvaney might not be the acting chief of staff. Guest i would not bet the farm on it, but i would bet several acres. It would be easy for the president to move Mick Mulvaney back to the position he actually holds which is director of the office of management and budget. He is acting chief of staff and the president has said, he likes acting. if that were the case, it would be easy for him to move mr. Mulvaney back to his fulltime job and mr. Meadows over to the job. He makes little secret of savoring chief of staff. Given the close relationship between the north carolinian and the president , he will not be acting anything. Relationship the between Mick Mulvaney and the president from what you can tell . Guest it is more like a Vice President of a Major Company with the ceo. Administers a lot of things, but the president make the final decision. Not be a strong chief of staff in the sense james baker was toes Ronald Reagan, the Gold Standard for chief of staff. On the other hand, the president does not have a lot of people who tell him no the way baker and panetta told their respective bosses. He is nots capable, what i would call a great chief of staff. Mr. Mulvaney, if you are watching, nothing personal. I still like the work you did in congress and omb. And were Reince Priebus john kelly strong chief of staff . Guest they were very capable men. Reince priebus had political skills that very few chiefs of staff bring to the job. General kelly is an american hero, wearing half the metals he deserves. Etimes her that job sometimes for that job, it takes other skills. James baker is someone who had won and lost statewide office in texas as well as managing a national campaign. He was not particularly close to Ronald Reagan and hence, he was not deferential. When he disagreed, he would say no. Independent had an base and a former republican, so he could be distant from the president. Host what skills specifically would mark meadows bring to that job if he is tapped for that . Guest mark meadows was chairman of the Freedom Caucus in the house whose conservative credentials are impeccable. On the other hand, he is someone who is well liked, cosponsored legislation with democrats, and had a successful career as builder and developer just like somebody else at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. Them would two of have the chemistry. 2020,looking ahead to any others in top positions heading to the exit in the coming months . Guest i dont see it but if there is a change in chiefs of staff, there is bound to be changes beneath the president. Fourthadows would be the the idea offf and them having a Fourth National security adviser would make it uncomfortable. Same is true for a third White House Press secretary. A fourth White House Press secretary, i should say. Not think the president will make moves like that. Viewers, this last hour of washington journal. Time to ask westerns about the happenings at the white house with the topic he covers for them. ,epublicans, 202 7488001 democrats, 202 7488000, independents 202 7488001. One year left on the president s first term, what is left on the agenda . Ofst is a period uncertainty for the president as it is for the president in the last year of their term, but one used toite novelists say uncertainty is a flower whose petals have yet to be picked. The president is choosing the petals in which he is going to ut his agenda as he seeks approval from the voters for another term. You mentioned trade earlier and the replacement treaty for nafta will be really big with him. The last chapter on his dealings with china in the trade realm have yet to be written but i have a feeling they will be sooner rather than later. Just point out in Newsmax Christmas day, libya is starting to emerge as a Foreign Policy hotspot. The president may have to deal with that soon. And surgeon troops are insurgent troops are closing in, and the Prime Minister who is backed by turkey haftar promoted himself and is being backed by russia. We have many of the worlds premier military forces by proxy fighting out a battle in libya, and the United States is likely to get involved in some way. Host we mentioned the state of the Union Address february 4, and if you had to guess, what do you think present trump leads the state of the union with . Guest the economy, obviously. The president mentions every time he is in the rose garden, how the economy is doing, the theessness rate is low, and lack of unemployment for black americans, and entrepreneurship and how it is growing. He will talk about it and concluded the state of the union is good. Host we will find out as the state of the Union Address is on february 4 right here on cspan. Taking your calls with john gizzi from newsmax. Doug is in south dakota, a democrat. Are you with us, go ahead . Caller good morning. I hope santa claus treated you well over christmas. I went back on a cspan library and listened to an interview a , and io with john there found out you were a student of history, and gizzi, i learned you were a catholic republican, but you sound like a man of open eyes and integrity. My comment is i think that mr. Mcconnell will try to bury the impeachment deal, and does not want to see the truth. Aump will keep calling biden crook and vice versa until the election. Biden needs to call trump out, and to deal and come to the cspan stage, and get hooked up to the polygraph and find out if biden