Airline travel amid the pandemic and the pandemics impact on the aviation industry. Sharp talksn about issues affecting native americans and the role they played in the election. Good morning. It is wednesday, november 25, the day before thanksgiving, traditionally one of the busiest travel days in the year. This is a Union Station in washington, d. C. , popular hub. Health and state Public Officials have urged people not to travel or spend the holiday outside their household, yet millions of americans packed airports this week in more are expected to hit the road today and tomorrow. We want to hear about your travel plans or lack thereof. If you are traveling this thanksgiving, what precautions are you taking . Give us a call if youre traveling. The number, [video clip] 202 7488000. If you are not traveling, 202 7488001. You can send us a text this morning. That number 202 7488003. If you do, include your name and where you are from. Catch up with us on social media. On twitter, cspanwj. On facebook, facebook. Com cspan. A good morning to you. You can start calling in now. We show you to headlines about thanksgiving. Two headlines about thanksgiving. Tis the season to rethink thanksgiving. That is suzette hackneys column in usa today. In the Washington Times covid19 restrictions turns americans into sheep. We want to see where you fall on that spectrum of how you feel about thanksgiving this year. We want to hear about your travel plans on one of the busiest travel days of the year. When it comes to travel, here are some of the numbers out there courtesy of ap. About one million americans packed airports in planes over the weekend. The number of people applying for thanksgiving down by more than half from last year. However, 3 Million People went through a u. S. Airport checkpoint friday through sunday. That is what is happening at the airports. From aaa, they have their annual travel forecast of how many people are hitting the road. Expected eight least a temp percent drop at least a 10 drop. 50 million americans expected to travel, the lowest since 2008 in the financial crises of the previous decade. We want to hear about your travel plans. What precautions are you taking . If you are traveling, 202 7488000. If you are not traveling, 202 7488001. This is randy up first in california. Not planning to travel. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Host good morning. In january. Ll be 66 the first thanksgiving i have ever been without my family. They live less than 30 minutes away. And i am ready to see my family when this is over with. Until then, if you love your family i will drop their dinner off and come home and i will follow dr. Fauci and our new coming in president. I will stay home and they are less than 30 minutes away. I pray for all of you guys. Thank you. I enjoy your washington journal, cspan. Bless you guys. Mentioned. Auci, you he will join us in 25 minutes, taking calls from viewers, so stick around for that. You said you are making the thanksgiving dinner and dropping it off. How many are you making and how many will you be dropping off food for . Caller i have already dropped off for six families i know. Some i gave turkey, some the complete meal. Peppercorn, and i call it get down gravy because everybody likes it. I am going to drop it off and be distant from again kids. It is hard, but, do you know what . No one asked for this. Come on. No more. I cannot take seeing families gathering and family dying. So it is worth it. I will follow dr. Fauci. If it takes three years. Host you think you could take that long . Caller you know what . I am seeing another two years. I wish they would just cancel it because last weekend, three of my neighbors there were so many cars over there i just stood up all night praying. We have to listen. We have to follow the guidelines. And like i said, i started cooking monday. I cook lord for them i cook lard for them to eat on the rest of the week. My heart is hurting, but i do not want to risk my family. I do not have an Underlying Health problem, praise god, but please, whatever your reason, it should not put your family in the way. Follow the scientists. [indiscernible] but we are losing you, thank you for the call from california. We will head to colorado. This is elizabeth, planning to travel. Go ahead. Caller hi. I drove in one day to tennessee to see my brother, who is alone on thanksgiving. He has no family. He doesnt go out. He doesnt own a car. I thought it was important that i go to see him on thanksgiving. I brought all the food with me. And we have been doing puzzles and taking walks and playing forbble just the two of us well, since sunday. Host elizabeth, how locked down have you been . How locked down has he been before this . Caller he has been very locked down because he does not own a car and he does not go anywhere. Host and what about you . Caller and i drove from colorado. I live alone as well. We are both in our 60s. I am 63 and he is 64. So yeah. Insular lives on a regular basis and i did not want him to be alone for thanksgiving and i did not want to be alone either. Host what was that drive light, elizabeth . Did you have to stop are along the way . Did you have to stop along the way . Gas. R i had to stop for i brought food and water with me. I was careful driving along the way. I did not talk to anybody or sit anywhere or go inside. I got to my car and used Hand Sanitizer and i always had a mask on. It was interesting. Outside ofi entered colorado, nobody had masks on. I went to gas stations and things to use the restroom. People were not Wearing Masks, but i had mine on. I was just as careful as i could be. I know they told us all to stay home, but i thought it was worth the risk. I was careful, but it was worth the risk to see my brother. Host thanks for the call. Hope you and your brother have a great thanksgiving. Beverly is next out of washington, d. C. Good morning. Beverly, are you with us this morning . Go ahead. Caller i will be having my family over. And i feel that this for oneving is sacred who has the holy spirit. I feel that when folks visit like this, their family and friends, that god is watching and keeping them well and healed. Words, thanksgiving to god, you know . In other words, sometimes i just food, theut the plants, the nourishment, in other words. What chemicals whereby put on there it might be affecting people. Host beverly, perhaps a topic for another day. Thank you for your call. Vivian is in tennessee, not traveling for thanksgiving. Go ahead. Caller know i am not. I live with my daughter and soninlaw. We will communicate with each other by telephone. One other thing i want to say. I just hope people will take heed. Playing, like something out of a movie. This is for real. Wearing a mask really does help, sir. We are in this predicament only because of one person did not tell us the truth and everybody else is suffering and dying. Donald trump still has not mentioned it on the tv about the people dying with this virus. Something is wrong with this country when people follow that man instead of the scientists. Be safe and have a great day. Host you mentioned mask wearing. How are they doing in your town in tennessee . Caller lately, people have been putting on masks, i can tell you that much. Host really . Caller yes. Host not as much before . Caller no, sir. They are taking it serious. Relatives have passed with the disease. Im proud. The rest of the country wear that mask, you wont hurt anyone. At first, it was hard for me to try to breathe in it. I prayed. I wear that mask when i go out. My grandchildren where there masks. Wear their masks. Masks, the people that have businesses can keep them open. People are not looking at that. You can go to a restaurant, get your food, and leave if you want to. Some areas have it where you can stay in to eat your food, eat, go out, other people come in. That is all it has got to take. Wear that mask, sir. Thank you. Host thank you, vivian. Be one oftrump might those traveling today. This from cnn and other outlets reporting as well President Trump is expected to join his attorney Rudy Giuliani in gettysburg, pennsylvania today where republican state lawmakers are holding a hearing on allegations of fraud in this months election. To sourcesording familiar with froms plans trumpsplanss plans. It would be his first since election day. This being handled internally as an unannounced movement. We will see if that does take place today. We will keep watching from the white house. In the meantime, asking you about your travel times this day before thanksgiving. Are you traveling . If you are, 202 7488000. Tell us about what you are seeing, what cautions you are taking. If you are not traveling, 202 7488001. Want to hear how you are spending the holiday. Several weighing in on social media. Scott says less traffic to deal with. From mark on twitter i dont plan to travel. Funny how these people are lined up to get tested before thanksgiving. What will that prove . From linda we are staying home, just facetiming. I am making some dishes, leaving them with my children. My husband already had covid in he was really sick. Please listen to the warnings. From san miguel no, and anybody who is traveling better be quarantined before they can travel. Linda is next in orange, connecticut. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead, linda. Caller oh, im sorry. We are not traveling. I have family all over the place. In fact, we have a home in florida that we will not go to because they are not as careful down there as we are up here. It is really pretty said because we are all getting up in years and we would like to get together once or twice a year. My brothers and eyes and i are down there, but we are not taking that chance. Id please tell dr. Fauci that have been taking my vitamin d vitamin dended like he recommended last year and i thank him for his help and guidance through this whole thing. Host thanks for the call. I have to ask because i read a text message from linda in orange, connecticut. Are you the same linda . Caller no im not. That is why when you first picked up i did not answer. Host i apologize. There is more than one linda in orange, connecticut. Caller there are a lot of us. It is like saying i was born in the 50s. [laughter] host thank you for the call. Caller you as well. Alexandria,ia in virginia. Caller i enjoy cspan. Happy thanksgiving. I really enjoy when you are on. You smile and everything. You are the best host they have for cspan, so i enjoy you. Host appreciate it. A lot of good hosts, though. What are your thanksgiving plans . Caller we are going to stay at home. My dad is a korean war vet. I spent 15 years in the military police corps. I am 59. I will be 60 in january. Idea foris topic and you all. With president ial pardons coming up, do a segment on president ial pardons, just as an idea. He will probably pardon flynn and stuff so it would be good to get an attorney on to talk about. Some of the callers, like i said, i was a military police officer. I had secret clearance. Ston,ined in adam alabama. The chinese put this on the country because of trump. Trump was too tough on china. I know people say wear that mask, i know people believe dr. Fauci you, but he had some deal with them. I have been watching stuff where he made that lab and stuff. Host the conspiracy you are talking about, cornelius, where do you get your news . Caller i will be honest with you. I get my news from washington journal on cspan, from coasttocoast a. M. Msnbc, cnn, fox news, newsmax, but i mainly watch you all and listen to coast to coast. I think this was done on purpose and the communist chinese had something to do with it and stuff. Host cornelius bringing up the issue of pardons. Axios with one of the scoops on that. President trump telling confidantes he plans to pardon michael flynn. That is the reporting from axios today. Certainly a topic we can talk about down the road this morning or down the road in the days and weeks to come. This is jimmy in paducah, kentucky, that line for folks who are traveling. Jimmy, how far you traveling . What precautions are you taking . Caller about 40 miles. I would like to congratulate president elect joe biden. Thank you very much. You have a nice thanksgiving. Do you thinkwhat the situation will be when it comes to the coronavirus in the coming months as a Biden Administration gets underway . Are you confident we will solve this problem . Yeah, by theeah, administration and god. They will take care of everything. Host which do you rely on more there, jimmy . Caller i have to say on god. Host thats jimmy. Paducah, kentucky. Ebenezer, jamestown, north dakota. Not traveling. Good morning. Caller thats correct. I am not traveling but we are getting about 20 guests here in a 1500 squarefoot home here. It will be fun. Probably no mask wearing, either. Host are you concerned at all, ebenezer . Caller no, no, not going to worry about it. Host are there any restrictions in your area about the numbers of people who can gather indoors . We are hearing about local mandates. What is the situation in jamestown, north dakota. Caller now that i am aware of. I am not aware of any. You know, we all voted for trump and you have to look at the bright side. If we get covid19 and die off, thats more Social Security for everybody else. Host do you know anybody whos died of social of covid19, ebenezer . Caller i dont. Host do you know anybody who has gotten it . Caller no, i dont. Host that is ebenezer in jamestown, north dakota. This is david out of monks corner, South Carolina. Where are you going . Seeer going to georgia to a daughter and some grandchildren. My grandson tends to be a lawyer. He is very young. Couplego teach him a things going on and make predictions that hopefully will stick with him and it might impress him in memory for a long time. Not about me, of course, but certain things that are going on. Host such as what . Caller something that happened at the beginning of the prior thenistration, where administration tried to look at the numbers in the economy and claimed success, like at the beginning of 2009. Right now, the plan is to get the economy looking as bad as possible at the beginning of biden so he can claim Great Success for his economic policies now that the vaccine is on the way. I will get him to watch the economy and listen to the stories after and see that there are such things as green as grand schemes going on in the press. Host the stock market hit 30,000 for the first time yesterday. Caller but there are unemployment numbers. Wentbs said the reason over 30,000 is because trump finally conceded. Do you believe that . Host President Trump has not conceded and said he would not concede. Ofler it was more in terms the white house beginning the transition, the announcement that they are allowing his people to come in to begin the transition, mainly for plans and distributing the virus so biden can figure out how to get the vaccines out. They gave that as the reason that the dow went over 30,000. Host that is david in South Carolina this morning. Taking your phone calls, asking whether you are traveling for thanksgiving. Let us know yes or no and what your plans are. 202 7488000 if you are traveling. 