Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20161231 : vimarsan

Republicans call 202 7848001. Democrats can call 202 7488000. Independent ken call 202 7488002. You can leave us a comment on our facebook page. Historic. It will be written about in textbooks for decades many of the eggs stories were political stories here and overseas. Every year the Associated Press pulls news organizations across the country. These are some of the top stories that they chose as the most influential of 2016. Topping the list is the u. S. Rexit. On and theb those are the biggest news stories of the year according to the associated rest. The list does not stop there. They also found that newspaper editors and news directors found the number of black men killed i the third mosts important story of the year. Here is some information about that issue. Police in baton rouge, louisiana him after or holding him on the ground. After several similar cases in recent years, there is a debate over policing and the black lives Matter Movement. Also topping the list is the pulse nightclub massacre, the worst mass shooting in modern United States history. It was a gay nightclub in orlando. People in killed 49 three hours. He died in a shootout with swat team members. During the shootout he pledged allegiance to the islamic state. Shooting, nightclub terror attacks across the world. Flared at atacks relentless pace throughout the year. Many of the attacks targeted airports in brussels and is stumbled. The seafront boulevard in nice, france. A truck plowed through a bastille day celebration. Also making the list, attacks on police. Emailmocratic party leaks. The series it fighting that continues to rage in syria. The 10th the story of the year was Hillary Clintons emails. Some stories that did not make the list include the migrant crisis, the death of fidel castro, the spread of the zika virus, paul important stories. Are10 stop top stories the ones that we just read it. The Washington Post has another list out of the four most oferely undersold stories 2016. The top four most undersold, underreported stories include republicans dominance they now control 33 out of 50 governorships. They also control state legislative chambers, which is tied for a record. Also on that list are democrat bench problems. Been decimated at the state level and thats creating the situation where they dont have as many people to recruit to run for higher office. There is a decline of the tea the number ofas red states as you can see. Google compiled a video of the year in review based on your searches, searches on their search engine. This is a recap of the year. We will have that for you in just a minute. We will go ahead and turn to the phone lines here. We will hear from huntington, west virginia. Good morning to you. Good morning, cspan. Thank you for taking my call. What is the biggest story of the year . Cop lost the public vote by 3 million votes. College, the top story is the gap in the election. Host that is huntington, west virginia. Up next is york, pennsylvania. Caller yes. The biggest story of the year in saw himon is when i being killed on facebook. I thought it was so profound. To still be going through this 2016, its a wakeup call to people that injustice on anyone is a threat to everyone. I like how we all came together to reiterate that this is wrong and it cannot happen. Were better than this. That would have been the biggest story, the black lives Matter Movement and the killing of unarmed people. It was just profound for this year. That was kim from york pennsylvania. That video from google. Runninge were everywhere. We are more divided as a nation than weve ever been. Everybody gets on the floor. Love does not despair. Love gives us hope that change is possible. If you take away the labels, we are more alike than we are different. The cubs have finally won at all. Ande are the music makers we are the dreamers of dreams. Love is love is love is love is love and cannot be killed or swept aside. Host those are images from a google. Were hearing now from you. What do you think of the top stories of 2016. Joe is in florida. He is calling as an independent. What you think this morning . Brexit. Its not like here. Hacked. T be we need to abolish the Electoral College. Gerrymandering, we need to get rid of Voter Suppression and electronic machines. It can be attacked by any country. We need to go back to ballots like england. You shocked that in england cannot hack. It leaves a paper trail. That is what we need. It, ity that russia did can be anybody. Host that was joe in braden 10, florida. Karen, oh ahead. Caller i just want to say my whenst present of 2016 was donald trump one. We dont need to get away from the elect tory college where none of us in the middle of the country have a voice. I am so tired of getting up every morning to go to work and turn on tv and i have to be mad at something. Now theyve got a picture up in the capital. This is so maddening. Report from the government how many refugees in illegal aliens they are placing and Nancy Pelosis backyard or how many obama is sponsoring. That is karen in oklahoma. Is onetrumps election of the top news stories of the year according to many polls in many surveys. This is a little of his victory speech in new york city after his election in which he thanked Hillary Clinton for her service. Callve just received a from secretary clinton. She congratulated us. Her and herted family on a very hardfought campaign. She fought very hard. Worked very long and very hard over a long. A majorand we owe her debt of gratitude for her service to our country. I mean that very sincerely. To its time for america bind the wounds of division. All republicans and democrats and independents across this usion, i say its time for to come together as one united people. Its time. Pledge to every citizen of our land that i will be the president for all americans and this is so important to me. For those who have chosen not to support me in the past, of which there were a few people. I am reaching out to you for your guidance and your help. Host here are a few of your comments from facebook. Leader finally elected to lead this country and put an end to the nightmare. Rights mentor rob from arizona is calling on the democratic line. Good morning. Biggest news story of the year . We debatedphoenix, defeated the sheriff. Thats just the surface of the crimes he committed here in phoenix. He is out of office. Hisont have any more of racial profiling. Lawsuits to defend. ,here were illegal practices the birth certificate investigation. Cruelty to thef people of phoenix, they are over with. Host that was robin phoenix, arizona. The next collar is from new jersey. What do you think is the biggest news story of the year . Caller happy new year, cspan. I am a moderate. Bernie sanders was the only one that is going to do something about wall street. 2010, wall street started to support themselves. Right now, they are still month tooney every support themselves. Bernie sanders was the only candidate who forced them to do something about that here in net of the other candidates wants to stop giving wall street money every month. Host that was james in new jersey. Lets hear now from maryland where ruby is calling in on the and dependent line. Good morning to. Caller happy new year to all of you. I enjoy listening to. The biggest news for me was Hillary Clinton winning the popular vote. Thats what i wanted to say. She didnt win the electoral vote. People should not forget that. She won the popular vote by over 3 million votes. Thats what i wanted to say. Host that is ruby in columbia it, maryland. This is part of Hillary Clintons concession speech. I know we have still not shattered that glass ceiling. Someday, someone well and hopefully sooner than we might think right now. And to all the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams. Forlly, i am so grateful our country and for all it has given to me. I count my blessings every single day. Believe is deeply as i ever have that if we stand together and Work Together with respect for our differences, strength in our convictions, and love for this nation, our best days are still ahead of us. We are taking your phone calls all morning on what you think the top news story of 2016 should be. Obviously, it was a big year in politics. There were political upsets here and abroad. Over in britain. The decision by britain to leave the european union, the loss of Hillary Clinton despite winning the popular vote. All of these were major news stories. Here are a few more comments from facebook. But, another person writes. Politics was an important story this year. It was not the only one. You can call in and give us your thoughts. Here are the lines again to dial. Republicans, your number is 202 7848001. Democrats, your number is 202 7488000. Number isce, your 202 7488002. We are reading your comments at facebook. David is from South Carolina. He is on the independent line. Good morning. Story the biggest news is we had cash is clay that was famous. He changed his name to mom and ali. Asking nobody is talking about that. Its proven. To say because its politically incorrect. He is true islam. Host it has been widely reported that president obama is not a muslim. He is a christian. That is david from South Carolina with his opinion. Joe is now on the democratic line. Think the return of america first, the soviet union returning, the cold war because arabtionalism, all of the nations revolting because of nationalism. Its a worldwide thing. You can see countries like the philippines trying to become nationalistic. , nationalismacking is all over. Host why do think its made such a resurgence . Caller people are becoming intolerant. Made people want to fight back against it. You can see it with brexit. You can see it in greece. All over the world, people were becoming more this is who i am, i am greek, i am irish. People are fighting back against internationalism. That is joe from north carolina. Alice, good morning to you. What is your top story . Thatr the main story is donald trump one. Hillary called his voters deplorable. Those were the people supporting her. There is so much bias in the media. Was disgusting. What are you looking for most about a Donald Trump Administration . America great again, especially the black community. We need help. The democrats have not done nothing for the black community here in community. Host that was dallas from florida. New livell begin the coverage of the president ial inauguration when it occurs on january 20. You can watch it here on cspan or listen to it for free on the cspan radio out. The next collar is bobby from oregon. Good morning. I am from salem, oregon. I am a veteran. I was an independent when i moved here because of the oregon law. I had to become a republican. Although i did become republican and voted for mr. Trump, i had to use my conscience wisely and vote for governor kate brown. We need to Work Together in this country. All this talk about this guy did that,she did that, he did this has got to go away. We have more important issues in this world. Thank you very much. Jesus saves. Host the next collar comes from tampa, florida. Scott, there you are. Good morning. What is your biggest news story of the year . Caller donald trump selection. Host why do you think that is the most important one . Caller he is going to do well. He is going to do well. Actually he is going to push through paul. Yans host we are going to move on to our next collar. Maureen, good morning to you. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Plant,wanted to say that michigan and the water crisis there is a very important story. For our the need country to act much more quickly when our own people are in crisis and when it seems wrongdoing has been done the government. When people are in serious trouble and risking their health by using the water. That was marine calling in on the democratic line. Here is a clip of Governor Rick Snyder from michigan. Blunt this was a failure of government all levels. Of local, state, and federal officials failed the families of flint. There is plenty of blame to share. It will not help the people of flint. Not a day or night goes by that this tragedy doesnt weigh on my mind. The questions i should have asked, answers i shouldve demanded, how i couldve prevented this . Are taking your calls all morning about what you think the top news stories of 2016 are. We want to bring you some headlines of the top stories of the day. This is out of the new york times. Thattory is saying Vladimir Putin of russia announced friday he would not retaliate against president obamas decision. In the Washington Post, the editorial on this issue says that mr. Trump refuses to face reality. The editorial says its not time to move on. Intelligence agencies are in agreement about what is going on. The editorial goes on to say. Out of north carolina, the judge halts north carolinas law that strips the incoming governors power. Theocked the law passed by legislature that limits the governors power over election boards. The law of restricting the governors control over statewide and county election boards was a risk to free and fair elections. We are taking your phone calls this morning. What are your top news stories of 2016. We are going to hear from can in new york on the independent line. Good morning. For me, the discovery pooryear of the incredibly grasp of reality that half the population has politically has stunned me. I could talk on this for 20 minutes. Host what you mean by the poor grasp on reality . Caller i live in a wonderful community. A wonderful county. Half of my neighbors have literally no idea what they are talking about when you get into politics. I blame it specifically on fox news. Back 30tes fox, it goes years with the birth of rush limbaugh. I dont know how to proceed. These are wonderful people and i dont know how to turn things around. I appreciate cspan more than i can express. Because of the genuine way that information is presented. Host that was can in new york next up is california on the republican line. Go ahead. Caller hello. Host good morning. Caller good morning. I was watching and i tune in sometimes because i love that those responses. I was asked about what is it that for 2016 for me, it is an era that i have to Say Something about 10 who just said about the , its liket of how no one is aware of any reality that is going on right now. To the emperor wears no clothes. Everyone knows donald trump was scandalous. Ofis going through all kinds it is incredulous. Those who are supporting him, talking about republicans, you have your own agenda. Doing what to end up he always has done. He has reached every promise. No one says anything. Everything goes forward. He tweets. This is something unprecedented. The media sits around and its like the emperor wears no clothes. Everybody knows he is grimy. Host next up is jackson calling from louisiana on the and dependent line. What is your top news story of the year . Caller thank you for taking my call. Host go ahead. Caller i wanted to reiterate the fact of something that was brought up on facebook about the flooding in louisiana. Its a very serious situation. Its to tracting from the president ial election that happened this year. So many communities were devastated and so much has an in done to help. No one is talking about it anymore. The devastation continues and no one is doing much to help. Host you are from new orleans. Were you impacted from the flooding at all . Was that north of you . Many friends and family of mine live in affected areas. Many friends of mine helped with recovery efforts. Massive grassroots event, nothing really happened. Host the next collar is frank from california on the democratic line. Good morning to you. Thanks for taking my call. There are a lot of stories. And how he got to where he is now is just unbelievable. Mention the charleston shooting. That is a big thing. Thats a big one. The whole thing with the you julie g eulogy that obama gave. Its a big issue. Host that was frank from studio city, california. The next call is from zurich on the republican line. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. I think that one of the biggest issues that i have seen this year is all of the officer involved shootings and how that has created a racial divide in our country. Alone, the Police Involvement or if i were to get , its more like high risk situations now. People feel that they cant trust the police. I dont feel thats good. We are supposed to trust the police. Host that is carl from missouri. Fromext collar is lowly mississippi. Lily from mississippi. Youre on the air. Two toddlers didnt get out of the burning house. They didnt have any electricity in the house. Gas in the have any house and they were burning candles. They got the mom and dad in jail and i hope they give them the death penalty. Leaving no business those children at home by yourselves. Host did this happen near your home . Caller i dont know what town it was in. It was in mississippi. Host here is a little bit of perspective from overseas. The Guardian Newspaper published this. The piece says that no one knows how 2016 will be remembered. The story goes on to talk about laws that were passed in europe that would have been unthinkable. Thee was a law about confiscation of money. That was a little bit of perspective from the Guardian Newspaper based out of the u. K. Sebastian from new york is on the democratic line. Caller i think obama has got to go down as one of the greatest president s ever. He save this country from a depression and nobody give some credit. If he did run again, he would win. Its a shame the way these treating him after all the sacrifices hes made. I cant believe he is getting chopped up the way he is. Host the next collar is amy from virginia. Good morning. Caller hello. Can you hear me . That Donald Trumps elect the president. He said he could not believe that his neighbors are so disconnected from reality. I agree with that. Withee with it has to do fox news and all of those people. I just dont understand that. I think people need to study history. I think that for some reason people have gotten away from it. They dont know anything about history. I think that has a lot to do with it. They listen to these commentators who lead them astray and they think they are telling the truth about everything and they are not. Host that was amy from virginia. This is another comment from facebook. From jake inw montana calling on the and dependent line. Good morning to you. Caller thanks for having me on the show. Happy new year to you. Isically, my top news story the situation in the congo where he has refused to step down from power. Undermine theo entire government there. The fear is eventually that will lead to civil war and we may be drawn into that because of our interests there. Host that is jay from montana. Edgar, what do you think . Caller m. R. I. Online . Am i online . Trump when he gets sworn takeets see if they cant fory out of the trust fund Social Security. They have taken the money out every time. They put a little piece of paper in there and never put any back in. If we put some that money back in their, we wouldnt have any problems with Social Security being broke all the time. Make it so they cant take anymore out. I think we would be ok on our Social Security. Up is frank from virginia on the republican line. Good morning. Caller my thoughts on the biggest story is the number of really crazy people that you have colin. I listen just about every morning. It just amazes me the people that call in and repeat the same stupid stuff over and over continually. You ought to have a separate line for idiots. The next collar on the biggest news story is in jacksonville. Go ahead. That donaldstory trump has won the presidency of the United States. For those people who are christians, they might be familiar with the book series, the left behind series. I fought wasng have i been left behind . They dont seem to hear what trump is saying. There is a character in the left behind series that affects people the same way. They are blinded. He tells them what he is going to do and they dont hear it. And then when he says he didnt mean that and he was just saying that to get elected, they dont care that either. I want the christians to Pay Attention to what he says, what of what and his history he has done only for himself. I appreciate that. Host one of the big stories that shaped the president ial campaign was the controversy over Hillary Clintons emails. Of james comey given a press conference in july on what they found during their investigation. We did not find evidence that secretary clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws, there is evidence that in their careless handling of very sensitive information. Seven email chains concern matters that were classified as topsecret. Those chains involved her sending emails about those matters and receiving emails about those sameatters. There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable those in her position or with whom she was corresponding should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that. In addition, we found information that was secret at the time it was discussed. We are taking your phone calls and comments all morning on what you think the biggest news story of 2016 has been. Here is one comment from facebook. In the new york times, the Editorial Board had this opinion says aired the editorial looking back at the last 12 months, they have justification. In the todays editorial new york times. Take a bad year and make it better is the headline. We are taking your thoughts on the top stories of the year. Sandra, go ahead. Thatr i would like to say my top story would be black lives matter. The young people have come together and they are strong in the situation. The negative thing about this is the government has not recognize the racial issues. Sincee been protesting the summer and we are still protesting for equal rights. Communityned that our are not right. Things have to change. That is my comment. New jersey is on the republican line. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. Election of is the 2016. Whoink about my parents said to stay in school and get it good education. I graduated college. I grew up on a farm. I begin to think about teaching growandchildren how to their own produce because i do believe we are in for some hard times. Host that was irvington, new jersey. She was calling in on the republican line. Giving you live coverage of the opening day of the 115th congress. That will be happening on tuesday, january 3. Our coverage will begin at 7 00 a. M. That coverage will begin from capitol hill at 7 a. M. On cspan and cspan. Org. You can listen to it for free on our cspan radio app. The democratic line. Good morning and go ahead. Caller thank you and happy new year to everybody. I am a democrat. I voted for obama the first time and not the second time. I voted for trump. One of the things i am thrilled about is the corruption of the Democratic Party and the news media has been exposed. Everybody knows it varied the democrats are the ones that are delusional. I am sorry for these people. They did not see what was going on right in front of their face. I am thrilled that its over. I hope 2017 is a good year for everybody. Thank you. Host marcia is calling next from alabama. Good morning. For most of my adult life i have been a democrat. Ift i dont understand is russia had something to do with the selection, why did not disclose those emails hillary bleached offer server. That should have been the thing if they were trying to get trump elected rather than hillary, why didnt they show us those 30,000 . I voted for the clintons in the past. I just could not do it this time because of all the money should took from these institutes that want to kill us. I dont know why we dont hold together as a country. The rest of the world wants to chop our heads off. I have traveled in foreign countries. I know what they are like. They all hate america and we should be pulling together. There are still some time to get your thoughts in. These are the numbers to dial. Republicans, your number is 202 7848001. Democrats, the line is 202 7488000. Independent voters, your number is 202 7488002. You can send us a tweet. You can leave a comment on facebook. Is a poll from the Gallup Organization on the most admired man in 2016. It is barack obama. 22 mentioned obama in a response to the open ended question. Donald trump was second at 15 . This is his ninth consecutive win. It is his nearest victory yet. You can see that again. When it comes to the most admired woman it, Hillary Clinton is the winner. This is the 21st time she has been named this. Thereceived about 12 of public saying they admired her. Michelle obama was next with a percent. Angela merkel was third with 3 . She was tied with Oprah Winfrey at 3 as well. Lets turn to the phone lines. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host how are you . Ofler i was calling because the story of donald trump winning. I couldnt believe it. Fascinating, they own a lot of the radio stations. Then i found this paper that came from my grandfather. That is what donald trump has been saying and all of the news people say the same thing. I know you believe you understand what you think i said it, but i am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what i meant. Host that was julia from dallas. Next up is steve. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. The biggest story for me of the year was corruption of our media. The clear bias that they contain. Unfortunately, we had an example of it this morning on cspan. One of your very first dollars was a gentleman the put forward the narrative that russia got votes in ourg the election system. You let that one go. You did not correct that gentleman. No serious person is claiming that. A few minutes later you had a guy call in about obama being a muslim and you were very quick to correct that. My big story of the year is the corruption and bias in our media. Is john from niagara falls. Go ahead. Happy new year. I am calling in regards to this hacking of the russians into our election. Did somebody forget that we interfered with the israeli election . We hadebody forget that a regime change in egypt and libya and also in iran and all . He way back to the shop weve been doing regime change over there. We have tried to interfere with their collections. Also in iraq. We win in wiped out the whole regime. We put somebody else in their place. Host that was tom from your. New york. Trumpagazine named donald there person of the year. There were several runnersup. Were a runnerup. This is a little bit from that piece. We have some more time for your phone calls this morning. Next up will be steve from South Carolina on the republican line. Go ahead. Caller i decided to make a comment about the most shocking thing for me this year. Can you hear me . The audacity of our president to thumb his nose at israel the other day. We should be standing with israel strong and stout. They are democratic. They are partners in that region. Becausealled for just he hasnt gotten his way on a lot of things. I think he is going to really have to answer for that. It haslmost the way started that it has been proven that he, in the background, set it up. At some point, it will be looked at as h sms as a treasonous act. I do believe that. Host a call from fort wayne, indiana, independent line. Caller some good things have happened this year. I am glad donald trump got elected. A lot of these people that are calling in this morning are all out of sorts. Tell them to get a brown bag and because donald trump will be president. Thank you. Up next, we continue our conversation about the top news stories in 2016. We will be joined by two top columnists with their take of the year. It will be Terry Jeffrey, editor and paulof cnsnews, waldman of the american prospect magazine. We will be right back. Holiday weekend on cspan, here are some of our featured programs. Eastern, the p. M. ,rchivist of the United States and the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution on the preservation of our national treasures. Wrote that he wanted the institution to be oriented toward what he got the increase and diffusion of knowledge, and that is what the smithsonian has turned out to be. At 9 00 p. M. Eastern, the inaugural womens leadership summit at the Ronald Reagan library. Appeals court judges of the d c circuit and a theor federal judge of Fourth Circuit discussed discuss the history and impact of the bill of rights 225 years after ratification. Applying those words to the varying factual circumstances in the country over the course of more than 200 years is challenging. P. M. , author6 30 gene epstein, law professor richard epstein, and a member of the Cato Institute debate u. S. Involvement in foreign wars. Force is always a difficult question. If you start with the frame and make it very funny, then it turns out that you use force it will be a calamity, then when you do not use force, that is one you see the calamities. Republican convention. It includes Actor George Takei and the Muslim Goldstar father. Do ist we are trying to to highlight the values of the constitution of the United States, the values of freedom of practice ofdom of religion, equal dignity, equal protection of law, and due process of law. Those values are challenged today. Watch on cspan and cspan. Org or listen on the free cspan radio app. This Holiday Weekend on booktv tonight at 10 00 eastern, wall street journal editor Joanne Loveland looks at top Women Leaders in corporate america. At 11 00, a cnn political contributor talks about the book , unprecedented the election that changed everything, and a look back at the 2016 president ial campaign. Sunday afternoon, a professor talks about the final volumes of her Eleanor Roosevelt series. At 10 00 p. M. Eastern, and author on the death of the Steel Industry and its effect on a workingclass town, seen through the lens of high school football. For the complete schedule, go to booktv. Org. Washington journal continues. Host joining us is Terry Jeffrey, editor in chief of cnsnews. Com. He was editor of human events for more than a decade and was National Campaign manager for Pat Buchanans second president ial campaign. Also joining us as paul waldman, a Senior Writer at the american prospect. Contributes to a blog at the Washington Post. Gentlemen, thank you for joining us this morning. About theen talking biggest news stories of 2016. Terry jeffrey, what tops your list . Are we just talking trump . Guest the number one story was the election of donald trump. There are a lot of other important things, such as brexit and the ongoing civil war in syria, chaos in iraq, the continuing conflict with the themic state, terrorism and u. S. , europe, and the middle east. What does not get enough attention is the Little Sisters of the court case in the Supreme Court. The continuing accumulation of debt in the u. S. Government. And the lack of Economic Growth. From 2006 22015, not a single growthd the u. S. Have 2 . I do not think we will have 3 growth in gdp this year. The u. S. Has been an economic doldrums long pass to the end of the recession in 2009. Waldman of the american prospect, do you agree with that list . Guest in terms of the election, the thing i would point to is the way the Republican Party coalesced around donald trump. It is maybe the biggest story. The jiving force in american politics for the last few years, the driving force has been this conflict within the Republican Party between the base and the establishment, however you want to refer to the, the tea party. There has been an internal argument within the gop, which has driven so many of the events in american politics over the last few years. It was remarkable how, once the primaries were over in that argument was kind of settled in favor of the base, they managed to make donald trump the nominee, how the entire party coalesced so quickly around donald trump in a way a lot of people do not think it would. I think that was maybe the biggest and most important story in american politics this year. The American Party actually coalesced . Terry jeffrey, what do you say . We will see if the party works with donald trump to advance his agenda. I actually think donald trump has the potential to expand the base of the Republican Party. I think his views on immigration, trade, and Foreign Policy had significant appeal. T romney and john mccain he has something they did not. He won the catholic vote. I think if he had not moved forward with his life position there had been ambiguity, but they kept to the prolife plank, and he went after Hillary Clinton on that in debates. Expandedonald trump the grassroots base of the Republican Party. We will see whether he can mobilize that base to get people in congress. Host House Speaker paul ryan spoke recently to elect Party Leadership last month, and he talked about the dawn of a new unified republican government. [video clip] a newcome to the dawn of unified republican government. Feels really good to say that, actually. It will be focused on turning president elect trumps victory into Real Progress of the American People. We cannot wait to get to work. We recognize the task ahead of us is enormous hear it if we put our country back on the right track, we have to be bold and have to go big. This country is expecting absolutely no less. In the days and weeks ahead, we will be working very closely with the president elect in his Transition Team for 2017, and that team is led by Vice President elect mike pence, and it includes several of our own members. We will be working hand in glove from the start it we want to hit the ground running in january to deliver on the new president s agenda. A better way, better days lie ahead for our country. Host were talking with Terry Jeffrey of cnsnews and paul waldman of the american prospect. How much success do you think donald trump will have in working with this new Republican Congress . Guest when he ran, he was not really interested in policy detail. The First American president who never had experience in the military, and it is not as though he was spending his evenings boning up on policy briefings. Republicanst, question whether or not he had commitment to those issues. But, nevertheless, as he comes into office, the Republican Congress has a very long list of things they want to do, and they are going to hit the ground running. There is this very specific agenda they have been waiting eight years to implement their it we do not really know whether donald trump cares about it. It is possible that the Republican Congress will pass one bill after another for all the things they want to do and he will just sign it because those are not things he is particularly concerned about. But we do not really know. He has not given education. There could be some points where there are some conflicts. A lot of the things the Republican Congress once to do will be quite controversial. If youre going to have a big tax cut that is focused on the wealthy, if you are going to repeal the Affordable Care act, which will cause a huge disruption with health that ise, that is stuff very dangerous politically. It is possible that trump, who is not ideologically committed to all of those items and we know he has changed positions in the past here and there, he might say, you know what, that is something i do not want to touch, or he may just sign off on everything. It is an unanswered question. We do not know how that dynamic will play out. Host jeffrey, you have listed things that congress should do next year. Guest it is based on Donald Trumps own commitments in writing. Go to his president ial campaign website. It has a place with conditions. It is all spelled out. The number one thing is to completely repeal of obamacare, and that is the language he used. Repeal obamacare first. Then everything has to be based on free market principles. The Republican Congress, i believe, will do that. Elected to control the house of representatives in 2010. There is also this tax cut that trump has proposed that massively increases the standard deduction. It reduces the rate and cuts some tax rates. Making 150,000 a year will not be paying taxes under Donald Trumps plan. Bottom line is, if you want to know what trump promised to do as president , he put it in writing. It. Le can check i believe that donald trump follows through on the commitments he has made in writing, and if so, he will be a great president. Guest one of the things we know about president s is they actually keep most of the promises that they make on the campaign trail. There is a lot of research about this. Notion that,common well, politicians all lie and break promises. That is actually not true. If you look at past president s throughout history, almost everything they say they will do, they end up doing or at least trying to do. They may not succeed. But trump is different from other politicians in so many other ways that it is a little unpredictable. Therealready seen that are some things that seemed very important during the campaign that he has now kind of discarded. He goes to the israelis and people chant lock her up about Hillary Clinton still, and he has literally said it was good to say during the campaign but we do not care about that anymore. So we just do not know in terms of the stuff he talked about in policy and the things in the hises section of website is that stuff he cares about . How important are those commitments going to be . He is so different from other people that have been elected to the presidency that you just do not know yet. Guest to put perspective on that, you look at the position does not match a lot of republicans. I think trump is more right on trade than the republican establishment. The things trump up promised are the same things republicans running as conservatives have been promising for years but did not follow through on. Broughtle donald trump into his Transition Team, the people that will be and it is white house, the people he is appointing our people committed to carrying these things through. Some have been fighting for those things for your. When mike pence was in the house mike penceives was in the house of representatives, so there is no more fierce fiscal conservative than mike pence. Under george w. Bush, he fought for the mayor to care medicare prescription drugs plan. Has picked a principled guy who fought in congress against the president of his own party to advance principles. I think it will be very difficult for the Republican Congress not to follow through on trumps promises because they are the promises they have been making for years but did not come through on. Host lets turn to phone lines now. Brandon is calling in on the independent line. Good morning to you. What is your question or comment . Caller yeah, my name is brandon. I am from iowa. In the past, i supported barack obama. This election i decided to support trump. The biggest news story i wanted to talk about was the Electoral College and some of the misconceptions people have about it. If it was not for the Electoral College, places like the midwest, where i live, or the rust belt, smaller farming communities in the rural areas of the country, they would not have a voice. If it was not for the Electoral College, if it did not exist, politicians would focus most of their attention on the bigger cities or on the coastlines. Some of the areas that are really important in this country would have no voice because we do not have a lot of population. That does not mean that our voice is not as important as some of the bigger cities and things like that. That is why i am grateful that the Electoral College exists. Host paul waldman, there has been a lot of discussion over the role of the Electoral College, the fact that Hillary Clinton did win the popular vote to should there be change on the way . Guest i think there should. His sentiment is something you hear a lot from people who live in one of those states, battleground states where candidates Pay Attention. If you live in california or texas or new york, president ial candidates do not care about you at all. So most americans get kind of shut out of the process. Is valuable to have candidates pander to you and visit your town. So you have this system that is set up, essentially, to just favor those particular states were the election is going to be close. Other