is lying or trumps. [laughter] we the people will know the truth. , do yoution for you is askinghat the president a Foreign Government to investigate a political opponent is wrong . Democrats, call your senators and put your protests in. Have a good day. Personal view of that Opposition Research today sometimes mean going throughout the world in talking to other people about political candidates. We have become such a global through the easiness of communicating, through the computer, twitter, facebook, etc. , it is not difficult to and does nothers require one leader to the other asking for things. When someonehand, engages in international lobbying, they enter another world. I know members of congress who specifically after leaving office will not become registered Foreign Agents, because it is such another traps such a potential of for them that they could be a target. I someone within their family is in politics, they can ensnare the entire family. Is it right for the president to ask another world leader . There is no law against it at this point, and certainly we will have a rich discussion on this coming out of congress. Just maybe, they will pass some specific laws on this, my frankly as the great philosopher casey stangl once said, never make predictions, especially about the future. Host rich discussion happening right now in the senate when it comes out to run the impeachment trial. Mitch mcconnell is getting a lot of attention for promising coordination with the white house for the impeachment trial. Lisawall street journal, murkowski noting her concern with mcconnells comments saying, she opposed handing gloves with the defense and express other concerns about the process as it plays out. I wonder your thoughts on how it will play out. Guest that i believe aentually, they will work out set of rules for a trial in the senate and they will resolve such as the question of witnesses that seems to be the stumbling block between each house of congress. Senator murkowski, she voiced disappointment that senator mcconnell said he was in touch with the white house on this. I would respectfully say to the senator, to the look back at the clinton impeachment trial and the comment of the democratic leadership at the time. The problem is why have the articles of impeachment not been to the senate at this point. Simple that Mitch Mcconnell has not said what kind of a trial there will be or witnesses will be permitted. This is an old game that lawyers play in trial. They want the ground rules, the other side is not saying, and it will take a little longer for this trial to start, possibly longer than the 17 other impeachments in the history of the twoblic, including impeachment trials, but it will go on. Host rochester, new york. This is brian. Caller good morning. With respect to the impeachment, it is embarrassing to me, as a republican, that the republican they has caved in to president and rather than try to reach the actual truth of what happened, they are playing the victim card. Thatitch mcconnell to say he is going to coordinate with the white house is totally ridiculous. He is supposed to be a neutral how the process is supposed to go ahead. All we have is the most divisive president in American History playing up division, partisanship, calling out the wrong people, badmouthing all people he does not agree with, so i think the impeachment has to be done as they say fairly, but to come out in advance and say that it is a scam and a hoax, it just wrong. Clintonsering bill impeachment, i can recall very much how the president did not want the impeachment to go ahead, obviously, and the American Public did not. Republicans insisted on pushing it in 1998 to the point of running commercials about it, and President Trump president clinton once remarked that he felt like sammy sosa warming up for a pitch. We could argue about the rules. Naturally, the person who is the subject of impeachment the he President Trump or president congressman hastings who was impeached and removed as a federal judge all will say a sham andial is should not occur because they believe they are innocent. So it is that their supporters will say the same. Hastings became a political pope figure just by being the subject of impeachment and parlayed his removal into the congressional ct now holds in the state of florida. The president weighing in on this discussion because he did at 7 18 this morning. He said on twitter, the radical left, donothing democrats said they wanted to rush everything through the senate because is a threat to National Security. The president saying, now they do not want to go fast anymore. They want to go very slowly. Liars with an excavation exclamation point. Any thoughts . Guest you have to get up early to, on anything with the president these days. Caller how many is mr. Mulvaney pulling in because he has two fulltime jobs, department ted and chief of staff . Is it flex time, parttime, was going on . Guest have a good day. I have not seen Mick Mulvaneys reforms, but as a public servant, i am sure he will release it at some point and we will find out. Remember he is acting in the white house chief of staff position but he remains the fulltime omd director. That he receives one paycheck for it, but the idea of holding two paychecks at the same time, i am not sure that is legal. We will find out. Host we were out of the president s tweets for today. Just before 8 00 