Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 11112020 20240711

Postelection standoff between the Trump Administration and the Biden Campaign. Day and it 8 45, leo shane discusses the fallout from the defense secretarys firing. A week ago this morning, the results of the 2020 election were unknown. By saturday morning, joe biden had garnered enough electoral votes, and was declared the winner. President trump and his republican allies have been contesting that, but states are standing by the results, and legal efforts so far have yielded no change in votes. Good morning. It is veterans day, november 11, 2020. This is washington journal. We will talk about the continuing standoff in this first hour. We want your calls this year. If you are a supporter of joe biden and Kamala Harris, the line is 202 7488000. Supporters of donald trump and mike pence, 202 7488001. All others, or if you did not vote, the line 202 7488002. Also, send us a text if you would like. It is 202 7488003. Tell us your name and where you are texting from. Andwitter cspanwj facebook. Com cspan. Results continue to come in from several states. Here is the front page of the New York Times. Election officials nationwide find no fraud. They write, Election Officials in dozens of states say that fraud played no role in the outcome of the president ial race, a forceful rebuke of President Trumps portrait of a fraudulent election. Over the last several days, President Trump and allies have put forward the false claim that the election was stolen for mr. Trump and have refused to accept the results that show mr. Biden as the winner. Said ins have interviews and statements that the process has been a remarkable success despite record turnout and the complications of a pandemic. The New York Times contacted the offices of top Election Officials in every state to ask whether they had inspected or had evidence of illegal voting. Officials in 45 states responded directly. For four of the remaining states, the times spoke to other officials or found Public Comments of secretaries of state. None reported any voting issues. Just some of the highlights of those interviews the New York Times did with state officials. Fighting a false claim is the headline. Not experience any widespread issues with voter fraud, intimidation, and irregularities. Inhigan cope michigan, we have not seen of play. E of fraud or foul know of a i dont single case where someone argued a vote counted where it should have or did not count when it should. There was no fraud said there secretary of state. In ohio, there is a great Human Capacity for inventing things that are not true about elections. The conspiracy theories run rampant. From the secretary of state. Pennsylvania, many of the claims against the commonwealth have already been dismissed and repeating these false attacks is reckless. No evidence so far has shown widespread problems, according to the attorney general in pennsylvania. State, it is throwing grass at the fence at this point, from the secretary of state, republican. The lines for you if you support joe biden and Kamala Harris, 202 7488000 if you support President Trump, 202 7488001. For all others, 202 7488002. The president elect yesterday was asked about the continuing standoff. Here is what he had to say. [video clip] what would you say to americans who are anxious over the fact that President Trump has not yet conceded and what that might mean . Is anden i think it embarrassment, quite frankly. How can i say this tactfully . It will not help the president s legacy. Know from my i discussions with foreign leaders they are hopeful that the United States Democratic Institutions are viewed once again as strong and enduring. I think, at the end of the day, you know, it will all come to fruition on january 20, and between now and then, i hope the expectation is the American People do understand that there has been a transition, even among republicans or people who voted for the president. I understand the sense of loss. Think t, but they but i think the majority of the people who voted for the president understand we have to come together. I think they are ready to unite, and i believe we can pull the bitter out of this politics we have seen for the last 5, 6, 7 years. Host joe biden yesterday. Just want to bring you an update from yesterday from brad heath, who reports from reuters on the michigan race. A couple tweets. The trumpng, campaign released that 230 four page stack of affidavits from poll watchers in detroit tonight. So far, mostly allegations, but they could not get as close as they wanted to to counting, could not leave the room after they left. This is handwriting that says i observed a ballot being duplicated and i approached the supervisor and asked if there was a republican there to witness this. He said he did not know. The inspectors continue to duplicate. Brad heath, claims of ballots counted more than once. He noticed tape on top of the ballot where it would normally be. Those are the affidavits, some of the affidavits submitted late asterday, last night as matter of fact, by the Trump Campaign. 234. Here is one that has been turned over in pennsylvania. The headline in the Washington Post, postal worker recants ballot tampering claims. Postal worker whose claims have been cited as potential evidence of voting irregularities admitted to investigators that he fabricated to allegations according three officials briefed on the investigation. He claimed that a postmaster instructed postal workers to backdate ballots posted after election day. Authorizedlliam barr prosecutors into opening criminal probes into voting irregularities before votes are certified, a reversal of longstanding policy. Hopkins told the office of Inspector General that the allegations were not true, and assigned an affidavit recanting his claims. Democrats on the House Oversight committee tweeted the whistleblower recanted. Lets get to your calls. Barney, a joe biden supporter, bradenton, florida. Good morning. Caller i am ecstatic that Kamala Harris and joe biden beat two bit dictator. He turned this country into a bandana republic. Into a banana republic. He needs to be locked up. And the Republican Party. I cannot even believe. This never happened in history. Been dashed by the morands in the Republican Party. Bruce is on our republican line, supporting President Trump. Good morning. Caller good morning. First of all, i am not a partisan. I dont like either trump or biden. Biden has endorsed agenda 21 many decades ago. He is a globalist. Let me tell you what i think is going on. This whole coronavirus thing led to sending ballots out all over the United States, not absentee ballots, they just sent ballots out. This set the stage for the fraud. I live up in michigan and i have to laugh when they say there has been no problems with this election. I mean, look at Antrim County, softwaree dominion shifted 6000 votes to biden before they questioned it because Antrim County was majority republican. And when they looked at the glitch, it went back to trump. Now, this is being used in 48 counties in michigan, and this software is known to be able to flip elections. Then you look at detroit. The pasten reading representative. In detroit. Fraud was off the charts. I think if we count the real ballots, trump will be our president. I will make two predictions. Isaac the Supreme Court will rule for trump. I think the Supreme Court will rule for trump. The second thing host which case . Which case as the court likely to get . Is the court likely to get . Caller the big thing, i am a journalist, and i have been censored by facebook over nonsense, so what we have is an abridgment of freedom of speech by big tech we have never seen. That put the thumb on this election. They would not want the hunter biden stuff. Havet, i mean, here you biden getting all this money from communist china, who has killed 200,000 americans. Host what money did biden get from communist china . Caller come on. You have the burisma thing, the deals they made with china. His family is getting millions of dollars from ukraine, from china. Host we will go to judah in illinois, a joe biden supporter. Good morning. Caller good morning. Go auys let that moron little too long with the conspiracy theories. That is part of the problem. Lies are not facts. I am aforward, republican who voted for biden and harris. There is a cancer of ignorance and ineptitude within the Republican Party. And we are witnessing a reckoning. Republicanhat officials fear donald trump. Those who were duped into voting for him. This too shall pass. We have a president of the United States with the demeanor of a pimp. Period. Host to maryland we go. Darrell did not vote. Tell us why. What are your thoughts on this postelection situation . Caller thank you for having me. Old. 55 years the first time i voted was an 83 for ronald reagan. In 1983 for ronald reagan. Dosidents, they dont nothing. Lincoln freed the slaves. They were afraid of rebellion. The only president that has ever done anything for black people was lyndon johnson, who gave us the right to vote. Other than that, i do not vote because i look at both parties as one will call you the nword to your face, the other behind your back. Becomeour years, we important and nothing happens. And nothing will change until this country goes back to god. And moves forward. Until that happens, we will continue to see and a house divided cannot stand. I put my faith not into a man, but the lord that i serve. Have a blessed day. Host here is this mornings politico playbook. The headline, we know he has lost. Lets talk about the real world. Allies knowrumps know he, they say has lost, they say. They are adjusting to the reality of a joe biden presidency. It is mostly performance art. A tweet from anna palmer. She points this out on twitter. Trump has not had a public event since his comments postelection. Today, he and the first lady will attend a veterans day observance at arlington, virginia. We will have live coverage of that memorial at Arlington National coming at 11 00 eastern on cspan. Lets go to wilma in connecticut. Inlets go to tom connecticut. Hi. Caller i did not vote. I have three absentee applications. One was placed in my mailbox and two were mailed to me. When was postmarked new jersey. One was postmarked new jersey. I had a friend of mind at the poll and i was informed i voted for joe biden. I did not vote. The New York Times that you have been quoting from, that and also peopleo, i look at the , but watch the late andrew mccabe, who spearheaded the investigation of the russia collusion yesterday. I do not believe in Anonymous Sources. When cspan promulgates New York Times articles based on Anonymous Sources, i would appreciate if not tom, there were Anonymous Sources in this article. I will show you again. They talk to secretaries of state. Caller they interviewed the officials contact . Host they interviewed all of them. Their names are on the front page. Thanks for your call. We go to mike in lafayette, tennessee, joe biden supporter. Good morning. Veterans, foryou, your service on this day. My grandfather in world war ii and three uncles in vietnam, i value their service. This man we have in the white house, i think biden hit it out of the park. Embarrassment. Obama and him were so gracious when trump won. We accepted it. You should see the pictures and the video of him welcoming Vice President pence, joe biden did. It is just now in embarrassment. An embarrassment. What i hear from my friends in d. C. , everyone is looking for an exit. You are right on that story and politico. It is all theater. Off thenot want to piss base because we still have georgia, and that could hurt republicans chances of keeping control of the senate. It is theater. The last guy they called my head would explode. I could not do your job. They call him with conspiracy theories and it is just junk. It is so secure. The checks and balances that are in their and the security is incredible. I feel sorry that trumps legacy is going to be, guess what, he wouldnt leave and we had to force him out. It is sad and we hope we can heal from this. Thank you for taking my call. Host ok, mike. Appreciate that. Falls church, virginia, we go to jason, a donald trump supporter. Youre first off, Richard Hopkins story is false, and that was using Anonymous Sources. He has said on the record that he never recanted. Today, james okeefe will release the whole interrogation he got through oig federal agents where they coerced him into saying something that was not true, but luckily they recorded it. I hope your attract that or correct the record. Retract that or correct the record. Host it was not just in the post, it was the house investigation and Oversight Committee that released the news. This is their tweet. Whistleblower completely recanted his allegations of tampering with mailin ballots after being questioned by investigators according to the attorney general. Caller the video of him saying i did not recant, he released the interrogation where they say, we are trying to scare you. We are trying to twist your arm because we want you to Say Something that is not true. Host where can we find that . We will look for it. Caller it is on project verita ss website. And they have never lost a lawsuit. So i wish you guys would not use Anonymous Sources and do your due diligence. Host this was not anonymous. This was from Postal Service investigators in the Oversight Committee of the u. S. House. I am not using any Anonymous Sources. Caller why are you not saying the postal worker who is being quoted here, who has publicly , is as did not recant well . Host we will look for that. We appreciate your input. The front page of the washington times. Trump likely to. Trump likely to fall short of votes even with lawsuits. Clear an exceedingly high bar to overturn the projected victory of democratic rival joe biden. The majority leader, Mitch Mcconnell, was asked about the continuing standoff yesterday. Here is what he had to say. [video clip] this is the third or fourth time the president has alleged Election Fraud without proof. He is doing it now. Why do you continue to indulge him . Goingcconnell what i am to do here in the senate is concentrate on the business we have left to do, which i mentioned a while ago. On this appropriation bill, maybe another coronavirus package, and let the president ial election go through the various stages that he goes through under the constitution. There will be, apparently, litigation. Those cases will be decided. And then the Electoral College will meet. And then we will have the