americans are not going to get that same kind of attention. And then you have this sort of it is fundamentally antidemocratic in a way. In the last few years, you have these times when the person who got the most votes did not win. I am not going to tell you it is going to go away anytime soon. It is extraordinarily difficult to amend the constitution. The Republican Party certainly sees it in their interest to maintain it. We will not get to near unanimity, which the constitution requires to change it. So it is not going anywhere. But we do have this kind of fundamentally antidemocratic structure at the heart of our president ial campaign, and it goes back to when the country was first being set up and the slave states wanted to ensure that they had more power. That was one of the compromises that had to be made to assemble this country. Antidemocratic is they were the paul waldman used. Terry jeffrey, do you agree . Guest no, i dont. One of the greatest risks since fdr has been the consolidation of power in government. It is said that they will receive power and other things through vice. You have to divide power among different divisions in the federal government by dividing power twin the states in the federal government. I come from california, the most populous state in the union. But i believe in the Electoral College because i believe in freedom. When you talk about democracies, if you say there is a referendum in the u. S. And 99 of the people want to take away freedom of speech to the have the right to do that . No. But what about the right to life . If 60 of the people vote to take that away from people, is that right . The people who founded this country had the wisdom to understand that there are godgiven rights, and they put together a system of government designed to protect that. Yes, slavery was wrong, but we overcame slavery. It is outlawed in our constitution. Equal rights are protected in our constitution, and we did that with an Electoral College that protected the rights of states and the rights of people. The principles of subsidiarity, the lowest level of authority that can be used to solve problems should be used. In addition not go to the hands of the president of the United States. It should remain with the people and their communities. Arkansas isrom calling on the republican line. What is your thought . Caller for me, the top news story in 2016 with Hillary Clintons mention of the alt right in her speech and nevada. Although i do not think she intended to give the albright avoid the alt right of voice, i think after her speech, internet searches for the alt right increased dramatically. And i think there is a growing number of white americans that andeel disenfranchised, they are frustrated that, even though that they are the majority, they do not get any the positiveor contributions that white and americans have made to america and continue to make to america. Host all right, that is carl from arkansas. The term alt right has become quite loaded. What do you make of it . Guest i do not know exactly what it means to tell you the truth. I do think there are people who are or claim to be on the right with just viewpoints, just like there are people on the left. The onely, the test is in the declaration of independence. We have godgiven rights. Anyone that advances an agenda that violates law are advancing something that is wrong. That needs to be at the heart of our political debate in america. What is right, and what is wrong . If someone on the right is violating natural lights, they should be condemned for it. Someone on the left, same thing. Guest this is one of the things i think donald trump figured out in a way other politicians in the Republican Party could not. Take what is implied and make it explicit. For many years, the republicans played a kind of federal version of white identity politics. Saying to voters that you need to vote republican because the other side is going to be calling people who were not like. Ou, people on welfare they used the threat of crime and things like that to motivate white voters. Donald trump did not do that with any subtlety whatsoever to it he came out on the very day of his announcement speech and mexicans aree that rapists and criminals. Again and again, he played a whitexplicit form of identity politics, saying we are going to take out muslims, toss out immigrants, turn back the clock to the 1950s or so when white male primacy was not questioned. That is one of the things that was so thrilling to so many voters and brought out a lot of voters who had not voted in many years, this kind of very explicit version of white. Dentity politics no other republican was willing to play it in that kind of way. Did donald trump specifically say mexicans are rapists or criminals . Guest exactly. Guest he was talking about crossing the border. It is true that massive numbers of people illegally cross the border into the United States from mexico. True or false . Millions of people illegally cross the border. When they do that, do they break the law . Yes or no . Host paul walden guest you trying to turn this into guest it is about the facts, not a distortion of it. Guest let me answer, and then we can talk about it. As i said, he did not mince words. Some peopleay that who have come over the border committed crimes. He said, when mexico sends people, theyre sending rapists and criminals. He was much more explicit about this than other republicans. That is exactly the thing that enable him to get the republican nomination. Others were not willing to put it in those kind of raw, explicit terms. Other candidates to not have people standing up at their rallies cursing out members of media. You think it is an accident that endorsed donald trump . Do you think it is an accident that all of these alt right salutes atdoing nazi rallies for donald trump . That did not happen out of nowhere. Guest the ku klux klan is an l, racist organization. Planned parenthood is for Hillary Clinton, and they kill unborn babies everyday. Come on. , are you actually comparing planned parenthood and the ku klux klan . Start with this clip here. We talked about the coalition of Republican Party and how they came around donald trump after his nomination as their president ial candidate. The Democratic Party is also facing some issues and questions about its future. Here is Senate Democratic leader harry reid and Chuck Schumer speaking about the future of the Democratic Party after the election. [video clip] last tuesday night was something none of us expected. I suspect that is true for many of you in the press, as well. It certainly did not go the way we democrats hoped. It was a tough night, no doubt about it. When you lose an election like this, you cannot flinch. You cannot ignore it. You need to look it right in the , analyze it, and learn from it. One thing we know is that we heard the American People loud and clear. They felt that the government was not working for them. They felt that the economy was rigged against them in many places and that the government beholden to big money and special interests. Now there is a debate going on about whether we should be the party of the diverse Obama Coalition or the bluecollar american in the heartland. Some think we need to make a choice and spent all of our energy focused on one group of americans or another. I believe that there does not have to be a division. In fact, there must not be a division. We need to be the party that speaks to and works on behalf of all americans. And a bigger, bolder, sharper edged economic message that talks about how people in the middle class and those struggling to make it there can also dealsbut directly with the unfairness in the American Economic system. We will unite our caucus and speak to the bluecollar worker michigan,rginia, in as well as the people who live a long the coasts. Host were talking with paul waldman of the american prospect and Terry Jeffrey of cns news. Paul waldman . Guest this gets to the difference between policy and identity. If you look at the things Hillary Clinton was proposing to do, there is a long list of policy items that are directly aimed at working people, people likelower incomes, things increasing minimum wage, having paid family leave, more workers cares, expanding health for people who have trouble affording it. There is a long list of things she proposed to do that were directly aimed at people of modest means. Yet, one of the stories that came out of the election was that republicans were the ones speaking to those white bluecollar voters and democrats are not. But it is not really about policy. You lookher side, if at what trump and the republicans are planning to do, it is pretty much what any republican would do. As terry said, you have tax cuts that will be largely end of the wealthy, cutting regulations on corporations. That is part of the republican agenda. Yet, the republicans successfully told this story about how they were going to be on the side of the working class. With the democrats are struggling with now is they do not have any real profound disagreements amongst them, except maybe a little bit here or there about what kind of policies they want to put forward. People in the Democratic Party were arguing about this. They have basically the same agenda, the same things clinton was proposing. There are some differences here and there, but there talking about how they communicate those things and how they convince certain groups of voters that they are on their side. Democrats are a very diverse coalition. It includes lots of bluecollar it includes, and white voters with upper incomes, africanamericans, latinos, people in a lot of different places. The question that they are struggling with is really one that is as much about presentation and about where the Democratic Party has a presence in different places as it is about the kind of policy agenda. This is something the republicans have been very successful at. In previous years, they did it with culture war issues by saying democrats are alien from you because of what they think about abortion or gay rights. Therefore, they are not like you, and we are like you. Even if the agenda was aimed at the upper class. This year, it was a lot about opposition to immigration and things like that, and that is how they communicated that and made it less so about things like abortion like in the past. This may not be as intense as it looks. Practical very solutions they can use to communicate that in a way that is more comprehensive than before. Before i talked about consolidation of power in washington, d. C. , i think there was an alliance between the republican and Democratic Party and big business. It works against working americans. We have lost millions of many venturing jobs in this country since late 1970s. And the real Median Household Income of people who graduated high school has declined. Those were jobs that person could use and have a decent middleclass living in the United States. That has gone away. Donald trump tapped into one of the reasons it has gone away. If you are a Multinational Corporation and you can go to a country and use much cheaper labor and bring products back to the u. S. , you will move your construction to mexico, youre manufacturing to mexico, and you will not build it in detroit. Donald trump has argued that he wants to advance the interests of americans. He should do it. Another part a lot of people do not see as relevant to that is his promise to repeal the death tax. Seizes Family Businesses he may thinks it is funny General Motors does not pay a death tax. Ford does not pay a death t ax. Making a profit may not be the only thing that interests you. You care about your workers in your community. You create a business like that, and then the government says when you die, we want 50 of the value of your business. You have to sell that business and give it to one of those Multinational Corporations. Are going to have more Family Businesses and more people making a decent living. Host lets go to the phone lines. Brian is in albany, georgia, on the democratic line. Good morning. Caller hey, how you doing . My comment is mainly about, and know they talked about the stories of 2016, but i was wondering about other things, not basically black lives matter. I noticed they say back the blue, but not back the black. They aint showing with the Police Officers are killing these folks and everything like that. My last little comment would be to the American People that elected donald trump. Trumplected donald because this is a racist country that was built on racism the rate is never going to change. 