Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 11092020 20240711

Ater, Susan Ferrechio takes look at how the next senate is shaping up. We also take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. Washington journal is next. Host the shape of president elect Joe Bidens Administration will begin to take shape today as he names a covid advisory panel. While cabinet choices may be a week or more away, he could name his chief of staff this week. Good morning, it is monday, november 9. Welcome to washington journal. Our first hour of questioning asking you what is your top priority for the Biden Administration . Here is how you take part. One line for democrats, one line for republicans, one for independence and others. Independents and others. We welcome your texts. Please include your name and where you are texting from. And on facebook as well. We will also keep you updated on some of the legal challenges that are continuing in several states to the election by the Trump Campaign. We will tell you more about those as we look for your calls and comments momentarily. Here is the reporting on the incoming Biden Administration. The headline biden plans to move fast on the pandemic and the economy. President elect joe biden and his advisers planned this week to demonstrate a far more assertive strategy against the coronavirus then President Trump. Biden may take a more proactive role in the coming weeks and congressional negotiations over an economic stimulus package. Bidens proposal, some of which were posted on his new transition website, include aiming to secure funds for ramping up coronavirus testing, requiring additional protective equipment such as masks and gowns, and investing 25 billion in vaccine and manufacturing and distribution. His aides say they recognize the United States has one president at a time, nonetheless, hope to seize on the momentum from his victory to signal Decisive Action on the major crises involving the nation. That could be complicated by trumps refusal to concede in arefact that some states still fluctuating there recounts. Joe bidens Coronavirus Task ce to meet as trump they write that joe biden will convene a task force today to confront one of the biggest problems vexing the u. S. As president elect and his running mate move ahead with their transition process. On sunday night, biden and harris released their first public schedule as president elect and Vice President elect. He is due to meet with a 12 member Advisory Board led by the and theurgeon general former food and Drug Administration commissioner to determine how best to detain a pandemic that has killed more than 237,000 americans. Also news this morning on the vaccine. This is a tweet out from stat. Com about the testing and vaccines. A bright, glimmering light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. The Pfizer Vaccine had a 90 efficacy in its first look at a large trial. Viewers onts from our question this morning, your Top Priorities for the Biden Administration. One says, i want both parties to Work Together for the best interest of the American People. Im sick of all of them getting paid when all they do is fight. Right now, they do just what is best for their own parties. The president cannot do his job without the right help. Another says, immediately put up a plan to reunite the kids separated from their parents. To your calls, momentarily. First, some comments from the speaker of the house and her views on the lameduck session in the democratic agenda ahead. These comments come friday before the president elect was announced and the winner named on saturday. [video clip] speaker, the previous four president s entered their first year with their party fully in control of congress, the house in the senate. How much do you have to trim that,he ambition knowing at best, it is a 5050 senate and some think the republicans are favored in georgia, and you still have majority leader mcconnell . How many times have you heard me quote lincoln . Public sentiment is everything. With it, you can accomplish almost anything. Without it, practically nothing. That is what i think is going to save the day. The public once the virus to be crushed, they want the economy to reopen and children to go to school safely. Are in sane if you francisco, michigan, alabama, wherever it is, people want jobs. They want jobs. When we talk about the health and wellbeing of the American People, job security is an important factor of health for those people. Once we go forward with an infrastructure bill, that is usually not partisan. It isnt partisan. We are going to blanket the country with a build back better, as joe biden calls it, we called it moving america forward. We have a great deal in common between those two agendas. Host Speaker Pelosi from friday. Our monday morning question for you, your top priority for the Biden Administration . Line for democrats, one for republicans and all others. Lets go to aurora, colorado. This is edna, democrats line. Edna, you are on the air. Go ahead. Ok. We will hear from connecticut. Cindy . Are you there . Caller hi. Good morning. My top priority for the Biden Administration would be the pandemic, and also, making sure is the way ittem has been, voting in person. The elections cannot be a week or month before the election and two weeks after. That would be one thing, but the pandemic is really the top priority for a lot of people. I just hope you all will give some credit to the other side. We do have a vaccine at the ready and i hope that if you get it, you think President Trump for it. Host new york, democrats line. Caller first of all, the penalty for electing donald trump in the first place is the loss of perhaps anywhere between 50000 and 100 thousand lives that were unnecessarily taken because of this covid19 problem we have. Forop priority, of course, president elect is to develop a comprehensive, coordinated plan all thek covid19 using science and technology that we and the organization that to a politician of his caliber. Host do you think a National Mask mandate or Something Like that, or at least a stronger suggestion from the federal government, from the president , is part of what the Biden Administration, the Incoming Administration may be considering . Caller one of my biggest objections to donald trump was the fact that he couldnt wear a mask. I dont think that was too much to ask of a president. He were to set the standards by wearing that mask, and to whatever extent, i cant quantify it, but if the president wears a mask, he sends a signal. If he doesnt wear a mask, he sends another. That is why i say that he caused a lot of lives. That is the price we paid for electing someone who was not a and i can understand electing a businessman, but elect gaetz or welsh of general electric. Not someone who has no experience in the real world. Thank you. Host this is bill in florida, republican line. Caller good morning. I would think Climate Change would be up there as as we speak, the indian river is creeping up on highway one here in florida. Thaturse, i would think the voting problems they have in georgia with of the senatorial races, would be explored. We know the voter purging has been going on for a long time and they haveia taken temp to court. That race is very important. Host florida was called fairly early for the president last tuesday night. Maybe early into wednesday morning, are you surprised of that . Did the voting process, the vote count there go pretty smoothly . Caller i believe the voter purging has been going on here in florida for quite some time. Years. Been voting for 20 originally, im from staten island. The terribly upset with whole voting process down here in the hands of scott who was in trouble at one point for medicare fraud. What was theng, final resolution or has there been with the voters approved that amendment a couple of years ago to allow former convicted felons to vote. Where did that stand . Did some of them get to vote in the 2020 race or not . Caller i think they had to pay their fines in order to vote. That is one million votes. Host we will let you go and go to christopher in new jersey. Caller thanks for taking my call. Top priorities are indeed the covid19 pandemic, and also, after the recovery of that with the things that president elect biden is going to do, the recovery of jobs in the country, also, indeed, the rights of disabled people with special needs because they have been victims of brutality for so long, as well as the ending of systemic racism on all genders and nationalities and people with special needs. And finally, to increase the minimum wage sincerely to 15 to 25 per hour because we have seen a lot of people fighting for it and it is important that the people get back on their feet and be able to achieve the American Dream for as long as i have been doing it. Ive been fighting for so many people, and they have not had a voice. I think joe biden, today, made it clear that everyone deserved to have a voice in the selection. The vote by mail thing went beautifully well, the early election thing went beautifully well, and i believe people should realize that joe biden has a clear mandate for america. And i do believe he will get the job done absolutely 100 right because if we Work Together and get it done correctly, both locally and nationally and get people with special needs also to be heard, we have a chance to make america a place where they can be welcomed by all and accessible. Oft philadelphia, the focus the Trump Campaign with special news conferences, including one over the weekend with rudy giuliani, who is leading the effort there. We go to philly next and hear from jaclyn on our republican line. Caller good morning. Tellerswe are the truth who voted for trump. He wasnt perfect, but he told the truth and that is why i admired him so much. Im going to change the subject for a minute. This morning, i heard there might be a new coronavirus something to heal the coronavirus. Im locking words. Host a vaccine. Caller who is going to take the credit for that . Joe biden . Not donald trump, though the work he did, he tried hard. I think joe biden is going to take the credit for that. One other thing i noticed, im my girlfriend and i went shopping and i see only millennials jumping around providing. No old people voting for him at all. I find that very interesting. Host jaclyn in philadelphia, pennsylvania, the focus over the weekend as the Associated Press and other news organizations called the state for joe biden. Senator pat toomey of pennsylvania was asked about the election in the vote count. Washington journal 70 million americans voted for donald trump. They, and the president deserve to have this process play out. I understand yesterday, the media projected how this is going to end. In the media projection is probably correct, but there is a reason we actually do the count. By the way, part of our process is to adjudicate disputes. It can include recounts. Under pennsylvania law, there is an end automatic recount if the vote margin is. 5 . At the moment, joe biden is leading by only. 6 . Lets let this come to its proper conclusion. In the process, maximize the number of people who have confidence it was done properly. Jill biden is ahead by more than 30,000 votes. You understand that at a certain point, i recount just would not change the math. Pennsylvania law has an automatic recount. We should follow the law. If it comes to a lead that is outside of the automatic recount margin, then pennsylvania law gives the losing candidate the opportunity to petition for a recount. The loser has to pay for it. You are right that recounts very seldom change the outcomes. I understand that, but theres nothing wrong with following the process and the law. Host the Washington Times headline this morning Trump Legal Team to file suits. They are getting ready to unleash a number of lawsuits alleging voter fraud and irregularities. Increase in litigation comes as mr. Trump trails presumptive president elect joseph biden and a handful of swing states by as mailin ballots continue to be counted. Since when does the lame stream media called who our next president will be . We have all learned a lot in the net last two weeks, mr. Trump tweeted on sunday. Giuliani noted free of the broader legal issues they are raising. I think we have enough to change pennsylvania. It would be wrong for mr. Trump to concede. He plans to file more lawsuits today saying they could target between four and 10 different states. Comments on our opening question. Says, throughe the lawsuits to show everyone there was truly no fraud. Get votes certified. The president elect has nothing has no power to accomplish anything in the however, hearty, could begin to minimize or eliminate the influence of the radical left inside the party. This one says, our new president has a full plate and a lot to address. As a physician, financially secure, my biggest concern is police violence. Lets go to our independent line and hear from gilbert in birmingham, alabama. Caller good morning and thanks to cspan. My main issue with the incoming president , is the issue of canada. China. With one of i asked my friends with the fact that world war iii is already over. It seems as if no one is taking notice to the fact that other than this article, over in china, the pandemic seems to have succeeded. Nothing is happening over there. All of the businesses over there. Everybody making mega profits. And who lost . The american public. Im very concerned about the way thisiden deals with economic trade thing with china because if the American Economy collapsed, it would be all over for the world. Host were you satisfied with the Trump Administration and how they dealt with china on trade and other issues . Caller exactly. Now, we have nobody to protect us from china. Let me say this. I am a man of 70 years old and when i went to school, they taught us civics and communism. China is a communist country. And for people in congress to allow the american businessman to have free will with a communist country, where are we going to be in the next four or five years . Communism . Host next, democrat collar. Caller. Caller i think one of our parties should be tackling affordable housing. We have to come together as americans. I think that is one way we can unite the country. Tackling focused on our infrastructure. Plays a relationship with one another. I think if we can tackle that, we could maybe ill get along. Lets try doing that. Illinois, we hear from larry on our republican line. Caller good morning. I would like to know how biden is going to unite the country when, for the last four years, republicans have voted for trump have been called ignorant, stupid, uneducated bible thumpers, gun carrying idiots, when the day of the inauguration, there were several democrats standing up yelling impeach trump. I just dont see how it is going to happen. Rightk mr. Trump has the to question any of the elections. If it is legal, he should go ahead and do it. I dont believe biden is ever going to bring the country together. That thes, i hope neighborhoods that he built great big highrises for Public Housing like i live in and we will see what their neighborhoods end up like and if they can sell their homes. Thank you very much and have a wonderful day. Joliet, illinois, margaret on the independent line. Caller im looking at the fact that we could have been the ones that looked lost. Democrats could have lost it. Why not be decent to the republicans . All republicans are not stupid and silly just like all democrats are not. Democratsof it is, remember how they felt when they lost. Please respect the republicans. Lets give them a hand up, not a handout. Lets make it ok for them to feel the way they feel right now. We know how wee