inauguration. But i am going to concentrate on what we are trying to do here in the remainder of this congress. Was there any fraud in your senate race or any that you know of . Mcconnell i dont know. At the risk of bragging, it was not very close. [laughter] host Mitch Mcconnell yesterday on capitol hill. Kaw professor steve loddoc tweeting about the legal efforts. Thatle have discovered when there is no electoral theege winner, there is role of the house. But the mere existence of litigation or recounts doesnt prevent states from certifying. It would take a Court Order Barring them from doing so. A long shot. The key is that the margins are too big in many states. Writing about that suit is the wall street journal. Much of President Trumps legal challenge to the Election Results rests on the distance that observers stood from workers tallying votes. Some Election Officials stationed political volunteers more than six feet away. Multiplee spans lawsuits in courts in pennsylvania and echoes complaints republicans had in other states, including michigan. The pennsylvania has accepted a case the pennsylvania Supreme Court has accepted a case. The Trump Campaign has asked a federal judge to stop. Rtification of results they write the trumps campaigns lawyers argue that something led to the in philadelphia and pittsburgh. I do not know if we show this photo of the one observation, the one observer in the Philadelphia Convention center from election night. Back to your calls. We will hear from roxanne in maine. Hi. Caller good morning. I want to respond to our veterans, today being veterans women out there that have served in continuing served and continue to serve. Thank you. My comment is about the applications that were mailed. Some got two or three. I have no problems with any of this. It is just the consequences that come through because of so much mail that has been put through. Happen. Re going to and the rhetoric that continues trump needssident to bow down. He has to bow down. He will never accept it. It is sad that this has to happen this way. I thank you so much for your program on for your program. It is informative. Next in bellevue, nebraska, supporting donald trump. Caller hi. Yes. Won. D trump obviously it is sad to see. It is god, jesus, right versus wrong. This is pathetic to watch this go on. We are obviously in the end of days. And that is how it is going to be. We have satan attempting to take over the world. Host to somerset, new jersey. Vote. D not tell us why and what you think of the continuing contest. Caller i did vote. I just did not vote for the president. Veterans, thank you for everything. Number two, a suggestion to cspan or to you personally. It would have been better to have a line open for just veterans and have a show about that. Host im glad you asked, because the last half hour is for veterans only. Thanks for mentioning that. Caller lets get into what i called about. I would not believe the New York Times if they told me the sky was blue. They always lie and they lied about pennsylvania and michigan. I do not think it is voter fraud, but there are major questions we all saw on media. News had the national which with a pink pass, gives him the right to go in and look at the counting. He was stopped by a huge man. Another man was stopped by an africanamerican woman. Then they slam the door and the mans face. R in the that is breaking federal law. They have no power to do that. What should have happened, one, the police should have come. And all the counting in that room had to stop. They had to take away all the votes that had already been counted and start again from number one with republicans watching. So that is a clear violation. Thats right there. I dont think you call it fraud. Thats breaking the law. Host jerry in mississippi, also supporting President Trump. Caller my comment is about the Washington Post article about the postal worker in pennsylvania. Fox andeported on friends this morning that he did not recant his statement and he was coming out with more information today. If i am going to believe fox and friends or Washington Post, i take fox and friends every day of the week and twice on sunday. Thank you. Host the Washington Post does right about that. He did not respond to messages from the Washington Post, but in a Youtube Video he posted tuesday night, he denied recanting. I did not recant my statements. That did not happen. This was the postal worker who postal workers say it recanted his allegations of irregularities in erie. Catherine, ais is joe biden supporter. Good morning. Caller good morning. Since want to say, november, two thousand 16, i woke up every day in the deepest depression because of this president. You think, ok, surely america will wake up and see this man for what he is. And wehas been voted out need a smooth transition to get the new president in. Bottom line, this covid. 1400 people dying yesterday. Hospitals overwhelmed. Mike pence goes on vacation and all trump wents all trump he has no morals whatsoever, to contest this election. That is where his priorities are. Shame on you. If any of his staff is listening, shame on you. I think you are killing people. I think you are murdering people by not dealing with this covid. Host here is the reaction on twitter from rene in newport news, virginia. The writing is on the wall. It is over. The longer trump keeps this up, the worse he looks. The only thing i have seen is the postal worker who took a bribe to lie about fraud. Trump and colt 45 went recounts, then they should be in the ones henot just lost. Darrell, it is amazing the parties flipped their rhetoric. The democrats are saying with republicans were saying and vice versa. It is kabuki. In port orange orange, it should be investigated. And republicans need to be reminded that the truth does not fear investigation and democrats need to be reminded that the truth does not need to fear investigation. Someone else, biden has suggested he will shred constitutional law by forcing a transition. Laws will he also shred . The New York Times this morning with the headline trump marshals federal power to overturn his election defeat. President trump facing the prospect of leaving the white house in 70 days is harnessing the power of the federal government to resist an election he lost, something no other sitting president has done. In the latest sign of defiance, the president s senior cabinet secretary fuel concerns tuesday that trump would resist handing over power to biden. Biden, after legal challenges to the vote, there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump Administration, mike pompeo said. [video clip] is the state department prepared to engage with the Biden Transition Team, and at what point if not does it pose a risk to National Security . There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump Administration. Right . Ready. The world is watching. There is a process. The constitution lays it out clearly. The world should have every confidence that the transition necessary to make sure the state successfultoday is and on january 20 will also be successful. I am very confident we will do all the things necessary to make sure the u. S. Government will continue to perform its National Security function. Do you believe there is widespread voter fraud . The reports we are getting from pennsylvania, for michigan, showing significant leads with 99 reporting. Im the secretary of state. I getting calls. People are watching our election. They understand this takes time. It took usus 37 days in 2000. I am confident that we count every legal vote. And we make sure that any unlawful vote not be counted. We have to get it right. And we will get it right. We are in good shape. Host back to your calls on the continuing election standoff. York. Is in troy, new a trump supporter. Hi, there. Caller i did not vote on election day. I voted a couple days early because i am blind and i could not make it on election day. Here in new york, when i went to discouraged because i brought a bunch of forms of id, thinking i would have to prove who i am, and i never had to show any id. I just told them my name and my address and they let me vote. And also, because i am recently blind, i was worried about, you know, is my signature going to match what they have on file, and they said that doesnt matter, either, so i just did not feel very secure. Add my vote, i dont know what happened to it and my vote, i dont know what happened to it after i sealed it. Host have you voted in previous elections . Caller i did. Host in new york, is that the typical process . Some states dont ask for any id. They ask your address and that is it. Caller in 2016, i did. I showed my passport. I dont know. You haveon day, maybe to show id, voting early, i did not have to show id. I think if we had a National Standard for voting i realize each state has its own election, but if we had some National Standards that would guard against the appearance of impropriety then i think a lot more people would be more accepting and comfortable in the Election Results. Because i personally voted for notp and i understand he is god. He can be defeated. I was disappointed he got defeated, but i am not totally there wash whether cheating or not. I see there could have been cheating. If we had some standards to get rid of the could haves, then everybody would have a lot more confidence in the elections. Host appreciate your call. To paterson, new jersey. Miles, biden supporter. Caller good morning and happy veterans day to all the vets. God bless you. I agree with the guy that said that you should have a program for vets only. I want to say about the selection that, no matter what you say out there, all Trump Supporters are going to believe he was robbed, plain and simple. They do not want to accept the fact that this man went out there and did things that people did not like, so they chose to vote him out. Now, the republicans that keep calling, are scared to death to down,. President , step because georgia. They need georgia like they need a life support because, without georgia, they know they will be in trouble, and they are afraid to get this president upset, because if they do, his voters will turn on him and they will take georgia away from them and it will turn blue. So they will suck up until the end. Whatce, wages he just said, should be ashamed of himself. He is supposed to be a man of religion. Now he is saying that everything is legal. Because donald, trump lost. All the last president s, i never heard them complain about fraud, but when donald trump loses, its fraud. Thatthat says to me is when he said for that group to stand down and step by, that was his downfall. Be careful what you ask for, america, because if they do a recount that means every republican who won something will have to do it again. Mentioned the two Georgia Senate races. They will happen on january 5. Greg bluestein is the political atlantar for the journalconstitution. An editorial this morning calls the decisions by senator perdue and senator left her the senator perdue and senator leffler you can find that. Coal city, indiana. Next, who supports donald trump and mike pence. Caller i voted for President Trump and i think he is the best we have had. I voted in past elections. I have voted democrat and republican. To all the people out there, i believe donald trump has been cheated. Just look at how the media has treated him from day one. All they have done is dug up all this stuff that has been proved not to be true and everything. And all you people that voted for biden, do you not realize he has dementia and that he will not be the president for long . They are telling him what to do. He is nothing but a puppet. I cannot believe that the American People is that stupid to believe that. I am 66 years old and i have seen a lot. Things have happened in the past and everything. It blows my mind to think out stupid people your taxes will go up, gas will go up. Wait till he gets in. And it will be you democrats fault that this happened. So i hope you can live with that. Case. A Supreme Court killgnaled is unlikely to obamacare as republicans challenge the legality of its mandate before the court for the third time in the hopes that the 63 majority will finally do away with the law. They write, even if a majority decides the mandate to buy Health Insurance is no longer valid, sufficient number of justices signaled they could sever the requirement from the rest of the act. That would leaved intact its consumer protections, expansion of subsidized private insurance, and expansion of medicaid coverage. Here is some of the oral argument yesterday, including comments from chief justice john roberts. [video clip] on the severance question, it is hard for you to argue that congress intended the entire act to fall with the mandate. Congress lowered the penalty to zero, it did not even try to repeal the rest of the act. I think, frankly, that they wanted the court to do that, but that is not our job. Well, mr. Chief justice, i would respectfully submit that it is this courts job to follow the text of the law is written, is critical that congress could have excised the legislative findings in 18091, but chose not to. But under with you, the severability question, we ask ourselves whether the congress would want the rest of the law to survive if an wants to touche in a survive if an unconstitutional provision were severed, and here Congress Left the law intact. That seems to be compelling evidence. Argumentt of the oral in the consolidated Affordable Care act case heard. All of that available on our website, cspan. Org, including many of the cases we have heard covered over the decades with oral arguments from the Supreme Court. Up, supporting joe biden, calling for minneapolis. Hi. Hey. Hi thank you for taking my call. The fraudulent things that trump has been saying is ludicrous. Third, i was a poll worker. I am sorry. I was a poll worker. Mistake. Not make one and the ballot judge, the head ballot judge, he was right there. He was like there to help me out. Host what kind of mistake did you make . What happened, adrian . Caller i had a hard time registering somebody. Because you can come in with your id and register, but he did not have it was like his address. It was not the same as on his id. So he had to bring in a document. And i was not sure if the document was the correct document. Host yeah. Caller so mark came over and helped me with that. They had,king, if like in pennsylvania, as much leadership around them to help them, then it was kind of impossible for them to cheat, because if there are a lot of