kill vacant house seats will be sworn in. the u.s. house switching to democrats in january. watch the house live on c-span. host: we will spend the next hour of the washington journal focusing on the week ahead. need to talk about this morning. let's start with you. a lame-duck session kicks off this week. for, thehat to watch the election.

behind the scenes, they will be -- trump is itching -- we will beey watching for a potential government shutdown. that is the biggest one to watch out for. something we will focus on quite a bit. for the immediate leadership elections, take us through how that works for republicans and where is it going to happen and take us through the leadership, top leadership races. guest: there will be a closed-door vote with just public and lawmakers, a caucus vote and that it only takes a simple majority to get to the minority leader and we are accepting kevin mccarthy to have the votes even though jim jordan, a conservative number, is also want to be challenging him. we don't expect it to be a problem for kevin mccarthy and

steve scalise is going to run for the number two spot and they don't need to vote on the house floor, they will have their own behind closed-door conference road and then they will have the vote on the floor in january for speaker. host: take us through president trump's relationship with kevin mccarthy and jim jordan. do you expect him to weigh in at all on the leadership race? guest: i wouldn't expect them to weigh in on sometime wednesday. it's interesting, president has lawmakers,h of these he has gotten closer in recent weeks -- recent months and i think by design with leader mccarthy, mccarthy sensing that trump is very influential obviously within the republican caucus and really wants to show that the president believes in him and they have a close relationship and that he could pick up the phone and talk to the president and get the president on the phone. they talk almost daily, we know that. mccarthy is trying to shore up that relationship as a sign to

the rest of the conference that he has the president's ear but notably, the president has recently as last week over week before all these rallies ran together in my head by the end, he is in ohio lavishing praise on congressman jordan, calling up on stage and calling a champion. i think with the present will come down on this, all evidence points to be will be fine with the leader mccarthy and he talked to that ohio rally about how he likes to see congressman jordan on television defending him, calling him a bulldog and a tough guy. president trump may say some nice things about jordan and make us all think there's an entry here, but i think he likes , the conservative cable news warrior on his behalf. zanona, where does ?im jordan end up guest: there are couple of

breaking number of positions that will be open on oversight and judiciary and trent does like human that attack dog role and if he is on the oversight committee, this would be pretty depend usattacks to defend the president on. it could be a good fit for him, but he is really loyal to numbers of his own conference, there's also the argument that they should have someone more battle tested, a member of leadership like doug collins who also wants judiciary. to wait and see but i am certain it is a link he is very efficient in. seven from the freedom caucus group, that seems to be his base of support, can you talk about their role in the leadership election? guest: we are thinking you will have the 30 to 35 block of broke decibels from the freedom caucus and he could pick up a few more supporters from conservatives the republican study committee, the largest conservative caucus on capitol hill that he needs 100 votes to get there and that is just a very tall order for him.

that's why we think kevin mccarthy has this on lock because mccarthy did crisscrossed the country and help the campaign and raise a boatload of money for republicans the summer and this fall. i don't think you will be only get there but jordan could make a case for another slot. weekend on both ends of pennsylvania avenue, phone lines, democrats, call (202) 748-8000, republicans, call (202) 748-8001, independents, call (202) 748-8002. john bennett, take us through the president's schedule this week. publicnothing on the schedule today and that's not out of the ordinary. president obama would have slower days after a foreign trip veggies earlier, he is already up and tweeting. i would expect that probably go on throughout the morning. there are things he wants to weigh in on. he was busy yesterday and cancel the cemetery visit on saturday when he was busy with the official armistice festivities

were ceremonies yesterday and then traveling back. week there's not a lot of interaction scheduled with congress i was curious if we might see congressional leaders had to the white house or the president, and talk to house republicans after they lost last tuesday. nothing like that yet. with this being the trump presidency, you just never know. anymore shakeups you are expecting to see in the coming days? all eyes are on interior secretary ryan zinke he has some allegations of misconduct and some travel allegations of other things out there. and the president has not ruled out pushing him out or firing him. and finding a new interior secretary. i would put another nomination on the senate docket and that would probably just at this point in the calendar, that would almost be in the new congress.

