Standoff, a weekend a day after the election. What is the Trump Campaigns strategy in all of this . Guest the Campaign Strategy is to mount legal challenges. And the republican strategy is to stand with President Trump. It was evident on monday at the capital that Mitch Mcconnell, senator roy blunt and other members of the Republican Leadership stand in lockstep with President Trump as he pursues different recounts and litigation across the political map. Its an example of the solidarity of the gop despite President Trumps defeat, and also a challenge for Vice President elect biden who is trying to mount a transition at this point but he doesnt have formal backing from the current administration. Host what are you hearing is the mood inside the white house, officials and sources you talk to . Guest President Trump is unlikely to concede this election. He may walk away from the white the electionary if is certified formally for president elect biden. He becomes president of the united states, the 46th on january 20. President trump still views himself as a political outsider, someone with grievances against the political system and the establishment. For his own branding purposes he is unwilling to ever call himself a loser or someone who has been defeated. Is likely to walk away but not until the bitter end after he has exhausted all legal and political options. Also to signal to his own voters ahead of a possible run in 2024 that he did Everything Possible to stay in power. Host the public faces of the efforts seem to be people like Rudy Giuliani and others. What role are his close advisors, his daughter ivanka, jared kushner, and mark meadows who was quarantining for covid19, correct . Guest the role of his advisors is simply to be cheerleaders at this point. To be supporters of a president who is besieged and facing defeat. What you saw from match lap in hlap, someonet s holding News Conferences. Same with mayor giuliani. They are holding News Conferences around the country. They are alleging widespread corruption and fraud. But based on the Washington Post reporting, there has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud. The new york timess story today is the same point. They called around different state officials, found no evidence of secretaries of state, many republicans, not stepping forward with fraud. Anecdotal evidence of election irregularities have popped up with Election Officials in the states are not saying the election was in some way corrupt. The biggest flashpoint to Pay Attention to is georgia where the republican secretary of state is maintaining the election has been done in an honest way without any problems. Bothitting senators, republicans who face a runoff on forary 5, they have called the georgia secretary of state to resign even though there is no evidence on their part of fraud. We have this standoff where both sides are accusing the others of bad faith, but it is clear the trump side, and in this case the republican side in georgia, the incumbent senators, are bringing allegations without evidence. Host we will see the president today for the First Time Since election day at Arlington National on this veterans day, playing a wreath at the tomb of the unknowns. There was word earlier this week the president may even go back out on the road to do some rallies postelection. What do we know of that . Guest in my story a few days ago in the Washington Post, his advisors told us he is interested in doing rallies and having campaignstyle rallies. He has delegated much of his responsibilities to surrogates. He wants to stay in the white house and work in his legal strategy without creating a stir. This could change as the georgia runoff nears, as well as the Electoral College certification nears. The president has been unusually quiet. It has created a tension with president elect biden and his transition process. Host our guest is robert costa, National Political reporter with the Washington Post. We are talking about what may be ahead. 202 7488000 if you are a joe biden supporter. 202 7488001 for those of you supporting President Trump and mike pence. For all others, 202 7488002. Robert costa, you talked about this momentarily with the losing senater of majority runoffs in georgia drives gop to trumps unfounded claims of Election Fraud. It is likely we will have a result. How might republican messaging change ahead of that election . Guest thats a good point. If the election is certified as we expected to be in Electoral College, what you could see in georgia is a little bit more of a focus on the democrats and traditional flashpoint in these races. Republicans told me yesterday they want to when a traditional campaign. That will probably be the Closing Campaign message. At this point the message is different. Story foratever this todays Washington Post. What you see in georgia and across the Republican Party is a willingness to stand with President Trump, with his claims of Election Fraud brought forward without evidence. The reason they are doing this, in part, is to make sure the Republican Base is energized and activated in georgia. In georgia, it is a fastchanging state. You look at the rising latino population, Asian American population, can the influx of white liberals and black americans into the atlanta area. You see