people there, a lot of republicans and a lot of democrats. So i just dont understand the fraud allegation. Host how long did you work on election day, how many hours . Caller eight hours. Host is this a paid job or volunteer . Caller you can volunteer or you can get paid. I chose to get paid because im unemployed, so [laughter] host appreciate your call. Lauderdale. In fort we were warned about this by donald trump. It does not necessarily have to be fraud. It can be incompetence. It could be that this is just a very, very bad way to conduct an election. On mailin votes, it is not a secret ballot, and there is no paper trail, so the ability for can come into play, and that is what is happening now. It does not have to be outright fraud, but the press is doing their favorite ideological trick on the American People. They front run. What is front running . Well, if donald trump says he saves the earth, the press will say, he did not save the universe. Now, they are saying, have you found fraud . They are assembling the proof for fraud. They are front running. This is ideological warfare to brainwash the American Public against donald trump, which they have done for four years. I do not know how this will come out, but if it turns out that what we have done is we have elected a president that needs his wife standing behind him to prompt him on what to say. She is on tape doing this many, many times. He also may be convicted of conspiracy to conduct moneylaundering. And the fact that he was influence peddling is certainly very, very obvious. So i dont know what the democrats think they have done, because he is probably, like donald trump said, the worst president ial candidate we have ever had. Host i want to read you an opinion piece from ohio, the columbus dispatch. Honor your oath, mr. President , they right. It is time to return to normalcy. By polarization needs clear guidance to heal its wounds. That should start with donald trump while he is in office. Even though he built his candidacy and presidency on norm shattering populism, he swore to defend the constitution, but this year he challenged the legitimacy of the election before a vote was cast. Now that he appears to be losing his grip, his attacks on Election Integrity threaten to provoke instability and harm america. Absent strong evidence that the process has failed, trumps duty is to defend the constitution, not undermine faith in democracy. An editorial this morning in the columbus dispatch. Kelly in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. A joe biden supporter. Caller we still have a lot of veterans missing in action and i hope that everybody prays for their safe return. One of the opinion that the counties that went for biden i wanted to point out that there are two other states, republican states, that also had mailin ballots on november 6, which is kansas and kentucky. Mississippi, until november 10. North carolina, november 12. Ohio and alaska. Accepting ballots until november 13. In alaska, they are just starting to count them on november 10. There are several states that have mailed mailin ballots to years,idents in previous including oregon, colorado, and washington. It was never an issue before. I hear a lot of these stories about there is proof about this and that, but every challenge, legal challenge brought against the states has not had any evidence, and if there is evidence that a postal worker said this or did this or someone the longer this goes on, it makes trump look like a full. Fool. E a host thank you, kelly. As you mentioned, it is veterans day. We will spend the last half hour hearing from only veterans, 9 30 to 10 northeastern. 10 00 eastern. This morning, president at Arlington National cemetery. Coverage beginning at 11 00 a. M. Unionville, connecticut. Sean is a trump supported their. Go ahead. Caller i can always tell on thing,ton journal one which is my blood pressure. So thank you. Anyway, i have one thing. When you had that Washington Post article up on the screen, if you read one more sentence, you would have showed the part that said the hopkins guy host sean, we did read that. Man,d find a video of the Richard Hopkins. The story is he has recanted to whose inspectors allegations of widespread voting irregularities. Inspectors his allegations of widespread voting irregularities. He claimed a postmaster instructed postal workers to backdate ballots mailed after election day. On monday, writes the post, hopkins told investigators from the Postal Service that the allegations were not true and signed an affidavit recanting his claims according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. Oversighton the House Committee tweeted tuesday that the whistleblower completely recanted. Here is the video that Richard Hopkins did after this story came out. [video clip] they are grilling the hell out of me. How are you feeling . Kind of pissed. I feel like i got played. I heard them say to the supervisor that they messed up. I was like, what did they mess up on . Thate told the supervisor they had postmarked one of the ballots on the fourth instead of the third. They were supposed to put them for third. Let me make good on the promise. This storm is going to be crazy. It is going to be out of a lot of peoples control. The reason they called me in is to try to harness that storm, try to reel it back end before wegets really crazy, because have senators involved, the department of justice involved, lawyers. I am trying to twist you a little bit because, we can or not control our minds. Youryou are under stress, mind is clear. Focus. Our i am not scaring you, but i am scaring you. It seems like they were trying to make me distrust you all. Like, same time, i was no, these guys have had my back. These federal agents have your back . At this point, no. These federal agents are really interested in investigating fraud . I dont think they are. Told a supervisor they were backdating the balance. I stand by that. Yeah. Host some of the video released s with postalrita worker Richard Hopkins. Inocial media, lynn tweets michigan,p won pennsylvania, and wisconsin by a combined 77,000 votes. Conceded. N in 2020, trump will not recognize the outcome. Biden is rightfully moving ahead with his transition. On facebook, nobody is the winner, so no transition. Nothing until a legal winner is declared. Bidensyork times, joe lead in georgia continues to widen. He is up 14,149 votes. To grace and kentucky, we hear from floyd, a joe biden supporter. Caller thank you for having me on the show. Talk we live here in kentucky and poverty is rampant. My wife and i write harleys on the weekend. We go through the countryside and it is amazing. It is literally covered in trump banners. I was registered independent all my life. I probably voted more republican than i did democrat, but not this time. I cannot understand get anybody to explain to me what trump has done for them over the last four years. Big dozer. A it strips coal. It had a banner that said trump strips coal. It was rusted over. I do not see any coal mines opening up. I do not see any minors going back to work. Miners going back to work. I do not understand what they have in common with a gold spoonfed, narcissist, pathological liar that has shredded more rights than any president before him. I dont understand what they think he has done for them. I understand the christian vote. I understand prolife. Now, they dont even have to have to vote for trump because they have a conservative Supreme Court in power that can overturn roe v. Wade if they really want to. Trump has been in for four years and we have had a republican congress. Why dont they overturn it . Host we will hear one more call from sean in new york city, President Trump supporter. Sean, good morning. Go ahead. Caller good morning. So i just want to get all cspan viewers to watch this video on youtube where joe biden brags about having the most expensive and Inclusive Voter Fraud Organization in history. There is an actual video of him fraud thathe actual has been committed. And it is amazing how it only has 1. 7 million views on youtube. I am just wondering why, you know, the suppression of all of these videos and allegations around the media is so prevalent. You know, the other color just asked caller just asked. Host you said 1. 7 million views. That seems like a lot of people. Caller there are 350 Million People in the country and 160 million voted. When you have only 1. 7 million that watched the video, it does not add up. He is literally on the video. I would just like every cspan viewers to watch the video up on youtube with him actually, in his own mouth, on video, saying there is going to be an organization. Host people can look and decide for themselves. Coming up next, we are joined by robert costa, Washington Post political reporter and moderator of cvss Washington Week cbss Washington Week. And then leo shane will join us to talk about policy issues impacting veterans, the Defense Department and more. That is all ahead. Watch American History tv in primetime on veterans day, starting at 8 00 p. M. Eastern the untold story of americas unknown soldier in americas most decorated heroes who brought him home. And then two reel america films. Africanamericans in world war ii a legacy of patriotism and valor. Nurse. , the army watch American History tv, veterans day, tonight starting at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan3. Washington journal continues. Host robert costa is the Washington Post National Political reporter and moderates the Washington Week Program Every week. Thank you for being with us this morning. We have been spending this first hour talking about continuing standoff, a weekend a day after the election. What is the Trump Campaigns strategy in all of this . Guest the Campaign Strategy is to mount legal challenges. And the republican strategy is to stand with President Trump. It was evident on monday at the capital that Mitch Mcconnell, senator roy blunt and other members of the Republican Leadership stand in lockstep with President Trump as he pursues different recounts and litigation across the political map. Its an example of the solidarity of the gop despite President Trumps defeat, and also a challenge for Vice President elect biden who is trying to mount a transition at this point but he doesnt have formal backing from the current administration. Host what are you hearing is the mood inside the white house, officials and sources you talk to . Guest President Trump is unlikely to concede this election. He may walk away from the white the electionary if is certified formally for president elect biden. He becomes president of the United States, the 46th on january 20. President trump still views himself as a political outsider, someone with grievances against the political system and the establishment. For his own branding purposes he is unwilling to ever call himself a loser or someone who has been defeated. Is likely to walk away but not until the bitter end after he has exhausted all legal and political options. Also to signal to his own voters ahead of a possible run in 2024 that he did Everything Possible to stay in power. Host the public faces of the efforts seem to be people like Rudy Giuliani and others. What role are his close advisors, his daughter ivanka, jared kushner, and mark meadows who was quarantining for covid19, correct . Guest the role of his advisors is simply to be cheerleaders at this point. To be supporters of a president who is besieged and facing defeat. What you saw from match lap in hlap, someonet s holding news conferences. Same with mayor giuliani. They are holding news conferences around the country. They are alleging widespread corruption and fraud. But based on the Washington Post reporting, there has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud. The New York Timess story today is the same point. They called around different state officials, found no evidence of secretaries of state, many republicans, not stepping forward with fraud. Anecdotal evidence of election irregularities have popped up with Election Officials in the states are not saying the election was in some way corrupt. The biggest flashpoint to Pay Attention to is georgia where the republican secretary of state is maintaining the election has been done in an honest way without any problems. Bothitting senators, republicans who face a runoff on forary 5, they have called the georgia secretary of state to resign even though there is no evidence on their part of fraud. We have this standoff where both sides are accusing the others of bad faith, but it is clear the trump side, and in this case the republican side in georgia, the incumbent senators, are bringing allegations without evidence. Host we will see the president today for the First Time Since election day at Arlington National on this veterans day, playing a wreath at the tomb of the unknowns. There was word earlier this week the president may even go back out on the road to do some rallies postelection. What do we know of that . Guest in my story a few days ago in the Washington Post, his advisors told us he is interested in doing rallies and having campaignstyle rallies. He has delegated much of his responsibilities to surrogates. He wants to stay in the white house and work in his legal strategy without creating a stir. This could change as the georgia runoff nears, as well as the Electoral College certification nears. The president has been unusually quiet. It has created a tension with president elect biden and his transition process. Host our guest is robert costa, National Political reporter with the Washington Post. We are talking about what may be ahead. 202 7488000 if you are a joe biden supporter. 