same thing with the keep saying by the end of every week he is going to announce his pick for u.n. ambassador rice replace nikki haley and he hasn't done that is said he was going to do before he left for paris and friday morning on the south lawn result is it could be a few weeks before he makes that pic. those the two big ones are looking at. what happens when linking and he selects to be the chief envoy to the u.n.. clockthere is a ticking to the countdown to a potential government shutdown in december, december 7. what is the president's priorities in this upcoming budget fight? guest: he wants the ball funding. in the press conference wednesday morning at the white house, at least that's what he says going in the once all the remaining funding and depending on even the white house has different estimates on how much the entire project would cost. they are gone as high as $30 billion, sometimes as high as

$23 billion. he's got $1.6 billion already and he wants the rest of it and he senses that with the democratic-controlled house, getting these incremental amounts, $1.6 billion or so every year the democrats might have that off. we don't know what the carrot is that he might dangle to house that, is to try to get know if we think they have the votes right now for $20 million and will funding. my sense is they definitely democrats on the senate side so the president wants all the funding, it would probably have to be something like a permanent or semipermanent fix to the daca program. as the only way he's going to get democrats in the senate and i think he knows that. negotiatingsic from come under to the furthest extreme and then see if anyone links and you can get all or most of what you want. but he's got to get democrats something on daca. take us to from the

democrat perspective how they said up this budget fight and what they will be looking for? guest: on the house side, they don't want to get of anything. -- give up anything. but he don't eat house democrats printed union senate democrats and chuck schumer as minority leader of the senate has signaled he is going to make some sort of deal and he has reiterated they are committed to securing the border and he did offer a deal earlier this year that would have been a doctor for a wall deal and this is conservatives biggest fear that your office when you take a deal that only includes all funding and a deal for daca and none of the other provisions that republicans in the house are pushing for for border security. immigration, the visa lottery program, those are some things. think if trump is eager enough and he knows is essentially his last chance to get this done at least to the next two years, you could see something get done. may tiemocrats

protecting mueller to the spending bill. hearing anything on that? guest: house democrats are racing to get this done and there's a real sense of urgency. there were the probe is either going to be completely shut off or hamstring, whether through registry moves, not approving subpoenas, so they're trying to figure what they can do now before they have the majority and is one of the tools they have is demanding that a mueller protection bill get attached to a must pass spending bill. back is a potential showdown in government shutdown of republicans don't go along and neither leader in the house or senate on their public insight has said this bill is necessary. republicans might have to really go to the brink on this one, on whether or not they want to prove that. host: does president trump sign a mueller protection bill? the $64,000is question i think it depends on what else is in the bill. if he gets a large chunk of all funding in whatever they might attach it to, he might be

willing to sign it. the wall is a huge promise to his base. with suburban college-educated voters in places that went for trump two years ago, they didn't go for while republicans on tuesday, especially college-educated white women. it's not clear if you consist together something in two years to get the 271 electoral college votes without some members of the groups that he lost last week. he has to turn on his face an even bigger numbers in two years so he can get that will funding and run on that as a chance build that wall and however hundreds of rallies is going to hold between now and then. instead of there and say i got this, this project is moving forward now, school steam ahead and that would be big for the basin turnout in two years. the issuesa few of

we're tackling, let us know what you want to talk about, democrats, call (202) 748-8000. republicans, call (202) 748-8001 , independents, call (202) 748-8002. jeremiah's first from birmingham, alabama. good morning. all ofuld like to wish my veterans who gave and sacrificed all for our country, happy veterans day. caller: i appreciate your services as i do mile service. and i would do again. that, i like some of the things that president trump has put in that, i place, other, i do not like. trumpgoing to vote for