202 7488001 if you are not. One more column from todays washington post, megan mcardle, no relation, in a column. She tells americans to stop comparing what we have now to what we had last year. It is admittedly a depressing contrast, she writes. Instead, why not compare our present to a more distant past when pandemics were common, or what this year might have been like if people had not worked hard to make it otherwise . Staff, warehouse stalkers, clerks, cashiers, line workers at Food Processing usnts, doctors who delivered potential vaccines with unprecedented speed. Without those people giving their all for team humanity, we would be in bad shape right now. Megan mcardle, her column today. Doug in oxford, new jersey, not traveling. Good morning. Thisr i want to call out whole thing. We were attacked by china. It was done intentionally for several things to get rid of trump and to get rid of us and to hurt us economically. For sixs been up months, their currency hit a 28 month high. Ours has gone down. You see what is happening. The disservice that the media, particularly your channel does, is nothing short of treasonous to this country. Thank you. Host what evidence do you point to that this was intentional and manmade . We lost doug. Lewis is next in miami, oklahoma, on the line for those who are not traveling. Caller yes, no, i am not. Instead ofg home going to another town and seeing my great great nephew, two years old, from south dakota. I am going to stay home so i wont spread anything. Thank you. Host is anybody with you at your house . Barber is next, union city, indiana. Barbara is next, union city, indiana. Where are you going . Call four blocks around my house, that is traveling. Less than 10 people at the house. And my twomy son grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren. Host barbara, how often have you seen your son, your grandchildren and greatgrandchildren during this . Caller i dont see them often and i miss them very much because of the pandemic, because i have an underlying heart condition and i have to stay away from them. Inwe wear masks, they bring my food that i can cook myself, but ive had heart surgery and i just think it is a wonderful them close by,ve like four blocks away, but i will tell you. I have one thing to say about mr. Trump, if you dont mind. I would like to say that all he thinks about is money and the stock market. How about the people that are dying . In the pandemic . He didnt care. Did he say anything about thanksgiving . No. Oh he talks about is having Big Christmas parties and whatever. Does he care about the United States . No. Host barbara in union city, indiana. President trump spending about one minute in 20 seconds at the podium yesterday in the White House Briefing room to talk about that alltime high on the dow jones. The president also appearing at the annual tradition of the turkey pardoning. Here is one of the pictures from usa today. President trump and the first of corn andng crorn cob. That turkey being pardoned yesterday. More questions before we are joined by anthony fauci. We will let you talk to him as well. This is donna, verona, pennsylvania, not traveling. Go ahead. Caller hi, john. Im not traveling this year. I just buried my nephew, 43 years old, on monday from covid. My sisterinlaw in august caught covid and came back. She stayed in the hospital for two months. She got out. To this day, she is struggling. She is still on oxygen. There was nothing wrong with her. No diseases or high blood pressure, nothing. But it is real. People take this for granted. My girlfriend at work caught it from a girl at work. She caught it. The girl had it. She came in. She said she did not feel good. She got tested. She had it. My girlfriend cried for her. She had to quarantine herself. People think this is a joke. It is not a joke. Wear your mask. I dont let nobody in my home. My son is a barber. When he comes in, he has his mask on, i have mine. I have asthma and i cannot take a chance on dying. I suffer every day with asthma. I am just saying to people out there, people are going to blame it on china. Ok. Lets say china did bring it over. Donald trump knew about it. Why didnt he tell people . Host how long do you think it is going to be like this . How long do you think you are going to be wearing the mask and having to distance . What is your feeling about that . Caller i feel that if everybody listened to the scientists, put the mask on, we could have been over this. We could have been over this, but people, oh, you are taking my democracy away. You are not taking this away for most people. People are not taking anything away from you all. You are taking it away from themselves. And donald trump at the rallies, those bikers at the biker thing they had, put a mask on. Be 260,000 not people dead. This is not a joke. My nephew, there was nothing wrong with him. But he did not listen. His father said, put a mask on. And then when my brother saw him again, he went to the car and got a mask and said put this on. That not listening and not paying attention and not thinking this israel. Guess what . Hes dead. You can think this is a joke if you want to, but it is not a joke. Put a mask on so we can get over this. Over than other than that, you want democracy . You will be laying in a box. Our lastt is donna, scholar in this segment. Now we are joined by a guest cspan viewers are very familiar with, National Institute for allergy and Infectious Disease director dr. Anthony fauci. Were you listening to that last scholar . I wonder your reaction . She makes a good point. People do not believe the data staring them in the face. She said it very passionately, but it is true. I mean, this is a real issue here. We have over 250 thousand deaths, 2 million infections. And that tragic situation is the individual experience in the family. I empathize with her and i hope people hear that message because it is true. Host dr. Fauci, we have about 20 minutes with you this morning. I would like callers to join the discussion. The phone numbers, 202 7488000 if you are in the eastern or central time zones and want to talk to dr. Fauci. 202 7488001 mountain or pacific. Line we 7488002, a are setting aside for medical professionals this morning. Phone lines are open. You can start calling and now. In now. Formalci, biden, a transition to as administration began monday. He said his team had spoken with you. Who did you talk with specifically on his team and when will you meet with him directly . Base with theed chief of staff, ron klain. We do not talk about the nuts and bolts. Obviously, soon we will be getting the Transition Team and the task force to give them the information that would make their assuming the responsibilities easier and more efficient. Serveif asked, which you on a Biden Administration Coronavirus Task force . Guest of course. Host what are you anticipating from the Biden Administration, specifically on the idea of testing and tracing . Guest i dont want to get ahead of them. They will have their agenda. We will discuss it together. I certainly will give them recommendations, but i dont want to get ahead of them and make announcements of what they should do. We really need to sit down and talk together and then we will come out with that. Host we want to give you a chance to talk to our viewers, so we will get to them. Of buoy, maryland. Bowie, maryland. Caller when we get a shot for influenza, we are often told this may or may not be the right version of the shot. Will we have multiple versions brutal particular deadly disease, there will be multiple versions and we might be forced to have multiple shots . The second question i have is an immediate one. We have this fascinating hasation that a person been getting the virus, go two or three weeks without major symptoms, and leave it. And they seem to be recovered. Months later, they come up with a major change to their body. Patients areof having this result . And are there people studying what is going on with this delayed result from this virus . Host thanks for the questions. Dr. Fauci. Guest we do not know what the duration of the immunity is. Positively,y, very that there are at least three vaccines shown to be highly two ofious, 90 to 95 , them 95 and one of them over 90 . That is the good news. What we do not know is how long that immunity lasts. Will we be able to get a shot and then we are good . It is unlikely that it will be lifetime immunity, so we will take it one step at a time. The first step is to get a highly efficacious and safe vaccine, which we do have it and we will have more. They are going to be administered to higher priority people towards the end of december and in a graded way much more after that. It is conceivable that the immunity will not last long enough to go for 15 years, so we will see in the future if we need to give a booster shot a year or two later. That remains to be seen. If that is the case, that would be fine as long as we get this pandemic out of the way, crushed, so that we do not have the situation we have now. If it would require boosting to maintain that, we will take that step when we get to it. Your second question. There are a couple things that go along with this. I think you might be referring to a postcovid syndrome where people get infected, they wind up having variable degrees of manifestations from mild to moderate, even requiring hospitalization. When they then clear the virus from them so that they are no longer infected or infective, they have the lingering of symptoms. We dont know what percentage of people have that. 5 . Could be about 20 , 20 we are studying it to get an accurate number. The symptoms that they have is, for maybe weeks if not months, very severe fatigue, shortness of breath, sleep disturbances, temperature control difficulties, and difficulty in concentrating or focusing. That is something we are seeing a lot more about. We need to find out what the cause of it is because the virus is gone. It may be some effect of the inflammation associated with the virus. These are Unanswered Questions that we will soon answer. Host susan is on that line for medical professionals out of inverness, florida. Good morning. Caller yes. I am a retired operating room nurse. I have worn a mask for 20 years at work. If dr. Wanted to know fauci has ever admitted that he was wrong about the wearing of the masks, and why there isnt a huge push for the mask wearing . Masks on ebay5 for less than . 25. I wear them religiously because i am immune compromised. I was just frustrated from the very beginning of this pandemic that the professionals have not had a huge push for masks. Host dr. Fauci. Guest let me take the first. Early on in the outbreak, when there was a severe shortage of ppe and the evidence was not firm that masks were effective in preventing acquisition and transmission, and we were not aware at all that there was transmission from a person without symptoms. This was very early on, in february or so. Because of the shortage of masks, we did not recommend that everyone wear a mask. Weave said, back then, if knew then what we know now, we would have been recommending. So she said, did i ever admit that was not the best thing . About 1000 times. Lets move onto the next question. She is suggesting that we are thatuggesting strongly people wear masks that is the message that i and my colleagues on the Coronavirus Task force and virtually every responsible medical professional right now is talking about the importance of Wearing Masks. There are five things we talk about universal wearing of masks, keeping physical distance, avoiding crowds and congregate settings, particularly indoors, doing things preferentially outdoors as opposed to indoors, and washing your hands frequently. So i am not sure what she says we are not emphasizing that, but any of us who get out in the media, i think i average maybe 25 times a day publicly saying that. So we are pushing very strongly the wearing of masks. Host do you think people will be Wearing Masks into late 2021 and early 2022 . Guest there would have to be, certain circumstances, some implementation and exercising of Public Health measures. We have a vaccine, more than one. We have three already shown to be safe and highly efficacious, and we likely will have a few more available. Vaccineone takes the when it becomes available to them and we have a blanket of herd immunity over society, there will be less and less of a necessity to wear masks, but it is unlikely because we do have an issue with people being reluctant to take a vaccine and we have got to get over that hump. We have to convince people of the transparency and independence of the process of Vaccine Development and decisions as to whether or not a vaccine is safe and effective. 50 ofnly get lets say the people in the country vaccinated, we still will have a considerable vulnerability of spread of this infection. And we would absolutely have to continue Public Health measures, including mask wearing. So i think we should think in terms of a combination of vaccination as well as variable degrees of Public Health measures, including wearing of masks for a considerable period of time until the level of infection is so low in society that it is no threat to anyone. We have done that in the past by massive vaccinations. We have actually crushed outbreaks that have been devastating like smallpox, like polio, like measles, so we have been successful at doing that, and i hope we will be successful in doing something similar with covid19. But until we do, we must implement Public Health measures such as mask wearing, which is one of the most important things we do. Host this is steve in california. Good morning. You are on with dr. Fauci. Caller and i am on with john. Thank you, john. I have been watching cspan for 25 years. Dr. Fauci, i want to say you are one of my heroes in life. I am 67. I am so proud that you have held the line. You are walking a minefield with President Trump and the denial. Your lifetimeall of work and all the people that are behind you. We believe in you. Now you have a president elect that believes science. I have watched donald trump saying he was thinking about firing you at one of his rallies because i watch everything on cspan. If we started the mask wearing from the beginning we did not have enough masks for all the healthcare workers. I understand that we have Costco Stores here in california. People panic over toilet paper. Imagine early on if we were to say everybody wear a mask before you even knew that. There would have been mayhem in the streets. So i appreciate everything you have done. And if he fires you, i will be picketing the white house. I will fly to washington, d. C. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your comments. I appreciate your understanding of the situation as it was early on. It was a very difficult shortage of all ppe, including masks, which is one of the reasons, as you said very correctly, we were reluctant to get everybody to wear masks because we would have had masks not available to the people who absolutely needed them, namely, the workers putting themselves at risk every day to take care of people with this disease. Thank you. Host how is your relationship with President Trump these days . Guest it is good. I think theres this perception out there that we do not have a Good Relationship. I had a Good Relationship with President Trump from the beginning. I still do, actually. Georgia ross in noah is in georgia on the line for medical professionals. Good morning. Caller i am a pediatrician. How about dr. Fauci explained the devastating effects he has done to the young people of this country . Can he address what has happened with the suicide rate, the depression rate, it anxiety rate, anxiety children have suffered from . I have to deal with it every day in the office, young people coming in facing depression and feeling they have been cheated. How will he accept the responsibility for what he has done to our children . Know to be frank, i dont what youre talking about. If you are talking about children not going to school, i think if you listen to what i have been saying all along, is that we need, as best as possible, to keep children in school, to get the children back in school. I have no idea what you are talking about as to what i have done to make children suffer. You may be confusing me with somebody else. Host stephen, st. Louis, missouri. Good morning. Caller good morning. It is an honor to talk to you. Am a 70yearold man my body is riddled with agent orange because of vietnam. I have to be careful. I began wearing a mask immediately. I have not isolated myself, but have taken every precaution i have heard out of your lips. Social distancing etc. Here is my big concern right now. The big circle of friends that i have now, and i have a very large circle, they are adamant that they will not take the vaccine and i just go ballistic. These are the same people that were preaching about masks and i was one of the ones that preached about that. Could you elaborate on that . If we have so many people that are not going to get vaccinated, we are not going to conquer this. People are saying i will wait a year and see. In the year, you could be dead. So i guess that is a touchy point with me now. I will be the first point to get i will be the first one to get the vaccine. If you could elaborate, i would appreciate it. Thank you. Guest your comments are correct. You should get vaccinated as soon as the vaccine becomes available and they get to the point where they say now is the time to get the vaccine. It is understandable that people have reluctance about vaccines because often it is not explained correctly about what the process of developing a vaccine is, showing that it is safe and effective. Sometimes you get mixed signals from people. You get mixed signals from washington during this very difficult time. But just to assure the American Public that the vaccine that has been developed was done with the utmost care. It was done quickly, but that was not as a sacrifice that was not at the sacrifice of safety nor of scientific integrity. The reason it was done quickly was because of extraordinary and exquisite scientific advances made over the last several years in the technology of Vaccine Development, the platform as we call it. An inition, it was due to normas amount of money, measured in billions of dollars, that the federal government has put into assisting the pharmaceutical companies and making doses of the vaccine before it is proven to be effective, making the doses ahead of time. If the vaccine does not work, the only thing you lose is money. The federal government felt it was worth the risk, the money, to get the extra months, because if the vaccine does work, you save several months and getting vaccines to people. Finally, the thing people need to understand, there is no political or other types of interference in the decisionmaking process as to whether or not a vaccine is safe and effective after a very, very large Clinical Trial involving tens of thousands of people. It is made by an independent body called the data and safety monitoring board. They monitor the trials. When they get data to show that the trial and the candidate vaccine is safe and effective, they make that decision, not the administration, not the company. They make that determination. They get the data to the company, the company then analyzes it and presents it to the food and drug wherestration, the fda, independent scientists who are career professionals look at the data and, together with their advisory committee, called the vaccine and related biological products advisory committee, then make the determination that this vaccine is worthy of being either an emergency use authorization or an out right licensure to be used. People need to understand the process is transparent and independent. I believe when they understand that, they will be less reluctant to get the vaccine. Because the only way we will put an end to this terrible outbreak is when we use this highly efficacious vaccine on a broad scale. Host dr. Fauci, we only have about a minute or two left with you. If you could use that time, you mentioned prioritization. We asked viewers on this program earlier this week about that prioritization of vaccines. Everyone seems to agree that medical professionals and the most vulnerable should be given the vaccine first, but how do you prioritize after that . Where do teachers, the military fall in . What is your recommendation on where people should be in line . Guest that is a good question, but i think you should understand the reason i will not answer that is that there is an independent committee that advises the cdc who makes that determination. I can tell you and the audience what traditionally is done, but that is not a final decision and it is not up to me. It is up to an independent body and the responsibility ultimately rests with the cdc, whom i trust. You are correct. Traditionally when you have a shortage, you give it to the healthcare workers who put themselves at risk taking care of individuals. Then there are the vulnerable members of society, those who are elderly, those with underlying conditions. Then there are those who have an Important Role in the stability of society, essential workers, which would include the military. And then there are those who are teachers and children in school and others who have important things to make society from well. Then you go further down. Finals not the determination. That is what usually happens. With covid19, the decision will be made after an emergency use authorization is given and then the cdc, together with their advisory committee, will make that decision. Host dr. Anthony fauci serves at the National Institute for allergy and Infectious Diseases, the director. We appreciate it when you stop by. Thank you. Guest thank you for having me. Host that will do it for this segment today. Stick around. We will go back to this question about travel, especially flight travel. If you are planning to get on an airplane this thanksgiving or have already, stick around for our conversation with the wall street journals Scott Mccartney. He is a columnist and reporter covering the Airline Industry. We will be right back. American history tv on cspan3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. Coming up this weekend, saturday at 7 00 p. M. Eastern, an interview on leadership with james baker, who served as secretary of state under george h. W. Bush and as Ronald Reagans white house chief of staff and treasury secretary. P. M. , Eastern Connecticut State University belsersky onomas the rumored relationship between centuryt mid 19th politicians, James Buchanan and William Rufus king, who served briefly as Vice President under buchanans predecessor, franklin pierce. Sunday, on american artifacts, we explored Jfk Assassination records from the national archives, including iconic artifacts such as lee harvey the socallede, magic bullet, and the eight millimeter film taken of the assassination taken by abrahams up router. Abrahams up routep zapruder. Exploring the american story. Watch American History tv this weekend on cspan3. Washington journal continues. Host wall street journal readers note Scott Mccartney for his column. He has been on the airline and aviation beat for nearly two decades. He joins us on zoom this day before thanksgiving. Despite all the Public Health warnings and efforts to get people to stay home, air travel has hit an eightmonth high this thanksgiving. Has the amount of people willing to travel surprised you . Guest not really. I think for a lot of people, there have been mixed signals about travel. You have an Airline Industry that is pushing hard on the notion that travel is safe. There are dangers to it. And, you know, in some ways the , a more definitive warning about thanksgiving travel came late. We have seen a bit of a falloff in the number of people screened by tsa yesterday, down to 37 of what it was for a comparable day last year. Over the weekend, it was about 45 of last years totals, so, you know, there are a lot of people traveling. Look, people really want to go. They want to be with their families or take a break. And i think, you know, they have not gotten a clear signal of what is safe and what is not. Host for folks who might be getting on an airplane today or even tomorrow to go see friends or family, what should they expect at the airport . Guest they should expect crowds. I think some people are surprised at the crowds because there has been so much attention on help on how few people are traveling, but on a typical tuesday before thanksgiving, there are 2. 5 Million People traveling. Yesterday, it was down below one million, but that is still a lot more people than you usually see. Have told expect to wear your mask in the airport as well as the airplane. You should you are probably not going to be subjected to temperatures screenings. People wonder why that is not happening. You will go through the normal tsa checks and boarding will be different. A lot of airlines are doing smaller boarding groups, more boarding from back to front, but some airlines are doing their sort of normal procedures. And, you know, on the airplane, airflow is the key. You should expect to wear your mask all the time. And i think therere certain parts of the journey to really Pay Attention to. I worry about people being on the jet bridge in a crowd where there is no ventilation. I worry about people bunching up together when they arrive at their destination and there is a sort of scrum to get out the airplane as quickly as possible. Out of the airplane as quickly as possible. Research has shown boarding itself can be more of a peril because you have people in really close proximity breathing on each other. Host if you ever had a question about flying during coronavirus or about the Airline Industry in general, now would be a great time to call in. Scott mccartney with us from the wall street journal. Middle seat is his column. If you read the wall street journal, you have likely read it at some point. If you want to join the conversation, it is 202 7488000 if you have flown since the pandemic started. 202 7488001 if you are planning to fly for thanksgiving. 202 7488002 four Airline Industry employees for Airline Industry employees. And if those numbers are confusing, call this one 202 7488003. That is all others. We have split the lines that way. Go ahead and join the conversation now. Scott mccartney. We have that number for guest tens of thousands. Time ases all the airlines lay off more people. People. Lot of what flying about half of they are flying about half of what you would expect around thanksgiving. 35 re that, it was 30 or of what would be normal. If youret need only doing half of your business, youre only going to need half of your employees. Host to be know which airline is in the most precarious financial situation . Guest no, and i wouldnt say any of them are particularly precarious right now. Airlines have loaded up on tons of cash. That taken on debt in all kinds of ways, they have mortgaged their frequent flyer programs, they have governmentbacked loans in some cases, they have built basically a Pandemic Fund to survive as long as they can with these conditions. Realnk the question of danger comes next year, comes when if this continues, airlines are betting a lot of travel will resume as being to get vaccines. Is going tothink it be a race to see if the cash lasts long enough. Host is there a comparable moment in history of air travel . How has what has been happening and what is happening now compared to the months after 9 11 . 