202 7488001 for those of you supporting President Trump and mike pence. For all others, 202 7488002. Robert costa, you talked about this momentarily with the losing senater of majority runoffs in georgia drives gop to trumps unfounded claims of Election Fraud. It is likely we will have a result. How might republican messaging change ahead of that election . Guest thats a good point. If the election is certified as we expected to be in Electoral College, what you could see in georgia is a little bit more of a focus on the democrats and traditional flashpoint in these races. Republicans told me yesterday they want to when a traditional campaign. That will probably be the Closing Campaign message. At this point the message is different. Story foratever this todays Washington Post. What you see in georgia and across the Republican Party is a willingness to stand with President Trump, with his claims of Election Fraud brought forward without evidence. The reason they are doing this, in part, is to make sure the Republican Base is energized and activated in georgia. In georgia, it is a fastchanging state. You look at the rising latino population, Asian American population, can the influx of white liberals and black americans into the atlanta area. You see estate that symbolizes a state that symbolizes the deep south. As theyans want to win have struggled to do so in 2020. They need to turn out in the majority white suburbs of atlanta. To do that you have to stand with President Trump who is so popular with those voters. Voters in the atlanta area and throughout rural georgia. You cant start to somehow depart from President Trump at this fragile moment in President Trumps political career. Host when was the last time he had a chance to interview President Trump . You had a chance to interview President Trump . Guest i had a formal interview with President Trump, and i believe it was the last time we spoke, when i did a story a few months ago on lou dobbs. Lou dobbs is the foxbusiness news personality. I did not expect President Trump to participate as a source, as in on the record source, but he did. This was probably a year ago. Lou dobbs is someone who is symbolic of how the trump era works. President trump turns to him for advice, both on the phone based on a reporting and on television by watching his tv show. Dobbs is a hardliner on immigration. Someone who is a Kindred Spirit politically. When historians look back on the could read myy story of the Washington Post and realize as much as President Trump had advisors in the white house, some of his key advisors were tv personalities. They will watch tucker crossan or lou dobbs and take cues about Tucker Carlsen or lou dobson take cues about what is important at the moment. Host we have heard the president may start up a Political Action committee. We have heard there is considerations of him running again in 2024. Sons having of his greater involvement in the Republican Party. Guest it is unsurprising. This is a family that since day one in 2017, since the first day of the campaign in 2016, has been at the forefront of their fathers political career. Jared kushner and evocative white house, donald trump and his girlfriend. Along with laura trump, eric trumps wife and eric himself. And tiffany trump, the president s youngest daughter has not been as politically involved but she shows up from time to time. Donald trump, jr. Has been mentioned as a possible candidate himself whether he runs for senate in a state with the president has a home or run for mayor of new york city. At this point he seems to be most interested in running the Republican National committee. He will have some competition though. That is not something his father can just install him. The Republican National committee is full of Committee Members who will make the decision. Many of them love the trump family and love President Trump. It would not be shocking to see him take over in a sense. But incumbent president s have ultimate sway over the partys committee. When they are gone, that falls away and can go to different people on the committee the jockey to power. Maybe donald trump, jr. Ends up on the Republican National committee himself. It seems more to be an aspiration and ambition than something that is actually playing out. Mcdaniel, theey Current Committee chair tries to usher in donald trump, jr. , it could happen. Many gop lawmakers on the Republican National committee for funding, staffing, strategy. They will have a say in if they want donald trump, jr. Moving beyond working for his Father Campaign and has not been a political strategist his entire life. Most lawmakers i talked to would love to see professionals who have been there for decades at the top of the committee. Host we have calls waiting for robert costa. First, joanna damascus, maryland on our supports joe biden line. Caller good morning. This is what i would like to say. Trump would have you believe all the states he won were fraudfree. All of them. He has no question about them. But all the states that biden won had fraud and that is why he won. Think about the logic of that. I think people need to take a look at that. Trump supporters need to look at that. It is preposterous that no fraud was involved in the states he won, but was only fraud in all the states that biden won that put him over the top. I think that is an important thing to remember. I really do believe and biden believes this election is about who we are. We will continue in this fragile democracy, forgive it up in favor of a strong man . Host robert costa . Guest thank you for the comment. It seems to be more of a comment than a question. Host westchester, ohio. This is deborah, a donald trump supporter. Caller thank you for taking my call. I am retired scientist and quality control. Fidelity chemistry and microbiology i dealt in chemistry and microbiology. My concern is we are all talking about generalities. I need to know more specifics. I will accept whatever we find is solid based on evidence. When i look into this, for instance, in las vegas, 11 of the citizens are noncitizens. Noncitizens have a place of residency. They have a drivers license and a signature that matches. Out i am trying to find maybe you will know. Noncitizens records in such a way with valid data the fda would never allow me to give information and say you just have to believe it. I dont have to show you my process or validate my process. In the senses this year we did not allow our senses to separate citizens versus noncitizens. I am not against immigration. I am for legal immigration. I will accept. Based on mighty as a scientist for 30 years, i dont think we have the ability to process and validate a mass mail valid. The states that mass mail already validate. They have lists they check against. I think that is what is missing, evidence on both sides. Show me your process that you can verify that noncitizens did not vote. Host robert costa, do you think in the end mailin voting will be deemed as having been a success . Guest states it is done mailin ballots for years feel like in 2020 they were successful. What you are seeing with mailin ballot is a reaction to a Global Pandemic that has kept millions of americans, especially high propensity senior voters from going to polling places. They are turning to mailin ballots. There is also an erosion of trust in the u. S. Postal service. President trump has attacked it repeatedly, along with other republicans. We have this situation where mailin ballot was essentially request mailin balloting was essentially required for health concerns. Many republicans were told by the president that the Postal Service cannot be trusted with the vote on election day. Many republicans did vote on election day but we have seen the accounts change and some of the states because mailin ballots take longer to be counted. This does not constitute fraud. In fact, in all these states you have rules and laws that are set in place about how mailin balloting will be processed. This is complicated. It takes time. Just because something is complicated and takes time does not mean to rush to the conclusion it is fraud. I agree with the caller. If there is evidence of people andare not citizens voting breaking the law, of course that deserves investigation. It deserves to be reported. Speculation about it is just that. Host there was a piece this aboutith your colleagues the relationship between joe biden and Mitch Mcconnell. Longstanding ties between biden and mcconnell could shape an early agenda. Where interim period Mitch Mcconnell is aligned with the president in terms of the vote count, is this potentially harming that relationship or putting a damper on it ahead of the biden presidency . Guest relationships for senator mcconnell, the majority leader, are not a driving force in his own political operation. They are important but not the animus, the animating force. What you see from Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell is a longstanding report with president elect biden. I used see Vice President biden go to the capital. I was reporting on capitol hill at the time. Whenever there was a budget standoff, biden and mcconnell seemed to be able to cut a deal at the 11th hour. To me that was always revealing. Washington has become broken in many parts in terms of congress functioning and getting legislation done. Oldbiden and mcconnell, two pros have been able to cut budget deals together. Beyond budget deals it is hard to see how pay bidenmcconnell relationship plays out in a huge way legislatively in 2021. The appetite in the republican conference and senate and house is limited to do some kind of sweeping deal on fiscal policy, on immigration, health care. Instead, keeping the government running becomes a priority. Perhaps the loan priority for bipartisanship lone priority for bipartisanship. You can do that three reconciliation. My expectation is in 2021 mcconnell and biden will do their best to keep the government open and appropriations flowing and the budget together. Beyond that, mcconnell has his eye on 2022. Currently he has his eye on georgia and expanding his majority. President elect biden, as much as he may have the clinician for bipartisanship, hes dealing with a changing Democratic Party that does not have a huge appetite for working with republicans after four years. President sition as reminds me a bit of the position House Speaker john boehner in 2011 and 2012. He liked bipartisanship and wanted to work with someone like biden and president obama but was constrained by the Tea Party Movement and by the right wing who urged him not to cut any deals. Biden could face a similar dynamic from the left where he may have the inclination to cut a deal, but an offended leftwing may say hold off until we get everything we want. Host on the majority leader, you know if Mitch Mcconnell has spoken to President Trump since the election . Guest i dont have direct reporting if he has spoken to President Trump but they do speak regularly. I have not heard about mcconnell calling president elect biden. Host robert in riverdale, jordan. Georgia. Caller how are you doing . Votes, that illegal means split tickets were republicans win and the democrats they dont cap either. Thank dont count either. Revote. An do is i will get five of my registered, legal voters of my friends who did not vote, i will take them with me. Thing is i dont believe i believe donald duck stole the election when he won. I have a degree in engineering and mathematically everything they are claiming fraud. Votes, he got those would not win. Host richard in montreal, joining us from canada. Caller good morning. There are so many people coming forward with sworn affidavits saying voter fraud and whistleblowing and even democrats. My sevenyearold son could prosecute this case in court and win. The democrats, now we know why they are against voter id. They want to cheat. The Washington Post reported does not want to interview these witnesses. He does not want to talk about voter id. He thinks the American People are stupid and we dont see this voter fraud. It is all coming from one side. I dont see democrats accusing republicans of voter fraud. Lets audit the states one by one. This reporter does not want people to know that because he knows who will win at the end, President Trump. He got 9 million more votes. Host lets give robert costa a chance to respond. Guest where to begin . According to the current popular vote count, president elect biden is ahead. On the point you made, unfounded, that the Washington Post is not interested in pursuing the stories, the Washington Post is in constant touch with state Election Officials of the parties to investigate the election and to make sure we are getting a great tally on our website and paper about where the count stands. We are tracking litigation every hour and the different legal challenges from President Trump. You can go to washingtonpost. Com to read the coverage. Host also the host of Washington Week and events, another coming up today. You will be interviewing senator bob casey of pennsylvania. The keystone, if you will, pardon the pun, on the election. What will you focus the conversation on . Guest it will be interesting to have senator toomey, who is and senator2022 bob casey of northeastern pennsylvania. He is a moderate democrat. Pennsylvania was a key battleground in 2020. It was a state both campaigns competed for. Like georgia, it is kind of representative of where this country is moving. You see the new Democratic Coalition emerging in its berg, in pittsburgh and the philadelphia area. Northeastern parts of the state as well. This was a state that had long gone democratic going back to the reagan years in president ial cycles. It did go to President Trump narrowly and 2016, which stunned not only democrats but many republicans. For it to come back to the democratic column, you see pennsylvania returning to its democratic roots because the city of philadelphia has returned to its turnout levels necessary to win the state. You need to win philadelphia if you are a democrat see you can overwhelm any kind of republican enthusiasm and the rest of the state. I will talk to them about their own careers as well. Toomeyt is to me go go . What does the future full for these two men as they navigate all these currents . A biden supporter. Caller i had a question for mr. Costa. Once the Electoral College votes are validated, with trump being a sitting duck president , how can biden move forward without federal funding for the means to transition in a smooth manner in the coming months . I dont see a good outcome for us if that transition does happen smoothly. Guest there are two pieces in the Washington Post today, one on the editorial page that reports about the alarm in the National Security community about the lack of a formal transition so far and how that could disrupt the Intelligence Community. There is a story by shane harris over President Trump firing mark esper and overhauling the Intelligence Community and the military complex, the military leadership in the country in the final weeks of his presidency in a way that might be unhelpful to say the least for american stability. Those pieces are interesting and worth reading. Now president biden, resident elect bidens president elect biden is moving forward even without funding forfederal office space, personnel, planning. You see him taking calls from u. S. Allies and world leaders. He is trying to project he is the president elect because the