when he ran, but as i began to and accusations that came out against him in the things he says against women, i decided to vote for hillary clinton and i certainly did not want to vote for her. before we lose you, take us to the 2018 election and what you're most interested in seeing coming out of that election? caller: i want every vote to be counted. and i dislike politicians who announce themselves winners before every vote is counted. host: jeremiah, we got your point. bennett, take us through vote counting, president

tweeting about it this morning and we showed it to viewers in the last segment, the president saying the florida election should be called in favor of and scott and ron desantis that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere and many ballots are missing were forged and must go with election night was with the president tweeted about a half-hour ago. thishe was a florida several ts to stump for governor scott ande thinks that his side has won. president trump's mind, when he has won, he has won, and discussion. his argument here meets the character sketch that we have all kind of built over the last three years, the race is over as far as the president is concerned, he wants that vote in the senate, he wants to flip it, he wants to say that he, and he has already been a little bit of this with that florida race,

that he was the difference maker. that he delivered that percent republicans and deliver that for the base. president is the going to get any more involved here other than tweets and wep's will say to guys and gals like me at the white house. he is trying to pressure this thing through some kind of end before the recount, which could take a while, which will take a while. he is trying to pressure some kind of end before then, try to get the win because it's all about the win. zanona, the role congress plays of these uncalled races, especially florida. guest: with the way this president has been tweeting really underscores what's at stake, and win for trump and for the republicans would give them another pickup opportunity in the senate that would pad their senate majority and also would deliver a key ally for trump and governor rick scott. he came out very early and supported him.

thisit comes to recounts, is the law, the state law in florida is that it's a slim margin, it goes to an automatic , it wasn't politics but republicans are seizing on broward county which is how long and controversial tweets histort just bush versus gore, but other controversies in the past as well. guest: the president's tweeted about how governor scott has asked him for federal hurricane funds and other help the required residential approval. the president clearly feels the rick funds and other help the scott is going to know him if he becomes senator scott and the vote becomes something the president can bring up, i gave you all of that hurricane funding. and the republican party in florida and then you can go on to the entire state. the president feels like he has a little leverage on scott and if we have some" was divided government she can lean on senator scott to vote with him.

host: a reminder of where that race stands come the latest numbers, "washington post," rick scott 4,098,107 votes to bill nelson's 4,085,545 votes. it's 50.1% to 40 point s 49.9%. independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. i'm excited about tuesday's results for several reasons. number one, we're going to get more new faces into the congress and the fact that democrats have a majority in the house will provide a check on the executive ruptured ofh governments should be all about and i would like to see mccarthy on the republican side, however, i do not want nancy pelosi as speaker of the house. i think if she is put back into a leadership role, that that

will be a setback on tuesday's election, because i think she has the temperament to be able to work with president trump, we need somebody more in the tip o'neill mindset to be able to work with the president white president trump. i don't think nancy pelosi -- i think the democrats step up and even though she's a huge fundraiser and give a leadership role to somebody that's going to really workt and for representative government think nancy pelosi is the person to do that. host: melanie zanona, a preview of the democratic leadership election and how it is different from the republican election? guest: we have nancy pelosi was speaker in 2006 in animus vote, is likely to be a cakewalk this time and with the colleges that that aally the argument lot of nancy pelosi insurgents

in congress are making right now which is if they handily gavel again, they're going to lose their majority in 2020, especially some of these candidates who ran in swing districts were more moderate who vowed to oppose her on the campaign trail, if they were night on that if you come back to haunt them. host: who is the leader of that? guest: tim ryan, there's 12 of against going to vote foreseeable florida the floor and not all of them have gone public so it's a little unclear whether they all are willing to go there quite yet. they are very vocal and they are trying to get a challenger right now the problem they are facing is that nobody wants to go up against pelosi. tim ryan ready concerned 2016 and he only got 63 votes behind closed doors in the senate is when he does not want to run against her but he is not ruling it out. host: they have two weeks for the challenger to emerge again of the votes. why is the democratic house leadership election so much later than the republican house leadership election? guest: because they were frustrated rank-and-file members who said they need more time to digest the results and the