felt when we lost. Dont just look at them and call them ignorant or stupid. For whatever reason they made this decision, it was their decision to make. Who are we to say that they are wrong and we are right . We just believe the way we believe, but also, understand the way your neighbor feels. It is ok. All democrats are not perfect, and all republicans are not perfect. Host margaret in illinois. The u. S. Senate is expected to gavel back in. Firsttion since the session since the election. We are likely to hear from majority leader mcconnell and minority leader Chuck Schumer. Haveal republicans congratulated joe biden on the wind. One of those was from Lisa Murkowski. As palletsat even are counted in alaska and legal challenges continue, former Vice President joe biden is now the projected winner of this close on hardfought president ial race. The night he declared victory in s to be a president who and pledged to be a president who works with all americans. While we may not always agree, i will work with them to do what is right for alaska just as i will continue to emphasize collaboration and bipartisanship with my colleagues in the narrowly divided senate. Some of the Statement Released by Lisa Murkowski late saturday night. Roy blunt of missouri was asked about the expected lawsuits the Trump Campaign is supposed to issue. [video clip] i spoke with secretary of that say they esteemed no widespread evidence of any kind of fraud at all. Joe biden has won this election. Why cant you acknowledge it . Andhat i said on friday what Chris Christie said just a few minutes ago on this show is, it is time for the president s lawyers to present the facts, and then, it is time for those faxed to speak for themselves. It is going to be much easier to work toward that kind of transition we want, look at the inauguration, which im going to have the honor of chairing again, and bringing the country together, if everybody feels like we went through a process and everybody was heard, every and weut was counted come to a conclusion. Almost every state within seven to 10 days of the election goes through that entire canvas. There are always some changes. Seems unlikely that any changes could be big enough to make a difference, but this is a close election and we need to acknowledge that. Continue with your calls and comments. Your top priority for the Biden Administration. Checking social media. Debbie says this, first, get pandemic under control. Then, work on all the rest of his goals starting with addressing and doing something about systemic racism. Julie says, medicare for all. Sam in california, if i had a chance to lead by the know what i think is top priority, is restoring leadership in this country. The country has been wandering around lost without any leadership, just having someone in the white house doesnt equal leadership. That is painfully obvious now. Jan james, Debt Forgiveness and a Public Health option. One headline Pete Buttigieg is near certainty for bidens cabinet saying biden officials have made it clear to party officials. The question surrounding him is not if but where he lands. Democrats close to biden tell axios. We hear from michigan this morning on the independent line. Caller good morning. I would like to start out by saying i have never been affiliated with democrats or republican parties. Ive been an independent my whole life. Ive gone down through the process. I think the process is important and i would really like to know if the new administration coming in will seriously look at voter fraud if there were ballots passed out that were not supposed to be. I want clarity. I want to be able to know, are they going to pack the Supreme Court . What are we looking at with our constitution . Are we going to throw it all away or are we going to have and both ourat it democratic and Republican Leaders stop asking acting like schoolchildren fighting over the best playground equipment. Lets get to work, agree on the things we can get done, the other things, we put on the table and then we work it out. This is nonsense. Host to hampton, georgia we go on under on our democrats line. Caller i was on mute. Good morning. The first thing i would like for this administration to work on is the coronavirus. I want to go back to work safely. I want safety for my 90yearold parents, both of them still living. I want safety for my grandchildren. I have had cousins to pass from corona, childhood friends pass. Had three coworkers pass from corona. Several of my students have had corona and they say it is the worst thing you want to have. Sonsughters best friends have had corona. Were at iowa playing football and were put on restrictions and they said you live one day and you die the next day. They survived it. That is what is important to me. Stockmarkets dont matter when you are dead and sick. Stock markets dont matter and we keep talking about the polls in the voting. Right torican has the folks there and solicit who pass out ballots. You keep talking about checking the polls, what did you do . Did you just stay home . Go make sure it is correct. Host let me ask you. Are you ready to go out and vote races,or the two senate the runoff races happening january 5 in georgia . Would you get rich off a disease that kills people . Dont support that have, they people we changed their stock market options. Aboutand you are talking caller yes. This is my thing. Taxpayer. Rgia if you are not, you need to send your money and keep your opinions to yourself. Host thanks for that. Two races we showed you. The one senate race, Kelly Loeffler to fill the remaining term of Johnny Isaksons and see. The other race is the incumbent senator david perdue, whose term has expired and is running for reelection. Of those runoff races happening in georgia. I believe the date is january 5. The chum campaign yesterday made an announcement that doug collins who ran for senate down there, will lead the campaign recount team where a recount will begin as soon as the canvassing has concluded. The recount in the president ial race, i should point out. Mitt romney, the utah republican, was asked about the georgia races yesterday on meet the press. [video clip] you feel good about the fact that you feel like there is a majority in this country that wants conservative principles. Your party took a beating in the suburbs. That is why it looks like you may not win georgia. If that is a pattern, you might not control the senate because of that. Do you believe your party has a problem in the suburbs . Sure hasty, im challenges as does the opposition party, i think i will let people like yourself made a call as to why people voted the way they did. If you look at the pickup republicans had instate houses across the country and congress and in the senate so far versus our loss in the presidency, you could suggest the president ial race was more a rather matter of a referendum on a person. When it came to policy, we did pretty well. This would be a race primarily about policy. I dont think the American People want to sign up for the Green New Deal and medicare for all and so forth. I think we will do well, but i think it is going to be a challenge. Do we have challenges as a party . Absolutely. Do we need to do better with young people and minorities, absolutely . Can we bring back suburban women into our party . Absolutely. Host a headline here in the savanna news georgia likely flipped blue, but it is not over. Our question for you this morning, our top priority for the Biden Administration. Democrats, one for republicans and one for independents and others. Phil sends this text. He says, raise the minimum wage and make sure the Supreme Court reflects the views of most americans. Housing andtter, infrastructure, state and local issues. It would help if we had leaders who knew and respected the relative or branches of government. This one says Truly Affordable Health Care for all meaningful investment in our Public Education system. Up next, we hear from brian on the republican line. Caller good morning. Priority for the Biden Administration is to ensure he is a one time president. By voicingo do that my dissent whenever anything that he brings up is disagreeable. I dont feel like there is going to be too many things im not going to be yelling about after four years of being called a racist, being called stupid and other things, there is no way he is going to bring this country back together. Like i said, my priority for the Biden Administration is just to ensure he is a one term president. In hyannis,k massachusetts, independent line. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call and thank you to all the host and everybody behind the scenes at cspan for everything you guys have done for the past four years during these chaotic times. Istop priority for biden getting this covid thing under control. Second of all, it is infrastructure. I think trump, instead of all of his tax cuts and ballyhoo and lies, he should have done an infrastructure plan and then given out the tax cuts because the roads in america and everything is falling apart. Work railways and everything else. I think every american that uses the roads and even sidewalks, can attest. Public transportation. Host lets ask about infrastructure because it gets to be a running joke in washington, this thing called infrastructure week. The president did want to make some sort of infrastructure deal. Where do you think the fault lies that congress wanted to get an infrastructure plan and the president why couldnt it ever get done . Tooer because they were caught up with putting tariffs on china and creating mischief around the world. He is too busy creating drama internationally and domestically inciting nationalists and racists and everything. When it comes down to it, he really didnt do anything for the American People. When you go over a pothole with your car, everybody feels it. When your car breaks, you cant get to work and it is a trickledown effect. People talk about trickledown economics. Host but is that a federal responsibility or your state and local locality not fixing that pole pothole . How much of that is the responsibility . Caller it is a topdown issue. Federally and then state and local. The federal government controls the spending on the interstates. At the state spending is obviously the state roads. We all get federal funds, even at a local level. For trump to completely avoid he is trying to a polish obamacare and he is talking about he is going to keep it. What is going on here . Host mark in massachusetts, this is another area to focus on, education. This is a piece in the Washington Post with their headline biden plans to reverse bot divorce betsy devoss plans. President elect is helping to pry them open with increased spending for coronavirus expenses and guidance on how in person schooling can resume. Under trump, the Education Department has been led by secretary betsy devos, alienated many by casting Public Schools as failures and promoting alternatives to them. Through executive action and negotiations with congress, biden wants to bolster Public Schools. Who will be the next secretary . Secretary . The educationt department is being led by the california state Education Department. Linda darlinghammond is under consideration again. Also our two Teachers Union leaders, Randi Weingarten and en garcia. S caller good morning, america. My top issue for biden is covid19. With 230,000 people dead, im wondering how many of those or did not vote. That are so many issues frankly, i dont know where to start. Start with the covid part where people are refusing to wear a mask. Mask protects me, it protects you, it protects you from me and me from you. Think to sayi can this to the cspan audience is the peopleine if that were mostly being affected were blind blonde, blueeyed people. And there was 230,000 deaths. Expect black and town people to wear a mask better america . I think so. I dont understand why people dont want to wear a mask. Host to clint in orlando, florida. Your top parity for the Biden Administration. Caller good morning. My top priority for the Biden Administration is going to be following through on his promise in his victory speech about uniting us as a country. I think joe biden has a very tall order to fill convincing both republicans and democrats that the other side is not the bogeyman, particularly if georgia can hang on and maintain control of the senate. If he is unable to unite us as a country, everything he wants today will be secondary and wont get accomplished. He needs to bring us together and convinced both sides that the other one is not the bogeyman. Host thanks for that. Ted on thefrom independent line. Caller hello. I think your topics here is not really over yet because they are going to be doing some counting. After watching what has been going on for the last few years, i kind of think you cant really trust some of the things the and iats have been doing kind of smell some rats. I kind of think this isnt over yet until the fat lady sings. Florida. In we are from joseph on our democrats line. Caller good morning. My top priority for president elect biden would be to deal with the covid emergency here. I think it would be fair to say that if it were not for the covid pandemic, mr. Trump probably would have been reelected. However, as a new yorker, if i can say directly, i think President Trump, based upon what i heard from Bob Woodwards interviews with him, he knew the danger of the virus, but he route,o go a different rather than prevention. He chose to roll the dice and adjust to herd immunity, apparently, and it didnt work. Mr. President ,yearold snake eyes, which means, you lose, which is unfortunate. York, dont gow away angry, just go away. If i can make a quick comment also about health care in general, this is really my area of real concern for america and sadness. Powers in world war ii. We didnt destroy them, we built them up integrated economies, and we also help them right rewrite their constitutions. In those constitutions, all of their citizens are guaranteed some kind of health care. We are the only western society that does not provide health care for all of our people. It is ironic because we have the greatest physicians, doctors and hospitals in the world. Biden can sithat down with these leaders, get them in the room like he is famous for being able to do, get them to think and talk and come up with a solution like mayo , johns Cleveland Clinic hopkins, all of these great places. They know the problem, let them sit down and come up with a solution for all americans. Host thank you for your call. A big Supreme Court case coming up tomorrow. On tuesday, the senate is back. The lameduck session underway and hearings as well. Be a director 11 00 eastern with Joseph Mccabe on cspan. At 10 00 a. M. Eastern tuesday morning, we will bring you live audio coverage of the oral argument in california the texas, the case concerning the constitutionality of the Affordable Care act. That is live beginning at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan, cspan. Org and the cspan radio app. Lets hear from david in san antonio, texas. Before i get to you, i want to the colorresident talked about the vaccine. Here is the president s tweet a few moments ago stock market at soon,accine coming reported 90 effective, such great news. News. That is from President Trump this morning. Vice president mike pence will be convening a session of the Coronavirus Task force later this afternoon. To david now in texas. Welcome. Comments tove a few make. One on the virus. I hear everybody acting like a bunch of panic stricken germ of phobos. Had 3 billion people on this planet. The asian flu came through and killed one million of us. Today, we have 9 billion people on the planet and the asian flu i mean, and this covid has or akilled one million little bit more. It is hardly as severe as the asian flu was. When the asian flu hit america, we went to work, we went to school. I placed clothing cards at the clothing factory where my grandma sewed peacocks peacoats and overcoats. My dad was a Navy Recruiter officer. My mom was a nurse. We went to work, we lived life. We did not run away and hide in the basement from some bug. These people today in this country act like a bunch of panic stricken germ of phobos. I have no reason to do what they are doing and if you look back, the human race has survived a lot worse than this. One thing about america, we have a lot of old people because our health care is so good and we quit smoking and drinking like drunks. We are living a lot longer. When we are up in years, that virus is rough on us, but that is not trumps fault. It is just a factor of getting old. Like me, i am 80. You are vulnerable to the flu. We have always been vulnerable to the flu. Host here is the bloomberg reporting on the number of covid cases. Near 10 million in the u. S. No slow down insight. Worldwide numbers, total deaths, 1. 