election has been called. He is president elect. As the litigation plays out in the Trump Campaign and President Trump continue to push legal challenges it is unlikely his own administration will change their position perhaps until january, maybe until december. That is a real challenge for biden but he is moving forward and organizing in his own way, just without federal support. Host as you mentioned, the legal challenges continue. The clock continues ticking for election certification. Several key states that have election certification dates coming up. November 13, georgia. That race will go to a recount. Arizonas certification date is ever 30. Michigan, november 23. Counties in pennsylvania will certified by the weber 23. Wisconsin on december 1. , robertd to guess costa, will we have finality by the first of december . Guest the race has been called. The Washington Post has called the race. We are looking for formal certification. The one thing to Pay Attention to is the Electoral College. Do the electors twostate legislatures try to change the electors out of frustration on the republican side . At this point it is hard to see how it plays out in different ways. In pennsylvania, republicans have been frustrated that the state Supreme Court and the u. S. Supreme court last friday has cap the count going. They have been trying to stop the count because they dont like the mailin ballots being part of the final count. That has frustrated them but the count continues in pennsylvania. Trump supporter in cocoa, florida. Caller good morning. The senateue is in race in georgia, that you have both senators on the same election. One senator was class one. By the was appointed governor. Ihould have served dont know what the cycle that the senator was on. They should not be on the same ticket because what they are trying to do for the federal government, the State Government has to elect them on the same term to keep it in the class. That surprises me when i saw both senators on the ballot. Host robert costa, correct me if im wrong, Kelly Loeffler would serve isaacsons term legislationut the of the laws in georgia call for the senate the race that happened in november, last week. Guest thats right. The caller makes a fair point. It is highly unusual to have two senators in the same state appearing on the ballot on the same time. Even more unusual to have a runoff for both u. S. Senators in the same state. Historicistoric an showdown to come down to two seats in the same state and a runoff election. She would only serve senator isaacsons term. For ar perdue is full sixyear term. In 2014. He now faces another sixyear term. That race is something to pay close attention to because rev. Raphael warnock, Senior Pastor at Martin Luther kings church has been under the radar politically from months but is now starting to get a surge of national attention. Rev. Warnock is running against Kelly Loeffler, the income it republican senator. Shes in a possibly weaker position than senator perdue because he has run statewide, one statewide won statewide. She was appointed by the governor. She is in a tougher position to claim she is an incumbent in a significant way with a lot of political capital. Rev. Warnock will have money to be on the air, cut ads. It was highly competitive in the initial race before the runoff. Is kindtor perdue, he of come from our traditional republican candidate cloth. A businessman from the south. Former ceo. But he is running against jon ossoff, who has gotten a lot of attention from the left wing of the Democratic Party in recent days. Hes a younger man in his 30s. He is close to the late john lewis. He always touted his friendship with john lewis, the civil rights icon. He is hoping to win a broad coalition. You will see a lot of big names go down there. Vice president pence to announced he will go on november 21 campaign event. You will maybe see President Trump, president obama, maybe president elect biden, senator harris. Senator harris has been an issue. , he is usually a down the middle conservative business type. He said senator, now Vice President elect harriss name manyway in a way thought were mocking her name. I will not say how he said it. Senator perdue has denied mocking her name. That issue and the way senator perdue enunciated Vice President elect harriss name has brought race to the fore. The first black woman, south asian woman to have her name pronounced in that way has put race in the mix in a way it was not part of the discussion beyond the racial reckoning in this country maybe six or seven months ago. Host robert costa, our guest from the Washington Post. Back to your calls. Susan in tampa, florida. Caller hi. Thank you for taking my call. Great respect for cspan, cnn, as always. My call is the kind of address the elephant in the room. I am an american. I am not going to go to the left or the right. Im not going to go to a moderate or do any of that. The elephant in the room is you have been dealing with a sociopath for the last four years. That is basically it. If anyone wants to google it, there are 12 things. Do it. I guess im a little frustrated but arent we all . For the entire country right now. Thank you for taking my call. , president t costa trump said from the beginning he was an unconventional candidate. Hes been an unconventional president. Guest that is true. I am not a medical professional so to what President Trumps mental state is an psychosis, i will leave that the medical professionals. Your prayer for the country is appreciated. That can never hurt. What we are seeing right now is the democratic electorate, and some point the republican electorate frustrated with the disruptions of the trump years. The shattering of norms, to the point where people feel this american moment has elements of a political apocalypse. Parties that were once conservative and moored to different values are adrift, in particular the Republican Party. The Democratic Party facing its own dynamics and changes internally. The caller voicing her frustration about President Trumps personality, his approach to governing, she is clearly ready to see him leave the white house. Comment, while i cannot on the details of what she is alleging, i would say her frustration is indicative of why perhaps president elect biden got 74 million votes in this election. There was historic turnout, record turnout. Not just because of the issue or an ideological debate, but the characters atop the ticket. Brett from lafayette, louisiana. The trump supporter. Termr i just hear all the widespread voter fraud. What is the difference between widespread and just voter fraud . Is it like a number . I dont understand the keep using that term. Term we use the widespread because we mean the word. When we say there is no evidence of whites read voter fraud, is widespread voter fraud, there are anecdotal evidence there is anecdotal evidence of voter irregularities that deserve investigation, scrutiny by reporters and by state officials. But these examples of voter irregularities and claims and allegations dont automatically become a frontpage story just because someone says it should be a frontpage story. We are looking at the integrity of the elections. We are also talking to Election Officials and experts to understand as the people who monitor elections, what are they seeing. What are they hearing. What do they believe is the truth. As ben bradlee would often say and Carl Bernstein decades ago with the Washington Post, the job of a reporter is to get the best version of the truth. As close to the truth as possible. The pursuit of the truth often means you hear about anecdotal evidence of voter issues, but then you talk to Election Officials and they tell you those examples are anecdotal and the election has integrity. You have to reflect that in the reporting. Host robert costa, President Trump this morning continuing to tweet about the Election Results, saying this moment ago. Fake pollsters produced a possibly illegal suppression pull just before the election showing me down 17 points in wisconsin when in fact the race was even. We are now preparing to win this state. Many such deplorable instances. Wisconsin one of the states that was expected to win but culture joe biden, correct . Guest it was culture president elect biden. The president s grievance with these polls is hardly new. As a reporter i dont count on polls to give me the guide every single juncture about where the electorate stands. Hopefullya snapshot, based on the best date at the time. Any pollster will tell you, whether of the Washington Post or abc news, cnn, nbc, i dont speak for them but i know these pollsters. I know pollsters on both sides. Polling always has outliers. There will always be polls that have challenges because of certain voters. The voters they selected further pool were not a perfect snapshot. That does not mean polling should just be abandoned. At times it is something helpful in understanding where in electorate is drifting on an issue or on an incumbent or a candidate. It is informative but not determinative. Host front page morning of the Washington Post. No sign of easing with little help from washington. Hospitals are under growing strain with the expanding coronavirus. Robert costa, how did the pandemic become such a National Political issue . Guest it has been one since february or march. It has been the story of the year. The president ial campaign in my view has always been second fiddle to the Global Pandemic. President trumps response to it, the response of different governors, that is the story of 2020. Hundreds of thousands of americans have been killed. Hundreds of thousands. More than 230,000 at least at the last count. Im sure it is higher at the moment. I have been busy covering the campaign and not tracking the death count. It is a grim story. Anything this grim should and would be at the front of every newspaper every day. We are now heading into a fall and winter season that could be bleak. We see in georgia for example more outbreaks. They are going to the socalled red zone in georgia. That as many voters are preparing to go in january. You see it across the country. I spoke i speak to governors all the time. I sat down with larry hogan of maryland, a republican. Asa hutchinson, another republican from arkansas. That was yesterday. But he does ago it was Gretchen Whitmer of michigan. When you ask the governors what are they concerned about, it is not the election. Its about the pandemic. They worry with thanksgiving on the horizon many people are going to be circulating inside, within closed doors, with heat blowing and no masks inside. Little social distancing. This could be spreader events. It is hard not to be alarmist because they are facing more death in their state. They have people have thanksgiving traditions, holiday traditions in december. How to deal with that. They are telling people to wear a mask inside. Maybe try to have thanksgiving outside. It is a difficult thing to wrangle people towards making different choices after years, if not decades of doing the opposite. Georgiari next up from on the biden line. Caller thank you. I would like to tell mr. Costa i look forward to us having a president that is not the disrespectful to the press. Referring to them always as fake news. I appreciate the job all of you do. First of all, one thing about like to say is you had some callers talking about some of in things information this other kind of stuff. Talking about the post office thing. Going online. Cnn did a thing a little while ago on reality checks. Lies of some of the major trump put out there that have been verified by what was factual and not. Ou might want to look callers looking to fox news would see something else. I wanted to talk about the boat for a minute. In the primary i got the application and i filled out and sent it in. I never did receive my ballot. I talked to a couple of my neighbors that i know would be voting different from myself. They had received them. I called my election place. They looked it up and told me they had mailed me one out. They had documentation they did. I told him i did not get it. They said they would mail me another one. I was only going to have a few days before the primary was here. I was going to have to handdeliver it. I did not get it so i voted in the primary in person. A couple of days or so later after the primary was over with i got my ballot in the mail. I called and told him i had received it and so forth. I discarded it. Host i will have to let you go there. We are wrapping up. Robert costa, any final thoughts . Guest i hope that ended well and your vote was counted. I appreciate your comment about the press. Id understand some of the callers have frustrations with republicans, with democrats, and your frustrations with the media at times. You have the right to all of those opinions. I encourage you to be part of the debate. This ability of cspan is always welcome. I would finish by saying im a reporter. I do my best. Like all of us we have our flaws but we do our best to pursue the truth and reveal people in power on both sides, the publicans, democrats, independents. I remain committed to that. I appreciate everyone calling in and having this dialogue. Host you can see him weekly at Washington Week. Robert costa, thanks so much. Guest thank you. Host i had, we are joined by ahead, we are joined by leo shane to talk about issues affecting veterans and the recent shakeup at the pentagon and how that is affecting current members of the military. Boot tv on cspan2 has nonfiction books and authors every weekend. Saturday at 1 00 p. M. Eastern, from a recent virtual southern festival of books, sarah marsh, thomas burton, reflect on life in appalachia. David pilgrim discusses the jim crow era in the south. Joe biden the life, the run, and what matters now. Eastern, at 1 00 p. M. Meth even meter talks about his van meter talks of his book deep delta justice. Stephanie gordon offers thoughts on of us to get journalism and its role in democracy. At 9 00 p. M. Eastern on webbwards, john fabian talks about his book american contagions. Hes interviewed by Georgetown University law professor watch tv this weekend on cspan2. Washington journal continues. Host it is veterans day. We are joined by Deputy Editor of the military times leo shane to talk about Veterans Issues and Current Issues at the pentagon and the military. Good morning. Guest thank you for the invite. Host lets start with the defense secretary the termination of the defense secretary this week via tweet from President Trump. Guest there has been a lot of friction between secretary