figure out who really should lead our caucus. they wanted more time to think about it and to incorporate like the caller just said what the constituents really feel and what they think should be leading the next year. talk us through a president trump really feels about house democrats leadership elections? was also tweets from him on election night in the morning after. guest: the president tweeting and he said out loud at that press conference last wednesday that he thinks nancy pelosi , at leastthe speaker post-midterms, trump believes she earned it and he said wednesday she has been out there battling. i think -- was on the campaign trail a very different message from president trump about potential speaker pelosi, you said she was the leader of this andrt to install socialism to throw open the borders, which of course, he thinks automatically brings rampant crime. i suspect that was going on here is the president would love speaker pelosi as he begins to

run for reelection. foil andybe his top issues in that top spot in the house, which is one of the most powerful positions in all of washington, she is going to be on fox news, she's even be out there every day and he is in between about her for two years and he wants her in that position, it will be a central part of israel election campaign. four still, maryland next, joe, good morning. i want to talk about the election real quick. i republican but i ended up voting democrat in a few races and i just want to say about the local elections, those are really, really important. some of these judges, they get elected for like 15 years or whatever and that stuff is pretty important and most of these elections don't get paid attention to a whole lot because

we are very focused on the what was thee, but question, the topic? what local election, so was the local race you were to test paying attention to the maryland? joe, but john bennett, you want to talk through a little bit on the topic of the nationalization of the 2018 elections and the localization of the 2018 elections? which ended up winning out? is a mixed results and voters did hand mixed results in governors races, not so much of the house, but definitely in the senate, and the president want this to be a national election. he was very open that he understood it was in large part a referendum on his presidency and the policies and some the moves he has made as well as his personality and the approach that he has to the presidency.

in that regard, i think the president gospel decision and i think he's ok with that. we saw him kind of do a victory lap on tuesday night and then wednesday at his press conference. and that is continued. in the last few days, even in paris with some of the suites and we settled in way out of the white house on friday morning. when you drill down here, the republicans lost governors races in wisconsin and michigan, those of course were two states that were key to the president's upset win two years ago. the president can look at the senate results and declare victory but he doesn't really talk about what happened with some of these other races and republicans have launched -- lost state and local seats across the country and the president doesn't talk about that. he talked about where he went to campaign and he said and when the final days to campaign for 10 republicans and he pointed out it is prepared opening wednesday the nine of them one. it's a mixed bag. of the states he

traveled to was indiana and gary is impartial, indiana, democrat. to the good morning beautiful young lady sitting there. today,e to our veterans dead or alive, and on behalf of a lot of people, we appreciate your service. the one topic on bring up real heck is infrastructure and gets thrown around ever so often but what gets said about it. sick, people keep saying -- talking about their condition, they refused to take them to the doctor also it makes about as much sense. we all know the roads and bridges and other structures are deteriorating and crumbling and yet we've got nowhere as far as yearly progress towards getting these things underway and jobs

are an issue, they would create a lot of jobs, there is every reason to tend to this and no reason not to, so people of your out there listening, i would like to save you, mr. trump mentioned he feels like his face didn't win whatever, the democrats didn't accomplish sweeping victory either. it is going to be interesting to see what happens, it's going to be hard to anticipate what we have to look forward to. to theooking forward weeks ahead, miller is an owner, take us to the upper structure is shown what we might be here. guest: infrastructure has become somewhat of a punchline because everyone talks about it and nothing gets done. when is infrastructure week? guest: in may, but i think with

infrastructure, it is of the that is easy to both sides can point to saying we want to do jobs and rebuild roads, it's very easy for them to latch onto but we start leading into the details, this a lot of disagreements between her public of the democrats come democrats want to inject money straight into these projects. republicans are prefer public private projects. whether or not something , do they wantdone to play along with the white house and handed trump bid victory heading into 2020? especially as they are investigating the trump administration and slapping them with subpoenas, it's hard to imagine that can be a bipartisan environment at the same time, democrats know they have to say that they can govern and they are not there to get something but also for something. it anything can get done next her, and potentially could be upper structure. -- infrastructure. guest: i think so.