9 11 is the best comparison we have but it is not a very good one. 9 11, the fix was easier after 9 11. Cockpit doors on our plans, as you tightened up security, people regain cabinet confidence in her travel. It didnt affect aviation globally as much as it did u. S. Aviation. , the impact was shortlived. , but comparable to the pandemic, the pandemic has lasted longer. With 9 11 you had the government programsstabilization to up airlines if they could prove they needed support. Youeral intervention had federal intervention cast to airlines as we have had through this. Even the combination of 9 11 and later Financial Issues leading up to the Great Recession forced a lot of airlines into bankruptcy. After that, we got the merger of delta and northwest, united and continental, american and u. S. Air. You had a lot of consolidation in the industry. It traces back, it came several years later but had a lot of its roots in the problems of 9 11. That there is to say may be more up people in the Airline Industry, structurally you may see some bankruptcies. You may see mergers, things like the financial continues. Is the financial toll continues. Host many callers. Karen from portland, oregon. Good morning. Guest i just wanted to congratulate you for being a wonderful host. I have not flown for some time. General even since is one of the weirdest things as far as how our society works. Everybody is pushing, everybody is moving. Inthis pandemic, flying general is even worse because everybody is moving to the front. No one is allowing people to move in the space. That is what we need to do in senseto in a broader solve this problem of the pandemic. It is not about the airlines, it is about how we all react to it. Host Scott Mccartney . Guest i think you make a great point. Social distancing is key. The travel experience is filled with lines and deadlines. You worry about missing this or being late for that. Everybody rushes to get on the airplane because theyre worried bin spaceead been will fill up and they have to check their back and that is a pain. You rush to get there before everybody else. It is a stress filled experience. The relaxing of social norms. Airplane to board an my wife used to refer to it as the platinum push off were seasoned travelers elbow their way to the front of the cattle call. Even when they have early boarding. Right, people behave differently when they do travel and i think they are in many ways more rude than they would in other settings. Host mark writes on twitter sing i have flown recently in the middle seats were not taken. The problem is they served rings and snacks and no one had a mask on. N are they going to start stop allowing food and drink on the plane . Guest it is a difficult issue. I think it is a concern. That whenood evidence you are in flight, the ventilation in the cabin and cabin is quite good. Not to say you dont need your rest on but it is quite good. At the same time, there are other issues. Dehydration is a major issue, you need to stay hydrated. In that sense, people do need to water when they are on an airplane. It is difficult. Airlines are trying to find a andnce between service safety. Suggested to readers at one point, people were complaining there was no service in first class so why would you want a firstclass seat . You would want it because there is more room, there is more distance. Maybe it is a little bit safer because somebody is not crowded around you. The desire for class becomes a safety thing rather than less lavish you with food and drink. The food andle, drink is incredibly important. They complained loudly when airlines dont serve it complain loudly when airlines dont serve it. Ost galen has flown when did you fly . June and priorin to flying i looked at the guidelines from the airline. I felt like they did a good job. While food and drink is a big deal for me, i thought it was cool they backed things up individually and give it to us as we were sitting in our seats. That was a good safety guideline they took that was good for me. Also, there was a person sitting next to me but there was another open seat. They allowed people to move. I think while people are not always doing the right thing, i think the airlines themselves trying to do the right things. I think it is important to pick the airline that you make the strides that she pick the airline that makes the right strides for you take the airline that makes the right strides for you. Scott, is there an airline that seems to have the most comprehensive protections . Is there someone who has looked into ranking those . Guest it is hard to do. You have to evaluate things like cleaning programs and all. Svery airline is cleaning cabin between flights into doing a lot of surface cleaning. They sprayedy that too many chemicals and some of these can have adverse effects on people. You have to be per that you have to be careful with that, you have to be careful with that, spring five or six times a day. One issue has been the middle seat and delta has said it is going to keep walking middle seats well into next year. I think march 31 is the latest date they have extended it out to. Southwest was blocking middle seats but that is going to end. American and united have not been blocking middle seats. If you are really concerned about that, you can check and see what Different Airlines are doing on middle seats. There is great debate over whether the middle seat has an impact. We cant distance six feet on an airplane. It is not going to happen. Is there areeality a lot of seating configurations noch are 2 x 2 so there is middle seats to block. Albond up elbow to elbowdy else elbow to with somebody else. The cabin airflow system is quite effective at taking away that canand aerosols carry virus. This is true. The ventilation on an airplane is really strong. Except 50 fresh air and 50 recycled air you get a mixture of 50 fresh air and 50 recycled air. The recycled air runs through hospitalgrade systems that can retract virus. Bottom so it doesnt carry things across the cabin, it takes them to the floor. That is exactly what you want. Be aight, the cabin can safe environment. It is safer airflow than groceries and restaurants. The concern is that you are a lot closer to other people than you would be at a restaurant or Grocery Store or public setting. There have been cases of transmission on airplanes. In june one developing to zeeland where there were not many people on the airplane and yet one person who tested negative couple day before infected and spread the virus to four other people on the same flight. We dont know if that happened the bathroom of the airport that car placet the rental or whatever it might be. We know that the research has found four people were infected via another passenger infected by another passenger. There is a risk to it and i think you can minimize the risk of taking some precautions. You have to be attentive to what the airline is doing and what is doing. Host for airline employees, 2027488002. Russell is on that line. You are on with Scott Mccartney. I dont want to come down on people but no one is discussing the elephant in the room. Everything that has been said so the safetyd except of the passengers and the crew on board the aircraft is the elephant in the room. Feeture flying at 30,000 but you have the comfort, the artificial comfort of an environment at 8000 or 9000 feet is because you are in a pressurized situation. The aircraft is pressurized. Ironically, and im looking forward on my phone but i cant find it as quickly as i need to for this call, i read an article on this subject. A number of people in the industry have started to admit that they cannot vouch for the safety of the air circulated in the aircraft. Theyt about fort cant vouch for it. And that makes sense. Everything said about the areas where people gather in the airport, at the jet waste, at the baggage check, waiting to get on the aircraft, all of is valid all of that is valid. Host can i ask how long you have worked in industry and what you do . Caller i am a pilot, i have thousands of hours. I have been flying since i was a kid. Host have you been flying through all of this . Caller not much. Very little, but some. Guest im sure im not sure what he is implying but yes the cabin is pressurized. I have not heard anyone saying they cannot vouch for the quality of the airflow. The filters on airplanes are quite good, quite robust, changed on a regular basis. There probably more effective as they get dirty, the many layers of the filter trap more contaminants. Been lots of studies on this, the quality of the air in the cabin when the plane is in flight is quite good. And i think one thing to remember as you look at this is i have paid close attention to infection rates for print groups at airlines, particularly flight attendants. Flight attendants are the canary in the coal mine, if there is problem in the coal any cabin , flight attendants who work you would long expect higher infection rate but that hasnt happened. Flight attendants at several airlines that have talked about for and the major unions flight attendants have said that infection rates for flight attendants are lower than other work groups at airlines. Baggage handlers are not in the cabin and get baggage handlers have a higher infection rate at several airlines. Think you could have some comfort that the cabin environment itself can be safer than other situations. There is a lot of technology about this. This is not the first pandemic. Aviation suffers in any outbreak. Whether it was bird flu or you it is not just the environment itself but that the airplane can be the transporter of the illness. Infected person from one area to another and deliver the virus or whatever the disease is. That is a particular problem for aviation. Aircraft many factors happen working aircraft manufacturers have been working a long time on the issue. Even the common cold, how do we keep people from getting sick when they fly . That is why airflow is so robust. That is why there is so much filtering of the air in the cap. Host about 25 minutes left with Scott Mccartney. Forrites the middle seat the wall street journal the middle seat column for the wall street journal. Before this happened, how often were you flying to write for this column . Bit for fly quite a different reasons. When you cover travel, you better travel. I dont write about my own travels but i do travel to talk to travelers, to visit Different Airlines, to go to to different places where i am doing stories. It is important for me to travel on multiple airlines and all of that. Host how many flights have you taken since coronavirus . Since guest coronavirus ive taken two. Where to . Washington, d. C. I live in dallas. Host do you have a most memorable flight . One of my favorite , i was doingories a report on the worst flight in america. We were looking at the most unreliable, the most inconvenient, the most overcrowded, all kinds of different factors. I was flying what youre going to label worst flight in america. Everything was on time, it was running perfectly. Froms a delta flight atlanta to West Palm Beach on an old airplane that often broke down. I talked to a bunch of passengers before we boarded. We boarded, everything was on time, everything was going great. We got out to the end of the runway and you heard a [makes noise]. There was a hydraulic problem and we had to go back to the gate. Someone stood up and pointed at me across the cabin and said now you have got a story. [laughter] how relieved iu was to have a mechanical problem on a flight. Host Scott Mccartney with us taking your air cost taking your phone calls. Way ines lit up this if you have flown since the pandemic, 2027488000. If youre planning to fly for thanksgiving, 2027488001. Airline industry employees, 2027488002. All others, 2027488003. Robert on that line for all others. Thank you for having my call. I has been covered since initially called in. The findings that this virus is than originally thought and focused on droplets in a cabin and airflow and what risk that poses for asters for passengers is going to be outdated. Also airports, do they have the type of air exchange with fresh that thehe filtration plane does. Planeing on the size of a , what spokes on a hub. Youre likely to spend more time on a layover then you are in an airplane. The airport becomes more risky. Host i know you covered a bit of that earlier, but it does ring up a column you recently it does bring up a column he recently wrote. It talks about flying during winter and the extra covid wildcard. Do you want to take us through that . Guest yeah and i can talk about the airports, too. The ice is a concern. Airplane gets deiced, you shut the engines down and take and shut down intake of fresh air. Youre only getting half of the ventilation you would normally get. The industry has made a point of saying the robust ventilation is what keeps you safe. If it is only half as robust, that is a concern. There are other factors with it. Memos and boeing issued to pilots. In airbus, you can turn the that elation system from normal to high and they recommend that in deicing, in boeing it is off or on. They never require the ventilation beyond during the deicing. Thatissued a middle about a memo about that. It gets quiet and still and it would seem like the perfect time to drink that cup of coffee you bought at the airport, but it is not. It is a time you need to keep your mask on. Some of the Public Health people i talked to say to keep it on at least 15 minutes on after engines restart to give several exchanges of air in the cabin before you take your mask off. That cup of coffee at the airport as a whole other issue. The ventilation in airports is not as good as on airplanes. Some airports as Office Buildings are, are looking at uv systems that might kill virus that you can put on the air conditioning ducts, Different Things like that. The whole question of congregating is as serious an issue in an report as on an herb lame as on an airplane. You do get people lining up for coffee, you get people lining up for food and other things. The caller brought up connections, we are going to spend more time in airports. There are fewer direct flights. Outschedules are so thinned that there layover for your connecting flight maybe longer that your layover for your tactics flight might be longer. That means more time at the airport. I think people need to be with the careful in airports. You think there are high ceilings, it is a big open area, that doesnt necessarily mean that the person two feet away from you isnt spewing virus. Host robert, you are next. Youre on with Scott Mccartney. Again, dontis me worry about it. Host all that is hunter that is robert you already chatted. Now to hunter. All due respect, it sounds like it is a commercial for the airline industries. They are responsible for super spreading the virus around the world. They did nothing back in february and march. The airline did industry nothing to stop flying, nothing gentlemen add lights, they were not restricting passengers. Prior to covid, the airlines continued to push against consumer protections. Flightore the change of to pay for the ticket. Back we have to pay 35 per back. Per bag. Trust. As more to do with if they go bankrupt, let them go bankrupt. In a month another airline will pop up. I wish the guest speaker would talk about what is more important from a consumer perspective because it is this appointing that it is more about a commercial for airlines. You read my column, it is all about consumers. About written many times refund issues during the pandemic, a whole lot of consumer issues. Thehe u. S. , you have had department of transportation doing very little for consumers. Yes, you are right, there are all kinds of consumer issues. We have been talking about the conditions of flying right now for thanksgiving. I think the Airline Industry has done quite a bit right now in terms of safety. , there