Members to stay home and cast their votes in the upcoming leadership election. Me up with. We will not see changes at the top. Kevin mccarthy, steves scalise, that is staying the same. The action is on the democratic side. We are not seeing any changes at the top. Of nancyy long run clyburn that is all continuing into a 16th year. Remarkably long run. Each of those three is 80 years old or older. The House Democrats will think about eventual changeover; we dont know when that will happen. Nancy pelosi said she would only run for two more terms. She has backed away from that. Demand fromtup younger members to move up. Secondary races are getting organized. Race will be for assistant speaker, Katherine Clark of massachusetts, centrist the member from rhode island ; the winner would be in line to get the number two job in the democratic caucus, behind Hakim Jeffries of new york city, unopposed to remain the number 4 job, caucus chairman. Thought briefly about challenging. He decided to stay in the job. He seems to be the oddson bet to be the leader of the democrats when the nancy pelosi chai brett moves on nancy on. Si triumvirate moves there are different styles. California and new york. They have a different job. Democrats will have one of their narrowest majorities in decades, next year. We dont know how narrow. It is in the range of the smallest majority for either party in 20 years. They are looking ahead at a joe biden midterm in two years. Redistricting, republicans may make more gains. Is forrd leadership job caucus vice chairman. Democrats have a lot of leadership jobs. That person could move up over time. Some are thinking about running. Hearing; mr. Rs. Kelly mr. Aguiar, m diversity is moving up. Host i invite viewers to join us. What message do you think the november election sent to washington . What message were you trying to send with your vote . 202 7488000 for democrats, 202 7488001 for republicans, 202 7488002 for independents. Text with your first name, city and state at 202 7488003. Positions do not take place on the floor, except for speaker of the house. When does it take place . Couldnt she see some public opposition . Guest yes, she will. That vote takes place 118thgday of the next congress, where are we . [laughter] it is the first order of business. Time, she faced internal dissent. 15 caucus members voted for someone else. The rule for being elected speaker is you have to have a majority of all the people casting votes. Not of the entire house. Those on theof floor. Window. A narrow if there are democrats who want to vote against her, only a few can. Im not sure of the precise number but several who voted against her last time were centrist democrats who upended, won in trump district and who have now been defeated again. Those people will not be clamoring for new leadership. The test for her is to hold the numbers. Her, sheyou think of is clearly good at her leadership job; staying at the helm in a fractious and diversified group for 18 years, suggests she knows how to count votes, where they are, where she needs to shore up, where she can lico. Let go. The presumption is she will hang on for at least one more term. Rumors, liker any four years ago, when the expectation was that if Hillary Clinton had been elected, nancy pelosi was tempted in preliminary discussion to become ambassador to the vatican. We do not hear that this time. In. our viewers call i want to show you the congresswoman from minnesota yesterday on why the democrats lost seats. [video clip] in many cases, there was so much focus, especially for me, i did not talk to a single person, in general election about voting for me. I was so much focused in defeating trump, making sure biden won. 1. 4 million attempts in reaching constituents. We ended up having one of the highest turnouts in our district. For a lot of my colleagues who a lot ofy expressed concentration, whether the volunteers, the nations attention was on sending trump us,ing and for a lot of that was the victory we were after. Host David Hawkings . Guest interesting. Scaledback in the rearview. In,rly, in the days going there were high hopes of a bigger blue wave. Every expectation was the democrats would win seats in the house. I know of no political handicapper, including some of the most conservative, who predicted anything other than democratic gains in mid Single Digits to teens. 12e republicans now have won seats. Sending donald trump packing was job number one but Many Democrats assumed they would not only usher in joe biden with a bigger majority in the house and a Senate Majority as well. Majority is still up for grabs. Undecided,ats january 5, georgia. If the democrats win both, they have a 5050 senate, Kamala Harris is the right Vice President for breaking a tie, they would claim majority. The outcome on the house is not going to change and that provides a narrow window, not only on the senate side but on the house side. We talked about nancy pelosi having a few votes to spare for people who may want to symbolically vote against her. After she gets to that, she will have a challenge with a narrow majority in some of her more conservative, moderate, politically scared members. They may not want to vote for some things on the democratic agenda. It will be tough. Kentucky, newport, republican. Election,th this past integrity came up again. House,e results from the i think it probably leads to more republican, even though the focus is on trump, that in the end, democrats will lose in the house and the senate because of this election because of the question marks that popped up. Assume it is a reference to reliability of the election. We have paid a lot of attention to this. Our news is mainly about the issues to the challenge of democracy. Volunteer that my team has not seen anything to cast integrity of the election into doubt. Ironically, because of the pandemic, it was incredibly wellrun, not only in turnout, record turnout going back 120 but, by micah collation, were cast by mail. Contrary to what the president says, we have not seen any evidence of anything other than sporadic, isolated problems in a couple states with a few ballots. We have not seen anything like systemic, organized