i think that is the building will start on an earnest and get organized in january and that will take a little while. the president will probably be impatient, he's an impatient guy how it helped him get elected and i think you'll pressure them to start moving on infrastructure bill maybe sooner than they are comfortable with, it takes a little while for new committees to get up and running. the question i believe will be guests come into democrats want to give trump a win on infrastructure was another one of his big 2016 promises, that can they make enough progress on a bill that the momentum is downhill at that point before these house democratic investigations of the president really get serious. they will have to hire additional staff how they love to get documents before they can start bringing in witnesses. they've done some of this work with there are things they haven't been able to get his they were the majority and they will be in early january. but that will take some time.

in both chambers and the white house get together on infrastructure, how to pay for it is one of the reasons the apart,ouse plans fell even congressional republicans especially senate republicans started relying too much on private funds. can they make some progress before these investigations really get serious and get close to the president's? he warned on wednesday, if they get too close and they are too intensive investigations, he will go to a warlike posture he said nothing will get done. host: halfway through the week ahead in washington roundtable this morning, to veteran reporters from two capitol hill papers john bennett from rollcall newspaper and melanie zanona of the hill newspaper, congressional reporter jordan is to talk about the topics you want to talk about, democrats, call (202) 748-8000, republicans, call (202) 748-8001 s call (202)t 748-8002.

who are you most interested in meeting from this class of freshman? guest: it was the year of the woman, over 100 women elected to ,ongress and a lot of firsts cortez made waves when she took down joe crowley a primary race and she is seen as a rising progressive star and we also have a on a presley in boston who also won a primary race as use the first black woman elected for massachusetts delegation so there is a whole new crop of faces and i really influence can have an on the democratic agenda especially comes to women's issues. these candidates ran on things like equal pay, paid family leave, the sexual harassment overhaul of the capital they still have not finished, neck and face renewed pressure in the new congress. -- we could also see the agenda packet as well. host: i know your beat is mostly capitol hill, but of this

freshman class, who is somebody of interest to you? the white house. i will be watching, are there any freshman that really catch the president's eye? especially new conservatives coming in. he likes to have allies, he likes folk out on cable news he watches a lot of. new relationships the president might be able to leverage down the road again once we get into a divided house and senate where there are votes to be had. does the president see someone on cable news defending him and tried to be -- try to bring that person into his orbit? he can use those relationships against his own leadership. he has done that in the past. i would expected to continue. scott was mentioned. who else would be in his orbit? john: it is interesting how the

trump orbit can change. i think rick scott is the one to watch, how closely aligned with at the president he is. also josh hawley, a new republican senator from missouri. he took down claire mccaskill with the president's help and the vice president's help. the white house really surged in missouri to help out. he is the state ag out there and i think the president believes m a little bit. next year i would expect scott and hawley to be in the president's orbit. he talked about this at the rallies. so and so did not vote for me. he likes joe manchin, democrat senator from west virginia. they agree on some things, but as the president points out, usually when it's time to vote, joe did not vote with us. auburn, new york is next.

fred, good morning. caller: good morning. as a veteran i sure appreciate this country. i want to say we are fortunate that only three times in history in the presidency, the midterm, the senate. this never happened with clinton or obama. han 4000st more seats t seats across the country. plus in the senate and the congress, as well as losing both. we got to understand things are this country in better than ever before in my lifetime. i am 74 years old, veteran. we can see if it goes the way the democrats want it, another hole being dug. it will continue if we let these

people to go -- do it. we have the sorriest group of people in the democrat area that we have ever had in our history. i just thank god it didn't go any worse than what it did. isyou do not think there inner structure going on, look around your country. if you do not have a prosperous, growing economy, you are not going to get infrastructure done. host: that was fred in new york. melanie zanona, the president talked about declaring victory in the 2018 midterms. take it from nancy pelosi's perspective and of their thoughts about winners and losers in election night. melanie: losing the house is not a victory. they had three levels of power controlled in republican hands. it is significant because the house will be able to subpoena the white house, investigate the white house.