a. M. Eastern, Nancy Pelosis district in california has rapidly become one of the worst anywhere in the states when it comes to homelessness and crime and has gotten so bad so fast, she has lost total control, and along with her equally incompetent governor, gavin newsom, it is a very sad site. Guest i know a little bit about Nancy Pelosis district, and her predecessor would face the same charges over and over again. Himyet, people reelected resoundingly as they did his widow who handpicked nancy pelosi for the seat. I would simply say that if the constituents are satisfied with their members of congress, they might take issue with the president. If they agreed with him, elect someone else. Host usa today with analysis of the president s tweets. Tweeting has taken a testy turn. Trump tweeted more than ever before and his messages became more negative, according to an analysis of more than 8200 posts between inauguration and early december. Of the words and President Trumps tweets had negative connotation that crept up to 16. 4 by december 2019. What do you read into the president s emotional state via tweets . Guest i think it is the same with all of us who get told on twitter and i am trying to resist it. You have a tendency to put in twitter what you would like to tell someone else facetoface, but just do not want to. It is too uncomfortable. Mano with the 140 letters you are permitted, or they have increased it now. It is interesting. I know someone who used to work house,trump white he said if only you would stop tweeting, you would be on the 20 bill someday. The president himself was asked about this, why does he not stop tweeting or do you regret anything, and he says i would do not regret many of them because without twitter, i probably would not be here. Zi,t on twitter, johngiz how many years have you been covering the white house . Guest i have been a permanent White House Correspondent, i got my hard pass in 2001, but i have covered president s since jimmy carter. Twitter changed the job of a White House Correspondent . Guest one has to get up a lot earlier than one used to to see what the president is doing pretty he sets the agenda and the questions with his tweets. Host what about what you are expected to report and when you reported via twitter . Tweets are of the reported instantly from people. What i like to do is find out if there is a bigger story in it. For example, for the president to talk about libya right now, i would be on that and talking to other people about it instantly in the foreignpolicy policy and National Security around. If he were to make some comments atut your about iran this point which is continuing to have marches and demonstrations, that would be something to follow in the long run. His comments about other politicians though are things that people just get on pretty regularly as soon as he makes them, and i like to look for a bigger story. Host do white house reporters not do that enough today . Guest i think a lot of them do and i do believe that from the thep tweets, emerges germination of bigger stories but his out there, foreman nations about political opponents or people he does not like, i think that is something upsetsergizes his base his opponents, and provides entertainment. Overall, i think in the long run, donald trump will be to twitter what to Franklin Roosevelt was to radio, and you know something, future president s will take to twitter. Host john gizzi with us for another half hour this morning taking your calls until our program ends today. Pamela, good morning. Caller good morning. My question has been has all of this moves forward, i would love young biden received all of the money that he did, and what was he doing to get all of the funds that he had received. About the are talking payment that he received from pany. Urisma oil com caller and the whole thing the, what was he doing to get all those funds. Guest this is a question that anyone who is a lobbyist or a registered Foreign Agent inevitably has to ask, how much are they really doing. Are they providing access, are they dealing with legislation that affects the company they are particularly on. None of this has been made clear yet regarding hunter biden. Tellnother way, i cannot you just how hard he worked. No one can. Has insisted in interviews that he has done nothing wrong, and violated no laws come about her what he did, i think you would have to go to the people who were approving his retainer and asked. Host how are you covering this story . Guest on this story, i will not make a rush to judgment on it until i have further information from people or people in the know. Just as i will not condemn joe biden for whatever he did in ukraine nor will i condemn the president at this point. One of the things i am glad about is i never got into editorial writing. I like to report the news. We are on toure as get news out, one thing newsmax does is double check with people, double check at sources. Aboutwhat do you think reporters today having their own columns where they can give a little bit more opinion versus reporting district news . Guest that has been a trend. Host news analysis, it is often called. Television, one finds people who are delivering the news will then segue into doing a commentary, and that has gone on since the birth of television. Lee terry, the namesake of the congressman from nebraska, was a very popular news anchor in omaha going back