was a lot of second guessing on all of that. Is it the airlines responsibility to shut down or the governments responsibility to shut them down . Industry wants to fly people, that is what they do. Recently, talking about next signals, you have seen the industry saying we think it is safe to fly. The cdc is issuing a warning about flying at thanksgiving. Ceo, thek an airline ceo of southwest said come fly. That is his job. That is like asking the ceo of mcdonalds if you should eat hamburgers. He is going to say yes. Other people might have a different view. I think the reality is their airplane does become a spreader of lots of things. Inre is good with the bad terms of globalization and the ability for people to move around the world and to business during a pandemic that is not a good thing. I would agree with you on how airline street consumers, i write a lot about this. The Airline Industry has basically done away with change fees as of now. United says that is going to be forever, we will see. Thing for punitive customers, it was unlike any other industry. Theve often written that Airline Industry is the only industry that punishes its an enormousth number of fees and penalties. Some of those are starting to go away. I think there is more hope for the future. Host have you had a chance to from the this column summer, airlines are withholding aliens in refunds billions in refunds . Guest refunds are a huge issue and i think it is grossly unfair. I did a column about priorities for the incoming aydin administration and that for the incoming aydin at joe Biden Administration. Many were denied by airlines, they were given vouchers instead. That is against u. S. Regulations, it is against furnace. I think the Incoming Administration needs to address this. The Current Administration issued awnings to airlines saying you cant do this and then they didnt enforce it. Yet situations air canada, for example, refused to issue any refunds. They are bound by u. S. Regulations but they said no. Canadian Authorities Say we dont have to give refunds. That is not how it works. When you fly in the u. S. , you have to abide by u. S. Relations for safety and regulation issues. It wasnt just foreign airlines, many u. S. Airlines the rule is if the airline cant fulfill the fight has to offer you the possibility of a refund. If you voluntarily change your plans, then you get the doctor. Part of the trickery going on is that airlines were very late to remove flights from their schedule. They had no intention of flying them but if they waited to remove them from the schedule then more passengers would voluntarily take a voucher. Even that was deceptive and an unfair practice. There are a lot of consumer areas for the new administration to address which havent been addressed over the last four years. For things like roles emotional support animals, cabinet evacuation has been cabin evacuation has been an issue that there has been research on but hasnt been released. We dont know if we need to change regulations for cabin seating and evacuation. There are a lot of traveler issues that will be coming up in the future. Ift about 10 then its left you have questions about flying or the Airline Industry. 2027488000. If you have flown since the pandemic began, 2027488001. If you are flying during the thanksgiving holiday, 2027488002. 2027488003 for all others. I flow in april on american. I was traveling to columbia in the country didnt allow any american citizen. American airlines refunded my money, it was very seamless. My question is specifically in terms of you mentioned alliance to overcome this we may have to consolidate. Whenember as a kid everybody was trying to break up monopolies, at t, airlines. I am thinking, there are like three airlines left, what else is there to consolidate . I dont fly every day, but i am wened as an american only have like three Major Airlines and it doesnt seem right. Now you have a situation where airlines map to consolidate. It seems like it is bad business. Im not all for the government doing this and doing this, but it seems like the government should step in and save enough is enough and say enough is enough. The choices are so limited. Technically we have eight airlines in the u. S. We have the big three, united, american, and delta. But southwest has made it the big four. Of significant size, certainly domestically. Jetblue,have alaska, you have spirit, front tier, allegiant front tier, frontier, allegiant. Consolidation, it would be in the lower end of that eight. Many discount carriers would it make sure would make sense for frontier and spirit to would it make sense for jetblue and alaska to get together . Their problem is competing with the big three. Competition is what we want. We want choices, we want price competition. Much of the fair discipline in the industry comes from the lowcost sector. Prices ofes matching lessexpensive airlines. You wants to lessexpensive airline, the Lowcost Airlines to be big, to compete, to do as much as they can to bring icing bringline to discipline instead of being squashed by the big guys. Airfarese have seen , during the pandemic but even before then, travel is a pretty good bargain in this country. There has been price discipline. Traveling for business, it cost me 2000 to go to new york. Now i can make the trip to new york from dallas for 400. If you look at the statistics, air travel is a bargain. That ay a lot and play a lot fees into that. General, i think travel has been affordable for the most part for the service you get. At the same time, it is important for airlines to be able to make money. It is a lot of years when one bankruptcy after another. This has to be an industry that can borrow money, that can buy new airplanes, that can pay fair wages. The airline has to be able to survive financially. That means we are going to have to pay a fair price for the product. Host karen has flown since the pandemic again. Good morning. Pandemic flew when the first hit, not cot people on the airplane not a lot of people on the airplane. I flew back in july, more people on the airplane. This pastently flew septa this past october. There was more people on the plane. We went from having space to not having space with three people sitting three to a seat. It is all about you and how you handle yourself. I take certain precautions when i do fly. I am flying from las vegas to virginia. I do catch bargain tickets. Is that thehing availability of the flights and how long the layovers are. I think if they decrease the layovers, they could get people to fly. There are bargain tickets after. I am like you, i get on there, i do my thing, i avoid contact with people as much as possible. My flight expense so far has been great. And i will play again. Host Scott Mccartney . Great,i think that this i think she is approaching it as people need to approach it. You can do it, you need to take precautions, stay safe, and you can do it. That is the bottom line. Two, in our last minute or since it is your first time on our program, you have been in the travel industry reporting to two decades. How does one get into travel writing . Guest for me, it was simply my love of airplanes. When i got hired at the wall street journal i started out covering technology and some other things but i said what i really wanted to cover was aviation because i love flying. Over the years, i got my pilots license and i find myself. And i started covering the industry. The column itself came about and we started wsj. Com were charging for it and wanted to give people extra things. I started writing extra consumer things and it became very popular. It became a fulltime job. In journalism, covering what excites you, what you love, that is really important. Isoming a good journalist the path to having your pick of what industry you will cover. It is more important to be a good journalist then to be an airline geek or whatever it would be. I would say do the best you can with journalism and find your passion. Host the column is called middle seat. It is available at wsj. Com. Our guest, Scott Mccartney. Think of a much. Guest good to thank you very much. Guest good to be with you. Host we will get back to our question, are you traveling this thanksgiving holiday amid the warnings from officials. We want to hear if you are traveling, what precautions are you taking . Phone lines are open if you want to start calling in. We will be right back. Was historic year for women with the election of the first woman Vice President , kamala harris. It happened in the year we celebrate the hundred 100 anniversary of a womans right to vote. Our the womans which is about the boat to allow women to vote. It passes the senate. Senatore Senate Sitting on it, it passes the house in 1918 and it takes until june of 1919 before it passes both houses. Then the senate knew they were sending it out for rectification yeare states in an off when most state legislatures were not going to be in session. That was purposeful to make it more difficult. They had to get 30 governors to call their legislators to call back into special session. Sunday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on q mende on q a. Washington journal continues. Host amid the coronavirus pandemic, Health Officials are urging americans not to travel this thanksgiving holiday. Atlions of americans were airports, many more expected to hit the road today and tomorrow. We are asking in this section what your travel plans are this thanksgiving holiday. That is 2027488000 if you are planning to travel. 2027488001 if youre not planning to travel. We want to hear how you are spending your holiday, what cautions you are taking. Some news this morning that trump may be traveling this thanksgiving holiday. The report from cnn saying he is expected to join his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, in gettysburg with state lawmakers. They are holding a hearing on allegations of fraud. Sourcesaccording to familiar to cnn. Donald expressed interest in joining Rudy Giuliani. His aides made plans for him to travel to pennsylvania. His trip which would be the first outside of washington, d. C. Since election day not listed on the public schedule. It is being handled internally ,s an unannounced movement according to reporting from cnn. We will watch for that today. Trump was home at the white house yesterday and took part in the transition the tradition of pardoning a thanksgiving turkey. [video clip] pres. Trump we extend our thanks to doctors and nurses who have waged the battle against the china virus. We await the vaccines that will soon and the pandemic. It is a tremendous feeling to know they are coming and they will be coming to belize starting next week or shortly coming coming shortly next week or after. As i say, america first. We should not go away from that, america first. The isishanks to freedoms we have inherited and we ask to the priceless freedoms we have inherited and we ask god to watch over our nation and our people during this holiday and the years to come. We ask that of god. Thanka and i wish to everybody for their courtesies and wish you a happy thanksgiving. Time for our guest of honor, he has been waiting for this. Bring him out. Look at that beautiful bird. That is a lucky bird. Corn, i grant you a full pardon. Thank you, corn. [applause] host President Trump and the rose garden with corn, the turkey he pardoned. The other tricky but wasnt parted, the other turkey that wasnt pardoned, cob. Gary is in columbus, indiana. Go ahead. Caller we are not traveling for thanksgiving but i wanted to mention in terms of traveling during the pandemic, we did travel in october. We decided to do it on an amtrak train and we had a private room. You had very little contact with people. If you wanted to take your own food, you didnt have to come out of your room. It is another option, especially for people that dont particularly like to fly. Host what is the cost of getting one of those five it rooms one of those private rooms on a train . Do you mind saying how much you spent on it . Caller it is a little more expensive than flying. Amtrak pricing is kind of tricky. Diligence, you can find a good bargain. There is no driving, you just sit back and enjoy if you have the time. Host have you traveled by amtrak before this . Caller no, it was our first time. We went from indiana to colorado. Host what was the best part of the trip . Caller the best part of the trip is not driving. [laughter] host thank you for the call, have a good holiday. Ray from tyler, texas is traveling this holiday. Where are you headed . We are headed to tennessee. We are doing this in lieu of getting together with family. We did Curbside Pickup for our food, we are seeing national parks, we will hike a trail or two. We are doing this in lieu of getting together with family to respect the precautions. Host have you done much camping amid all of this . Caller no, not a lot of camping. We just get an airbnb. Host what did you look for in an airbnb to make you feel safe . Website they say they take precautions. From what i understand, it is not primarily spread through services. I was more concerned about. Being around crowds that is what we avoided crowds. That is what we avoided. Host donna in york, maine. Caller i called in to say we are not traveling, we are staying home. We are going to go down on friday because it is Better Weather and we are going to have leftover sandwiches outdoors with our sons and their families. We were going down frequently. They would start with outdoor hikes, that was our intention. We are in our 70s. My husband has had heart conditions. We ended up indoors having something to eat and i started scaring myself that we were letting down our guard. Determined as things are wrapping up to go back to being as careful as we were at the beginning of this. I am worried about the Health Care System being overwhelmed so that people with a heart attack cant get into a hospital. Host do you think this country lets down its guard little bit let down its guard little bit . Caller i think there were those that didnt have any guard up to begin with. At the beginning we were watching washing with bleach all the time and washing all of our packages. I recently discovered i was opening up a package and not washing my hands. I just want to go back to where we were. Were not as extreme as we at the beginning, we were very nervous. Were in florida in winter and we got out of there in a hurry a month early. I think more than just on the health, people need to think about the Health Care System and those people on the front lines and those people who arent going to be able to get care. Host what was something extreme you did in the beginning youre not