2017 holds nothing for the black man in this country. I am looking at mr. Jeffrey here, and he reminds me as a young man of the type of white men in this country. Host all right. Terry jeffrey, cns news. Not thinkst, i do americans should be polarized on racial lines. ,f you look at the exit polls trump got less of the africanamerican vote then he should have to he got 8 he got more black males. I think he did make an effort to reach out and try to bring in more of a black vote, and i think that is a good thing. But america should not be polarized on those grounds, and political views. They should try to unite as as a nation. I hope one of the things that donald trump does as president is do that. Ost steve is in florida he is also on the democratic line. Caller hello, yes. Good morning. On the top comment news story of 2016 was going to be about the death of fidel castro and the normalization of relations with cuba. But listening to the exchange between these two gentlemen, i have changed my mind about eight times. Her appealingn of obamacare and bringing it back a free marketbased system i heard mention of repealing obama care. I think the concept is delusional. Since i guess maybe 35 or 40 years ago, since when has anything within our Health Care System been based on a free market . It has either been based on the governmentrun Health Care Price or corporate gouging, pricefixing, corporate feeding frenzy that we have had in the three decades before president obama even had become president. I just do not believe that i believe that the pharmaceutical corporations and the Health Care Management corporations created a structure where they can pretty much manipulate the prices and manipulate who gets health care and how much health care they get. Host that is steve from florida. Paul boldin from the american prospect. Guest this is what the republicans will face as they try to think about repealing the Affordable Care act. If you do that, you will have 12 Million People who got medicaid because of the expansion of medicaid, and you will toss them off their Health Insurance. You have 9 Million People subsidiessurance with through the healthcare exchanges who will be tossed off their insurance. You have over 15 million americans who have preexisting conditions who now have the security of knowing they do not have the worry about whether they can get Health Insurance. Those people are going to have their security taken away. This is an enormous problem. That is why republicans cannot seem to figure out what they are going to do about it. Maybe we will repeal it, but it will not take effect until 2018 or maybe not until 2020. We will come up with some kind of replacement later, which they cannot seem to agree on. The reason is there is a growing understanding in the gop that it is going to cause huge upheaval, much more so than the implementation of the Affordable Care act. T will be absolute chaos even before you implement it, if you say it will be a couple years, you can see the entire private entrance market, nonemployer insurance market, totally collapse just knowing that this is going to happen. So there are incredible dangers, and republicans say, oh, you know, donald trump says it is something terrific, but they cannot settle on the replacement plan because they know that it is going to be absolute chaos and there will be tens of millions of people who are going to lose their coverage. This is the thing they cannot seem to figure out now. No telling it whether solution will be. Terry jeffrey, what do you think of the proposals to repeal and delay . Right i think trump up is that it violates free market principles. Going back to the question of freedom, what is at the foundation of freedom . It has to follow natural law. The second thing is a free person is someone who is independent. Obamacare and government controls Health Care Home and that violates those principles. A massive increase in people and medicaid. Those retiring our going on medicare. Evergrowing group of the American People are dependent on the government for their health care. Ofs go back to the question natural rights. I thought one of the biggest story this year was the Little Sisters of the poor case. The question of the core of that is whether the federal government can order anyone, to take anns innocent human life. Its that every Health Care Plan and the country has to cover contraceptives. Then they talk about andraceptives by hhs abortion inducing drugs and devices. That should include catholic organizations, and they all had defied that to the Supreme Court. Because the Obama Administration said we want to force catholic nuns to provide abortion inducing drugs. The Supreme Court cannot even decide that. It is split it we are at a point in our country where we have people on the Supreme Court, able in congress, and a man in the white house who think they can tell a catholic that they have to cooperate in taking an innocent life because of obamacare. Host if the Affordable Care act is repealed, what should replace it . Guest i believe in the principle of subsidiarity. I agree with the caller. For decades, we have seen Serious Problems in the Health Care System. Part of it is because of forprofit corporations and health care. For some time in the country, we had catholic hospitals and public hospitals, and their motive was not ultimately profit dealing with someones health. Their motive was trying to help somebody. The Little Sisters of the poor here take care of elderly people. They are not doing it for profit. That they are being targeted. I want to get back to the point where people do not surrender their independence on health care to the government. The charities local public organizations second for people who were indigent and cannot take care of themselves. Not barack obama and his government that would take catholic nuns to the Supreme Court to say that sisters have to cooperate in taking away a life. Guest there is always somebody who is benefiting. People ond say to medicare, you know, you are not free because the government is putting you on health care. A few minutes ago when he was talking about taxes, he managed to portray the elimination of the inheritance tax so that Donald Trumps kids were not pay inheritance. R that was about freedom. A law againsty the elite that made Donald Trumps kids and not pay taxes. We can talk about freedom, but i think the tens of millions of people on medicare, making it the most Popular Health insurance system we have here in the United States, they do not think they are not free. They do not want to lose their medicare. The people on medicaid who had no Health Insurance 10 years ago and now are able to take the kids to the doctor and not worry about being think rep did, they do not feel that their freedom has been taken away. The Health Insurance market is something that never worked due to freemarket principles. The basic way Health Insurance works, it is something fundamental to the way Health Insurance works. It cannot operate the same way that the market does for soda pops or smartphones. It is not the same thing. That is why we have to have a system that involves government to do things i give health care to seniors and people who cannot afford it. When you talk about this in the name of freedom, tossing the ball the coverage, well, now they will not have health care, but they will be free. It is the people who have money that will be the beneficiaries. Is frome next call providence, rhode island, on the republican line. Jack, good morning. Caller good morning, and happy new year. I would like to discuss the story that has not been discussed so far. A resurgent russia. When mr. Putin took the reins of power there, he started the urge in of this res russia. He is a ruthless man, a highly intelligent individual. I know history just as well as these other two gentleman. I really believe he is stronger than hitlers and stalin, ok . This man here is bringing russia again to the precipice of power. They are a Nuclear Superpower militarily, but economically they are not there yet. He is trying to move it forward. Host what do you think Donald Trumps more open approach should be to working with russia . Caller he better be careful, you know what he thinks he is a good negotiator, and he is. But this mr. Putin, i saw a program on him, his background, how he grew. According to the cia, he is one of the richest men in the world. My wife told me he gets a piece of the action of every industry and russia. He is very quiet and very tough. But you have got to understand their psyche. Host that is jack from providence, rhode island. Terry jeffrey from cns news. Policys mother sending advances the security and prosperity of the American People or it does not foreign whether something advances the security and prosperity of the American People. The communist regime had an ideology built on global empire. Mentioned fidel castro, which was aligned with the soviets, and the soviets were going to put nuclear missiles. We do not see vladimir pugin doing that. You have to look at putin and his russia and say, where do we have shared interests, because we have some, and where do we have contrary interests . What is the most prudent way to counter the things in his interest . Putins russia and the u. S. Have a shared interest right now as to what is going on in the middle east and the islamic state. Russia and the u. S. , as well as other european nations, have an interest in stopping the islamic state, stopping the terrorists from leaving syria, iraq, and other places and coming here, europe, and russia. Were not totally at odds in the way we were with the soviet union. Host what to do think that u. S. Russia relations will look like in 2017 and beyond . Know. It is hard to it has been one of the most bizarre developments are the Republican Party is now kind of embracing russia and its dictator in a way that would have seen unimaginable a few years ago. It is because of donald trump. We saw it early on in the momentn during a strange at the Republican Convention where, apparently, Trump Campaign representatives forced the party to soften some russia in the Republican Party platform. We see these advisors with connections to russia. He obviously has an extraordinary admiration for andimir putin, authoritarian dictator who has his political opponents murdered and has journalists murdered. Yet, you have the president elect of the United States going out and public and talking about how much he admires him, and now we have strong evidence that the russian government and representatives of that government injected themselves into the american political campaign. President he looked literally says, lets move on, we do not have to worry about that anymore. It is extraordinary. The Republican Party, all of the old cold warriors who spent decades opposing the soviet union, now some of them, not all of them, but some of them are joining in this mutual and ration society between trump and putin. Guest during the cold war, the berlin wall came down. Poland is part of the eu. The soviet union no longer exists. Host mary from michigan is our next caller. She is calling on the independent line. Caller good morning carmen and happy new year, everyone. I would just like to say a couple things. First of all, mr. Trump is a. Niter, not a divider that is the reason so Many Democrats went to him, because they were tired of being split up, chopped up into little blocks by the Democratic Party. And basically being told that we are the cause of everybodys ill when Everybody Knows that it was this country last hundred the years. Remember, we are not even 300 years old, this country. We have helped bring up the level of income and security and food everything for the entire world, because of this country. However, that is not what i called about. Sorry. I called about the Electoral College. The Electoral College is so vitally important. The argument against it is the popular vote, which sounds great. However, everybody is proactive. Founding fathers were brilliant, because they knew that the , wouldt places, cities take over the rest of the country. They would be ruining the rest of the country. As with each state being individual in economy and is, we musts it make sure the hordes of every single state is heard. Host we must make sure that every single voice is heard. Host here is Mitch Mcconnell talking about how congress will work with the president to confirm a new Supreme Court justice. [video clip] i want to congratulate president elect trump. I think we all agree this was a and clearly anon indication the American People would like to try something new. I know the speaker shares my view that we would like to see the country go in a different direction, and we intend to work with him to change courses, to change the course for america. We will have an opportunity to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. I said in february of this year to controversy that i thought it best that the American People decide who made this appointment to the Supreme Court. I thought i was on pretty firm in doing that. You had to go back to 1888 to find the last time there was a vacancy on the Supreme Court in the middle of an Election Year was confirmed by the opposite or thef the president American People have spoken, and President Trump up will send a nominee soon, early next year. Host Terry Jeffrey, what do you think it Supreme Court will look like under donald trump . Guest donald trump has promised a prolife constitutionalists like if the lease galea like anthony scalia. He will endorse that type of person to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court cannot even decide whether a free exercise in religion guaranteed by the First Amendment or bill of rights, the Little Sisters of the poor, the right to refuse taking and i innocent life. We have at least four justices who cannot say that. I think this will be one of the biggest political fights in the coming year, who trump names to the Supreme Court. It will have the most profound longterm consequences, because the greatest engine ever moving rights of the American People is the Supreme Court. Get back to the constitutional limits here the fundamental freedoms of the American People need to be protected by the court, not attacked by the court. Host paul waldman . Guest this whole story of the Supreme Court vacancy revealed the fact that republicans realized a long time ago