2 Million Deaths worldwide according to the data reported by bloomberg. Michael is next on the republican line in maryland. Good morning. Caller good morning, thanks for having me. I would like to make a few points. That last caller was pretty much right on. I support trump 100 . Even with him contesting the election, i think that is a great thing because all of the establishment people are going to come right back andrew in this country again. I am worried for my kids future. Want eightyearolds to choose their gender. That is ridiculous. These are ridiculous policies these people are pushing on the left. I cant believe that america has gone that way. I just dont believe that that is true. Why would somebody choose to abandon the American Family . That is not what americans want and what foreigners come from other countries to america want for their kids and their families. Thank you very much for having me and hearing me out. Host carol, atlanta, georgia. Democrats line. Caller top priority is probably covid and character. It is despicable and heinous to me, as an ordained person of faith that it is totally trumps fault. People need to check the statistics. My brother lives in thailand where they have 70 Million People and they have had 59 deaths. Look at new zealand, when people say this isnt trumps fault, of course it is trumps fault. All you need is a mask mandate. The private school i go to, we have had none and we are open, but people who refuse to wear a mask but want to tell a woman what to do with her body is just wrong. Youre getting this from someone ,ho is saying to inject bleach short memories. Youre telling people steve bannon has been banned from twitter because he wants to kill dr. Fauci, who has served the american Public Health for 50 years since president ronald reagan. Republican president s. We need to sadly listen to science and look at the world stage. Welcome back america. Lastly, i am a volunteer every day at an Afterschool Program for his damp hispanic kids. I know people who have interviewed over 6000 asylum families. These families are unable to even apply for a job. They are not mexican rapists. The people i know could get sent back. It was bad with obama, dont misunderstand me, but over 400 new laws to keep these people out. I just want to look at character, covid. Thank the lord, we are not getting up every morning to tweets and someone who has failed at every business he has done. He had six bankruptcies with his casinos, his steaks and universities, his wives. It is endless. Thank you for taking my call. Host this is from the hill this morning. Biden unveils new Coronavirus Task force. They say he named a number of Public Health experts who will serve on his task force. The experts include the former director of the Biomedical Research and Development Authority who said he was forced out of his position earlier this year after opposing or promoting. Nproven treatments emanuel, who served as former advisor to the obama ministration on the Affordable Care act. Surgeon who, a served as advisor to the clinton and obama administrations will serve. One tweets as i expect measured actions from a Biden Administration to meet public needs in the short term. In the long term, i expect reconciliation and cooperation to right the ship capsized by donald trump. This one, if joe biden wants to unite the country, he can apologize to the child supporters he smeared as racists. The charge of racism is so defamatory that it cannot simply be dismissed as politics usual. Healing will only start of an admission of this is wrong. Says increase Social Security and medicare. One more, the climate, human rights, the economy. There is so much that needs to be fixed. While i doubt bidens ministration is going to do much, it can do some things, hopefully. Charlie in palm city, california. Thank you, cspan and the opportunity to call in and listen to people event every day. I just wanted to make a couple of points. Topink one of the priorities is going to be covid19. I still cant understand why we have children going back to school and not getting tested but nba players are getting tested three and four times a day. Our children and our teachers are more important than anyone else when it comes to getting tested. You can take somebodys temperature, that does not mean they dont have the virus. I think that is got to be one of our Top Priorities. The other thing, we have to stop buying all of our stuff from china. If we cant produce a six inch qtip to do a test, we have problems. We have drugs coming in from china and people have to stop buying chinese products. The other issue i hope gets resolved are the illegal aliens down here in florida. Store,go to the grocery 90 of your produce is being picked by people that are from south america or hispanics. On the table food without these people working. That are good republicans, but they hire illegal aliens by the thousands. Basically, slave labor. Fired, there is no Unemployment Insurance being paid on them. Basically, it is a new slavery we have created with all of these illegal aliens. The third one i want to make a last point on is the abortion debate. I listened yesterday when people were calling and saying if you have an abortion, you are going to hell. At the 1. 5 to look million abortions going on every year. Girls and these young boys having babies . They are having babies because they are not using protection. Im a catholic. The Catholic Church tells me my wife cant use the pill, she cant use the morningafter pill, iud. I cant use a condom. That is ridiculous. These kids are going to have sex, but you have to figure out familieswe have these and teach sexbond education and try to solve the problem. Lets not get on the radio and say i am against all abortions. You cant unless your wife was dying in the hospital and there is a dozen or more reasons why women die every year, or we have premature babies or fetal alcohol syndrome babies where women are alcoholics or heroin addicts. These are the kind of issues we need to address. Just dont stand up and say i am against all abortions. Host brenda up next in south carolina, democrats line. Priority wouldt be the covid19 virus. We were discussing Student Loans last night and how he is paying over 400,000 and not even touching interest of the last six years. Host if you dont mind saying, how much do you think the four kids you have that went to college in Student Loans . Caller wow. , altogether,bout about 800,000. Im just kidding. I would say maybe, about 300,000 between the four of they have different degrees. My oldest has a bachelors, masters, phd. My next has a bachelor master. My next has a bachelor master. My last one is a Police Officer and does not make a lot of money. U. N. Titled them to what you want and you can do what you want, but it is terrible. I think between the four of them, it is right around 300,000. Host what do you think the administration can do on that . What do you think the best option is. In their cases, i think the Interest Rate needs to be more. In my sons case, i think he should after 10 years, it comes off. Will have paid over 50,000. By the time they drop it, he will be able to pay that amount of money. Host is he the one that is a Police Officer . Caller yes, and i think after 10 years, if you pay your student loan on time, it drops or something. He said after 10 years, the amount he owes, he will have already paid in interest alone. I wish and pray they could do something about that because the interest is so high, it is just ridiculous. Host appreciate you calling in this morning. I want to say the front page of the new york times. Toden turns his attention transition while trump refuses to concede defeat. Start biden prepared to building has Administration Even as Republican Leaders and Party Lawmakers refrain from acknowledging his victory out of apparent deference to President Trump who continued to refuse to concede. Fort hill, south carolina, up next is tom. Just want to say there are a lot of issues going on with court issues concerning the election. Just too many things that seem a little bit offkilter with the whole thing. I can understand the core issues. Another thing is, as far as the College Loans go, fine, lower the interest if you can and help the students out. As Bernie Sanders was talking free college and paying off free college he took the responsibilities of his own. It is not the taxpayers responsibility. Three, io and number have a feeling biden is going to mess with everything altogether. He is going to try to destroy the constitution and mess with your free speech, or freedom of religion, right to bear arms. I think he is going to try to screw all of that over if he can. As far as it goes with the court lawsuits, to be perfectly honest with you, i would like to see trump come out on top. Thank you. Host here is the capital journal. How biden can gain from a split decision. In the power structure emerging, mr. Biden can use his own performance in the president ial race, which was stronger than his parties outcome overall, to claim a clear mandate for his agenda and a more progressive one. He can point to republican leverage in the senate and an expanded gops base in the house is the reason he cant move as far as his Party Liberals would like on taxes, Climate Change and health care. In an evenly balanced a senate, whichever party holds control by enjoyr to,s entrance increased leverage, that means more power for the likes of moderates such as democrat joe mansion of West Virginia and senator susand collins of maine. Main. David is in georgia. Caller [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] of people talk about the masks and biden has already said he will do a mask mandate. A person who has 37 plus years of detection specialist in these masks are no good. These masks are absolutely no good. My whole industry has left at surgeons wearing masks. They are no good. Trust me, we tried them all. Classgoing through one and it always stuck out in my mind. We learned between the fifth and eighth grade, some of the most powerful explosive Natural Forces are sneezes and coughs. That is true. They are not going to project anybody that has a ssent to protect anybody who has a sneeze or cough. Its in the air. And ih department sit on the Health Department in my local community. What do you mean droplet spread . Nice, it becomes i am hangs in the air for a while so these masks are not doing any good at all. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] host david in georgia. Morehead on focus one i had with a the house and then the chief Congressional Correspondent for the Washington Examiner. With joe biden president elect, stay with cspan for live coverage of the election process and transition of power. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. Former fbi Deputy Director Andrew Mccabe testifies before the Senate Judiciary committee on the crossfire hurricane investigation which looks at russian interference in the 2016 election. Watch live coverage of the hearing tuesday at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan3, stream live or ondemand at www. Cspan. Org or listen on the cspan radio app. The Supreme Court hears oral arguments on the Affordable Care act in the consolidated cases of texas versus california and california versus texas on cspan. At 10 00 a. M. On the Health Care Law was challenged by texas after a 2017 republican tax law eliminated the penalty for not having health care insurance. Listen to the oral arguments live at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan, on demand at www. Cspan. Org Supreme Court or on the cspan radio app. Washington journal continues. Host we are joined by scott long with the hill newspaper, covering congress for quite some time. You have a lameduck session coming in here shortly in the u. S. But before we get to the next congress, tell us what the next few weeks or month looks like on the u. S. House side in particular. Guest the house of representatives will come back to washington after this historic election to hold their leadership elections. It looks like democrats are moving forward with their leadership elections next week. That favors nancy pelosi. The quicker the election, the less time there is for their to build any momentum in opposition against her. Nowe is some chatter right from moderates who are just crumpled about the number of seats that have been lost by democrats in a very surprising fashion. At least seven vulnerable democrats in the house went down to defeat. That has caused some andternation in the party has incited some chatter about whether or not there should be a challenge to nancy pelosi but so far, none has emerged. Then we had right into the lameduck session itself. The big issue is whether or not there will be any sort of coronavirus stimulus. As you remember, there have been months and months of negotiations between pelosi and the treasury secretary emma steven mnuchin. Those did not yield any fruit before the election. There is a glimmer of hope that there could be some kind of arrangement and deal reached in the lameduck session but given what is happening now with the president himself in contesting this election and saying there has been all sorts of unsubstantiated cases of fraud, the Political Climate is not really great for any big deal to happen. It looks like that will be punted most likely into the next congress. Of course, we have government funding running out on december 11 so on top of all of the uncertainty surrounding the president and whether he will concede defeat, there is another threat of a Government Shutdown on december 11. The two sides will need to come together to reach an agreement on funding the government or risk another Government Shutdown next month. The lameduck session, with all of that, it sounds like it doesnt have the bandwidth to handle taking on another pandemic package. In our conversation with viewers this morning, that has been the top choice, the top priority of the viewers in terms of the Biden Administration handling. Do you think the Democratic Leaders are waiting for the administration to come in and on a pandemicp package before they moved . Happensepending on what in georgia with those two Runoff Senate races, we could see a divided government either way, either now and the lameduck session with President Trump or a divided government with joe biden in 2021 with Mitch Mcconnell and the republicans still in control of the senate. We dont know what will happen in georgia. We have an inkling that Mitch Mcconnell will hold onto the majority in the senate so we ,ould be in a