likely going to go back to . Probably washing my hands with bleach, leaving everything in the garage for updates before we touched it except for frozen foods. I dont think we will go back to that. I think those notions after death of danger have been dispelled of danger have been dispelled. Others about respect for and keeping others safe that we need to keep in mind most of all. Host this is silver spring, ireland maryland. Are you there . You are not traveling . Caller im not traveling this thanksgiving. We will be having thanksgiving at the house, we will not be having thanksgiving. How many people are in your household host how many people are in your household . Caller about five or six. Host how locked down has her household been . Down butot too locked not too travel travel because cases have been going up and we have been hearing on cnn and cspan the latest news and the numbers. So we are probably going to be doing turkey, stuffing, stuffing kremer asos, pumpkin pie and have thanksgiving at home cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and have thanksgiving at home. Host sylvia, youre not traveling. Caller no we are not. Have been lowrs in our areas. We are thankful for our governor and his guidelines and be abide by them. We live in charlottesville and it has been low in that area up to where we live. Host how long will you see your doctor if she is close to you . Caller i see her every day because we help our granddaughter do visual learning in school while her mother works. We help our granddaughter as she does Virtual Learning. On top of a Grocery Store we have. Host how is she doing at Virtual Learning . Caller extremely well. Her report card was amazing. It was a godsend. She loves it. If she cant get a hold of her tears rolled down her face. Once in a while we have a blackout mainly it has been really good. She has had perfect attendance, thank you. Host im assuming that attendance is due to your efforts as well, we appreciate your call. Have a good thanksgiving. It is coming up on 9 00 on the east coast. Are you traveling for this holiday, for this holiday . If you are call 2027488000, if you arent call 2027488001. We should you equip from President Trump yesterday, the traditional turkey pardoning. President elect Joe Biden National security and Foreign Policy team yesterday in delaware. Here is a bit of the president elect. [video clip] mr. Biden i am pleased to announce nominations and staff for critical for policy and security for my administration. It is a team that will keep our country and our people safe and secure. It is a team that reflects that america is back, ready to lead the world, not retreat from it. Ready to confront our adversaries and not reject our allies, ready to stand up for our values. In calls from World Leaders i have had, around 18 or 20 i have had in the weeks since we won the election, i have been struck by how much theyre looking forward to the United States reasserting its role as a leader in the pacific and atlantic all across the world. Moment, theys this embody my beliefs that america is strongest when it works with its allies. This team has secured some of the most defining National Security diplomatic achievements in recent memory, made possible through decades of experience working with our partners. That is how we keep america safe without engaging in needless conflicts and keeping our adversaries in check and terrorists at bay. Host joe biden yesterday in wilmington, delaware introducing his National Security team. Here is the reaction from the Washington Times this morning. Obamake, calling them retrends. Era willat the biden 3. 0. Ama meet the old boss, same as the new boss. Dont get fooled again, maybe we just did. Back to your phone calls about your thanksgiving travel plans. Donald, omaha, not traveling. How you spending the holiday . Caller fine, how are you today, sir question mark thank you. This country dont know what it is to have it tough. We have all turned into a bunch of wimps. Covid fatigue, they ought to go to afghanistan with those kids. And all these people think they are smarter than everybody else, they shouldnt go to the hospital when they get sick, they know better than everybody else. Wet before you go, when did last know as a country what it was like to have it tough . Caller probably world war ii when people gave up things for their country. Other than that, its just been a few people that have even done anything that would make them suffer a little bit. Host thanks for the call. Rick, in ohio. Traveling, where you headed, rick . Traveling are not that far, just going about 60 miles, north of columbus, ohio, to visit with our daughter and soninlaw and granddaughter. Kind of an annual trip that we make. We, my wife and i are both 75. We believe we are in pretty good health for our age. The virusdont take that seriously here in ohio. Of course, we cant enter a store without having a mask, so of course we do that. At whatever restaurants are open. We dont take it that seriously. But we do respect for the safety and precautions of others, so we have followed the guidelines set forth by governor dewine. But i think it has been a greatly exaggerated i just cant get a grip on the seriousness that is projected about this virus. Host the numbers as of yesterday, 200 and 58,000 confirmed deaths in the u. S. , 12 million confirmed cases. What would it take to make you take it seriously . Caller i would have to hear some sort of report from a serious minded physician or politician and at this point i dont have much faith in either of those professions. Here in ross county the last figure, we had 55 that had died and around 2000 were confirmed cases. I do have Family Members who take it much more seriously than i do. In fact i have a brother who in my opinion lives in fear and as i told him, im just not going to live my life and were. I just cant do that. So, thats where i stand on the issue. I do believe there are a lot of people that feel the same way i do. Your daughter and soninlaw feel about it . Caller i can only speak for my daughter. I dont have as much contact with the soninlaw. Not because of any con problems, just dont. She feels basically the same as i do, she just doesnt take it as seriously. She did have surgery yesterday and of course she had to have the presurgery covid test. And all of that. Know. Dont the times in which we live, i just dont have that much confidence in what im being told through any media outlet. Im pretty much a nonbeliever in who do you trust . Caller my own common sense, for one thing. Outside of that, you posed a good question. Im not a health care expert. But i have lived long enough to now that i just, i can longer believe everything i read or see in the media outlets. Im pretty much a skeptic about a lot of things. Call rick, thanks for the from ohio. Daisy is next. Not traveling. Go ahead. You know what . I sort of feel for the gentleman in ohio. You definitely dont want to live in fear, but when you look at more than 200,000 americans that have died, you know, thats a scary number. We arent talking about a few people. No, im not traveling and i agree with don from nebraska. We have turned into americans that dont want to sacrifice anymore. I have been holed up in my house since march, you know, only going out for essentials, Wearing Masks, doing everything that the cdc and everybody says that you are support to supposed to do and it vexes me when you turn on the tv and you see it with people filled up traveling. I just dont understand that. The government is going to have to make up their minds about confusing people. Are we traveling or are we not . Are we staying home for this two cents. Hats my shuttingld you support down the Airline Industry . Caller thats another tough situation. Weve got people who have to work. Its like i tell my 21yearold nursing student. She follows all the protocols, but shes 21, she wants to go out, hang out with your her friends, do the things that you do when you are young but i tell her, you know, youre going to have to sacrifice some of those things now and then next year we can go ahead and go around and go do the things that we are used to doing. But i think thats going to have to be some type of a shutdown until we get this thing in control and then, hopefully, have a vaccine available and go on with our lives. Somebodys going to have to make that judgment, though, and i am sure glad its not me. Stephen, new york, rosemount, is traveling, where are you headed, sir . Caller im headed to florida and i will be flying out on the sixth. Im a snowbird and ive canceled two flights already because i went to the airport and the flights were too full. I just decided not to do it. End ive got the Hand Sanitizer and i hope it gets me through because theres a place down there, i really love the sun. We are going to try, coming up in two weeks. If its negative and there are too many people on the flight, back down again. Youve got to be safe. The numbers dont lie. The people are dying out there. Just wish everybody has a safe, happy thanksgiving and maybe next year will be better. Host did you listen to our segment with the travel rut writer from the journal . Aboutu concerned at all going to the airport so many times . If its no again, thats a fourth trip to the airport for you. What is the go no go for you . Caller [indiscernible] its a little scary, to be honest with you. Host we are losing you a little bit there, but appreciate the call. Thomas, laguna woods, california, is traveling. Go ahead. On travelve given up a little bit, but i think with the Social Security card, we should do it with the president cut out of the face and then after the president , democrat and republican is cut out, you got your Social Security card at ballot. This is a new go to you andwill you put it down on your shoe and the shoe will count it. You dont need all of these wrinkles. Host we will talk about Election Security in another segment. We are talking about thanksgiving travel right now. Brad is on the line for those not traveling, back in the land of 10,000 lakes, international falls, minnesota. Caller thats right, god is here to tell you the truth. Im not traveling. Gos not that im afraid to and travel and i dont think of, i should, but i kind wish they understood the difference between covid related. Eaths and a covid death ok . We are getting so farfetched with this. And then you know weve got the people who have been tested. Millions have been tested with it. Theres probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 million to 40 Million People that actually have it. Low. Eath rate is very and then when we get to the itsne part of this, really strange. We are getting like a 95 probability that its going to work. Well, the flu has only got 46 for gods sakes for a vaccine. So a vaccine doesnt stop you from getting covid. It doesnt stop it. It helps you recover quicker and thats less severity of the strain. I think people have been so manipulated by the media and are so tired of this. I dont know what to say anymore. Go into enjoy your thanksgiving. Thats what you deserve to do. Likewise with you, john, the staff there, i hope you all have a great thanksgiving and happy thanksgiving. Host happy thanksgiving, brad. About 10 minutes left in this segment. If you have plans to travel this think this thanksgiving or have traveled already, 202 7488000 if you are not traveling. 202 7488001. One thanks giving tradition is going to continue this year. From the New York Times, host that, from todays New York Times, if you want to read more. Yourealtimore, traveling, where you going . Caller good morning, cspan. Im going to silver spring. Host not far then. [laughter] caller thats my travel. We were originally going to have a celebration with larger numbers of the family, but we have downscaled it down to only a handful, about five of us. We live with my older parents and my elderly brother, who have , they wanted to stay home and have it close. Its still with family, thank god. But it is just a smaller crowd thats here. But i have gone out shopping. I have gone out to events where prepared theely spaces and made sure, made people aware to social distance and i have had no problem with that. Im a healthy, somewhat healthy person and i have no fear going out, as long as im masked, people are masked. Enough people stay there distance, im fine with that. I really enjoy listening to your show, sir. Safe travels i hope, down the beltway there. Linda, next, not traveling. Caller its not because am afraid. I would rather be cautious and protect my family, like i always thought i would, from when they were born. Why would i jeopardize or compromise their health or wellness now . So no, im not afraid. I would hit it headstrong if i had to protect my kids. Im protecting my children and my grandchildren by not going anywhere. But you have a happy thanksgiving and i am, to. Time youn is the last saw them in person . Caller march, march. Host how has it been for you . Caller its ok. We have telephones. My oldest son and i talk every sunday night and my one granddaughter from Susquehanna College is home, so i get to talk to her. Welfaretheir health and and being cautious, not afraid, because im not afraid. I will protect them until i die. When do you think you will see them next . Caller my son happens to be a scientist at Johnson Johnson. Hes a primary scientist in pharmaceuticals and according to him it will probably be another year. Host any chance that hes working on the vaccine that Johnson Johnson is developing . Caller yeah, i cant, i really shouldnt talk about that. [laughter] yes, that will be oneshot and refrigerator cap, yes. Caller thank you for host thank you for the call from new jersey. Have a happy thanksgiving. Tyler, north carolina, you are traveling. Caller e you headed . Yes, yes i am. Host up to fairfax county, virginia. Caller up to fairfax county, virginia. Host any extra precautions . Whats your strategy . Caller im very cautious. I have children as well. People need to look, they need to look at the basis for the supposed surge. There was an article today in the New York Times called your test is positive, perhaps it shouldnt be. Another article in my local news outlet called some Scientists Say coronavirus cases may be inflated. This is because of the pcr tests that are being too sensitive. Above of the positive tests, according to these scientists, are not infectious. This means that the numbers for cases, hospitalizations and deaths are all grossly, grossly inflated. This is not my opinion. This is my opinion this is the opinion of scientists at the university of oxford and many other places. Me through why you think the death number is inflated. Liker just