they can potentially launch impeachment proceedings. they are promising to go as aggressively as possible against the trump administration and that will halt trump's legislative agenda. it will come to a screeching halt on capitol hill. a lot ofng to suck up the oxygen in the room. hopes will quickly fade as investigations kick into high gear. host: how soon after the new congress sits do you expect the first one of these to launch? are you thinking it might happen on the first day of the new congress? melanie: it can't happen on the first day, they have to get new committees staffed up. documents.t it does not happen right away, but they're promising to go after issues right away including the firing of jeff sessions. that has become a top priority. the tax returns, even this new wall street journal article suggesting trump had direct involvement in the hush money

to stormy daniels. these will be top of priority next year when they get into the majority. host: deborah's next in spokane, washington. democrat, good morning. caller: hello. my name is deborah, i'm a veteran and a trans woman. i want to thank all of our veterans for their service. yesterday was veterans day so i was spending a lot of time looking back over our history. there has always been so much segregation in our country and elsewhere in the world. i feel as though with hindsight, you look back at the people that were once not allowed to be in the service, speaking mostly of african-americans, that they had to have their own division and they were eventually brought in to fight because we needed men. we allowed them to fight and the same thing with the

japanese-americans during the korean war. i see the same thing going on with transgender people who would like to serve our country. and i think that in a number of years, maybe a decade or two decades, we are going to see the same thing happening over and over. where some people will be recognized and i just think it's awful that somebody would suggest to redefine what gender is and make it all about sex of your genitals at the time of birth. i wish we could take a different approach to this. based on science and medical research they have done now. scotland has became the first

country to mandate lgbtq curriculum in schools. i don't see any harm in doing that, i see much more harm in trying to segregate us. i see the same thing going on in our local schools that special ed kids, especially that are segregated from the other kids in the classroom. host: thanks for the call in washington. you are washington. john bennett, take this issue of transgender troops and secretary mattis's view on that topic. john: i think the caller had it about right. whatade plus is probably we are looking at. this is a complicated issue. i think secretary mattis tried to strike a balance and tried to move the pentagon along with the way social change on the issue is going. but he is going to go slow.

whoever succeeds him, whenever that is, i think will continue to go slow. there is a culture within the military that having covered those issues for over a decade i think would be resistant to this. i think there is a recognition among defense leaders and defense thinkers and lawmakers that this is something that is coming eventually and other changes that have been made to who can go into combat. a sense of this congress and this president can tackle this in the next two years or the next six years. i think the military sometimes lags behind social changes and i think this is 1 -- that will be the case this time. i wouldn't see any changes in the next decade. host: when is the last time president trump weighed in on this topic? i know he tweeted on it. john: he has weighed in from

time to time. he talked about wanting to be community. the lgbtq i do not get a sense from members of that community he has delivered on his campaign promises. he mentioned it at a rally here and there, but there is been no substantive policy push out of the white house really. host: about 15 or 20 minutes left in our weekend washington roundtable. we will try to get as many of your calls as we can. democrats, call (202) 748-8000. republicans, call (202) 748-8001. independents, call (202) 748-8002. john bennett is with a roll call is with "the hill" newspaper. sarah is a democrat in maryland. caller: what troubles me most is how radicalism and extremism is almost considered the new normal. i'm very disturbed by that. because we see hate crimes that are literally around the world now it seems like.