estate that symbolizes a state that symbolizes the deep south. As theyans want to win have struggled to do so in 2020. They need to turn out in the majority white suburbs of atlanta. To do that you have to stand with President Trump who is so popular with those voters. Voters in the atlanta area and throughout rural georgia. You cant start to somehow depart from President Trump at this fragile moment in President Trumps political career. Host when was the last time he had a chance to interview President Trump . You had a chance to interview President Trump . Guest i had a formal interview with President Trump, and i believe it was the last time we spoke, when i did a story a few months ago on lou dobbs. Lou dobbs is the foxbusiness news personality. I did not expect President Trump to participate as a source, as in on the record source, but he did. This was probably a year ago. Lou dobbs is someone who is symbolic of how the trump era works. President trump turns to him for advice, both on the phone based on a reporting and on television by watching his tv show. Dobbs is a hardliner on immigration. Someone who is a Kindred Spirit politically. When historians look back on the could read myy story of the Washington Post and realize as much as President Trump had advisors in the white house, some of his key advisors were tv personalities. They will watch tucker crossan or lou dobbs and take cues about Tucker Carlsen or lou dobson take cues about what is important at the moment. Host we have heard the president may start up a Political Action committee. We have heard there is considerations of him running again in 2024. Sons having of his greater involvement in the Republican Party. Guest it is unsurprising. This is a family that since day one in 2017, since the first day of the campaign in 2016, has been at the forefront of their fathers political career. Jared kushner and evocative white house, donald trump and his girlfriend. Along with laura trump, eric trumps wife and eric himself. And tiffany trump, the president s youngest daughter has not been as politically involved but she shows up from time to time. Donald trump, jr. Has been mentioned as a possible candidate himself whether he runs for senate in a state with the president has a home or run for mayor of new york city. At this point he seems to be most interested in running the Republican National committee. He will have some competition though. That is not something his father can just install him. The Republican National committee is full of Committee Members who will make the decision. Many of them love the trump family and love President Trump. It would not be shocking to see him take over in a sense. But incumbent president s have ultimate sway over the partys committee. When they are gone, that falls away and can go to different people on the committee the jockey to power. Maybe donald trump, jr. Ends up on the Republican National committee himself. It seems more to be an aspiration and ambition than something that is actually playing out. Mcdaniel, theey Current Committee chair tries to usher in donald trump, jr. , it could happen. Many gop lawmakers on the Republican National committee for funding, staffing, strategy. They will have a say in if they want donald trump, jr. Moving beyond working for his Father Campaign and has not been a political strategist his entire life. Most lawmakers i talked to would love to see professionals who have been there for decades at the top of the committee. Host we have calls waiting for robert costa. First, joanna damascus, maryland on our supports joe biden line. Caller good morning. This is what i would like to say. Trump would have you believe all the states he won were fraudfree. All of them. He has no question about them. But all the states that biden won had fraud and that is why he won. Think about the logic of that. I think people need to take a look at that. Trump supporters need to look at that. It is preposterous that no fraud was involved in the states he won, but was only fraud in all the states that biden won that put him over the top. I think that is an important thing to remember. I really do believe and biden believes this election is about who we are. We will continue in this fragile democracy, forgive it up in favor of a strong man . Host robert costa . Guest thank you for the comment. It seems to be more of a comment than a question. Host westchester, ohio. This is deborah, a donald trump supporter. Caller thank you for taking my call. I am retired scientist and quality control. Fidelity chemistry and microbiology i dealt in chemistry and microbiology. My concern is we are all talking about generalities. I need to know more specifics. I will accept whatever we find is solid based on evidence. When i look into this, for instance, in las vegas, 11 of the citizens are noncitizens. Noncitizens have a place of residency. They have a drivers license and a signature that matches. Out i am trying to find maybe you will know. Noncitizens records in such a way with valid data the fda would never allow me to give information and say you just have to believe it. I dont have to show you my process or validate my process. In the senses this year we did not allow our senses to separate citizens versus noncitizens. I am not against immigration. I am for legal