hospitalizations and positive cases, its based on the positive pcr test. And also we know that at least 90 , based on cdc, at least 90 of those with covid on their death certificate have another cause of death as well. So, its not quite clear if they died from covid or just with covid. Host thats tyler from north carolina. Stick around, we will talk about the Record Number of native americans elected to u. S. Congress this year. We will discuss that and other topics with the president of the National Congress of American Indians, fawn sharp. We will be right back. Book tv on cspan two has top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. Coming up this weekend, saturday at 9 p. M. Eastern, former president barack obama reflects on his life and political career in his newly released memoir, promised land. Sunday, 9 p. M. Eastern on. Fterwards suckwing that, monopolies , and at 10 00, George Mason University law professor Douglas Ginsburg and his book, voices of our republic, examining the constitution through the eyes of justice, legal scholars and historians. Watch book tv on cspan two, this weekend. And be sure to watch live on sunday, september 6 at noon eastern with our guests, author and chair of africanamerican studies at princeton university, eddie glaude jr. Washington journal continues. Host fawn sharp is going to join us in just a second by zoom. She served as the president of the National Congress of andican indians, the oldest largest tribal Government Organization in the United States. Let me get the phone numbers to start, as we make sure we have her with us this morning. The phone lines have been split up as usual, 202 7488001 democrats, republicans 202 7488002, independents 202 7488002. A special line in this segment for native americans, 202 7488003 is that number. We are talking about native american issues. You can go ahead and start calling and now as we are joined by fawn sharp. Eight months into this pandemic. Congress ofhe American Indians message be to the United States congress that is getting ready to meet up here for its final lameduck session of this congress . Guest our words would be that no one is immune from the pandemic, we will likely exceed our public resources. We need to be Global Partners in terms of a Public Health care Recovery Plan and an economic Recovery Plan. We cannot solve this in isolation, but we must come to the table. ,ot only including every nation but all 574 travel nations and the United States. Tribal nations in the United States. Host are they all represented in the congress of American Indians . Tell us about that group. Guest yes, we are the oldest of Largest Organization tribal nations in congress. Tells about yours. Guest thank you for asking. We are located on the coast of Washington State on the beautiful olympic peninsula. We occupy 31 miles at the International Border on the pacific. , 220,000 acres, trees, mountains, rivers, lakes, streams, a coastline, its absolutely gorgeous. We know that coronavirus has dipped fortunately impacted native American Communities in this country. Can you tell us about the impact . You have seen the economic and Health Impact over the past eight and a half months. To points important out that this disproportionate impact hit tribal nations long before covid. Covid only expose our vulnerabilities. Here the nation like every tribe, we suffer a Health Care System that is woefully inadequate. The mission on civil rights delivered a report to congress two years ago following a report called the quiet crisis, delivered over a decade ago that detailed not one federal agency is living up to its responsibility to the tribal nations on every sector. Health care lawenforcement, education. These positions that we are in economically, socially, politically, have only made us vulnerable. We have done our best. Given the vulnerable vulnerable position we have found ourselves in, it has only strengthened our resilience and resolve to meet these challenges and emerge even stronger. We are doing Creative Things throughout Indian Country. Testing, just following the World Health Organization strategy. They had a strategy back in february and march that we followed, a strict containment strategy. Not seeing anything here in the United States. Those go to our experts who are dealing with global pandemics. They produced an Emergency Response plan for covid following a strict containment strategy. We broadly tested citizens, one third of our population. We propped up our resorts at ocean shores as an Isolation Quarantine Center ultimately used by the local county. We are the largest employer. We, creatively, with very little resources, were able to model a response following best practices, as we all should. Covid free until august. At that time we had an outbreak of eight positive cases in a mill that was not tribally owned. Nontribaled by citizens and we strictly contained those who tested positive and knock on wood those were the only cases so far. Toe recently we have had quarantine folks who have had to come into contact, but thats the situation here. Deeply impacted economically and looking forward to when congress resumes figuring out a strategy going forward. For your tribal or any tribe in this country, when the state governments issue mandates , do you have to follow them on tribal land . Whats the relationship there . Guest thats another critically important question, thank you for asking that. We dont. The governor of the state of washington, jay inslee, issued a statement that made it very clear that with regards to the response on tribal reservations, its the tribal nation that will lead and the tribal nation will adopt regulation standards, protocols. Thats a very clear line here in the state of washington. We also have the authority under the stafford act. The nation was aggressively lobbying to include a provision in the stafford act that allowed tribal nations to declare their own states of emergency independent of the state. So, after hurricane sandy, there were some amendments to the stafford act and we were successful in ensuring in the amendments that tribal nations were able to independently declare states of emergency, which we did, we met that threshold. Host fawn sharp is our guest, president of the National American congress of indians. Joining us until the end of the program today, 10 00 a. M. If you want to join the conversation, phone lines split by party as usual, with a special line for native americans. 202 7488003 is that number. Duke, chester, pennsylvania, you are on with fawn sharp. Caller high, john, hi, fawn. Hi, john. Hi, fawn. In terms of my family, we have been here since 1680. American indians impacted originally from delaware. We have been impacted by the dawes act. A lot of my family has been affected by tuberculosis 100 years ago, not our first time with the pandemic. Taking that into consideration, also, you know, the rise of black American Indians, i want providing fawn is space or a platform for black American Indians off reservation who have been affected as we consider this moment of like thanksgiving or genocide day, as , so thanksalls it for taking my call. Act. On the dawes and then to the question . Guest it decimated tribal lands, broke up reservations, designed to dispossess us of our sacred homelands. We are all deeply impacted. Twoyear second question, yes, we are absolutely creating that space. In my mind its necessary. When we consider the disproportionate impacts on minority communities in this country, it comes down to a basic question of equality in this country was built on a foundation of equality. It was envisioned that every person that lived within these lands would live fully and we know that from the moment our treaties were signed, we just didnt achieve that. Equality, we still struggle to achieve that equality. When you consider four centuries of our fight to just have a place at the table, to be visible and have a sense of it already, it goes back many generations and we have to engage in an exercise of truth and reconciliation in this country that goes back to that very first chapter. Then there is another chapter with regards to black americans and slavery. Generation after generation, father has not you know reconciliation, we have had generation after generation of trauma and until we draw a line in the sand to say no longer are we going to treat people disproportionately unequally, only then can we begin to have healing in this country. So, absolutely we have to create beence for all who have disenfranchised, face in equity, unequal in the eyes of the law and man. On out of next somerset, ohio, on the line for native americans. State i just want to that my mother, who is half cherokee, half choctaw, in texas was chairman of the largest precinct in texas of the democratic party. Termso served for several. She was a real fighter. She brought a lot of attention to the needs of people who are disenfranchised and was very instrumental in the civil rights movement. Im very proud of the work she has done. She has since written several books on the choctaw people. Their mastery of basket weaving, as well as the history of our the daweso escaped act by running into the basically in the swamps and hiding out, even moving back. Women, ofhave been native american ancestry, that fighting working and and i hope we will continue to see what we can do. . Ost fawn sharp guest yes, thank you. I would love to read your mothers writing. I find that my leadership is inspired by so many other native Women Leaders and Women Leaders in general who have inspired and guided my life. The principal chief of the Cherokee Nation but was a significant role model early in my presidency. Im only the ninth president of the nation since the turn of the last century. I served with president bush, i , president sobama trump and now president elect biden and we are four to one and im the 23rd president of the National Congress of American Indians and the third woman president. Im the second woman president at the nation and we find that all across Indian Country that we have aunties, grandmas, sisters who provide us with tremendous insight, wisdom, andassion for our citizenry people. Its that matriarchal, that side of our leadership that really has inspired us multigeneral relation multigeneral relation he. Thank you for sharing that story and i would love to read some of her books. Thank you. This friday is National American heritage day. You recommendations would have for anyone who wants to learn more on the heritage of the tribes around this country . Guest if someone is really interested in learning who we are is the First Americans in this country, i would really take the time to understand the spiritual dimension of our people and our citizenry. That no Common Thread matter where you go in the country, you can hear the power of our strongest of our songs, that drumbeat, it represents what was here at the beginning of time and it will be here at the end of time. We have seen millions of acres of land across this country lost by treaty. We have never relinquished our spiritual connection. The prayers, the songs, the ceremonies. Right now, a tribal nation is fighting to protect their sacred copper drilling. Lands that have been conveyed to rio tinto, a multinational corporation. Right now in this very moment they are fighting to protect their sacred site where their ancestors leapt to their deaths as opposed to surrendering. That is at risk. On the southern border they are trying to protect their southern homelands. Right now heavy equipment is threatening to demolish the walld site, constructing a to separate mexico and the United States within their territory and homelands. These are tribal nations on the front line, defending that which is sacred against unilateral action. Not only without their consent, but over their objections to protect their homelands. These are very spiritual things that, when you consider a people , where the most part powerfully already argue lee powerful company as country in the world as set out to destroy us, but we have had resolve and resilience in those nations, how is it that a newly found country just a few centuries ago can emerge to be the largest and most powerful country in the world . Its because of the space. Its a very sacred place. When people consider tribal nations and native people, there are all these stereotypes, but to truly understand how we live and what matters to us in the most significant and central parts of our being, its that common fighting spirit, that common resilience. I often say that when we experience multigenerational trauma, we have multigenerational strength and wisdom. Its an unbroken chain to that which began and is very sacred in this great country that we know as the United States. Host we originally asked you to join us because of the Record Number of native americans in congress, but it is just six out of 535. Do you think that American Indians are having their voices heard in the u. S. Congress . At this point, yes. Our voices being heard while the numbers are relatively small. Those who have emerged and who have been elected are mighty voices. They are uncompromising voices who are making sure that every bit of Public Policy that is relevant and deeply impacts tribal nations, that we have a voice at the table. I cant tell you how much we appreciate those voices. I have mentioned the broken promises report. We have a commitment from congressman deb haaland, a native from new mexico, along with senator Elizabeth Moran to develop concrete actual recommendations on the broken promises report. Congress hase in truly stepped up our advocacy efforts at our voice in the house of congress. Minneapolis, republican, good morning. Caller thank you for letting me get in on this one. I appreciate that. Good morning to you all. I moved to minnesota 35 years ago and i got a chance to meet with a lot of unaired a lot of native American People. At the time i didnt even know native American People existed until i moved to minnesota and what i found out was, about their language and their culture. Through democracy now, and independent source of information for news, they did north, north,he in north dakota for the line that the regular news media didnt even touch except for in spurts. She committed her show for the whole almost a month. I just wanted to let you know that we are aware of the native American People and they deserve what they are supposed to get in this country and have been neglected for way too long. Thank you. Thank you so much for mentioning both the visibility and the fight at the Dakota Access pipeline. That is an issue, and i could connect that to the point i made earlier about our spiritual strength and resolve. 