esper and the president over the last few months. There was some concerns from the white house that esper was not loyal enough, not telling the president what he wanted to hear and was not helping him. One of the friction points was the issue of the Lafayette Press the infamous appearance where the president walked out of the white house after protesters were cleared out and pose in front of the church across the street. There was a lot of conversation about the military taking on a more active role in responding to those racial protests and finding some way for the military not just a guard but active duty military to be involved and there was pushback on that. It was not appropriate. Just burrow into some of problems the president had with espers performance and attitude. My colleague got a chance to sit down with secretary esper before he left, in his final days and he looked like he was heading out the door. For what everyone thinks about esper and him being too much of he felt liketrump, he pushed back on a lot of things. There was a lot of tension there. One of the secretarys concerns was someone else would come in and not ever say no to the is it. Sayto the president. No to the president. Host he was the third secretary of defense in the administration . Guest the fourth acting secretary. Chris miller will not be confirmed because theres not a lot of time, unless there is a change with the Election Results which does not look likely. Officetrump came into and the whole history of the department of defense they had only been to acting secretarys. The position where president s like to have a lot of continuity. Before the next secretary steps in, they will make sure he is confirmed and the outgoing one will stay on. Under President Trump, he has done this four times. Its a very different approach. Much more uncertainty and chaos over at the pentagon. Host the headline of the washington times, pentagon policy officials follow esper out the door. The top policy chief abruptly resigned on tuesday after the firing of mark esper as President Trump shakes of the militarys highest ranks in the days following the still unsettled president ial election. The acting under secretary of defense for policy submitted his Resignation Letter on tuesday, less than 24 hours after President Trump unceremoniously dispatched mr. Esper following a series of clashes over policy. Leo shane, what is the mood inside the building, the pentagon . Guest after that move the undersecretary for intelligent stepped aside and was replaced by another trump loyalist. There is a lot of uncertainty right now. There is a lot of feeling that there is years of experience, a breadth of knowledge being lost, but also just uncertainty over what these moves mean in the short term. The president going to install these folks so he can withdraw troops from afghanistan quicker, do troops out of germany quicker. These are things he has talked about in recent months and gotten pushback from congress. Knows whatng who his priorities are going to be for the next few month regarding the military . We know regardless of what happens President Trump is commanderinchief for the next 70 days. There is plenty of time for him some largescale changes at the pentagon. Right now it is budget time among the top folks of the department of defense. They are putting together budget request for fiscal 2022. That work is being done now with the interim secretary and interim policy had an interim intelligence had. A lot of turmoil at a time where those folks are usually guiding the process and kissing other focusing other folks on with the priorities will be. Host we will set a line for veterans to call in. Our guest is leo shane. Veterans use 202 7488000. Active military, 202 7488001. For all others, 202 7488002. Interviewed the veterans wilkie. Y, secretary what did you learn from the secretary in that interview . Guest its interesting. The ongoing pandemic has been the focus of the department of Veterans Affairs. He has been in the past pretty rosy about the departments response. He still feels pretty confident in how the various medical Centers Across the country have reacted and treated in the emergency protocols put in place. He was honest we are the middle of another way and things are going another wave and things are going to get worse before they get better. We can see the facilities rollback on their reopenings. We may see restrictions as numbers go up. I have been tracking the numbers and they have been going up. Around 6000 active coronavirus cases spread out throughout the country they were tracking. Last night it was over 9300. We are seeing dramatic increases. Those numbers are not really reflective of necessarily v. A. Care or how they are responding. As we see these massive increases throughout the country we will see them at the v. A. Hows another marker to show problematic the pandemic and coronavirus continues to be. Host the pandemic even affecting robert wilkies plans to attend the ceremony today at Arlington National, correct . Guest im not sure if he will be there. He has close contact with ben carson, the hud secretary. Diagnosedmonday was positive for coronavirus. Secretary wilkie yesterday out of an abundance of caution cancel date speech canceled a speech to talk about acknowledgments and ideas for the next year. One oppressed officials that he will skip todays events at arlington with the president and other officials, they said he will follow the science and is trying to work as best he can. We will see in a few hours if he decides to go or if he is clear. He said negative tests as recently as two days ago. I dont know if he had one this morning. As we have seen with the white house, these things can spread quickly. The interaction raises concern. Host it is likely to be a rainy morning at Arlington National put the ceremony will go on. Thats coming up at 11 00 eastern. The president , first lady, mike pence, and the second lady expected to attend. We will have it on cspan, cspan. Org, and the cspan radio app. Leo shane, President Trump ran veterans,ord with the talking about veterans choice and other issues. Veteran is Veterans Affairs a successful part of the administration . Guest there are a lot of items the president can point to and say he had done reforms he promised. Of then to think some things the president highlighted are not necessarily the biggest improvements. He talked about the v. A. Choice act. I conflated that with the 2014 act passed under obama. Mission acte v. A. That expanded these programs. The distinction that gets to he promised to expand the amount of community programs, Community Clinics veterans can go to. Congress gave him the authority for that. Legislationinto law that is supposed to report more accountability at the v. A. One of the things he has not talked about in recent months but is a pretty revolutionary move over there, and i talked to secretary wilkie about this, the overhaul of the departments Electronic Medical records. For years they have been in a separate system from dod. So when Service Members come back on active duty, they have to switch over all the medical records. If you have an operation in service, the v. A. Doctors cannot necessarily see that. We are in the middle of a massive 10 billion plus project. That will be a Lasting Legacy if it comes together successfully. It is something the president does not often mention. The president on numerous occasions has said he has completely reformed v. A. And there are no problems. That is certainly not true. We have seen quite a few issues still at v. A. A lot of frustration over access, over wait times have improved. There are concerns over the politicization of the Department Like we have seen with the military. Our decisions being made to force more dollars outside the v. A. Rather than hiring folks who work at v. A. . Compared to some other issues, i think the v. A. Was something he could run on. The president s message was sometimes jumbled between what he thought he did and what he actually did. Host how many veterans are there in the u. S. . Guest right around 20 million now and around 9. 5 million are registered with v. A. For healthcare services. Hasof the big issues v. A. Dealt with is the issues of veteran suicide. One of the struggles is they have seen a fair amount of success reaching out to veterans in mental distress or emotional need who are connected to the v. A. System. It is fewer than half of the entire veterans population. The key has been how to get those last 11 million, 10 million folks into v. A. When they need to be. Them sohey connect with if they do need help they know where to go and how to use those services. One of those from louisville kentucky. This is winnifred. You are on the air. Go ahead. Aller i am a vietnam veteran i am calling concerning the actions of President Trump. He said he was one of the greatest president s since abraham lincoln. Can you hear me . Host yes, go ahead with your comments. Respect, i think he is in that he has created so much negativity and attempted to pull down our statue of liberty. He has called our military suckers and losers and i think he wed be satisfied if he could create through his negativity he would be satisfied if he could create through his negativity total warfare. Host in their reaction, leo shane any reaction, leo shane . Guest i did not catch the beginning of his comments. There are some things the president can run on and be proud of but it has been a controversial four years, and a lot of the claims he has made on veterans have not been true. He has expanded care but on the campaign trail he said he came up with the idea of veterans choice. At that is not true. There are decades of experience of veterans going to private sector care for their health care. They have been trying to pass years,r 40 years, 50 those numbers seem to be nonsense. They seem to be numbers he is pulling out of the air. There have been folks within the administration and within Veterans Affairs who have tried to justify the timelines he puts on these things but it is difficult to figure out if there is any real figure behind there. Host next is galena park, texas. Go ahead. Caller thank you for having me on. Mr. Shane, i wanted to say a comment and decor a question. Fired mark esper primarily because of disagreements. Question is can you describe President Trumps strategy in approaching north korea because he did not give into kim jonguns request that he was able to reduce tension without starting a war. Caller it is on the esper issue, a variety of things for me. The Washington Post reported that esper had an appearance a few months ago that where he was asked what it was like working under President Trump and the president did not feel that trump that esper praised him enough. Renaming bases named after confederate generals , that is something esper worked with people on the hill on. We appear to be in the final days of this administration and to jettison yet another defense secretary injects a lot of instability into an area where both democrats and republicans do not want to see National Security be an unstable place, do not want the pentagon to be in turmoil. Korea,subject of north very complex Foreign Policy promised to has handle this differently. Of thes to be the eye beholder. We have seen north korea take wee aggressive actions, but have also seen the relationship between the north korean president and the United States trumpent, president working together, talking at least, having some sort of rapport with each other. If you want to be generous about that, you can say that his progress, that is moving forward in some way. On the insurrection act and the firing of mark esper, was there a sign of heightened readiness for the National Guard for the anticipated disruptions after the election . Quite a few were National Guard units who were put on notice. Some were partially activated to get ready. T is hard to say some will look at that and say that is a major concern because oh my god we are going to have the military on the streets after an election. Throughassive protests the summer. We have seen uncertainty with the ongoing pandemic. Guarde sense to have the ready in case there was a something. We did not end up seeing much of anything in terms of violence. We saw quite a few people take to the streets in major cities bidensresident elect results were announced. I do not i am not sure it amounts to anything other than responsible planning. Huntington, pennsylvania, next is tina. Caller i would like to thank every veteran. My dad was one. I think you from the bottom of my heart. I would like to i thank you from the bottom of my heart. I would like to say one thing. When people take the oath they vowed to protect the United States from all enemies foreign and domestic. We have more domestic enemies than we ever have had. All of the violence over the summer . That is domestic terrorism. You are pulling down statues of people you do not agree with. That is terrorism. They are veterans. General lee is a vet whether they like it or not. It is sickening what is happening in this country and i ill not call him, though voted for him, i will not call until he istelect a verified president , but i have a feeling once that happens we are going to see more of the same. You are going to see more of the disrespect and it is sad. It is time for these parents to step in, do their job, teach their children. This is not about white and black and police brutality. They are taking us back. In minnesota the National Guard was used. How widely was the guard used . Caller i am trying to remember the numbers. Were related to pandemic response. Somewhere related to unrest. It was a mix of different to unrest. Elated it was a mix of different missions. Is, you know the guard has a different role than active duty military. About active duty military deploying on american soil, that is a major line, that is something president s in the past have not wanted to cross. It would have to be a clear National Emergency for that to happen. It happened after 9 11. The guard is seen as a nether emergency tool another emergency tool for state governors. Ring them in the wake of a hurricane, bring them in the bring them in the wake of a hurricane, bring them in the wake of unrest. Was definitely out there, assisting. Folks on ase different level. These are not folks who are trained in conflict deescalation, who are trained lawocal local enforcement priorities or techniques. If you signed up to help in the case of an emergency, thought you would be doing hurricane support, and you are told someone is taking down a