similar situation although with joe biden who has taken the coronavirus threat much more seriously than and knowntrump has, in washington and capitol hill as someone who can cut deals, someone who has a 30 year relationship with Mitch Mcconnell, there is some hope that that is something that can be done. It really has to get done at this point because, as you know and the reporting has shown, there are millions and millions of Americans Still unemployed. The coronavirus number of cases are hitting record levels day after day now and this past election week we just saw. Things are getting worse and there has been in action from washington and from the congress. This is a time where the two sides really do need to come together for the American People. Host our guest is a familiar face on cspan and wears out shoe leather covering the house. The senior staff writer with the hill and we welcome your calls and comments, looking eight i head to the 117th election, the results in the house these are the numbers. Your publication published this morning this tweet about a recent northern virginia. This is the headline you comments you made in that Conference Call last week with democrats, the headline in the Washington Times this morning guest for the past six months, we have seen the two wings of the Democratic Party come together to coalesce around joe biden. Andaw Bernie Sanders alexandria ocasiocortez, the two progressive leaders, some for joe biden urge the progressive wing to really come out and vote for him which they didnt in 2016 which was in some part why Hillary Clinton lost to donald trump four years ago. Bidenks like now with joe , the president elect and his administration, preparing to come into power the focus now is what types of policies will the Biden Administration implement, how strong of a stance the progressive wing will have on that administration as it moves forward and also, as you mentioned, we are seeing someone about postmortem happening, a blame game with a lot of fingerpointing between spanberger and many others including james clyburn, the majority whip, pointing to the defund the Police Movement we saw from progressives that was echoed by a lot of progressive lawmakers. Spanberger is saying because of that embrace and because of the way republicans branded all democrats with the defund the runningovement and millions of dollars in as against them, that was why democrats saw at least seven or as many as 12 incumbent democrats go down to defeat last tuesday. Counterargument is that progressives including aoc say that without the Progressive Energy we saw from the base, from the liberal base, that without that energy, joe biden would not have put been put over the top and is very close election in a handful of swing states. This is typical after an election. People try to assess what happened. It was a big surprise for the Democratic Party but these conversations are all happening behind the scenes and some of them are playing out in public [indiscernible]. Host congress will lose one female member, the Vice President elect, Kamala Harris will even there will be a special election i assume shortly thereafter in california but the headline in the hill points to this right, it is a very that was one of the storylines which sort of got lost on Election Night was that House Republicans, Kevin Mccarthy and the nrc see chairman had an extreme we good night in terms of recruiting women to serve, recruiting minorities to serve. In fact, most of the seats they picked up were picked up by women and minorities. There are still a handful of races that have yet to be called including out in california, young kim, a korean american woman, a republican is on the verge of defeating cisneros in california. There is a number this is a very diverse class and this has been a big problem for republicans in the past. A cycle ago, they only picked up and added to the ranks one republican woman. It was a big concern so they surey worked hard to make they have a diverse recruiting class and to everyones surprise, really did pay off for the republicans. I think they are on track to add at least a dozen republican size ofoubling the their female caucus in the House Republican congress conference. Host the National Journal tweets this lets get to the calls and hear from june 1 in silver spring, maryland, democrat. Make sure you moocher volume, go ahead with your comment or question for scott long. Comment is i dont understand or maybe you can explain to me why are they fighting so much when they should have the country come together and make it a better place for everyone . I just dont understand. If they are the leaders, they should set an example for other countries. This country is a laughingstock. I assume she is talking about the squabbling and the democratic caucus. What do you think . Guest i actually took that to mean the president contesting the result of this election. All of the networks and the Associated Press whom we rely on have called the race for joe biden. For all intents and purposes, it looks like a done deal and now the president s team is trying to litigate these results in places like pennsylvania and we are heading to a recount in georgia in the president ial race which is close. It seems when you talk to some republicans, they are not certain that this will change the result, that the litigation or protesting from the president and his team will change the results. What it does in a dangerous fashion is undermine our election system. It undermines democracy. The world is looking in a strange way as to whats happening in the United States and we have not seen this for some time. Host we have heard from very few republican senators congratulating joe biden. Lisa murkowski and mitt romney did but are you expecting other republican senators to make their statements . Past if you days have no and so i think we are probably we did hear from mitt romney am a one of the Senior Republicans in the party. If you look at the republicans who have waited and congratulated joe biden on his white house victory, a lot of them are people who either have been opposed to donald trump and have issues with donald trump including mitt romney, or people who are on their way out of Congress Like Francis Rooney of florida, a congressman who served as an basset or for george w. Bush and hes retiring and has extended his congratulations to the biden harris team. For the folks who see a future in the Republican Party or are perhaps looking to run in 2024 for president against joe biden, those people i think are following the lead of the president in contesting the sew some and want to kind of doubt and the results even though the results are clear. Joe biden has one then by more than 4 million votes and thats expected to increase significantly in the Electoral College vote was a pretty convincing win as well and is expected to grow if he does pick up georgia. On those two fronts, it was a very good night for joe biden even though the results took a while to get there. Host lets hear from richard in california, democrats line. Caller yes, i really think this is a time for the Republican Party to cooperate will step biden is the kind of guy, when you get down to it, he respects all his republican colleagues. Trump towont have placate, to worry about his attacks because he is on his way out. Crisis, a pandemic were over 1000 People Per Day are dying, where we have economic strife of all those people unemployed in small businesses. I think between biden and his and reallymake deals the respect his best friend was john mccain and ted kennedy. What does that say . I think all the false allegations of the election will just blow by. One of the problems is the Electoral College. Nobody should win by 5 million votes. That is a larger issue. Its the time for exactly what was spoken to by biden and harris of coming together and cooperating and quit the demonizing and people can sympathize with all of the Trump Supporters but in the long run, if you really look at who is fighting for the Trump Supporters, its the democrats. They just havent realized it. I hope that happens. Who knows . We may get the senate with the two senate seats in georgia. You heard from the president elect on saturday night. His message on the message from his entire team since the tuesday hasults on been of unity. He has said this is a time when both sides need to come together. He says he will facilitate that coming together. He echoed president obama when he said there are no red states and blue states, just the United States. He is setting an entirely different tone than the current occupant of the white house. He understands how divided the country is and understands the challenges that this country faces at the moment. A is coming into office at very difficult time. I cannot help but think of the parallels to when president 2009 came into office in after the economic crisis. The first thing they did was pass a big stimulus package that included big infrastructure pieces. There are a lot of parallels and of course we are dealing with the Coronavirus Health pandemic that is very different but in terms of the economy, in terms challenges,mic biden is facing a similar situation to president obama who he served under. Host lets go to our republican line. Caller i want to tell you you cheated on the election. You used a scorecard. Signals Intelligence Program devised by the nsa and you used to use it for the islamic terrorists. It changes the vote midstream. A had ohio, florida, texas and then you stopped midstream. And that was so you could get your news signal put in. Host who do you think was running this . They stopped until the next day and thats when you put your signal and. We won half the country and then you put your signal in. It stopped it and then the other half is when biden one and he got all of those. Host on her allegations of cheating on the election, as you pointed out, there are lawsuits in a contested election going on. What do you think the role of the Biden Administration or the biden elect administration is to reassure voters who are doubtful about the way the election happens . Guest there certainly has to be an acknowledgment that 70 million American Voters did cast their ballots for President Trump. I would have to say i was surprised as were many people in washington and around the country that those numbers were simply not reflected in the polls and there has to be a reckoning that will happen with our polling system and how those are conducted. Reporters like myself and you and many others in this town rely on those poles to get a sense of what is going to happen. Certainly, the democrats in congress were caught flatfooted. They did not see that happening and they certainly didnt anticipate they would be losing seats in the house of representatives. Nancy pelosi thought they would gain seats. Some people talked about as many as 520 gains for democrats in this past election and the reason why that is so significant is because that would pad their majority as a buffer in advance of 2022, the midterms, with president elect biden in office, we note probably will be a rough election cycle for the democrats, certainly the inublicans are within reach 2022 of taking back the majority and are wellpositioned. There are real implications to the turnout that we saw from President Trump. In terms of biden and how they can guarantee or assure the need to public, they look and allow the folks who run these elections to continue to count ballots. Many of the ballots are mailin ballots that were sent in before and for reasons determined by state legislators including in pennsylvania, they are counted after election day. Thats why we are continuing to see the counting continue in many of these states. Its a slow process but it is the process that is established by many of these states. Host joe biden not the only winner this weekend, number of congressional races and you saturday, the race in David Schweikert is considered a moderate republican so how does he fit in . Is the republican conference more diverse now . We talked about women coming into the conference, what is the overall republican Conference Look like . Guest i would just say in terms of David Schweikert, he is a conservative, he is a fiscal conservative who happens to represent a district in scottsdale just outside in the affluent phoenix suburbs. He has had a number of top phrases and has had some ethics issues he has been dealing with. He was somebody who democrats thought they could knock out of his seat. I think thats one of the storylines, another storyline we saw from tuesday as the count continues and the numbers are being reported and we are seeing who won and who lost. Did not unseat a single republican incumbent. Democrats thought that they could pick up anywhere from 520 knit seats. They have not unseated a single republican congressman yet. They did pick up a couple of seats down in North Carolina due that favoreding democrats. They did pick up a seat of retiring congressman ron woodall in the suburbs of atlanta. In terms of what they had expected to do and knock off a ton of incumbents, that simply has not materialized and it did not materialize in the David Schweikert rest. Host lets hear from North Carolina next. Caller thank you for taking my call. I just want to point out that im proud to be an american regardless of the election or whatever. Im glad to be born here and have a right to express my opinion. However, there is some troubling things about the election that have come forward. One, i would like to know , if nancy pelosi holds interest in the Software Company that ive been seeing that had computer glitches throughout many of the states and some of them were flipped for trump and then turned back to biden. Number two, my point is, a Health Care Issue that i just do realizes that america the point of Affordable Health care. Public,it be private or wrongeople, i think its that people should make a profit off of sick people. I think the establishment for that that is just unreasonable to me to have not toble insurance but have these Insurance Companies making millions and millions of profit and paying for Peoples Health insurance when they cant even afford to just the premiums. Host thank you for the call, scott wong, on Speaker Pelosi and her election affiliation with any Software Company, do you know anything about that . Guest i have not heard that. Frustrating but positive things about our aretion system is that they run by counties and states. They are run really at the local level which is why it takes a long time to count these votes. Sometimes votes are coming in from a third world or parts of different states. Means that almost never is there a case of widespread voter systemscause these are that are controlled by local governments and counties specifically. It becomes very difficult for foreign country like russia or some of our adversaries were china to come in and interfere on a widespread basis with our elections because they are run, in some cases, by counties that a republican in some counties that are democrat. That is one of the great things about our election system is that they are run by local officials. I just saw this morning on 60 minutes, a republican official in philadelphia who has been responsible for part of this vote counting process was saying that there are no irregularity irregularities he seen a system been a portly there are people making threats against him and others in philadelphia but he was but a republican was trying to assure concern voters that the votes are being tallied appropriately. Its just taking a little bit of time and he asks for patients. Host lets get one more quick call from linda in new jersey on our democrats line. Caller yes, good morning, gentlemen. Say