to the 1950s. He always upon finishing the news what segue into editorial let med begin by saying, begin this observation,the news. It is being done by columnista as well. I enjoy that, i enjoyed reading people who disagree with me, by the way. Host keeping some of your colleagues reporting at the white house are too inclined to become the story . Guest that has been an old charge for a long time and it is not something i spent a lot of time on. As long as the story emerges from the white house, i could care less if someone wants to climb for the camera. Ant jane in alabama, independent. Caller morning. I keep waiting for the headline to read trump impeached by democrats. I also think that nancy has her own insurance policy and she will hold the impeachment until after the election to see if the demos take over the senate, and if they do, then they should impeach him if they will win. Guest nancy, that is a lot of ifs right there. You are assuming if the democrats take the senate, they need four seats to do it. If President Trump is reelected, if they get a democratic president and Vice President , they only need three seats to do it. And then, why impeach donald trump because he will be defeated. I remember when nancy pelosi was asked at the Christian Science monitor press back risk four months ago, do you want to see donald trump impeached . And she said, no, i want to see see him defeated and jailed. On has changed her tune that. If the scenario comes about on the democratic president and a democratic senate, who cares what happens to donald trump at that point. Host gulfport, mississippi, this is james. Are you buyer this is ken in miami, florida. Independent. Caller good morning. You haveon mr. Gizzi, been a White House Correspondent for newsmax for the last 20 years, and you have seen both different kinds of president s of different political persuasions. How have you allowed yourself over the years to take an obviously mentally insane president and convince yourself that he has some kind of full a tickle genius . When you guys at newsmax get together in socalled going after the news, how do you all keep a straight face. You know, Ronald Reagan ine said about trees california, if youve seen one tree, you have seen them all. I can say, you have seen one president , you have seen them all. I dont mean that to say that each president is the same, but an objective reporter has to treat the new person with his unique qualities, his eccentric cities very much the same as his predecessor. In the sense that we know the president will do things differently and we in turn have to just report what they do. ,erhaps if someone comes out george w. Bush sometimes would not speak in complete sentences when he talked to the press. Detailedama gave a answer to everything and as a result, he took very few questions from reporters. This president has his own particular style. I am not going to belittle him or any other president. Just report on them. Says, we dochambers things not because they are probable, but because they are right. Host how did you end up at newsmax . When ii started for came to washington 40 years ago. On thises, i was program as the First Political reporter and later Political Editor for the oldest conservative newsweekly. Moved from human events as it was fading from the scene to newsmax, and it has been a most enjoyable experience the last six years. The one thing i would say to others who are aspiring in the news business, there has been a greater emphasis with the online printation, and as an old reporter, i learned that you reach a lot more people online. When i talk to the young people who are aspiring journalists and students, almost all of them get their news online now, so i find a wide reach of people and more people like our friends calling me this morning who have an opinion of their own. Host what is one piece of advice you give to those young aspiring reporters today . Guest read people who disagree with you. Instanter of getting news online are creating your own newspaper is you only read those who agree with you. That is why i try to look at can tello differ and i you, we still get, in print, the Financial Times at the house of gizzi. I can tell you, i go berserk sometimes reading some of the colonists. Columnists. I do not agree with them on some of the points they make particularly in their worldview, the world of brexit, and their view on the United States, but i read them all. Host one of the papers show up at the front door of the house . F gizzi post ande washington that my office, i get the new york times. We read the Christian Science monitor and Bloomberg Business weekly. With 34hn gizzi appearances in the cspan library dating back to the first appearance in 1991. With us this morning until 10 00 a. M. Eastern taking your phone calls. Sylva h at pittsburgh, pennsylvania, good morning. The pledge of allegiance to the United States that to the republic of which it stands means the legitimate authority in america is the people, but trump has changed the whole foundation into a plutocracy, meaning government by the rich. That congress is responsible to protect the andle against the readers high class of our society. Mitch mcconnell is up there talking about hes going to be impartial. Everybody on congress and who do that is supporting trump that has changed the whole foundation of america to a plutocracy host what you take from that . Guest it is interesting. Sometimes i think just listening to people, President Trump can never win. Withtimes, he is charged catering to lower income voters collar voters, people more likely to vote for the democratic party. I might add that some of his sharpest critics on that are conservative republicans to think that he is redefining the traditional definition of conservatism. On the other hand, as george pointed out, there is the charge that his policies benefit the rich. Wholked to a friend of mine , she and her husband have two incomes, and they said their tax burden went up by 7,000 since the trump tax bill went in. On the other hand, we also see where the stock market is, the creation of new jobs, the increase in salaries, the number of christmas bonuses that went up, and we find gross is 2. 