statue of a confederate general, we were left in a position of going what am i supposed to do . Is this something i am even supposed to deal with . Place and it is a place where real leadership is important to give these folks clear ideas of what is expected of them. One of thetedly issues of disagreement between President Trump and the former secretary of defense mark esper is secretary esper had been in favor of congressional language that would allow the renaming of u. S. Military bases named after confederate generals and soldiers. Where does that stand in the proposed defense bill, the 2021 defense bill . Guest i believe my colleague has a story going up right about now about this. There are quite a few lawmakers pushing today to emphasize the in there. Hould stay the president and the Defense Department should not try to water it down. There are two different versions of that massive defense policy bill, one from the house and one from the senate. Both include language to conduct a study and change the names of these at least 10 bases honoring confederate generals, a review of other buildings named for confederates. There seems to be some consensus at least. There are a few republicans pushing against a this still but there are enough people from both parties to pass this in separate drafts of the bills. We are seeing a push to include it in the final version and isnt watered down too much. Secretary esper before he left was closing was working closely to find some middle ground for this the dod could be comfortable with. President trump has said this will not be in the bill and if it is he will not sign it, even if that means vetoing language that authorizes bonuses. From a veteranr in rochester, new hampshire. Thank you for taking my call. I want to comment on the old draft dodger trump. I think he got five deferments to keep him out of the military and i think he should keep his hands off the military and let the military, who seems to know what they are doing a lot better than he does, and that is basically my comment so thank you very much. From we had a comment michael in portland on twitter vet, obama,not a not a vet, trump, not a vet, biden, not a vet. Trumps explicit militarize asian was trumps explicit ation of space a bad move . Up. T this has come there needs to be an appreciation of the military but the military is under civilian control in america. While there is experience, a breath of knowledge that comes from serving, it is not a disqualifier. As we see a smaller and smaller percentage of the country with military service, this is inevitable. That biden isoted a military father. His son served overseas in iraq while he was Vice President. He shares some experience of military families who have seen a loved one deployed overseas. This hasace force, been the hot potato. I wonder often if the space force would be as controversial or viewed the same way if a trump or not president. Fore were quite a few folks the airspace air forces Space Programs to be separated. Not putught it did enough emphasis on space as a domain. Not looking at deploying giant space lasers right now. It is an area where communication satellites for much of the country that much of the country is dependent on, the military already has missions, the separation into another space force is meant to better fund those missions in space. There are certainly those who want to militarize space, but i am not sure we are necessarily added to space place where we are looking at a massive shift to that attitude with the military at large. Host we will hear next from dale in charlotte, north carolina. A coupleeo, i have statements and a couple questions. The first statement i want to make is robert ailey robert e. Lee is one of my cousins. If you write a story on robert e. Lee, i hope you will show or expose to people how many black people that robert e. Lee has in his family. The reason i brought that up is because of the confederate statue and how these statues are being torn down. One thing that concerned me as i inc. In Corporate America is , noink in Corporate America one wants to tear down corporations. It with statues, it is a start that may at least let people know that if we take down statues that symbolize oppression or hatred or ,isagreement based on principle maybe we can transfer that into the corporate struck corporate structure. My father was a veteran. He fought in world war i and world war ii. I brother was a veteran. Brother was ay veteran. He fought in iraq. He served as military police. Up. My brother cannot get he was affected by agent orange. It is horrific to see somebody who gives their gave their , memorythis country going bad, and you cannot interact with them and let you know how much you love them because they have been damaged by defending this country. When people who fight for this country, i understand they get loans given out on the government to purchase housing, it is my opinion that if you fight two wars for this country when you come back, you should not have to apply for a loan to buy a house. The American Government has enough money we are the richest country in america. We should be able to guarantee them a home when they come back if they have served our country in at least two or three wars. You callingeciate in there. Leo shane, any thoughts for our color . For our caller . Hast obviously his family served quite a bit. I hope as we look at the Election Results, that everyone can take a few months a few minutes and appreciate the military families who have had to live through the aftereffects. For a lot of veterans it is a great experience serving in the military. You make lifelong bonds. For many there are Lifelong Health issues that cannot be made up. It is veterans day. It is a day to honor these folks. I hope we can at least ill take a moment to remember that. Take a moment to remember that. Issueerate statues ion not only for the military statues are an issue not only for the military but for the whole country. Should every mention of it robert a. Lee be wiped from the books . No. That is not the same as having statues of him all over. Loans, health care, this has been the struggle your after year, administration after administration. What does the country of veterans afterwards the owe veterans afterwards . Tois easier for veterans transfer benefits to their families. V. A. Aller mentioned the home loans program. A lot of people in concept would but the concept money behind that is the major thing. We have seen a gigantic growth in the v. A. Budget over the last 20 years. The projected budget for fiscal billion dollars. That is larger than any of the military services. The entirety of the budget was dollars. Illion he mentioned agent orange, concerned now with exposure, some of the brain cancers we have seen, what will be the next health issue the country will 450 years with years and how do you balance that with other priorities . These are issues that as much as the v. A. Gets pushed aside a lot of the time, and frankly ignored when we are talking about some larger federal issues because everyone likes veterans, there is a real budget and financial issued the country has to grapple with in order to make sure we are keeping faith with those veterans. Host Congress Approved some additional spending last night, night reported that last Congress Passed veteran Suicide Prevention legislation. Acts called the compact passed by the house by a voice president ow heads to trump for his signature. Lets hear from larry on our veterans line. Welcome. Caller thank you for taking my call. There are a lot of lies that you have put out and i would give you like to give you an opportunity to clear those up. Your individual talking from the veterans time talked about bounties being put on americans in afghanistan. How much were those bounties . Do you know the dollar amount . Guest i am guessing he is talking about the previous guest because we have not broached this issue. Host i do not think we have talked about this, larry. Caller i asked how much was the bounty . Caller iselieve the referring to the reports that russia was paying bounties to taliban fighters, afghanistan insurgents to go out go after forces. This is from man intelligence are part that was floating intelligencem am report that was floating around ane white house from Intelligence Report that was floating around the white house for months. It was an informal arrangement according to the intelligence. A lot of the controversy was not so much on whether or not the report was completely verified or whether or not russia was doing that but on how seriously the white house took that report. There did not seem to be a lot of response from Administration Officials on that or a lot of investigation into it. With a lot of these things, was this something formally from the russian government . Was it from a Splinter Group of the russian government . Was it someone posing as the russian government . We dont know because Intelligence Services did not release a lot of information and President Trump dismissed it as a made up report made to hurt him. Still a lot of questions, still a lot of worries on where that stands. True, u. S. Troops serving in afghanistan, that is a major scandal and something would have hoped the white house looked into. The leo shane looks at Biden Administration, the v. A. His Team Includes former v. A. Leaders. It is early obviously but how is the Biden Administration shaping up in terms of its approach to the v. A. . Guest the issue of transition is caught up in the ongoing legal challenges. When i spoke to secretary wilkie this week he said they are not making any overtures to the biting campaign. They are a lot when they are to the Biden Campaign. Intenten campaign seems on making sure that does not set them behind. The v. A. Transition team seems as you mentioned a lot of alumni that have worked at the v. A. , folks known in the admiral the obama administration, a of peopleal group coming at it from a democratic policy standpoint. We will see what that means in coming weeks. We do not know what priorities will be there. We know the Biden Campaign are looking into expanded caregiver benefits, some kind of tax break for caregivers of veterans to help ease things. They are concerned about too much money floating out of the v. A. And going to private sector care. They want to accelerate hiring thata. Staff, something frankly the Trump Administration has wavered on whether they want to do that. It is a difficult thing. 50,000 mentaling Health Professionals is not something you can do overnight. We are waiting to see attentional v. A. Secretary names for president elect biden. It is not clear what direction he will go. I have seen a couple folks floated. Ete buttigieg, Tammy Duckworth they are probably not folks who will end up in the position. I think the v. A. Is kind of a complicated mass for people who want to keep climbing the political ladder. Duckworth was in the vp conversation and she has been an effective advocate for the v. A. In the senate. We will see. , aave heard jason cantor couple folks have been talking about pat murphy, first a rack war vet elected to congress. War vet elected to congress. She is on the Biden Transition Team for defense. Once we see those folks we will get a clear vision of what policy things to expect, what policy changes to expect. Host a quick question for you from david in north carolina. What is the current status of pentagon audits . It is not a quick question hast the pentagon struggled with audits for years. Been an ongoing fight with congress. Are you keeping track of all your money . Are you accounting for every dollar being spent . I would expect regardless of the administration change here this will be an issue that continues into the future. There is a lot of money in the dod and there are many folks who want to make sure there are not literally billions of dollars being wasted on things people are not paying attention to. Bill into leo, thank you for taking the phone call. Andve two issues bill leo, inc. You for taking thank you for taking the phone call. We cannot forget our marine buddies, semper fi to all those guys. To move myying second armor cab out of germany and put it into poland. Since i served their back in the vietnam era, i have a problem with that. There back in the vietnam era. I have a problem with that. People forget the history of why people protest in the streets and it is usually because of a personality or policy, sometimes both. Lbj had a problem with his personality and his policy. So did richard nixon. Those are two guys right there. If you want to go all the way back to the turnofthecentury, Woodrow Wilson had problems after the war, after guys came back from world war i. Protestn the social issue, it will be interesting to see if biden can calm some of those, if people feel he is moving in the right direction and is making decisions that can calm some of that racial strife. That will be another major issue when hyden comes into office. He has said he wants to reduce the number of troops when biden comes into office. He has said he wants to reduce the number of troops in germany. Are a lot of folks who feel this is more of a swipe at germany because of President Trumps personality issues with angela merkel. We will have to see if whether or not when bidens folks come in there is a strategic reason to relocate these troops to poland. Germany is a major hub not just troops but ag major hub for moving troops to the middle east. Nearly everyone who deploys ends up going through there at some point. Really pulling back could impact the ability to move folks worldwide. Does this actually hurt National Security . Shane, read more at militarytimes. Com. Thank you for being with us this morning. More ahead on this veterans day. Our last halfhour, we will set aside for veterans only, your top policy issue. If you are a veteran in the eastern time zones, 202 7488000. Thats and the mountain Pacific Region, thats in the mountain Pacific Region vets in teh mountainPacific Region, 202 7488001. MountainPacific Region, 202 7488001. Our guests are Brooklyn Law School associate professor of law, find cspans the weekly wherever you get your podcasts. Washington journal continues. Day, we this veterans will spend the last part of the Program Hearing from vets. If you are in the eastern time zone. If you are in the mountain pacific time zone. Morning, 11 host back to the election. Clinical reported this morning a grand scheme as their headline, trumps defiance alarms the gop. Spouting unsubstantiated claims about Election Fraud at an almost comical press conference in the parking lot of a philadelphia landscaping business. One week after and the election where biden captured more than 200 70 electoral votes, gop 270 electoral votes, trump is nowhere near conceding. He is feeding a bonfire that is feeding the gop and disrupting the traditional. Transfer of power steve in the traditional transfer of power. Ohio, sidney, ohio. Be a 10it came out to people for donald trump, 4000 10,000 people for donald trump, 4000 four mr. Biden. We thought it would go that way mr. Biden. 