that i i want to am the noncollegeeducated white woman, i am in my 50s and my thoughts are that seniors often in my state which is a blue state vote down ballot because they are familiar with some of the people, the names and the faces and often, the younger boaters are the people and the Younger Voters seniors who are conservative, are not voting for the down ballot candidates. Thats why there are 70 Million People voting for the former president and now for joe biden, president elect. He has over 75 million plus. My point is that the moderates will make a difference in the congress. Hopefully, it will be 5050 in the senate. From there, we will work. Thats what joe does, he works, thank you. Host scott wong, final thoughts on that or anything ahead you are reporting on . Guest when joe biden first 30 or 40he Congress Years ago, it was a much different type of place than it is today. It was a time when you could reach across the aisle. He had many friends on the republican side of the aisle and more recently, he has done deals with Mitch Mcconnell. After fourcongress, years of President Trump, after this very, very divisive partisan election, it is going to be very difficult, i think, for the two sides to come together if there is a divided government on anything really meaningful. I heard you mention earlier about infrastructure and the joke around town about it is always infrastructure read week. President trump said infrastructure was one of his Top Priorities and in a divided government, we did not see that top priority run up to the top at all. We did not see any action on infrastructure and the four years of this Trump Administration. To see be very difficult anything really meaningful come together if we do see a divided government. The problem solvers in the house who are bipartisan groups think they will be, they think all eyes will be on them like people like Susan Collins, but it is hard to see anything really meaningful take place in the next year if we have a split government. Host scott wong, senior staff writer with a hill and you can read his reporting at the hill. Com. On congressocusing and looking more at the u. S. Senate. We are joined by the chief Congressional Correspondent for the Washington Examiner. Continues. Journal tonight on the communicators, the president of the american telehealth medicine talks about the growth of the telemedicine industry during the coronavirus pandemic. Is called a term that the telemedicine cliff. Not an abstract notion. I am back now seeing patients in the office at 40 of our previous volume. When we get a little more cranked up, we will be at 75 and we wont go higher than that. In order for us to meet the demand for patient care, we have to have telehealth embedded in our workflows now. If we cant do that and all of a sudden the Public Health emergency goes away and there is no way to fix some of these regulatory restrictions, then we will be in trouble and our patients will be even more trouble. Thats tonight at 8 p. M. Eastern on the communicators on cspan two. You are watching cspan, your unfiltered view of government created by americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Washington journal continues. Host as the u. S. Senate returns to begin the lameduck session of congress with a 117 still ahead, we are joined by the chief Congressional Correspondent from the Washington Examiner, great to have you with us. Guest good morning. Host lets leap ahead to january and the two runoff races in georgia, the race against the incumbent senator david perdue any other race with senator Kelly Loeffler. Have we ever seen to Senate Runoff races in any state before . Guest not my history of covering congress. Its really unusual. Its also unusual in georgia that the race has ended up in runoff territory. Georgia had been traditionally a very red state where republicans could usually count on an easy win in the statewide races. That was the last few election cycles. There has been a shift in the electorate in georgia over the areas ande the urban their suburban surroundings have gotten more blue, more democratic in their electorate. That has led to some close races where republicans cannot be assured of an easy win. Thats one reason you are seeing runoffs. I think people had thought david perdue would pull off a victory without a runoff. Be aler was more likely to runoff because she was also facing a strong republican opponent named doug collins, a congressman from the house, who won its win that race as well. He took away a lot of her votes. It kept everybody under the 50 threshold because a runoff only happens in this state if you dont get above the 50 and thats what has happened here with these two candidates and we have an extremely unusual situation where both seats are now on the line and we wont know the winner until january. Very intense a focus on georgia in those two seats, not only because the individuals who want to win those races but because the majority of the senate entirely hinges on who wins. In this instant, the senate has been closed for years in the past session, its been 5347. Right now, its 5248 because ,hey lost two seats in arizona and now they need to have at least 51 republicans to hang onto the majority. If they dont, they were and up potentially with a tied situation. The two republicans in georgia, if they lose, then we have two coming into congress. We have a 5050 senate which is not happened in a really long time. Lastnk it was in 2002 the time they had a tied to senate so its been a long time. In this instance, if it was a 5050 senate, the tying race with the vote of the Vice President of the United States with this point appears to be kamala bidenharrishe ticket. They have won the president ial election and she will be the deciding vote. That would give the Senate Majority to the democrats although it wouldnt be an outright majority. There is supposed to be some cooperation between the two parties when they have a 5050 split. Mentioned a 5248 is where it stands now. The alaska races yet to be called, thom tillis in North Carolina. Assuming that happens, and you correctly pointed out that the focus will be on georgia. I read over the weekend that the special election in georgia, 1 out ofof only one seven in that state since 1967. How do you expect that to be directed at georgia . What will Chuck Schumer be focusing on so the message resonates in georgia . Guest there will be a hyperfocus on the georgia race. Clear thatill make the ability to move an agenda rests on that race. Here is why. The houses controlled by democrats. It will stay that way although democrats lost many seats. They maintain the majority. That will not change. We dont know about the senate, its in republican control now. The white house is going to be run by democrats. Factor,et that third the senate, you have the house, the senate and the white house all under one party control. That is the green light. They can pass things without any opposition in many cases. They will be able to move legislation more easily than if the republicans maintain control. One thing to keep in mind is that the senate has the filibuster which means they cannot just pass legislation with the majority. They need to get some cooperation from the minority. Things are not guaranteed to move quickly. I think what will happen is that Chuck Schumer who is the minority leader from new york, a democrat, he will be hyper focused along with other members of the leadership and he already is. He is very focused on that and has made public statements about the race, that everything now rests on georgia. They need to win georgia so you will see a lot of money, a lot of people on the ground, a lot of messaging in georgia, obviously, to try to swing those seats. Its good to keep in mind that the people who turn out for runoffs are, generally speaking, not the same group of people who turn out for general elections. General elections can get enormous population turning into vote. This year it was record numbers in many states. Pull aelections usually Smaller Group of voters. That can bode well for the party in power. The georgia electorate generally favors republicans. This will be a baffle, a get out the vote battle in georgia. All bets are off and tombs in terms of who could end up coming out ahead. Normally you would favor republicans. They may come out ahead on this but i think its all New Territory because of what we just discussed. The stakes are high for both parties. Host susan has been covering congress for some time and is the chief Congressional Correspondent for the Washington Examiner and we welcome your calls and comments. We will get to your calls in a moment. Put on your analyst hat for a second on the race, the david perdue race. Why didnt he win . He is the incumbent senator. What happened there . Guest as i was saying earlier,. Eorgia has been changing its not the same electorate as even five years ago and not 10 years ago. You are seeing an influx of new voters, Younger Voters, people from the northeast who are migrating down to the south to areas in the atlanta and suburban areas. They have shifted the electorate to make it possible for democrats to win. You might recall a couple of years ago, the governors race was very close, there was a recount. Stacey abrams, very dynamic candidate in georgia versus brian kemp. That was a close race and people would initially say how is that possible in georgia . Its because the electorate is changing. By the way, that same effect is taking place in other states, North Carolina, south carolina, florida. There has been a migration south and a lot of the people coming there from the northeast. They are bringing their voting habits with them and its changing who can win in places. I predict there will be more and more close races and if the trend continues, there will be a time when democrats are winning in the south. Larrylets hear from first on the independent line in petersburg, illinois. Caller yes, good morning. I have watched you on your reporting and i think you shoot down the middle on things. I kind of like your opinion on some concerns i have. There is a large part of the population now that really are upset and questioning whether their votes have been treated think that the biden people would come out and say lets open the books, lets show that there is nothing wrong here, that would help a lot to do that. We dont want more civil unrest in this country. Comes inhe vote georgia, very serious votes to determine the senate, they will need to do that in order to make people feel confident that everything is on the up and up, thank you very much. Guest thats an important perspective stop there are many people who have been reading stories and hearing about abnormalities in the voting and some of the swing states. I know it happens. I was in florida covering the recount in 2000 and i was watching them recount and deal with the abnormalities. They exist. They can swing elections and these are concerns that many in the public have and you see the typical dynamic playing out where the party challenging, and this case present trump, want to make sure all the ballots are counted. The other parties saying lets move on and its a fairly typical dynamic. Important here is what the caller mentioned about who voted for trump or are concerned about the outcome. This was a different year. People did not all go and vote in person. For the first time, many people mailin ballots in many states dealt with an influx of male in dallas they have never dealt with before. Arecally, there abnormalities with voting machines, we have heard about that. In a country as divided as it has been over the selection, it makes sense that people would be very concerned about some of these votes and ballots and whether there needs to be a more careful counting. There are instances where republicans want a look at the ballots and they are not being allowed to examine them and each day has different in each state has different rules for that. You wonder if the outcome of this will be people believing that this was not a fair race. That certainly happened in 2000. People kept saying they believed bush should not of one, that al gore should have one. That will continue. I expect people will continue to feel uneasy about this. Thats because of some of the abnormalities we know have happened so far. The president s statements over the weekend about the challenges and the counts going on in several states we hear from Vice President mike pence on the pandemic, do you expect there is any chance that a relief package or economic package will pass before the end of the year and if not, what might happen in the new congress . Guest the same dynamic that existed before the election is there now which is that republicans want to spend a certain amount of money somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 billion to may be a maximum of 1 trillion. Democrats want to go further and they want to spend anywhere between 2 trillion and 3. 7 trillion dollars. There is a very big gap between the two parties. There is a bigger problem that money is whats in the bill. In the senate, they dont want to pick up anything unless it has lawsuit Liability Protections for businesses and democrats dont want anything to do with that. Then there is the question of how much money to give state and local governments. I think they have already received 132 billion and democrats want to as add 500 billions to that and republicans are saying maybe we will give some money to the states that we want to target it to the states and go through a list. There and gap right how has the election change that . I dont know, democrats can say when it we just wait this out and in january, if we gain control, we will have more leverage in the senate and when joe biden is sworn in and we can get a bigger package. On the other hand, the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, is a democrat of california and has said i want a clean slate for a President Biden in other words, i want to get something done in the lameduck which is coming up this month. Can startoe biden fresh with his agenda when he gets into the white house in january. The big question rests on the senate. The uncertainty of the senate kind of leaves things in a status quo situation for the democrats and republicans right now. They are sort of stuck in that gap i just talked about. That is the real problem and now that we have an important new factor. The vaccine and housing that comes out means immunity, it means reopening government, reopening schools without having to worry about some of the costs you would need to provide the Safety Measures if it was still contagious. That will factor into that. I think when the senate returns, some of the things i will as senators is how does that factor into your thoughts . That was a really important point that was made. Host south bend, indiana on the republican line. Hi there. Guest good morning. Caller i dont want to talk politics. Now what i want to talk about is the most important thing that i think we need. Its when President Trump did that trade deal with china. He said [indiscernible] we have to continue that because that, wenot continue doing. Doing what they what i want to say is joe biden then the president made sure that i add to the culture. Host any comment on that . Guest i had a hard time understanding what she was asking. Mike ints go to chatham, new jersey, democrats line. Caller good morning and thanks for taking my call. A couple of quick questions about statistics. As i understand the Georgia Senate race, its the two leading candidates facing off against each other and all the other candidates are eliminated. Right now, you have a situation where its kind of david purdue in the lead and Kelly Loeffler