2016 i was able to dispatch some of our youth to Standing Rock. In the aftermath of that i dispatched elders to paddle a canoe and it was met with drummers along the cannonball river, from the great plains tribes. To hear our songs there with those mighty warriors along the banks, it was incredibly powerful. To a point, it was right about this time in 2016, over the thanksgiving holiday, i saw the news were words of what was happening. Not the National News reports, but a lot of reports on social media and others where we had a connection with those on the ground at Standing Rock and i remember thinking that now is the time and i called upon our counsel to go to Standing Rock. We have a national holiday, december 5. Honor the sovereignty fighters and we will go to Standing Rock and we will go to camp. I physically personally camp the first week of december at Standing Rock. When we arrived, there was just this out, outpouring of celebration. That was the day the obama administration, the army corps suspended the permit until there was further review and analysis. 5, wext day, december offered songs and prayer and support to Standing Rock. That was such a significant victory. I had no idea that that would happen. But it so happened that on the day that we celebrated our sovereignty there, all of that came together and it was just such a moment in time. That was an effort led by our young people, our youth. Movement to global elevate race and join allies at the tribal nations to protect the sacred of our homelands here in the United States. So, thank you for mentioning that. Host for folks who dont know much about the quinault nation, you made a point of wearing your headpiece today and there is another one behind you on the desks. Can you tell us about it . Yes, im part of the quinault nation canoe society. This particular headband was gifted to me on the very first morning of my first tribal journey. It started when time began. But for over a century our canoes were not on the waters here in Washington State. You could not find them in the ocean. Vision of our canoes coming back and being back out on the waters. He wanted to see 100 canoes. He lived to be 100. He wanted to see 100 canoes eventually. From my experience, the moment that i launched off the shores, this was gifted to me. I remember being 15 minutes into the paddle. You are in a dugout canoe, its not manufactured, its handcarved. You know, someone had the whole carving process and we are facing a large swell from the ocean and i remember thinking i dont think im going to make it outside the coast. I was physically drained, physically tired. We began to sing some traditional songs and i felt this resurgence of strength. Mentally and physically i was resigned, but spiritually i came alive. We sang a whale song. We would see a whale, and eagle, we would be joined by the eagles off the coast. Thats what i talk about with the spiritual dimension of our existence. This cedar hat was my gift from one of our elders on the morning of my very first tribal journey. Kidas made by a high school who was trained under an elder. This hat behind me was a recent gift. After i won the presidency at the National Congress of American Indians. Thats my speakers hat for formal events. For is my ceremonial hat strength, clarity, and just a connection with my ancestors. I thought that would be very appropriate for this interview. Thank you for sharing that story. Cindy is next. Good morning. Caller a grandmother, greatgrandmother with a little bit of winnebago and navajo. Very active when you mention Standing Rock, where they did the artwork with the kids during the time. With santa fe and the navajo nation. To a degree its us and broken hearts. The cnn exit poll for the election listed white latino, black, and native as something else, 6 . Time, with the broken heart of a grandmother, to pick , isnt it time in november, native american month, and thanksgiving tomorrow, that name inle were given a the media and other places . Host thank you for the call. Fawn sharp . Thatr guest guest screenshot was shared widely across Indian Country. But the irony in our community of being invisible during a month where we should be visible and celebrated, we are not only not celebrated, but not even registering it all in those types of reports. Yeah, we have got a long way to go. So, i can only say that in those moments, when we come together, when we have that sort of common challenge, we all recognize it, everybody across Indian Country and social media, it was widely discussed here in Washington State. We have a plan to address that point. We all felt it, nationally. Doesnt matter if you were in the southwest, the northeast, the northwest, all across Indian Country, it was felt deeply and we are committed to making sure it doesnt happen again. A column recently from the , indigenous and native americans played a key role in swing states. What are you expecting from the Biden Administration . First of all, i would love to see a native in the cabinet. A lot of announcements are coming out about cabinet level officials. Having a native person at the seat at those highlevel meetings, to have a native voice among all the federal families of agencies . As a trustee they have a relationship with us and we should have a place at the table. There is also a white house tribal nation summit started under the obama administration. President biden has committed to continuing that annual meeting and engagement. We look forward to an annual discussion where we can address every issue. I firmly expect that the Biden Administration will not be front and center to tell us what he is going to do, but he will take the time to listen and understand our vision for our future and enlist every resource in every federal agency in achieving the vision that we have for Indian Country. Those are some of the things that we need to see at the table as an incredible first start on day one. Caller i dont even know if you can help me with that best this question, but we have two indian clinics here in oregon. One is up in oregon and they wont recognize other confederated tribes. Im from northern california. I dont know if you know anything about how they are separated. We are all indian. We have our cards. I have my card with the number on it. I actually have the number. But i dont understand why everyone is like stereotyping the indians at halloween. Where your indian costume. Its still stereotype stuff like that. Like your hat is from your tribe. But my tribe is different. Native tongue is all different. We cant speak to each other, some of us. Its all different. Guest yes, with regards to the Health Care System and the disparate treatments, we have to implement regulations from the Indian Health service and they are very clear about who, when, and where we can serve the native population. Im currently working with a citizen in seattle who had to go to to emergency surgery and they were denied any sort of funding to help with that surgery because he was out of the service area here. That service area, its an application of federal in which we are all unequal. Provide on or off the reservation. Its all part of the Healthcare System that has all of these different regulations we have to comply with. Host jack is in brownsville, langford democrats. Good morning. I wantto echo caller to echo what the previous caller said in the caller before that. I have lived here for 50 years now up towards the mountains and my tribe, when i first moved lots and lotsre of indian people, i had never met an indian. Well, i became good friends with everyone of them and i was welcomed into their families and i learned so much from them. Now, sadly, 50 years later, all the old elders are gone. Uncle bob, uncle frazier, uncle edwards. They were passing down things to all the younger people. Now all of those people that are 45 are in their 60s, they are just dying left and right from diabetes and other diseases. Whole families. Ts sad, its terrible the government, the United States government had no problem making the promises that they did way back when. Care, theye health really have to do it right. Instead of, theres more and , americann American Indians being voted into congress and the senate and the house, but we need more to open up peoples eyes. Like they ought to have an American Indian be in charge of the environment. Host fawn sharp . Guest yes, i can feel every bit of what you are saying with regards to the elders dying off. Every time we lose an elder, its so much we have lost. Those are things that we are working hard to ensure that our young people are learning our customs, our traditions so that we dont lose another generation. , that,health care point no matter where you go in Indian Country, it sort of asks the question, do you know or have a Family Member that could go to a local clinic and were told to drink fluids and go home time and time again and it progresses to the point where they have to go off the reservation to get help and by that point its too late . I had a good friend of mine that i grew up with in grade school, they ended up with pneumonia and passed away at 48. Thats common. I remember asking tribal leaders who has that type of story, everyone of us raise our hand. Not only are we chronically underfunded, but we dont have a comprehensive Health Care System. We have a very limited budget where we are able to hire doctors and pharmacists, but if you Practice Medicine off the thervation, theres business of oversight, malpractice, and all these other things that regulate the medical industry. We dont have that in Indian Country. We dont have comprehensive Health Care Delivery systems. Dying and large numbers, we are disproportionately impacted and at the beginning of this program, all of that was precovid. Covid only exposed the vulnerability to a significant degree. So, thank you for that question. Host the caller was talking about opening the eyes of people. Theres a new monument here in d. C. That tried to open the eyes of people to the role of native american veterans. Can you talk about it . Are you still with us . Guest yes, absolutely. Can you hear me now . Host go ahead. We are showing our viewers some video from the monument that just opened on the 11th of this month, just two weeks ago. Guest yes, and in the moments of global pandemic, we had planned for this, we celebrated. Our frontline warriors served even before we were u. S. Citizens. In 1924 tribal citizens, u. S. Citizens, we had our veterans enlisting to serve the country before we were even acknowledged and recognized as citizens. We have a long tradition and legacy of citizens deeply connected to these lands who step up in disproportionate numbers. We are represented more than any other ethnic population of native veterans. We have women warriors who step , so happy and we were honored to share with the world frontline work that our warriors have been doing and will continue to do. This was an exciting time. We did a virtual grand opening, but i have yet to be there. Just a few more moments yourfawn sharp, taking phone calls ahead of native American Heritage day. It is native American Heritage month. The day after thanksgiving is native American Heritage day. New mexico, good morning. Yes, [speaking native language] im a member in western new mexico. My late father is a navajo code talker. I have been a part of the 70s, we back in the went on the trail of broken ,reaties into washington, d. C. With a swamp across america. Our families were in lakota country. The Indigenous People on navajo land. Now with the transition in the administration, some of the grassroots people would like to see us reading up on the documents, like the ones of discovery that talk about what we are today. Treaty rights, treaty people, some of our rights are tied into that. I just want to mention it to you, thank you for being the leader of your tribe, the National Congress of American Indians. , buto is not part of that we support tribes and resolutions. Thank you for that. Yeah. [speaking native american language]. Ood morning, greetings i talk with you this morning and i wish you well. You have suffered disproportionately there at navajo and have been in our thoughts and prayers across Indian Country. Whole nation is going to continue to be in our thoughts and prayers. Thank you for mentioning the grassroots efforts. In suchso, so important a key to our advancement and progress. I remember early in my presidency i was watching a documentary with tribal leaders who took over the bia building in washington. They were interviewed and it said the only time that we get resolve on funding and programs is direct critical action. I remember looking to my mom when i was a young child and i told her that that is what we are still fighting for today and only through direct action can we get any real resolve. I was in washington, d. C. During 9 11. Members of congress on the sovereignty protection initiative. I remember when the senator from hawaii announced to the audience that we washington, d. C. Had been turned into a instant war zone. Onas scheduled to fly in that day, september 10, fly out on the 11th. I couldnt get home. I remember at that point i went to congress and i was appointed, then, as the nations attorney, to come up with a fundraising and Education Campaign for the protection initiative. That year the creator put on my heart to run a marathon. I had never run one in my life. At that point. Es long journey home, i came up with the idea. We left on the one Year Anniversary of 9 11. Our goal was to arrive at the steps of the Supreme Court on october 4. We successfully did that and were joined by tribal nations all across the United States. In fact it was a navajo elder that joined me for a warrior and offeredtana prayers and blessings at that point. It was an event where we elevated and raised awareness. When tribal nations came together for the sovereignty run, we had a blip that was a tiny thing on the bottom of the cnn screen. We actually paid significantly just to have it, but every tribal nation across the United States running for a cause, for sovereignty, for was nothing pud about that but we are successful. We convened a rally on the front steps of the Supreme Court and we were able to advance the sovereignty protection initiative. Thank you for recognizing our grassroots warriors because it is not the tribal leaders, it is the brain trust that exists within every tribal nation. When we come together and we unleashed that and we bring light and leadership, good things happening happen. Thank you for joining us this morning on cspan to talk about all of these issues
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