5 which is higher than it ever was under the previous administration. You cannot have it both ways. That he caters to the plutocracy and caters then to the lower income voters. Hill, north in rose carolina. A democrat. Caller good morning. I would like to ask the gentleman i have listened to different ones, fox news, newsmax, msnbc, cnn, i try to get news from everywhere and make my own judgment. Guest good. Ler i am hearing from you i will leave that alone. I just do not like the way our president keep saying, read the transcript. On the shows,lk not thenot say that is original transcript that is locked up. Nothe people are being told the whole truth. Mitch mcconnell, he has gotten he from russia so of course will go along with the president. Did for russia kentucky and his wife also with china. We have a big problem in our country. Guest the lady covered so many points, i would love to sit down and have a discussion sometime about it oneonone. In fairness to our other callers who want to come in, my understanding on the transcripts since geraldidents ford have preferred to have stenographers and transcribers tehr there rather than record and transcribe. Host why does that make them more comfortable . Guest i think the nixon tapes certainly cast a spell on president s recording in the future. Previous president s recorded back to fdr, all moreugh, date did it sparingly. They know very well there is a stenographer and other people on the line. I am sure president zelensky that and new as well there are people from the National Security council and possibly the state department on that call. It, the stenographer types there is always the possibility of a glitch in the translation , andword being missed there is the caveat at the top that this is a replica of the conversation that was made. Andoes not say, this is exact recording of it because there is no recording. That is done for the sake of history. Host out to idaho, ned, an independent. Caller good morning, boys. Guest morning. Caller john, you were talking earlier about possibly getting now d in living here now, andin libya here i was under the impression we are trying to get out of the middle east and move the troops home. The largest refugee crisis in is not syria, it is venezuela. Of failed states to the south of us, that is the migration crisis that has shown up at our border. Im just wondering do you know more about where we are going with that, military . Guest i totally agree with venezuela and i would say keep nicaragua on your screen as well. They are having a number of ofple flee the country out fear of their ruler. Regarding libya, there is a civil war going on in libya and it is so far involving reporters from other countries including russia, saudi arabia, and egypt. Back theom onetime chief of staff under colonel qaddafi. So the Prime Minister is isported by turkey and calling on the United States for assistance. By the factlicated that the former National Security adviser, john bolton, who isat the strong man contemptuous of democracy, would be our best ally in that part of the world. He arranged for a telephone call three days before easter between leadingt trump and opponent to the regime, the u. S. Obstensibly backs. The u. S. Will probably be called on to make some decision between leaders that the u. S. Has a relationship of sorts with. Wouldfor more on it, i point viewers to the tuesday 20 fourth of december story with the headline libya looms as next week Foreign Policy crisis for trump. The author, john gizzi, on that story. Tweet, russia,s syria, and iran are killing or on their way to killing thousands of innocent civilians in the province. Dont do it, the president says that turkey is working hard to stop this carnage. Guest the president has worked to develop a Good Relationship inh president Erdogan Turkey even though there are strong disagreements such as turkey getting the fighter jets from russia. Materialg the fighter from russia i should say. While the u. S. Provides jets. Alwayst is that there is going to be trouble in the middle east. One has to count on one outlier when one can count on another. You mentioned iran. There seems to be an ongoing revolution there although it is not publicized that much, with protests going on as the food is not in great supply for the iranian people. More than 70 of the countries under the age of 35 and clearly not enamored with the government there and they are well aware of the outside world. Stock ofdent is taking countries that could all be major chokepoints in the middle east. I do think it points to some kind of u. S. Involvement at some particular point. Host cleveland, ohio, this is loretta. A democrat. Caller good morning. I have two questions for a new story. I want to know how Many Russians did reagan invite to his convention . And how Many Russians did the bush 43 invite . 