that the entire american political system rests not just on rules but on norms and sort of ways of doing things that are established over decades and we do not question until somebody violates them. It turned out, in this case, that the senate could just refuse to even hear the nomination of a president for the Supreme Court. They realized that there was no against it to so they could say that when a vacancy opens up, you know, only republican president s get to appoint nominees to the Supreme Court. This is barack obama, and we are not even going to hear his nomination. Were going to hear supreme come fromnations that a republican in office. I promise, if Hillary Clinton had won, they would say that the Supreme Court can do with eight members. What they realized is they could get away with it. They would get controversy for a little while because they were refusing to hear the nomination, but after a while, the campaign would ramp up and people would move on to other things, so they could get away with it. At the end, it paid off because the republican candidate won. Wordsned out that the few in the constitution that have to do with the way that the Supreme Court vacancies are filled did not preclude that. So there are lots of cases like that were republicans have said, you know, we can get away with something because there really is not exactly a rule against it and we can filibuster basically every bill. Some people, but in the end, we will have to pay too much of a political price. Another they got away with it, and they will get to fill that seat, even though we would have assumed it was the right of the president. The people decided when they elected barack obama twice that, while president , he gets to fill Supreme Court vacancies. But the republican government said, no, he does not get to do that. We will wait until the next republican government. They got away with it. Guest under Franklin Delano for roosevelt under franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, there was the retirement act, Social Security program for railroad workers, and an opinion was written by Justice Roberts. When they passed Social Security , if you look of the record, many members of congress who voted for Social Security, the Constitutional Authority was not there to do it. And the Supreme Court would knock it down. Fdr got people in congress to propose legislation that he called for that would let the name and new Supreme Court justice, an additional Supreme Court justice, for every one that reached a certain age. That would allow them to impact the court with 15 members. He was pushing the bill through whennited States Congress the Supreme Court was looking at the Social Security act. What happened was Justice Roberts and one other decided to vote for Social Security and say it was constitutional, because they did not want roosevelt to attack the court and essentially become the unilateral controller of the United States. The senateblicans in have a right to block a Supreme Court justice from having a vote . Yes, there is nothing that stops them from doing it in the constitution. They did it to protect the constitution. Host kathryn from alabama is our next caller. She is on the democrats line. Have asthma,ok, i so bear with my voice. This gentleman makes me so mad, i want to spin out of control. The seat was stolen from barack obama. Overwhelmingly, the population voted for this president , and these old, tired, antiquated men dropped everything. Disgusting. I understand history. I was raised in the south in the 1950s and 1960s, sir. I did go to college. Class, the first thing out of my teachers math was, what is a girl doing in its economic tree class . We are sick and tired of whites, old, wrinkled men taking over our country at we have had it, sir. You do not represent all of the people. Almost 3 million more people voted for secretary clinton. Sanity, unity, and for everything we hold dear in this country. Integrity didas everything, including 53 of the population of women by being a sexual predator openly and admittedly so on film. Host Terry Jeffrey from cns news, would you like to respond . Guest the senate that blocked the Supreme Court nominee was elected by each of the states. The question here is about fundamental rights. If barack obama named two people to the Supreme Court, and they were against the Little Sisters of the poor, in favor of obamacare before that. Were talking about fundamental rights, the way the Supreme Court was issued, establishing abortion as a right in this country. Then they will have a march for life in january, and hundreds of thousands of people come here and march to tell the Supreme Court, why did you take away the right to life from this group of americans . It is about fundamental rights that a group can take from the American People. So can they block obamas nominee . Absolutely, it was right. Host congress has a full schedule ahead of them. Give for double care act is on the agenda. What do you think will get done . Guest i think a lot of it will get done. See, as i think we have both said, there is an existing republican agenda. It is not something new or different. The republican economic agenda is basically what president bush did. ,ut taxes for the wealthy deregulation on corporations. That is the program that is going to get past unilaterally. I think one of the interesting things i will be looking for is what happens to them and cracked, and what kind of Opposition Movement rises up. When barack obama was elected, we saw the Tea Party Movement in opposition to that. Before the election of george w. Bush, you had a rise on the left. There is going to be some new movement on the left in response to donald trump. We do not yet know what it is going to look like, and that will be one of the interesting stories of the coming year. Host the importance of the economy on this election. The fact that Economic Growth has been subpart for some many years. Are on seems like things a better footing. Guest i think that was part of the reaction to the election of donald trump to the end of the year. I hope it continues. I think we will have to see the rollback in taxes and regulations. Incentives for manufacturing firms to come back United States or their production. Real spurn ofa Economic Growth. If that is the case, i think the standard of living for middleclass americans particularly those that did not graduate from college but graduated from high school i think that will continue to decline. It will make the country more polarized, and the American Dream will go away. And theublican Congress Republican presidency will be about restoring the American Freedom for prosperity that we are supposed to have under our constitution. Host lets hear now from a republican run north carolina. Good morning. Caller good morning and happy new years. Mr. Jeffries, you need to tell walton that their party well, i cannot even go there. Let me get to my comment on First Amendment rights. Democrats say that only certain americans in this country have a First Amendment right. Limited you an example september 14, 2012 on Andrews Air Force base. Looked a manon and told heryes, that she was going after a film maker on u. S. Soil. He was exercising his earth First Amendment rights. Why does that may not have a matterbut black lives can get out on the street and call for the death of our Law Enforcement . And you democrats agree with that . Guest i am not sure exactly what i guess he is referring to the guy who made the movie that caused riots all over the world about mohammed. I do not know the details of exactly what happened to that person and whose First Amendment rights were being influenced upon. Tendency that a lot of people have to assume that when anybody criticizes them for what they say, they are being censored in a First Amendment rights are being violated. Were seeing a lot of these days is that we all have the right to say what we want, and part of the right that goes along with that is that people have the right to tell you you are being a jerk because of what you said. That does not mean you are being censored or that your rights are being taken away. That is part of the bargain for freedom of speech. T let me ask you this during the discussion today, there was a lot of passionately held decisions on both sides of the aisle that came to light during the election. What does the road to unifying look like . Or do you see more polarization in 2017 . Guest sometimes, i think we expect too much of our president s to bring the American People together. Says it, but it is very difficult to do. Says that the other side is being divisive. Donald trump has, only on a few locations, few occasions, paid it any lipservice of bringing america together. That is because he does not have a Natural Inclination to that. He is not a compromiser. One of the things we know about him is that if he gets criticized, he lashes out. People can expect a lot of Different Things from these from this presidency, but a more United America is not something people should expect. Patterns, whenhe you look at clinton, people who are married are in the majority for donald trump. Nonmarried people for Hillary Clinton. The more people went to church, a weighted they voted for donald trump. People who did not go to church voted for Hillary Clinton. Someone who is married, has a family, goes to church, makes in middle class tendingthat american is to vote for trump and not clinton. If you have someone making less money, who is not married, who is not going to church, that person voted for kerry clinton. I think that Hillary Clinton. I think that is at the core of the divide in our country. As we move away from Traditional Law and emilys, we move away from people being able to earn an income independent from government we will become more and more divided. That group of people that do not go to church, do not make you middleclass income, they will vote for people like Hillary Clinton for president. Guest are you saying that people who vote for donald trump are better people . Guest i am saying that if you look at the exit polls that people who go to church, people who are married, they tended to go vote for donald trump and not Hillary Clinton. Wouldnt you want to leave the country in a direction or more people are making more than 50,000 a year . More people are going to church . Rather than a country of people who are not going to church or making less than 50,000 a year . Guest so you are saying they are better people. Guest im saying it would be a better america if people americantraditional values and went to church. If we have a country where people do not go to church, do not get married, did not take care of their kids, depend on the government, and do not take care of their kids, that is a worse america. Guest well, glad you clarified that. Host one last caller coming in on the independent line. Caller first, good morning. Mr. Jeffries, it is crazy. Happy new years. It is right, our forefathers did not give her the right to vote. It gave land owners like myself the right to vote. However, not only did Paul Manafort change the agenda for the Republican Party, what about this other guy who knew about the leaks before they even came out . I think that might be interesting story of 2016. I will hang up and listen. Thanks. Host that was j in cap, florida. Tampa, florida. Guest this will certainly be interesting year. As we said, the republicans have a lot of latitude to implement their agenda. It is not in mystery as to what they want to do. We will see how much the American People are pleased about it when they repeal the a portable care act, when they may possibly get roe v wade repealed and make abortion illegal in the country that is the agenda we are going to get. I think republicans will disagree on how popular those things will be, but we will see what happens. Guest i believe that the republicans with President Trump passave the opportunity to much of the majority he promised he would when running for office. If they do not do that, they are going to make a of voters very angry. If they do do that, i think it will make america more prosperous and a better country. Down the road, people will be happy it happened, because they will be more prosperous and more free. Host thank you both for joining us here on new years eve. Coming up next, we will continue our discussion of the top news stories of 2016. Here are the numbers. Republicans can call 2027488001. Democrats 2027488000. Independents 2027488002. We will be right back. The new Congress Starts on tuesday. Watch all of the opening day events and activities on cspan. We are live from the United States capitol starting at 7 00 a. M. Eastern time. You will meet new representatives and hear from returning members. The house will have all in at new. It will include the election of the House Speaker, his address to the whole house, and later a debate and vote for rules on the new congress. One rule is getting attention it proposal to find members mbers who stream video live from the floor. Coverage ofour live the Senate Starts at noon 00 starts at noon eastern time. We will have the ceremonial swearingin of members of congress. At 1 00 eastern time, Vice President joe biden will reside over the swearingin of preside over the swearingin of individual senators. We will have a full replay of opening day on cspan and cspan2. Sunday, we will feature a live in depth of the presidency of barack obama. We will take your phone calls, you males, and tweets during the program. Andhone