with is in the lead. The critical question i have come with these other minority candidates, the libertarian candidate in georgia garnered about one or 2 of the vote. Assertf all, i would that chances are they will either stay home or probably vote republican. I think that is a reasonable assumption. If you take that logic further and you look at some of these , etc. ,tates, michigan bidens marjorie victory margin of victory was largely determined by the libertarian party. , is my my question is assumption correct that this election in georgia will be swung by libertarians who either arede not to vote for unlikely to vote on the republican line . What givesepends Kelly Loeffler an upper hand. Took away mostho of her votes was republican. His name is doug collins of georgia and he has dropped out now. He is a house member and had been a house member and ran against her and really wanted that c. He was defeated. He has gotten behind her and his votes will matter. I think its an interesting point you make about the libertarian candidate. It depends on the state and the race. There can be a Green Party Candidate who takes away votes from democrats. That certainly can be the case. In maine, for example, Susan Collins pulled out a win over sarah gideon who is a democrat but there were other ballot candidates who drew away from that and they were opposed to each other. They were not similar at all, they had a Green Party Candidate and another libertarian candidate so they took away several Percentage Points from the two leaders. Thats how you get into these runoff situations or in the case of maine, they have a ranked choice but Susan Collins got above the 50 . People look at florida back in 2000 and say ralph nader cost that state and cost him the presidency. Advocate andumer he ran as an independent in florida. He pulled away several Percentage Points that could have gone and you can also look at the clintonbush race and 92 and ross perot and how much he took away was double digits potentially from george h w bush. Thirdparty candidates are big factors in president ial elections. We dont talk it very we dont talk about it very much in his races but they are a big factor here. There is an argument we need to broaden parties and more than just a democrat and republican, they need to be other options. I think we will see more of that going forward, more people on the ballot and tighter races. Host here is the headline from Election Night jamie is in farmington, independent line. Caller good morning, susan. I am a former defense professional. Counterterrorism and guerrilla warfare in 1993 following the World Trade Center bombing. Asked to work with researchers developing a chemical weapons census so we didnt have a repeat of the gulf war syndrome effect. Concerned about how these elections are going and how republicans are challenging them. With this information and 2000 tolike the used in claim that these hanging chads in some way invalidated the votes of those who cast them. I think that it is hurting us, our defense and intelligence communities. Myself, when i realized that the Bush Administration was coming into power, and thought they would invade iraq, i decided my services were no as i sawing utilized ethically. Im concerned and im not the only one i am sure who left service for that reason. Still overconcerns the election process. Caller i think there is good reason to be concerned over the election process because you have the worst of all worlds here. You have people who are highly motivated for their own candidate and then you have some problems and some abnormalities, clearly, and how people voted. I think this year is particularly bad because the brandnew format of mass mailin depends, people have different views about this. People who support President Trump or who are suspicious of this in general point out that , there iseive ballots no uniformity amongst the states. Elections are run by states and the federal government does not have general control over the elections. Each state had a different format stepson of them mailed ballots to people. Many times you had to request a pallet which was considered a safer way to ensure the right to get a ballot. There are a lot of questions and some of these states, it was critical how they conducted the mailin ballot thing. President hase been critical of the mailin ballot thing which came about because of the coronavirus pandemic. It was kind of lastminute and the ability of the Postal Service to get those ballots on time to the voting Elections Offices. Host do you think mailin ballot thing is here to stay . Guest that is a great question. Democrats i think the will push very hard. They wanted mailin ballot he for a long time. There is a great reason for that, why wouldnt they . The majority of people who participate in that are democrats. That raises potentially their participation in elections. Elections are all about turnout. If you get your side to commit greater numbers, you will win. Democrats are looking at them at that and they wanted. Politically, its advantageous to democrats. Host lets take a call from georgia, democrats line. Caller thank you for taking my call. Im sure you are more educated about elections and how they are conducted, much more so than i am, yet you sit here this morning and put out innuendo over the airwaves to act as though there is a question about whats going on with the selection. You know mailin ballots are valid ballots and there is one vote. You can vote male in or in person. People cannot do it multiple times because theres an id number assigned to each ballot mailed in. Whyknow that the reason there were more mailin ballots for biden over trump was because trump demonized mailin ballots and requested his voters not participate and told them to show up on election day instead. So why are we surprised the bulk of the mailin voting was for biden . Today, you know there was bipartisan people in the room everywhere. You know there were republicans and democrats, yet you question. You know theres cameras recording these counts, that the count is secure. So why are you sitting here and participating in the ridiculousness of refusing to accept an election in america . Host we will get a response from our guest. Guest you made a good point about the president demonizing mailin ballot in. He, from the beginning said mailin ballot in creates the potential for fraud. So as the attorney general, bill barr. Sometimes people get ballots should not have them. Theres not a lot of in some states it may be tracks better than others, but there are questions about where these ballots are. Some of them never made it to where they were set to go. Coveringow from elections their abnormalities and i know from covering this election that republicans have not really always been able to monitor the scrutiny of these ballots. Theyve been shot out or kept at a far distance that they cant even see whats going on. So there are legitimate claims being made by republicans. I dont make the case that one side of the other will prevail. Or that this even should be occurring. Its something typical. In your own state of georgia in 2018, it was the democratic candidate who wanted the recount. Who said she thought there were abnormalities and wants to look at those ballots. So both parties do this if they see an avenue for winning. And i think both parties know that there are problems with ballots and there are things you need to look at closely. Its one of the reasons why everything are recounted in florida. There were abnormalities. Ballots and i could see why you are quite shoe sure who was voting for who. And an imperfect process thats what leads to what we are seeing today. What do you think the makeup of the tone of the new senate will be like . Some pretty prominent people elected. John hickenlooper being cory gardner, the former alabama coach, to prevail winning that race against doug jones. And then astronaut mark kelly upsetting incumbent martha mcsally. As you pointed out, Susan Collins wins six more years from and Lisa Murkowski supporting the president elect joe biden. What is the shape of the conferences in the senate look like . Guest thats a really great question. Not the turnout did was not as positive as democrats had hoped it would be and as the polls suggested, i dont think there will they will be as emboldened even though the majority in the house stays democrat and in the senate potentially you could have a tie with a tiebreaker by Kamala Harris. Where democrats would technically be in the majority. I think thats less likely actually. If i were to say what i think was cannot happen, i suspect the majority will remain in gop hands. But its a slim majority. At best they will only have 52 seats. They had 53. That does not give them room to do anything. Secondly, they dont have anything pat any power to pass things. We have divided government government for potentially two years. That dictates the mood entirely. Say there have been a big win by democrats in the house and senate and then you had a biden presidency. I think the mood would be different. They would be talking about how far they can go with the agenda. How far can i get it passed while having this unique situation of power in the house, senate and white house. Movenk we will see the pretty similar to what we were seeing the past two years. I think democrats will take a look and be introspective because theres been a lot of backlash within their own party to what people have said is too dramatic of the democratic liberal agenda that perhaps didnt resonate well with voters. Talking about eliminating Border Patrol officers, defunding the police. Eliminating the filibuster and packing the Supreme Court with additional justices with the democrats would choose. These are things perhaps democrats will take a harder look at or the socalled Green New Deal, which is more drastic Energy Policy that would eliminate fossil fuels and other things that may not be popular with the general public. They will take a look at that i think and that is what the mood is going to be. Im curious to know what their priorities will be. I think they will go for an infrastructure, which is very popular with the public. There will be coronavirus aid. They will be laser focused on the economy and jobs. Those dont sound like very liberal agenda items. Think there will be sustainable climate stuff in the infrastructure bill. I dont think it will go to radically to the left with their party. I think it will be gravitating towards the middle if the democrats are in the majority. I think the republicans will be in control and theres not a lot they can do because they dont have the white house and house. So that sort of the braking system if you will. So youll have biden and the democrats in the house and the Senate Republicans, Mitch Mcconnell blocking things. Thats what i predict. Host one more call here. Democrats line. Caller good morning. Little upset with this whole process from back when they slowed down the post office to the manipulation attempted manipulation of absentee ballots. I feel i governed the right to vote like every other american and dont like the fact they made too many moves to try and disallow my vote and they are still going after it. The same state legislature that caused the problem is trying to lay blame on the legislature that wasnt in power. Host ill let you go there. Guest there continue to be issues with people who are unable to vote because they show up in their name is not on the list and they think it should be or their absentee ballot, there is a signature mismatch or something that does not account quite right and there ballot is put in a provisional pile. Tois incredibly frustrating show up and be told you can vote but you thought you were able to do that. Again, its run by the states. Even more locally actually because counties run their elections. You can find situations where things are run very poorly by some counties and i know in florida there were a lot of instances of that over the years. This year they seem to be doing much better. Youd be surprised at just how bad things can turn out. These arent jobs everybody is dying to sign up for. Running your Elections Office or working on election day. There are problems clearly. People are very frustrated. Theres been a general call by democrats to sort of federalize elections and have a uniformity in place. Republicans do not like that. They have resisted it and resisted legislation that would do that that would somewhat federalize it at that level. Their view is it needs to be run their view is always less let the states and local governments handle it. Its a big divide between the two parties. Theres no telling whether federalization will make voting better or more accurate. You hear stories like this and it does the caller was telling us, theres so many problems here, what reforms can really happen so that people feel like their vote was counted or people feel like the election was not rigged in one direction or the other. Those are really valid questions. Her reporting at washingtonexaminer. Com. Guest thank you. Host up till 10 00, the house is coming in for a brief pro forma session. We will continue with calls and comments. What is your top priority for the incoming Biden Administration . 2027488000 for democrats, 2027488001 for republicans. For all others, independents 2027488002. With joe biden as president elect, a stick with cspan for live coverage of the election process and transition of power. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. Tonight on the communicators. President of the American Telemedicine Association talks about the growth of the industry during the coronavirus pandemic. Coined. Ve a term weve ant it means is this isnt abstract notion. I am back and seeing patients in the office at 40 of our previous volume. When we get more cranked up we will be at 75 and we wont go higher than that. In order for us to meet the demand for patients here, we have to have telehealth embedded in our workflows now. If we can do that and all of a sudden the Public Health emergency goes away and there are no ways to fix some of these regulatory restrictions, then we will be in trouble and their patients will be in more trouble. Easternht at 8 00 p. M. On the commune caters. Communicators. Host wed love to hear from you on your priorities for the Biden Administration. The lines are 2027488000 for democrats, 2027488001 for republicans. For all others, 2027488002. Weve mentioned this a couple of times, of the news came out earlier this morning. This is the report, great day for humanity. Pfizer says covid19 vaccine over 95 effective. It said its vaccine was more than 90 effective, major victory in the fight against the pandemic that has killed more than one Million People and battered the worlds economy and upended daily life. The markets reacting inkind. The stock market futures surge on vaccine results and biden win. Thats from the wall street journal. Looking your priorities for the Biden Administration. We will get your calls and comments momentarily. This was frontpage in the Washington Times. On the road ahead for the Biden Administration. Biden post agenda as trump files challenges. Presumptive president ial elect took the first steps toward focusing on his Incoming Administration on the covid19 pandemic and other priorities such as Climate Change. President trump clung to the hopes legal team could reverse the election outcome through Court Calendar Court Challenges reported illegal votes. The day after major news organizations project mr. Biden to be the winner of the presidency, his Campaign Launched a transition website outlining the democrats plans to resolve the health care crises, promote economic recovery, address Climate Change and help the nation move towards racial equity. Top priorities. We go to kenneth in missouri, republican line. Caller good morning having me on. Is calling myy two republican senators and have them block everything that comes out of the house. There are 70 million of us out bidenthat do not like joe for the names the democrats called us. So i want gridlock. I want nothing but gridlock until we can get joe biden defeated in 20. Thank you very much. Host harold is on her democrats line in the nations capital. Caller good morning. My top priority has already been completed when we got donald trump out of that white house. One of the worst president s weve ever had. One of the first things he did as go in and cover up to korean dictator over about taking a poster out of a hotel. , heaid he was his friend said scandals, Trump University and fraud. He is nothing but a big crook. People in new york didnt vote for them because they know him. First one the the space force launches tomorrow. Host lets hear from alfred in texas on her democrats line. Caller thanks very much. About my country. The most port thing i ask of biden is to lower the costofliving. I think thats one of the biggest things missing in this whole campaign. The best way to come together is to manage the country economically. Know theres other issues earlier, awas saying block everything in the senate. Thats the wrong attitude to have. We need to have an attitude am 60 years of age and im trying to work as much as i can so i can get more for my Social Security. Making 900 aim month if i retire. I can live off of that. I want medicare for all so that i can earn more money. I believe Many Americans to lower came to the conclusion year were paying to government and that money can be distributed equally to help lower the cost of living. I dont see why republicans and central democrats are fighting this. They are hurting medicare for all and hurting education. Host dear some comments on social media. Who tweets get this under control so we can get back to our normal lives. Benjamin says section 230 reform. ,f you are a platform sensor only content that is illegal in your country. If youre a publisher you can censor as much as you want but dont have section 230 protections. Withecent hearings we had facebook, google and twitter you can find on cspan. Org held one week before the election. The lead in the money and the life section in usa today. How bidens presidency could affect the economy. Specifically longerterm spending. Biden is proposing 7. 3 trillion in new spending over 10 years including upgrading the nations roads, bridges and highways. Building a clean energy economy. Investing in research and development to bolster manufacturing. Ensuring government and its contractors purchase american products. Ensuring access to affordable childcare and universal preschool and providing aid for americans to purchase or rent phones. We hear from terry on the republican line. Caller glad to hear from you. Imng im concerned retired, paid in my entire life and im just wondering before we start giving out stimulus checks , i wish that they would pay back the money they borrowed from Social Security. I understand goes over 1 trillion our government has taken. Thats still the one thing i need to put back is all that money they have taken from us. Thank you. Pennsylvania, this is mark. Caller good morning. If biden doesn is eventually become the president , that he proposes that we clean up this election trouble. The bottom line is we know theres really bad things that have happened and i can so much is the fact they had 300 legal lawsuits in state courts across the country to change the rules of the election just prior to the election. One of them is to kick off Green Party Candidates in swing states. Also they were very successful at changing the election laws. Not to mention the mailin ballots but also the protocols that would make these ballots safe. T should be completely youre not supposed to change election laws to make something more fraudulent. I dont understand why that isnt the biggest story right now. If joe biden wants to be a legitimate president , he needs to address these issues. Youre not allowed to go in last minute, get parties that would affect your vote kicked off the ballot and then change the law so theres no way to check if these ballots are valid. When some requesting mailin ballot in my state, you have to have a drivers license and you have to have your name. Host theres a point. How does a what sort of federal law, a federal effort can be made to a process that is largely driven by local Election Officials, state Election Officials . A very i agree, that is complicated thing because the states are all different. They are all run by different legislatures. And then the courts are also by local and state. You can look at the cases they decided. They will be deemed unconstitutional and i guarantee you 100 its already being discussed and theyve done other things like that. So it becomes very complicated. I think it will require the department of justice and the Supreme Court to rule that these kinds of things cannot be tolerated. But you could also have the president and everybody else put pressure on these people not to be allowed to do this. Because if youre allowed to do this, our elections dont matter anymore. If you can cheer way to the victory by changing laws lastminute, then none of our votes count. Think joe biden cheated his way to victory . Caller 100 . Its not like what everybodys talking about looking for little votes that were changed here or there, thats minimal. It was already lost before we voted. When they took the Green Party Candidate off the tickets in the swing states, that gave the bidens a percent what they normally wouldve gotten in the past that went for joe biden. I cant prove that because theres no way to do it. But you can see when the libertarian candidates are on, they pulled two points away from the republican candidate. So if the republicans could pull that off, they would get the vote. Thats what everyone of the swing states wouldve lost five. The democrats talked about it. Host your state was obviously the pivotal state there on saturday when the election was called. What if President Trump had encouraged mailin voting there in pennsylvania . Would you think the result would have been different . Caller no it wouldnt have because there was no protocols in place to be able to protect those votes. They are actually less safe than the absentee ballots. Why would the democrats do Something Like that . Why would they change it to make it less safe and less transparent . Why did they stop us from seeing ballots being processed . You can come up with any other reason because they want to perpetrate a fraud. Host we move onto rachel in colorado on her independent line. Into a id like to tap previous caller about Social Security. I agree with that. Im on the precipice of retiring and if biden, who i elected for who because it was the lesser of two evils. Opens the borders, we are going to have a major problem because we all have already affected Social Security as was pointed out and i dont think i should have to go without Social Security because we are opening borders. Dont tell me that its not happening. Ive actually seen people come across the border pregnant and be put on health care that i pay for. We have an influx of people coming in and then we are going to have multiple problems because we already are in a deficit as he pointed out. I have worked 50 years putting into this and i dont want to lose my money because they have to pay for somebody who wants to come here. Host when are you hoping to retire . Caller in a couple of years. And im worried my money is knocking to be there. One of the things that were said by 2023 the rate we are going, there is can it be anything. If you open those borders and let 11 Million People in. I have seen based on where i work, Illegal Immigrants coming in days before they are due and they get put on our health care system. And then i see them on the streets years later with four or five children. Id like to see a comparison how many white people babies compared to Illegal Immigrants put on these programs. I cant afford it and i dont want to be starving at the age of 70 because i have to let these people in. Priority for the Biden Administration. 2027488000 free democrats, 2027488001 for republicans. Independentsnce 2027488002. Janet says on facebook the environment would be a top priority. Evan says bringing back real decency, compromise. Listening to opposing points of view without the spew of nastiness. It will take some time but we will heal from that. This is a tweet that says stimulus and unemployment payment increase and a tweet that says to sign over the transition paperwork. Thats my top priority right now. Indiana, pennsylvania. Democrats line. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. There are three points i would like to make from three different callers. First the gentleman who said he would want obstruction for the next four years. This country cannot afford it. That is a very mean and divisive position to take. We have enormous problems that have to be addressed and they have to be addressed by both parties and so its going to take unity and cooperation as president elect biden has said. Obstruction has put us where we are over the last 10 to 15 years. We need to stop. The second point is mark from pennsylvania. Legals on and on about he illegal and fraudulent. With the Pennsylvania State legislature that change the rules which was a Republican Legislature. We have a democratic governor and Republican Legislature. The other thing i would like to make is i was a poll watchers in Indiana County. As a poll watchers, i watched i fellow citizens, republican and democrat alike, my county went for trump. I watched as people came in and voted and how my precinct handled their coming into vote. There was nothing fraudulent. Question then to process of ordinary american citizens handling the vote count, when you say they, its the person who lives next door to you doing that. I watched and i was very proud. I was very proud of how the process worked. So to continue to say was fraudulent is really to undermine our democracy. Host how many elections have you volunteered in . Caller 36. Host 36 elections . Caller yes. Like to go init there and be do the job as a be in that to space 36 times as election official, what is the responsibility you feel . For mys a poll watcher party. I need to say this. Im a retired civics teacher. Above everything, i believe in the american process. Above everything, whether its democrat or republican. Intense,tion was very even in my little precinct because people were coming before were there would be joking goodnatured friendliness , there was not that this time. People were determined to get in there and vote. Im ready to go to my court to watch the provisional ballots be opened in my courthouse by two republican commissioners, one democrat commissioner and a town solicitor who is a republican. Host when does that happen . Morning at30 this the Indiana County courthouse. The third point id like to make from the woman in colorado is shes worried about her Social Security. She needs to research how much Illegal Immigrants pay into our tax system. She would be amazed that they do pay taxes when they do work. They are illegal yes, but they pay taxes. To question how money children they have, that is not to gain welfare. That has to do with cultural decisions that they make. Host i appreciate you calling in and sharing your experience. We go down to georgia and hear from nancy. Caller yes. Im calling in in the state where everything is being held up and to the people i can tell you into sure you the people here in georgia do not trust what is going on right now in georgia. Everybody believes what happened earlier with the Stacey Abrams camp situation is causing whats going on. I sat here until 2 00 in the morning and watched what went on. All of a sudden in the middle of there ismp is way up, a water main break in Gwinnett County and for those people who dont live in georgia and dont understand the way georges vote. When that that county is a red county. They have never voted for a democrat, except for jimmy except for jimmy carter. But after the main break was taking care of supposedly and they came back online, all of a sudden Gwinnett County is blue and its for joe biden. So if you follow this election process here in georgia. The woman who set all these people come in here from the north and bring in their values with them, they need to understand that when they come from the north and they voted the way they did and they have a failed system there and they bring their values here, than all they are doing is helping to make what we have good bad. Host what do they think happened during this water break . What is the allegation . Caller they claim a water main break happened. It flooded a bunch of ballots, it cut down they stop voting for four hours and then all of a sudden when he came back up already, it all of a sudden turned to blue. Host how many votes was that . Caller they are still counting so its hard to say. But you know, weve been through this ever since Stacey Abrams. Stacey abrams came out with a statement on the route where she said camp may have won the battle, but ill make sure we win the war. And to the woman this is what i have to say about this. If joe biden was the person who became the president , and he really was the president , and we were sitting here thinking Kamala Harris is to be the president , there would probably be a lot of republicans like myself who could accept that. But when you sit here and question the democracy and the way the ballot, thats the important thing because people cannot trust the way the integrity of the vote goes, i have people saying to me now why should i even go out and vote again because if i dont think my vote counts. I hear all these democrats calling in and saying i havent heard one person say why they really voted for joe biden other than the fact that they hate donald trump. Host nancy in georgia making some comments critical of stacey candy fore democratic governor in 2018. This is a headline over the weekend. How Stacey Abrams and her band of believers turned georgia blue. They write as joe biden has a narrow lead in georgia, democrats couldnt quite believe what was happening. Stacey abrams and a network of activists have been planning for the moment for nearly a decade. I want to get to the numbers on this. Abrams had come up with a strategy. Her campaign and its allies register 200,000 new voters in the runup to the 2018 election. With fair fight in the new georgia project tried again this year, they quadrupled their gains, registering more than 800,000 new voters. Jersey, good morning to josephine on the independent line. Go ahead. Caller good morning. , theyday on 60 minutes discussed pennsylvania. They had chosen six sites to go to. Let me begin by saying everything is livestreamed. I watched arizona voting, pennsylvania voting. Thats not the point. So they went in at these polling sites and watch the whole process. They spoke to the republican commissioner in philadelphia. This book to the republican commissioner at another site. The legislature is republican. They refused to do like new jersey did which made the decision to allow two weeks before the election to count the mailin ballots. Surprise, surprise, we had the total on tuesday. Surprise surprise, pennsylvania did not. They were not allowed by the Republican Legislature even though we have a democratic governor, they were not allowed to do that. In a few days do what new jersey did in two weeks. But the bottom line is this was that 60 minutes watched every