100 russian all of darks at his convention. Where is question is the 4 trillion that was repatriated . Where is the money . Host what specific money are you talking about . Caller the 4 trillion that was refreeze she that was repatriated from offshore banks. Guest i do not know where the money is and i would like a little more detail on that. I know of course, the repatriation from money from offshore banks was a key project for the Administration Early on. That might be a good question for the secretary of the treasury when he comes out to talk to us. Just to take count of this kind of money, how much is coming back to us. Good question. Regarding russians at the convention, i know as someone who has covered Convention Since 1980, there is a foreign visitors section there and people from countries everywhere come and it has been very good for me because i got reacquainted with Stockwell Day who later became canadas minister of the interior. Dr. Liam fox who was a conservative cabinet minister under David Cameron would come to them frequently, and so the russians came, often the ambassadors are there. Ambassador who is now foreign minister has been to republican and democratic conventions in the past. , i dont know be if reagan had some there in the 1980, but so did the democrats. People from other countries enjoy the exercise of the convention, they enjoy meeting folks like me who will listen to them, and they love they enjoy meeting u. S. Politicians. If there were 100 there under the bush years and they came from russia say when Boris Yeltsin was in charge, that would have been in bill clintons time, it would not surprise me. Host a minute ago, you said it questiona good for steve mnuchin. How much access do you have to the cabinet officials and how does it compare to the axis of previous administrations. Guest it is actually pretty good. The secretary of housing and urban development then carson has given several interviews, and he revealed it to a reporter at newsmax, he said he would not serve a second term under this president. Host why . Guest he feels it is time to go back to the private sector and then and candyhe carson reading rooms and libraries that he and his wife have set out. He felt strongly about that and apparently felt pretty strongly enough about newsmax to give us the exclusive. Thank you, mr. Secretary if you are watching. Others, secretary pompeo has done a televised interview with newsmax, larry kudlow, the dididents Economic Advisor an excellent interview with our president , and secretary mnuchin comes out of the press room about thetalked International Scene as well as economic developments. Host Rebecca Stoner on twitter tweeting about the newsmax calling it right wing. How would you describe newsmax and its coverage . Guest that is a little unfair. Yes, some of the editorials have been conservative but as far as , we have beennews critical of President Trump and of the Republican Party in general. Let me give you a good example of that. When Mitch Mcconnell held up president s nomination of judge merrick a in the supreme court, it was newsmax as one of the first to call on him to at least have hearings and that was a position that other toomeycans like senator and senator grassley began pushing the majority leader on. Lauren in alexandria, minnesota. A republican, you are on. Caller good morning. Thedems say no one is above law. What a joke. I watched movies on the kennedys and what they were doing and a lot of them were above the law. Drove drunk, cheating on his wife with a mistress, and he went and slept off a drunk. He should have died in prison and never should have stayed a senator. So what are they talking about with nobody is above the law. Guest any thoughts on that . Host to oregon, this is robert, and republican. Caller Merry Christmas to both of you. A, and some questions. Refreshing voice and you seem very neutral, and your report of what is actually going on. I find it rich that the , the pfizeredia report and the ig report just recently came out that addresses all of these issues of foreign intervention that was in the election that it was just funded through Hillary Clintons campaign, and it says that it etc. ,ates the fbi, strzok, page, but it did not exonerate them, just did not have a reasonable explanation for their actions. That we are not addressing that issue and we are responsible, and we are impeaching him for those actions of previous president s and their administration. To beamerican citizen, able to be spied on by our government through false information and then have a Foreign Agent, Christopher Steele, establish the steele dossier which has been proven in andig report to be phony have fbi agents falsify reports. Host got your point. Guest Christopher Steele was no james bond, lets leave it at that. Thatld say on the fbi whatever happened recently and whether as you say, comey, page, rok are guilty parties, i think it is inarguable that an overhaul of the fbi is needed at this point. I want us i once interviewed to late neil said what the fbi needs is to have the phones ripped out and then have it fumigated. Of a overhaul, it is in need of being much Smaller Agency than it is. It is