election cheating. It just has not happened. Enough challenge votes to make up the difference . Guest terrific question. Analogyre now making an to 20 years ago, the famous 2000. Votes,e involves 537 which is the width of a sheet of paper on a stack of paper up to the ceiling in terms of all the votes cast in florida that year and it was just in florida. Who wonflorida decided the election. Now it is different. The president is challenging results in five states and in is inhis margin of defeat the tens of thousands of votes. The narrowest is in georgia where they are doing a recount. I dont know how it has changed the number. Before it started, 14,000 votes. President elect biden was ahead by 14,000. Even if they are all thrown away, if the outcome is reversed, then the margin and the Electoral College would come down from 306 to 290. That is still 21 electoral votes away from the outcome of the election. The president s efforts to get the results overturned in pennsylvania, which involves hundreds of thousands of votes he is challenging, 56,000 i believe, mr. Biden would still be at 270. In other words, the president s efforts would need to overturn three states for him to lose. The margins are enormous, by comparison to florida. They are narrow. We are talking about tens of thousands of ballots. Chris,ak park, illinois, democrat. Caller i am a lifelong democrat going back to when my parents worked on kennedys campaign in 1960. I have my liberal bias. I voted democrat for 40 years. Trump operation of the government; i really believe there has to be a more centrist policy. The wing nuts on the right dominated the congress, especially the senate, the past four years, we cannot let the wing nuts on the left take bidens agenda and try to replace it. To get along is the primary thing to be done. I truly believe joe biden will of a centristure policy and hopefully nancy pelosi will be able to rein in as well ast members having someone like mitch , taperll in the senate back. Host understood. Guest that is right. That seems to be the challenge for mr. Biden. Seen ist we have generally in these close elections and this was another incredibly close election, historically, we have seen the parties moved to center. When there is parity, they tend to move together. Kaylee barber, former chairman of the Republican Party said, generally parity means they move together. This time, parity seems to mean polarization. That is the fear. Unlike what has happened in close elections in the past, our politics are so polarized that both sides will revert to their corners and not much will get done. Certainly, president elect biden, given his history, life in public service, record in the senate and as Vice President , whether you like him or not, not meant as an endorsement of him right sounds like the type of politician for the moment; somebody whose whole parlor trick in the senate was bringing people together, finding compromise. He and Mitch Mcconnell did it several times. He seems on paper the type of person you would look for to have the best possible shot at bringing the wings together. Host margaret, lincoln, nebraska, republican. Caller i have been a longtime democrat for years and switched because i did not like the way the democrats were turning. This election has been pretty bad. Bad since President Trump got in. Ashamed of our country. It is not because we are so divided. It is because media has allowed it to be divided. Behindve never ever been President Trump. That is a sad state of affairs. This wasit is worth, not a good election. It will go down in history as being one that was pretty bad. Host barbara, crystal lake, illinois, independent. Choice we finally have a ote and that is why i turned independent. I voteddemocrat, republican. Now we have a choice. Changed to i independent. God bless america. David, the headline in the papers is the president plans executive order on afghan troop withdrawal. The majority leader, republican, went to the floor yesterday to say this. [video clip] there is no american who does not wish the war in afghanistan against terrorism had already been conclusively won. That does not change the actual a rapidefore us; withdrawal of u. S. Forces from afghanistan now would hurt our the peopledelight who wish us harm. Violence affecting afghans is still rampant. The taliban is not abiding by the deal. The consequences of a premature american exit would likely be worse than president obamas withdrawal from iraq in 2011 which fueled the rise of isis and a new round of global terrorism. Reminiscent of the humiliating american departure from saigon in 1975. We would be abandoning our partners in afghanistan, the brave afghans fighting the. Errorists retreat would embolden the taliban, especially the deadly wing, and risk plunging afghan women and girls back into what they experienced in the 1990s. Qaedaend and scattered al would get a big propaganda victory and a renewed safe haven for plotting attacks against america. It would be welcome news to iran, which has long provided arms and support to the taliban and explicitly seeks our retreat from the middle east. Wouldrganized retreat interrupt the success this administration has worked hard to compile. Host what do you make of that . The republican leader of the president s party saying this move by you could delight terrorists . Guest that was remarkable. Not remarkable by historical standards because historically we have had robust debate in both parties, within the Republican Party, about our role but this has been highly unusual. For Mitch Mcconnell to say that criticalcly of a policy of the president s. Was an important moment. I dont presume to know what it signals. Whether this is intended to persuade the president to back off these plans or what it means. Surprises in many the final nine weeks of the trump administration. I find this fascinating. Alarming is too strong a word. Just whethererest this is the moment everyone who is been watching the dynamic between the republicans in congress and the president the last four years, whether this becomes the moment in which they openly break. Host scott, new hampshire, independent. I would like to find more about the ballots. The ballot