definite line new he says im just doing my job. Republicans its very simple. Volunteer and go and do the polls. Dont stand out there and complain unless you are part of the process. Id hate to go on, but one other thing. Unfortunately when the president leaves office, and he will have ,o leave, the state of new york the ag has already in process, hes going to be prosecuted for Insurance Fraud and bank fraud. Thats not something im making up. Theyve been waiting and they could not do it because he was president. Now the floodgates are going to open up. Thats why he is acting like that. Morning togan, good jim on the republican line. Caller good morning young fellow. Living in the place called michigan. Isould just like to say this a country and a business, lets start running it like one. Two, anot United Nations church or synagogue or mosque. This is too nice a place. Lets clean house. Host North Carolina honor democrats line. Howard, what are your Top Priorities for the Biden Administration . Caller first of all i like to ah, biden and Kamala Harris. Like they used to tell us when hillary lost, the used to say you need to suck it up and you need to get over it. Heard hillary cry about what happened in 2016. She had the popular vote and trump still one. You didnt hear hillary cry. Andn got the popular vote it seems very clear that if youve got the popular vote, it should come out in your favor of winning the election. People need to get over it, they need to stop crying about the poll watchers. They want to see peoples signature, they want to see their identity. That stuff is private. You can take a phone in the voting booth area. You can do anything to record anything. All you can do is observe. What these people are saying about why was wrong. They had to talk about the republicans because thats all it is. Its all republican up in their and they will still say they did something wrong and cause death because joe biden won. Get over it. Hear from lisawe on the independent line. Caller good morning. Priority for the Biden Administration would be covid19. I cannot believe people still have not took this serious until they buried the loved ones like we did two weeks ago and other family members fighting for their lives. They have no idea. See peaceso like to and unity from the country. Sad how divided we are as a country if a country like china came in and came against the United States of america, i would not be afraid that we would fight over who was going to fight them. Its real sad. We are the United States of america and we really need to pray about it. That fox news would lower the rhetoric to let the peace come about with the people. Host you mentioned a moment ago that you buried a loved one two weeks ago from covid19 . Caller yes it is. Was 44. I appreciate you calling in. Im so sorry to hear about your relatives loss. Well hear from scott on a republican line. Caller good morning. I guess theres probably a lot of people out there that are a lot like myself, in that this whole situation is just very saddening. Close toea we were so cracking the not and opening this country up so everybody could see all the nonsense that goes on. I really feel there is a great possibility that all of this stuff is going back under the whered back to normal people can do things, totally criminal and get away with it. The idea that there wouldnt be any people trying to cheat against trump would completely surprise me if that wasnt the case. Theyve been doing it since before he was elected. They were using the deep state to investigate him trying to find something on him six months before he was elected. Idea that you could say without a doubt that nobody is going to try, thats illegal. That is scott in michigan. We had mentioned Stacey Abrams, went to go and the number of voters registered it a tweet from her minutes ago. Update, we have raised 6 million so far to help jumpstart the january fits sent raaf elections and also from the georgia race, the hill reporting soft challenges produce three debates ahead of the Senate Runoff. Thats one of the two Senate Runoff races. House republicans. We gave al gore 37 days to challenge. Mike allen of axios in their reporting of how the president strategy may be developing in terms of challenging the election. The headline is trump allies brace for 30 day legal war. Gop leaders and confidence of President Trump tell axios that his legal fight to overturn joe bidens victory, which they admit is likely doomed, could last a month or more, possibly pushing the political wars towards christmas time. Topper republicans have followed his orders not to accept the Biden Victory and allow all Legal Options to be exhausted. That could mean weeks of drama and tractions from the work of transitioning government or change of power. Is told an internal effort is underway to dissuade trump from pursuing this. That could mean three to six weeks of legal challenges, discoveries and rulings. At the same time biden is talking about the daily message of healing. Some sources tell axios trump has no plan to call for national unity. No chance this is a person who talks often with the president. Axios is a senior republican said the president is angry and disconsolate. Good morning. Caller good morning. There are four things. Too Many Americans of already died. We have numbers going up daily, hourly. We have to put a stop to it. Second, our economy is in the tank. We are suffering badly. People are without jobs and their homes are being affected. Our technology has been badly affected we are falling behind. The soul of america has been badly bruised. All these other issues will be handled. These four things have to be balanced and set in order first before any of that can take place because if we fall apart as a country and as a people. And as a nation. The rest of the issues wont matter. Thats the bottom line. California, good morning. Caller good morning. Out i to first point think although assuming the Election Results are accurate, the American People seem to reject the demand present from style but the republicans did pretty well but it looks like they may have retained the senate and gain seats in the house. I think they are actually winning on the policy agenda and they have a path forward in 20 and 2024. I think this should keep focusing on their policies, stand their ground. Basically obstruct everything biden and the democrats want to do. I think they should conduct a lot of investigations to try and set up an impeachment of biden. Scrutinizing everything from his role in the iraq war, mass incarceration of africanamericans, plagiarism in law school. Ties toyou know china, two years of investigations to wind up in impeachment. Present that the American People in 2022, try to win back the house and impeach him. And then advance their agenda. Longer term i would say what we need leadership on his dividing the country, not unifying. You had a speaker, sh buckley who has a book on american secession. I think thats the path forward in the long term in the longterm and the u. S. I think everyone would be a lot happier. Host how would that work . How does that split . Caller so you can read fh buckley book and he was on your program and you can listen to that. Basically we call a Constitutional Convention and agree to divide the country where democrats would have their portion, republicans would have their portion. And then they can set up their own systems. I think republicans would want something more in line with the original constitution, democrats would want a more collectivist system in the way they are trying to change the constitution. I think if we divided the country up and had two different nations based on those ideologies, i think everybody would be much happier overall. T san diego on capital san diego, california. On capitol hill there will be a brief pro forma session. The lameduck Congress Gets underway. Jeff fitzpatrick from bloomberg reports on the Senate Republican appropriators will release all 12 of their fiscal 2021 tomorrow morning. Its effectively the Opening Senate offer on and omnibus spending bill by the deadline. Deborah is in louisiana. Call. I just wanted to thank you all so much for getting everybodys opinion out there. On both sides. You stay in the house all the time and you dont get out there, how can you know whats going on . It seems like some use a look a panic button. They just really focus on the virus and put the fear out. Also ive been soliciting some petitions. The white house has taken a position petition out for this election to be recalled. On thes that petition white house website . Caller it is on social media. Groups. Out too many i think i sent it to you guys. Host we will take a look for it. We are keeping an eye on the Supreme Court. Heres the reporting by the wall street journal on the case tomorrow. Justices are set to hear healthful arguments after a week after electoral defeat. In line in the midst of an intensifying pandemic. The president and Senate Republicans never found a path to repeal or replace the obama era law. By reducing to zero the penalty for failing to maintain health insurance, they effectively remove the piece they found most objectionable. In tuesdays case, a texas led group of republican leaning states backed by the Trump Administration said the change made the entire law unconstitutional. If the majority of justices agree, the result could be loss of Health Coverage for leased 20 million americans. Those oral arguments tomorrow morning. We will have that for you here on cspan live at 10 00 a. M. Eastern. Supreme Court Coverage live tomorrow morning at 10 00 a. M. Eastern. Watch it and listen to it. On can also follow it cspan. Org and on cspan radio as well. We will cover the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on the lead up to the rush investigation with the former Deputy Director of the fbi, Andrew Mccabe testifying before the judiciary committee. Thats 11 00 eastern on cspan three. Linda is in michigan on democrats line. Go ahead. Morning. Ood i really love your program. I just wanted to make a comment. Worker for election probably about 30 years now. And primarily i have never ever seen annie issues. I have a lot of friends that do this. Over theng, they go absolute side of caution. We have a terrific clerk innercity. And always have had over the years. Things cant happen, but i go the other way. I just have never seen it. Tonow a lot of people who go meetings, everybody is very exacting. You dont do things or know what youre looking at things or doing it you are doing it with a republican and democrat. If there is ever a question that you cannot resolve. The clerk comes in. Theres always people to look, theres always people around you. What the administration is saying is just untrue. It has taken a real toll on the country. Host i asked an earlier caller who said shed worked at 36 elections. You worked a number you said yourself. You are pointing to the work you do as an election official, volunteer official. When you go into that work, how do you take off any partisan hat you may have and how do you focus on the work of counting or watching the process were counting the vote . For one thing, you take an oath when you sit down to count those ballots. So you are taking an oath for everybody, not just one side. The only way that comes into play is if you have to look at something or make a decision on something, you have a republican you declare when you go in. Republican or democrat. And then both people are looking at things. The clerk is always there, the deputy clerk is always there. And plus you have all these people around you. We are impossible on a smaller scale than we have another larger cities, but the bottom line is everybody has taken an oath when they go to count those ballots. And they arent a lot of people are volunteers that do this. And they are volunteering because they believe in the process that we have in this country. Yourur comments thoughts on the top priority in the last few minutes for the Biden Administration. Some comments on social media and text. Mike says if the pfizer announcement is true, of the number one priority is a fast equitable distribution of the coronavirus vaccine. Reparations, uncapped Social Security limits, no ious. Medicare for all, infrastructure and real criminal justice reforms. Im in favor of modest tax increases to pay for it. A couple of things. Getting the pandemic under control, abolish ice, close the camps and reunite families. Lib in sandusky, ohio. Independent line. Caller id like to speak on the tariff tax. I hope biden keeps it. This is the first year i voted for republican. I always vote democrat but i hope he keeps it because i work in a factory and because of the overf tax, samson came with factories in america and brought more jobs. Thats a good thing for america overall. You are doing wasnt there wasnt as good before that kicked in . Caller my job was great. Samson lge was dumping their products into america with the same quality. Tax, theyu did tariff finally brought their factories in america from different states which create more jobs in america. The jim in michigan on republican line. Good morning. Caller just a followup quick on the trenton caller. I drove a couple miles from there. They do have good processes i would agree with her as far as the election. They are part of wayne county. But when you go into wayne county itself, its a different animal. I say count the ballots by hand. The secretary of state their claim there was a computer error. Maybe human error. At one point they said it was the wrong version of software. It means they dont have control of the processes. Why should we blindly trust electronic machines that get Software Updates from who knows where. Count the ballots by hand. To florida, janice, good morning. Caller what i want to say is i was sitting here in my living room, i was watching the ballots. 2 30, trumpden at was ahead in all races and all of a sudden everything just stopped. I do agree with the lady that was talking about the glitch. Thats when they flipped it over and started voting for by trump has been a good president , people might not like everything he says, but the way i feel about it, i am a republican and i do believe that when it is all said and done, god sees all. And if Nancy Pelosis husband or whoever it was flipped all those ballots because all these people that are republicans, im not saying democrats are bad people, but i am saying all of us republicans disagree with the outcome. People just dont even understand trump has stood up against china, he stood up against the foreign countries. These people, they think we are ignorant. Republicans are not ignorant, we are very intelligent people and all these people that claim that biden and whoever her name is won. Host janice in florida. A headline on the transition. This is from the hill. President elect joe bidens campaign is urging the head of the General Service administration to approve the beginning of the stages of an official transfer of power. President trump uses to acknowledge the outcome of the president ial election. A political employee named to the post by trump has not begun the process. A spokesperson said she is waiting to determine that a winner is clear. They write major Media Outlets projected while different outlets use different methods for projections, most involved a determination that a candidate has an insurmountable lead. We will hear from justine. Go ahead and make your final comment. Caller thank you for taking my call. I just want to say the Democratic Party did not defeat trump, they defrauded President Trump. I have a quote that biden said. We have the most extensive voter fraud host that will do it for this Mornings Program here on washington journal