calls, emails, tweets during the program. Panel will be april ryan, a president of princeton university, and a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist author of story. Obama the you can watch that on cspan two. The president ial inauguration of donald trump is ready, january 20. Cspan will have live coverage of all the days ceremonies. You can watch live on cspan and on www. Cspan. Org. You can listen live on the free radio app. T washington journal continues. Host we are taking your phone calls for the rest of the program on what you think should be the biggest news story of 2016. Donald trump put out a tweet this morning that says, happy new years to all and to my enemies. The people who have lost so that he so badly that they just do not know what to do. Love. We want to know what you think is the biggest news story of the past year. But go to charles on the best let us start with charles on the let us start with charles on the democratic line. Charles, good morning. Caller good morning, happy new year. Those two gentlemen that were on earlier all of these people that without and voted for lot of those a people in the red states is where the Affordable Care act is doing very good. I just feel like maybe those when they voted for donald trump, they did not even aboutbout this think this. Instead, they voted for world war iii. Host next caller on the republican line. Janice, go ahead. Caller good morning, and happy new years. Host happy new years. Caller i think the biggest news story we have had this year is ,ll the things the president and now, mr. Obama has said and done to hurt this country with deviousons and the policies. You know, the man before who spoke about trump embracing the russians well, obama embraced fidel castro. He stayed down there, and he did not even come home and we needed him in this country. I think we found out a lot about his agenda and the agenda of the democrats. The ladyike to tell from mobile a lot of us are old and wrinkled, but that does not make us dummies. I had a job, a good job. Sent to mexico after 30 years. We have a reason to vote for donald trump. A lot of us. It is not racism. It is the economy. They need to understand this. This government did not care if we could put food on our table or a roof over our head. They just worried about gay and all of this other stuff that christians are not for. I think that is the biggest news about, how they feel really feel about this country. Thank you. Host that was janice from alabama. Here is the story from the front page of the washington journal. It is a look at the performance of the stock market over what he 16. At the start of the year, it over 2016 trade at the start of the year, it felt about a thousand points. Since then, it has rallied significantly. It overcame its worst start of the year, and the dow jones posted its best finish since 2013. We are taking your phone calls on the biggest news stories of the year. Aaron is up next from minnesota on the independent line. Aaron, good morning. Caller good morning. The story you are looking at that says putin will not retaliate. I am assuming that is on how we what a bunch of would they be . Obama said we need to get the sian to get terrys oh dignitaries out of our country because of the hacking. Saident on the air and putin did the same. I do not know if they even retracted that story. Comey and clever said that there said that there was no evidence of hacking impacting the u. S. Election. The one thing i want to know about is the story i have not heard a whole lot about is how hr 6393. T past it basically seems like it is trying to combat stories that are not conducive to the narrative that obama and all of his pundits want carried through. Basically is creating a ministry of propaganda. That is how i see it. Host that is aaron from minnesota. Here is a little more information for you on the u. S. Russian spat over expelling dignitaries. It is in the new york times. The story says that fight of your putin announced on friday he would not retaliate against president obamas decision to only Russian Diplomats hours after his own diplomat told him to do just that. He said that he would not expel any diplomats or close any diplomatic facilities. Victor from silver springs, american. Victor from silver springs. Victor, good morning to you. Caller good morning and happy new years. I think one of the hidden stories about why donald trump when the election i asked my girlfriend why she is voted for donald trump. She told me that she is so sick and tired of these transgenders pervertsturn out to be going into the bathrooms. If anyone bothers me, i have my pepper spray ready to go. I think a lot of people voted for donald trump because they did not want the democrats opening up the dressing rooms and restrooms to anyone presenting pretending to be a woman. Next is vick on the democratic line. Caller hello. I am not so sure im happy about this new year. This election has been one of the most controversial elections in history. Definitely going i reallyk believe that this whole election with donald trump will actually be an attack on the middle class. It will be an attack on individual rights. Our First Amendment rights. We are supposed to be equal under the law with certain unalienable rights. You will find that workers rights, womens rights, environmental rights, all on the they are going to be on the agenda. Let people voting for donald trump did not understand is that all of their policies are antimiddle class. They do not support health care for anyone. Equal weightupport structure for women. It goes on and on. This is going to be a real watershed election. Theseorry, but a lot of trump voters are fueled by bigotry in voting for donald trump. ,e used that very effectively almost in a demigod like way ue like way. Emigog one of the big stories here on the National Mall was the opening of the africanamerican easy them of history. Museum of history. President obama was there on the first day. Heres what he had to say. President obama this Museum Health test tell a helps to tell a richer and full or story of who we are. Story of who we are. Keepers the story of the of the status quo and the activist seeking to overthrow that status quo. Cook alongsidee the statesman. Knowing this other story, we better understand ourselves and each other. It binds us together. Reaffirms that all of us are americans. Africanamerican history is not somehow separate from our larger, american story. It is not the underside of the american story. It is essential to the american story. Fromtory derives not just our most obvious triumphs, but how we had rested triumph from tragedy. Able to remaken ourselves again and again. In accordance with our highest ideals. We are taking your phone calls this morning on the biggest news stories of 2016. Let us know what you think should top that list. Howard is our next caller from fort lauderdale, florida on the republican line. Howard, good morning. Caller high. Hi. How are you . Host fine thank you. Caller theres a lot that happened in 2016. I believe there was a lot of deceit coming from the elites obama, Hillary Clinton, and others. Sandy hook, columbine, the orlando shooting, i have done a lot of research on a lot of this. I could be totally wrong, and i pray to got god that i am wrong. My question is is all of this changing with donald trump being in office now . Hadcrats are the reason we gun control and the false flags. The reason we had all the propaganda going on all over the country. It is through our own u. S. Government. So, my question is if donald hopefully our savior to this craft going on now, leading us to global government and global policing, to the point where people are not even in government, but we are slaves to the government. I think this is a road we were going down before donald trump was elected. Now that he is elected, he is going to come out is it really true these are false flags . If these are false flags, then where are the dead people. Where did the money go . There are a lot of questions that need to be answered. No one is asking the questions, because the media has us all dumbed down that this really happened. My request to the American People is to open your eyes. Help me see whether or not this is true. If this is true, we need to drain the swamp. Host howard, let me ask you. You said you did a lot of research into these incidents. What kind of research have you done . What outlets are you looking at . Caller let me just give you an example. The orlando shooting cnn, which is the biggest and most corrupt news channel, they have a camera set up. At the beginning of their where the they show victims are carrying out other victims from the bar. They are carrying them away from the bar. As this same camera is watching these people and panning from people right as these walk past the camera, and you see down the street to the right , in the direction that all these people are going, it is the pulse nightclub. What is the camera set up five blocks to the left of the bar . People are coming from the left of that. Howard, from fort lauderdale, we hear you this morning. Lets go now to joe and on the independent line. Joann on the independent line. Caller good morning. I feel there are two issues that are the top news stories one is the election, and to is the terrorism around the world that has make our world so much more unsafe. As far as the election, i am a white woman. I feel it is too bad that so many people feel that trump one because of racism and sexism. Many of us in the midwest voted for donald trump because of obamas policies. It had nothing to do with race. Us did not protest for three years. We waited for our turn, and we watched. We gave obama a chance. Policies go in the wrong direction. We needed hope for this country. Ofvoted for trump, because obamas policies. I think he meant well, what his policies have been terrible. His foreign policies and many others. The democrats keep saying it is the russians, but no it was obamas policies that were the failure. We needed hope. Excuse me,hat i lost my train of thought. And with terrorism, i think we have gone down the wrong road. Hopefully, the people in this country will come together. Trump does want the people together. Host joann from minnesota, thank you. We have some breaking news for you out of vermont. The Burlington Free press has this on their front page. Russian hackers strike burlington power. Burlington electric. Officials say the grid is not in danger. The Washington Post had the story about the hacking as well. Hackers hack a electric facility to show weakness in the securities. The story says that while russians are not actively used ,he code to affect operations but the discovery underscores the vulnerabilities of the electrical grid. The russian government hackers are actively trying to penetrate to great to the grid carry out attacks. Cj is up next. Hello, good morning, and happy new years. Of 2016 is story that the chicago cubs finally won the world series. Anything else, as far as i am concerned, although i am a progressive democrat and most disappointed that mr. Trump won the election regardless of that, my top news story is the chicago cubs finally one the world series. Won the world series. Thank you, and have a great day. Host susan is up next on the independent line. Caller good morning. Obviously, my top stories is the election. I did have a couple of suggestions on teacher topics. Number one, everybody talks about the abortion thing and religion which is getting very not getting. Getting very nauseating. Lets talk about the sperm. The other thing i would like to talk about are the actual scientists. Anyone that is for the environment is automatically a bad person with some folks especially Corporate Finance like exxon mobil. I think we need to hear from the notal scientists and politicians who are pandering for their own parkas pockets. I would like to know when we do not respect the environment, that is our safety net. That is the earth. Personally, i do not understand it. What are we going to do . Eat, drink, and aid in oil bathe in oil . Host iris is up next on the independent line. Caller my top topic that has really concerned me the most is the refugee crisis in syria, and what is going to happen to all of those people. Are we going to have to go back into a fullfledged war . Bring back the draft . Also, all of the super violent powers involved in this. It is very frightening. That is my number one topic. All those people, and what in the world we are going to do with all of these people. Host that was iris talking about the refugee crisis in syria. Harvey is up next. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Host good morning. Caller what i have got to say is that rings that have happened in the past, like george w. Bush and dick cheney, when they killed Saddam Hussein and qaddafi, that opened the middle east up into a huge mess that the country has suffered from. When president obama took office, this country was on its way down the tube because of the Republican Party. ,f he had not been there for us we would all be reaching out and by now. The other thing is that the hisblican party messed up term in office by not allowing him to do anything to turn the tide. They just would not let him do anything. The only way they can clean up washington, d. C. Is to put term limits on all congressman. Thank you very much. Host that was harvey from maine. The other big story this year was the historic sit in of the h ouse for democrats trying to encourage more legislative action on gun control. Here is a clip from that event. Turning deaf ears to the blood of the innocent and the concerns of our nation. We are blind to a crisis. Mr. Speaker, where is the heart of this body . Where is our moral leadership . Where is our courage . Those who work on bipartisan pursue Common Sense Solutions are beaten down. Reason is criticized. Obstruction is praised. Charleston, and elsewhere, what is the Tipping Point . Are we blind . Can we see . How many more mothers . How many more fathers . How many need to share heres shed tears of grief before we do something . We must be headlights and not taillight. We cannot continue to stick our ignore thee sand and mask of violence in our nation. Host that was congressman john lewis launching the House Democrat sit in in favor of more proactive gun legislation. Next caller is daniel from ohio on the republican line. Daniel, go ahead. Caller i would say the biggest story of the year would be breitbart news. The revenge and the validation inandrew breitbart who died 2012. He started breitbart as a new media, and it became this thing. Of course, steve bannon comes from breitbart, but i would say the week before the election when the Anthony Weiner starsky story broke hearkens back to when breitbart broke the original Anthony Weiner story. On hisund the emails laptop. They then found the Anthony Weiner texts to the girl. It was just the cherry on top. I was pretty down the week before the election. But when jim comey came out and said that the mouse have been emailsi was that the had been found, i was just pumping all day. I knew we would win. Host next caller. Caller good morning and happy new years to everyone. Host happy new years, ronnie. Caller my biggest thing this year is the United States basically turned its back on israel. I hope and pray that 2017 will mean more equality in this country. I hope donald trump keeps his word to help the poor. Blessyou all, and god america. Host james is up next from texas. James, go ahead. Caller good morning. My comment is from the Democratic Party. I am a democrat, and what bothered me most was during democrats,ion for hillary stole the election. She did not give the people a chance to vote for who they wanted to. For me, it boiled down in the very end to the lesser of two evils, because i felt hillary was part of the problem you are having we were having. The other thing that bothered me different groups being able to go into the mint in womens restroom. Womens restroom. People are born how they are. If you have a problem with that, you need to stay with the gender that you are. 400 elegantave voting for Hillary Clinton whenever the door is open. You have to give the people the right to choose. I think bernie would have won the election. From texas. As james let us clear up a statement from the previous caller cspan is not affiliated with breitbart news. We are separate news organizations. Roger is up next on the independent line. Caller good morning. You are a beautiful young lady. I would like to tell you about that i would like to tell you that. I just want to tell the american iople one, i want to say am tired excuse me, hold on. Blessd like to say god the world, because we are all gods children. The problem in the world, especially in america, if you could hear these people about the Second Amendment listen, people, it is not the government who makes us hate one another. It is us. The government does their job, and no matter who is in office, the world will go on. God lovesmember that everybody. Host next up is sandy from orlando, florida. Sandy, go ahead. Caller hello . Host hello. You are on the air. Happy new year. Caller thank you. For orlando to say and the pulse nightclub shooting the worst mass shooting of the United States. It was probably what captured the attention of the nation the most at the time. Then, donald trump won the election. The one thing that bothers me a lot is that donald trump get away with having all of his businesses overseas. Republicans are able to overlook that. People that lost their jobs to mexico and Different Countries will not mention that. What about the jobs he has put overseas . All the jobs that his Family Business has overseas . Why was it not the first thing he did to show the country that he meant what he said about having business back in the United States . I do not think he has any intention of moving them back. That is a big problem for me. Host that was sandy from orlando, florida. Here are more headlines for you. Housewill meet with withrats tos Congressional Democrats to speak about how to shield obamacare from republican efforts to dismantle it. The meeting will be at 9 00 a. M. For both house and Senate Democrats on friday morning. With republicans vowing to repeal obamacare almost immediately when congress convenes, democratic lawmakers are immersed in strategy sessions to protect the health care law. On january 20 will be the inauguration of donald trump. You will be able to watch that coverage here on cspan starting at 7 00 a. M. Eastern time. Youll be able to watch it on cspan, www. Cspan. Org, or on the cspan radio app. Lets now hear from will from washington on the republican line. Will, good morning. Caller good morning. I think the biggest stories are mr. Obamae about how has stated to the world we are not a christian nation. We are. That is how our constitution was founded. Two, how we are fighting for our country when he has not taught in any way shape or form. Three, how he has snubbed israel, and done anything he can to support iran who supports any and all terrorism. Totop of that, the refusal veto the wade decision on israel. Decision on israel. No one has been able to stand up for them or us since he has been in office. Host that is will, from washington. Greg. P is great would you think is the biggest news story . Caller i think it remains health care. Consider it ae success, and others consider it a failure. I guess it just depends on how big of a check you right at the end of the month. When we had leaders like nancy pelosi who said we need to pass i have aen read it, lot of things are like to settle with her. From 700 toe went 2100 a month. It is an absolute failure. Presidencywon the and put this into play, he had no licensing, no construction, so breaks and mortar brick and mortar. He only had a website. This has collapsed on the American People on the world stage. It is probably the biggest embarrassment on the business side of any president in the history of our country. Someone has to correct it. It has to get dumped in donald trump slap. s lap. P host do you agree with the republican plan to repeal and replace it . Caller we need health care. Can we afford health care as a country . Probably not. They are going to have to put together a plan. Take this for example student loans. Kids to70,000 for two attend a state university. Our deficit is through loans. If any kind of government gets involved and inflates the cost of something, then health care is going to go through the roof. Good business people. Otherwise, our Virtual Office with the constitution pointed at the American Peoples head and said you would buy this product. It still failed. How do you do that . From penn valley calling on the independent line. John, what is your biggest news story of 2016 . Caller i think it is donald trump. We used to have proposition their teen 13. It will not get past. It saved the middle class. When it comes to donald trump, i have no idea what he is going to whether he will be better. It just shows that people are tired of the establishment. Example another the Electoral College versus the popular vote. Look at california. We had to congressman two congressman that were voted in this time. Both are democrats. It went by the popular vote rather than using the Electoral College. Host that is john from california. Here is a little bit from Donald Trumps victory speech on election night. I just received a call from secretary clinton. [cheering] [applause] donald trump she congratulated us on our victory. I congratulated her and her family on a very, very hardfought campaign. She fought very hard. [applause] workedtrump hillary has very long and very hard over a long. Period of over a long time. We owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country. For america to bind the wounds of division. We have to get together. So, all republicans and democrats and independents across this nation, i say it is time for us to come together as one, united people. Cheering] [applause] donald trump i pledge, to every citizen of our land, that i will be president for all americans. This is so important to me. Cheering] [applause] donald trump for those that have chosen to not support me in the past, which the were a few to you i am reaching out for your guidance and help so that we can Work Together and unify our great country. [applause] we are taking your calls on the biggest news story of 2016. Our next caller will be dan from souri on thes democratic line. Caller good morning. Story is that president elect donald trump still has not that old his tax records. That is it. Is dan on the republican line. Caller good morning. I think the biggest story is the story behind the story of donald trump winning. Evangelical christians voted for donald trump went early on in his running donald trump said he created for man god the job. He had me at that point. He said he will be a president for all americans. That means will be a president for the christians now, too. The christians have not had anyone in the corner. Now, they do. He stands by israel. The only people that are afraid from donald trump are the ones that do not have a savior. Jesus christ is our savior. We are not looking for a savior. We are looking for a president , a man to do the job. We think he is the best man to do the job. We do not vote for a pope. We voted for a president. Host jan from arkansas. Here are some comments from facebook. One person right, writes, donald trump owning the election nd liberals crying over it. Dave is on the line. Dave, good morning. Caller i think there are two stories. First, obviously, there is the election of donald trump. Although i did not vote for donald trump, i have to say that since his election there has been this negative cloud hanging over the country for the past eight years has lifted. That is reflected in the stock market and Consumer Confidence and optimism. The other thing is how horrible we have become too high technology. Tovulnerable we have become high technology. We are now told that our electoral great electrical grid can now be shut down i hackers from another country. I think it has set us up for a catastrophe of the vocal proportions. Biblical proportions. Host next up is alexis. Caller thank you. I would like to comment about three or four colors back where the gentleman was complaining about receiving his Health Care Going up from 700 to i think almost double. 700 a montho pay two weeks of my net pay. Couldust appalled that he complain about it going up when i did not even have any, and probably did not have the insurance i did have , but it was basic. I was glad to have it. It covered my daughters as a single mother. , the Affordable Care act, was able to extend the time i was able to cover them. Once i would into Social Security, i could not cover them anymore. So, it helped for a couple of years. Thing about israel. Christians, jews, people can get along just fine. Please do not cut me off. They were all getting along. Happened,olocaust people had nowhere to go. They were sent to different places. They did not choose to go anywhere. Alexis, we have to leave it there because we are almost out of time. We do have time for one more caller. That will be dated from unix, arizona phoenix, arizona on the democratic line. Caller thank you for taking my call. Happy new years from david lee. People might say that hillarys basket of deplorables comment , or the the big story stars of stage and screen we have lost. I think it is the media. They have gotten so many things wrong. Destroyingbout george michaels. Not talking about his philanthropy, his charity, his artistry. They started their discussion about his death i reminding their viewers that there was one time he had sex in public. Heterosexualsof not being held to the same standards that homosexuals are being held at. For me, the biggest story is the double standard that the straight media portrays on the lgbt community, and how no one is calling the media the hypocrites that they are. That was david from phoenix, arizona. We leave it there for today. This was our last show of 2016. You can join us back here tomorrow. We will talk about the 2017 economic outlook. We will also discuss a 2017 congressional preview with ben man. We will then also speak with hanlon. O all those guests will be here tomorrow. We will see you back here tomorrow for 2017. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, next, in memoriam 2016. We remember some of the notable men and women who died this year. Then, president obama and the japanese Prime Minister visit the uss arizona memorial in pearl harbor. After that, secretary of state john kerry on the middle east hes process. Process. As 2016 draws to a close, cspan notes the passing of important figures in politics and public affairs. Our in Memoriam Program begins with portions of the Funeral Service held earlier this year for former israeli Prime Minister shimon peres, and remarks from president obama and bill clinton. This is about 35 minutes