4000 for we thought it would go that way all over the place. It didnt. Osi is called miss pel fighting against the president. People who have never paid a penny into the treasury, that second check has never come for these people because she has been fighting against all those other people trying to get some assistance for what is owing on right now. Now. At is going on right not one democrat has stood up and said this is wrong what she is doing. They have not done or said a thing about it. It all hit limbo. Getting nothing but their food in parking lots. This is so wrong. I served my country during the vietnam war. Wentour of my brothers into the service. I am so glad you took my call right off the bat. Host we are glad to have you on this morning, steve. We will go to john, illinois. Caller hi. Toould like to shout out chris even, who retired last k monday after 23 years of as a colonel in the army. It,those who fight for freedom has a meaning the protected will never know. We cannot forget President Trump has got a purple heart. Son baron is, his already practicing bone spurs. If you watch him on air, he is limping. Ohio, thanks in for standing straight up like i did. 50 of the people out there do not agree with you. The fella sitting next to on the left or right does not agree with you, so you should smile at the fella to the left and the right of you. ,ill, please remind everybody all your moderator friends to ask less questions. That i agree with you on one. Can i ask you one question . Veteranslling on our line. When did you serve . Caller vietnam. I was smart enough to talk three of my friends into joining. I had a friend from a hillbilly family who moved to chicago for the industrial jobs. Listen toh those names, bill they are are veryre they rarely mentioned anymore except in family circles. Got a medal after getting his leg blown off. He committed suicide. I am a very humble person, bill. I know what sacrifices and every veteran out there knows what sacrifices. God bless, everybody on veterans day, right, bill . Is in dolores, colorado. Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan and for this tribute to the vets. I am concerned what is happening to rva. To our v. A. The republicans went to get rid of it because it stinks too much of socialism. Trump is has kind of screwed it up. Was set back six months. , theresult my right leg muscles are wasting away and i am having a helluva time walking anymore. I finally got therapy started again. I would like to see yet more inhouse than parting it out to private concerns. That is what republicans want to by kill it i 1000 cuts 1,000 cute. Host richard, michigan. Here is my gripe with bysident trump kill it 1000 cuts. Richard, michigan. Is my gripe with President Trump. Host you were 16 and you were married . 16 and i was sick i had major heart surgery. They did not have the rib spreader so i have a scar from the back of my shoulder all the way around basically touching my boob or whatever. My mother and father drove me down to pennsylvania where we got on a bus and went down to scranton for a physical. I am standing in line. I had tried to enlist twice and they laughed at me. They werent going to take someone who had heart surgery. I had a letter from my doctor and a letter from my heart surgeon saying this man is not able, he is not physically able to serve. I passed the physical and instead of my wife picking me up at 7 00, i was on my way to south carolina. I get down to fort anyway, i dont want to get carried away with the story. My last name is antonetti. I get this real puerto rican name. In these kids from the farms pennsylvania start calling me names trade when they are done there is only me and another guy standing there. I went up to him and said you never called my name. He said you are going to fort jackson. Im still in civilian clothes. I went to basic training at fort jackson. I was doing the monkey bars at a physical and i felt this big rip in my shoulder. They made it a pain in the asked to go on sick call because you had to take all the pain in to go on sick call because you had to take all the stuff out of your locker. And at thegh basic end i got pneumonia. 1967. Time it was president johnson had this operation santa claus he called it where everyone could go home for christmas. I got to go home. My wife was six months pregnant. For some reason, i am not all that great at month math. I got into meteorology. All these guys were going into the infantry where all draft guys did. Whereent me to oklahoma this course was so far over my head. He way, we trained as a unit on meteorology. Ballistic meteorology. They said do not worry you are going to germany. We were studying with nato books. , the warrantinute officer comes in i have bad are changing we the books over to ceto. That was a sure ticket to vietnam. I call my wife who is now eight months pregnant and she is hysterical. Host did you wind up going to vietnam . Guest i went to the warrant caller i went to the warrant offer and said i have a letter saying this is putting too much stress on my wife. He got so ballistic. Of a i am putting you in the infantry. California to go into the infantry. Very your story is interesting but a lot of vets want to get through as well. There seeing our cameras at tomb of the unknown at Arlington National cemetery. A wet day in the nations capital. 1 00 eastern this morning nathan is a vet in herndon, virginia. Thank you for waiting. Having meank you for on. I served the 82nd airborne for more than six years. I spent two years overseas. I was going to quickly talk on the election. The previous color brought up the v. A. And i thought it really brought up caller the v. A. And i thought it really needed to be brought up. I spent more than two years overseas and all that time on the bases i was on there was always a burn pit. Part of the is blood cancer i am fighting now. 016 it wasto 2 extremely hard for me to get help to treat my blood cancer. Years, theyfour have done a complete 180. I would advise the previous color, they have a Community Care program that allows me to be treated under the umbra law of the v. A. Theye previous caller, have a Community Care program that allows me to be treated under the umbrella of the isea of the v. A. I know it is anecdotal, but a lot of my veteran buddies see the fraud into the writing on the wall. Four years of looking for collusion, fraud is here and now they do not want to see it because it is on the wrong side but the russia hoax and the dossier that they were looking for, it is here in front of our faces. It you have tens of thousands of ballots in many states that only it. Biden names on who only votes for ayden and then leaves the rest of biden into then leaves the rest of the votes forwho only then leaves the rest of empty . Lot next, louisiana. Slidell, am from louisiana. Vietnam. In my problem is i am a lifelong member of the bmw. Area erabama there, was so much racial stuff i could not even go to the meetings. I went up to the guys and to say i am are yall doing, member. I told them what happened to me and they threw their hands in the air like what do you want me to do about it . I dont even know what is going on with the vmw anymore. Nashvil, douglas. I want to make a comment and thank all the other veterans who have served their country. Veteran. Etnam era myed my chance and chance to go to vietnam. I am grateful for the benefits the military allowed me to have in the three year college i attended. It allowed me to have my educational then if its of the g. I. Bill to go to college when educational benefits of the g. I. Bill to go to college when i got out. I dont let things bother me because i could not be here. Going to beays someone i disagree with. There is always a winner and there is always a loser. They do not have to call themselves losers if they abide by the rules and just accept what is given. That is all i have got to say about that. Host members of the old guard standing watch as they do at the tomb of the unknowns, days a year. Ck 365 they will be there when the president arrives for the placing of the wreath at the tomb of the unknowns. We are hearing your top policy issues, your stories. Jan. Nia, welcome to caller how are you . Host fine, thanks. Sayer i am calling to happy veterans day to all veterans and their families. I am a vietnam veteran. One of my memories of the service were when the pows came back to camp pendleton. There was not a dry eye in the crowd as they came up into the hospital to see their families. I will never forget. Freedom is not free. Thank you. Host lets hear from walter next. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Isbiggest concern right now americans and particulate republicans, i am a democrat, a black man, they wave the flag for freedom, but when it comes , duringer the service the service as well, the pay is too low. We spend millions of dollars on rockets and bombs, but the housing is inadequate, the pay is inadequate. Too many have to go on food stamps. I would like to see some of this militaryindustrial complex be downsized to the boots on the ground. 600,eds to be raised 700 easy. Save much morell and lives will be enhanced immensely. There is no reason anymore for the pay to be as low as it is. Million, weapons cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Host this is the columbia daily tribune, an opinion piece from a robert wilkie. Day isdline, veterans more than shopping. Veterans day is a day of discount sales and other attempts to make it easier for americans with a day off to spend more time shopping. Giving veterans 20 off is a small way to recognize those who risked it all to defend the pretty and it justice around the world and the department of Veterans Affairs is thankful, but there are other ways to say thank you to those who took the oath and i encourage everyone to take veterans day is a chance to learn more about the men and women who have worn the uniform of the United States since we first fought for our freedom in 1775. Inwill now hear from richard north carolina. Iller i am calling because am a veteran and i go to the v. A. Outpatient. I have seen in the last three years the v. A. Fall apart. I have had six different doctors. Every time i got a new doctor they changed my medicine and i have to fight to get back to where i was before. I just do not know why they had to rip the ba apart like this and cause us to letters the v. A. Apart like this and cause us to lose things. I cannot go to choir practice. It is a struggle. It is hard to believe the v. A. Has been stripped out the way it has. They have abandoned us. Happy veterans to all the toeran happy veterans day all the veterans who served. Host jacksonville, florida. This is ed. Your prior speaker, i want to correct him on something National Guard being activated. As a former National Guardsmen and also a vet, afghanistan, iraq and vietnam, we depend on ,ur National Guardsmen components of our National Guard , policeman, medical people, and during corona in florida, we had many medical people doing the corona testing. Your guest before had misled people about the guard being utilized as far as their expertise. We depend on them. We have a lot of policeman, a lot of firemen. When we get called back to duty, we are an asset to the state that we are being deployed to. I want to talk about that out theree guardsmen depending on what type of orders he is on is not receiving the same benefits as the activeduty component. That is kind of an issue, when you get the guardsmen out there with corona and other events taking place, you take firefighting, police, whatever, when he goes back to his home station he is not getting the same benefits as far as health care and stuff like that. You have to be on 180 days to be considered a veteran as far as Veterans Benefits go. People need to know that. Host thanks, ed. Will be day ceremony closed to the public. Forcedid19 pandemic has the traditional veterans day ceremony at Arlington National ceremony cemetery to go virtual. Cemeteryis part of the will open until 8 00 a. M. But the cemetery will be closed to the public. We will have live coverage of the wreath laying at the tomb of the unknown coming up at 11 00 eastern. In muleshoe, texas we hear from larry. , i served on the uss enterprise and communications. They keep talking about trump deferred, five deferrals why dont they ever talk about widen taking five deferrals biden taking five deferrals . They talk about his good service and stuff. I support trump. I think he did real good for the v. A. Here in texas we have a good v. A. Every time i need it, everything. Host kathy is next in cleveland. Caller hi. Good morning. Thank you. Delay. Y, bill, for the i appreciate the washington journal taking my call. I am calling on behalf of my sumter, who is from south carolina, a retired air force veteran. He passed away last evening and i am giving this call because he was an avid fan and follower of washington journal. Enthusiastic in the show he got many family members involved in watching it. Don was a regular collar. Caller. Regular who appreciated the voice that the washington journal gave to people around the country and the way the washington journal, the moderators such as yourself and others and the staff presented the policies and topics in very educated and knowledgeable ways, giving us information that was so important for us. Don was a loving and committed family member, community member, he was a loyal constitutional servicemember. He was a lifelong democrat. He had many opinions and many great ideas and i so want to thank you all for your great work and letting him be a participant in this conversation. Host participant in this conversation. Host we are sorry to hear about his passing but glad you called in for him. Thanks for calling in. That will do it for washington journal this morning. Happy veterans day. It has been a privilege to hear from so many veterans this past hour. We are back to our morning by 7 00 eastern. We hope you are, too. Announcer your mobile devices and go to cspan. Org election for easy access to election 2020 re