to vote, is not registered to your name. Once you stick it in the machine id is not, your name, introduced on the ballot. How do we know the ballots are for the person that sent it . I dont understand how we dont have an id on ballots for registered voters. Not that we have to have a name on every ballot but some way to id the ballot. Host so that you dont have what . People voting more than once . Caller who is to say you cannot have a bunch of ballots switched or left in the machine . Technology has surpassed humanity. Towe rely on technology count our ballots, i think we have the wrong idea of who signed what ballot. Interesting, terrific. Clearly, first of the tideears ago, election, we went technologically fast into electronic ballots and touchscreens. We are entirely reliant on Computers Memory chips. Come to find out that is vulnerable to hacking. Voting has become quite oldschool. Electionts cast this had paper backup so they could be traced recounted. That is what is happening in georgia. They have paper copies of the votes they are going over. I am a technophobe myself. Having paper copies is reassuring to me. In terms of your connection to your ballot, it is of paramount importance the secrecy of your , your privacy in the booth be protected. The actual sheet of paper that gets fed into the optical scanner does not connect you to that vote, however, if you voted in person, you checked in, you were presumably asked, in many cases to remind people who you were, to show id, to sign, to see if your signature matched previous signatures, then they knew you were you, you voted once, you voted. Almost half the country voted by mail. This is why there was discussion about how much time it takes on election day and before the election to process the ballots before they could be counted. The envelope that arrived at the Accounting Office absolutely connected you to that envelope. There was a barcode. Signature on the back. They knew the ballot submitted came from a real voter in that state. Then they separated the identifying envelope from the ballot and put the secret ballot in the machine. Host in ohio, republican. Running,hen biden was he was going nowhere fast until mr. Clyburn put him up for super tuesday. After he got nomination, here come Kamala Harris, who never won a vote in the primary for Vice President. Everyone knows biden will not be around for his full term, because of mental and physical capabilities. Im wondering how the country will feel they will get settled with a president who never won any primary votes at all . Wont i dont think she primaries but she did win votes. Absolutely, if you think back, there have been plenty of Vice President who did not run, including our incumbent Vice President. He was the governor of indiana. Run for thehad not presidency. Mccainsin, john nominee in 2008. There are plenty of cases of sitting Vice President s who had not been active that year. Host mohammed, los angeles. Questionsere has been about dead people being on local. Died on october 26. She had received a ballot in the mail. Peoples a possibility voted and they had died. It does not mean they voted. Had, it huge turnout we seems the elect Color CollegeElectoral College works best when a Large Population votes. How is this going to change future elections with going allm possibly and getting more people to participate . Guest two great questions. Confident if you are a registered voter and you early,ur vote by mail or in person and you subsequently die, that vote counts. You are alive when it was time and that vote counts. S is sickly speaking statistically speaking, there are several thousand votes of the 50 million cast that were cast by totally legitimate voters who subsequently died before the polls closed and the votes were tallied on election day. It is a minor matter. Evidence of fraudulent use of dead people in this election. That can be set aside. The other question i think about a lot. Have we learned a lesson in this election about the virtues of making voting easier . I hope the answer is yes. I am saying that as someone, the fulcrum pays attention to the challenges of our democracies. Making voting easier would help. That was proved this year. Statesting to see which that made voting easier this year will stick with those policies. Should remember, even before pandemic, there were five states, notably colorado, oregon, washington, that were already doing vote by mail elections for everybody. Had added itself to the list this year before the pandemic. They had some of the worst turnout in the country. They saw a turnout surge. They had the highest increase in turnout of any state in the country this year thanks, we think, to the vote by mail election. This will be interesting to see whether this will be only Democratic State legislatures that move to make voting easier Going Forward or whether some republican or divided government states decide it is in their best interest, because contrary to what the president did this year, there has been no evidence in the past that easier voting made it easier for republican or democratic candidates. It favored both more or less equally. It will be fascinating to watch two years from now. , the David Hawkins fulcrum online and on cspans washington journal every day we are taking your calls and discussing policy issues that impact you. Bucksday morning, brendan on the state of the Republican Party following the 2020 elections. , former chiefence of staff to nancy pelosi, talks about House Democrats agenda and this weeks leadership elections. Watch cspans washington journal, and be sure to join the discussions with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages, and tweets. Next, a look at the 2020 Election Results with atlantic Senior EditorRon Brownstein and editor andcal report etiquett publisher charlie cook. They talked about how the election outcome impact future policymaking. This is just under an hour. Leah good afternoon, everyone. Thank you all so much for joining us today. I am with charlie cook and Ron Brownstein. Leah askarinam, the editor of the hotline. Excuse for me to ask some questions, and hopefully we will all leave this discussion with a better understanding