immigration. I will accept. Based on mighty as a scientist for 30 years, i dont think we have the ability to process and validate a mass mail valid. The states that mass mail already validate. They have lists they check against. I think that is what is missing, evidence on both sides. Show me your process that you can verify that noncitizens did not vote. Host robert costa, do you think in the end mailin voting will be deemed as having been a success . Guest states it is done mailin ballots for years feel like in 2020 they were successful. What you are seeing with mailin ballot is a reaction to a Global Pandemic that has kept millions of americans, especially high propensity senior voters from going to polling places. They are turning to mailin ballots. There is also an erosion of trust in the u. S. Postal service. President trump has attacked it repeatedly, along with other republicans. We have this situation where mailin ballot was essentially request mailin balloting was essentially required for health concerns. Many republicans were told by the president that the Postal Service cannot be trusted with the vote on election day. Many republicans did vote on election day but we have seen the accounts change and some of the states because mailin ballots take longer to be counted. This does not constitute fraud. In fact, in all these states you have rules and laws that are set in place about how mailin balloting will be processed. This is complicated. It takes time. Just because something is complicated and takes time does not mean to rush to the conclusion it is fraud. I agree with the caller. If there is evidence of people andare not citizens voting breaking the law, of course that deserves investigation. It deserves to be reported. Speculation about it is just that. Host there was a piece this aboutith your colleagues the relationship between joe biden and Mitch Mcconnell. Longstanding ties between biden and mcconnell could shape an early agenda. Where interim period Mitch Mcconnell is aligned with the president in terms of the vote count, is this potentially harming that relationship or putting a damper on it ahead of the biden presidency . Guest relationships for senator mcconnell, the majority leader, are not a driving force in his own political operation. They are important but not the animus, the animating force. What you see from Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell is a longstanding report with president elect biden. I used see Vice President biden go to the capital. I was reporting on capitol hill at the time. Whenever there was a budget standoff, biden and mcconnell seemed to be able to cut a deal at the 11th hour. To me that was always revealing. Washington has become broken in many parts in terms of congress functioning and getting legislation done. Oldbiden and mcconnell, two pros have been able to cut budget deals together. Beyond budget deals it is hard to see how pay bidenmcconnell relationship plays out in a huge way legislatively in 2021. The appetite in the republican conference and senate and house is limited to do some kind of sweeping deal on fiscal policy, on immigration, health care. Instead, keeping the government running becomes a priority. Perhaps the loan priority for bipartisanship lone priority for bipartisanship. You can do that three reconciliation. My expectation is in 2021 mcconnell and biden will do their best to keep the government open and appropriations flowing and the budget together. Beyond that, mcconnell has his eye on 2022. Currently he has his eye on georgia and expanding his majority. President elect biden, as much as he may have the clinician for bipartisanship, hes dealing with a changing Democratic Party that does not have a huge appetite for working with republicans after four years. President sition as reminds me a bit of the position House Speaker john boehner in 2011 and 2012. He liked bipartisanship and wanted to work with someone like biden and president obama but was constrained by the Tea Party Movement and by the right wing who urged him not to cut any deals. Biden could face a similar dynamic from the left where he may have the inclination to cut a deal, but an offended leftwing may say hold off until we get everything we want. Host on the majority leader, you know if Mitch Mcconnell has spoken to President Trump since the election . Guest i dont have direct reporting if he has spoken to President Trump but they do speak regularly. I have not heard about mcconnell calling president elect biden. Host robert in riverdale, jordan. Georgia. Caller how are you doing . Votes, that illegal means split tickets were republicans win and the democrats they dont cap either. Thank dont count either. Revote. An do is i will get five of my registered, legal voters of my friends who did not vote, i will take them with me. Thing is i dont believe i believe donald duck stole the election when he won. I have a degree in engineering and mathematically everything they are claiming fraud. Votes, he got those would not win. Host richard in montreal, joining us from canada. Caller good morning. There are so many people coming forward with sworn affidavits saying voter fraud and whistleblowing and even democrats. My sevenyearold son could prosecute this case in court and win. The democrats, now we know why they are again