that the bureaucracy has become too bloated. It does not surprise me when there are glitches and mistakes down the line. Readingne who has been about the fbi for decades and is a great fan of the bureau and the agents, i would say i hope that director wray has a complete overhaul just as it is set to move into its new headquarters. Host what do you make of his response of the ig report and whether he is open to the kind of overall you are talking about . Guest you are talking the horwitz report . Host yes. Guest he obviously stands by his agents to a degree and yet, he recognizes the problems that are there. So far, and i think when you talk about the president and some of his comments, he has said that Christopher Wray will never make the kind of reforms that are needed. I am not so certain about that because this is someone who spent a lifetime making prosecution, knowing the justice he hasent, and lets say been close enough to all of this to be enoch elated, be innoculated but not in it enough. Int this is our caller washington dc. Caller good morning, thank you for taking my call. I have two questions. [indiscernible] with some of the criminality on , andies of the president i could mention the new york court whereby they found the nonprofitand his organization with finance laws. The undermined the actions of the constitution . My second question would be about the president s taxes. Should the president to be allowed to run companies and where he hasstates refused to show taxes to the population . Thank you. Revealing of taxes is not something that is required by law and if that were the case, donald trump would have been prosecuted by now for a. That is something that began nixonpresident when he became president just as a voluntary action and president s and president ial candidates have revealed their net worth over the years. Very, very little harm with that. President this is a who for whatever reason chooses not to reveal his taxes. He has so far not been prosecuted, he certainly has been criticized a lot, but again, remember what he is doing is just breaking modern president , not breaking the law in doing so. Gail inst call, flint, michigan. Caller good morning. I am wondering since trump has cheatingbreaking on the upcoming election and breaking the federal election laws or the rules, i am wondering how he is allowed to even be on the 2020 ballot. What rules izzy guest what rules is he breaking . Caller federal election rules that you are not allowed to solicit help from a foreign country in an election. It is their rule number one. Tost you are not allowed solicit foreign funds. That would be an entirely different story and i know that there are cases every year, or every Election Year where candidates wind up having to turn money back to countries overseas because they are in violation of that and in violation of the Foreign Agents registration act. This goes back to world war ii, i might add. As for asking questions of a Foreign Government, i agreed earlier, it is a nebulous area, but the crime has not yet been established at this point. Host john gizzi, white house correspond with newsmax. What are you covering today . Guest i mentioned nicaragua earlier and that was a teaser. I had a fascinating breakfast last week with a gentleman Raphael Estrada who was helping refugees get out of net or log costa rica,a, and panama because they are in opposition to the regime of isiel ortega who he says, getting increasingly closer to a dictatorship. Others say he is getting closer to bad people such as iran. Also, former congressman david trott of michigan came out said made serious charges against the president saying he is mentally unfit to hold a job. Im not going to get into a debate with him, but my First Encounter with congressman shot trot was my first trip six years ago when he was chairman of the lincoln day dinner in oakland county, michigan. His guest speaker, who sold out the place and had them get extra space was donald trump. At that point, he praised him. Host you can see all of john caseys work online. I appreciate you joining us. Guest i hope all had a Merry Christmas and have a happy new year. Host that is going to do it for our program. We will be back your tomorrow morning at 7 00 a. M. Eastern have a great thursday. Announcer tonight on cspan, attorney Justin Pearson talked with the Federalist Society about occupational licensing laws. He believes the laws are unnecessary, and seeks a lawsuit to overturn them. Heres a preview. I have personally spoken to people weapon arrested and prosecuted for the crime of teeth whitening. I have spoken to people who have been arrested or prosecuted for the crime of braiding hair. Swatorida a few years ago, this i want to repeat for swat teams rated barbershops under the suspicion of unlicensed barbering. That is what happens when you have these laws. Sometimes things go far astray. To give you example, i mentioned before, people have been arrested for the crime of braiding hair. One of those individuals is someone in texas. She is a here breeder. Arrested forally the crime of braiding hair. When i say arrested, i mean arrested. Police officers with guns and badges put her in handcuffs enter and took her to jail. They clicked, she was able to fight back and get the law changed. And then she got in trouble again because texas law prevented her from teaching anyone how to braid hair. Even after the reform when