what troubles me most is that saudi arabia is the biggest extreme country in the world because they have spread radical islam around the world, they are the ones that provided the 9/11 bombers that killed 3000 americans. but more than that, how can we, as a western nation, sit idle by , support saudi arabia in its literal extermination of up to 14 million people in yemen through starvation because saudi arabia has completely sealed off country from anyone? they can do whatever they want with american and european help to commit atrocities that are equal as we celebrate the end of world war i. host: sarah in edgewater, maryland.

john bennett, can you talk through u.s.-saudi relations in the wake of the criticism a received after the death of jamal khashoggi? john: the trump administration's military policy has become an iran policy. countering what they see as i behavior, they college destabilizing behavior, be it in iraq or syria or any host of countries there. we get no into the inevitable discussion of the sunni-shia split. iran arabia and ironic -- are on different sides of the religious split. saudi arabia is iran's number one and most powerful and most heavily armed ally and wealthiest ally with that much military force in the region. so the u.s., the enemy of my

enemy is my friend, and of course right now with saudi arabia and iran, they go back and forth, things that we are -- things we do not really pay attention to, but in the region, there is a huge rivalry there. so the trump administration and the white house and the president comes up and john bolton is national security advisor, they come right up to the precipice of saying this flatly. they can't execute their counter iran strategies without saudi arabia's help in the region. and then you throw in u.s. arms sales to saudi arabia. the president is a businessman. he thinks about that a lot. he looks at the bottom line which have been disputed by defense experts whether they bring in as much revenue for u.s. companies and create as many jobs here in the u.s. as at least the numbers the president uses and those change almost on a daily basis. usually.

those are the two things. the iran strategy and trump sees this as a business matter. he does want to use the arms sales. zanona, this relationship as it is scrutinized by congress in the coming weeks and months, what are you expecting? 'slanie: after jamal khashoggi death, they were pushing the trump administration to take a harder line. they requested an investigation of the magnitsky act. they said we should possibly cancel arms sales to saudi arabia. especially if the kingdom was indicated in the journalist's death. that caused some tension between republicans and the trump administration. they were not in session when the conversation played out. i would be curious since we have learned details about the death and saudi arabia's role in it. i think the trump administration is in a tough position.

they made saudi arabia the cornerstone of their policy to counter iran and its would be difficult to push ahead with canceling arms sales. host: tommy is a democrat. good morning. good morning. i would like to thank the veterans for their service and all the people of the world, i hope that we can find a in the european area. i find it very strange that we have a president that lies consistently and we have to put up with -- we're getting looked at poorly on the world because of him. i think it's very terrible that these things are happening in this time. i work for an oil company and saudi arabia is cutting the production as of yesterday by 5.5 million barrels a day oil production. i think there's a lot of things we need to consider about the honesty of our president, because it looks bad. and that's all i have to say. host: about 10 minutes left.

want to get as many calls as we can. tom is waiting in lancaster, california. republican. go ahead. caller: going to be a bunch more fake news this week. like our congressman here in california attacking the president instead of doing their job. my heart goes out to all the people up there in paradise and orville looks like it's going to be next. i is to take my son, who called an earlier, salmon fishing up there all the time. up there,his friends he is worried about them. here is another thing. these congressmen, it was their job, just like with the dam. we signed things in 1997 to get the dam fixed. and it took all that time and thank god donald trump got in

there and gave money to get the dam fixed. now the fires are going to tear it up, but guess what, the floods after the fire are going to tear the dam up. host: tom, before you go -- go ahead and finish your comments. caller: fake news how come you , only wrote that one native american -- i force recon vet, native am a american, cardholder for the cherokee nation. host: that's tom in lancaster, california. we talked about this topic in our first hour of our program today the president's response , to the wildfires and the criticism he received since his tweets that this weekend. take us through you are expecting today. do you expect that to continue? john: i expect that to continue until this horrible, scary situation is resolved and these fires are put out or at least pushed back away from residential areas. don't forget that jerry brown is the governor of california, a democrat. he has been mentioned at least

as a potential 2020 candidate. that's very much on the president's mind, reelection is on the president's mind pretty much every day every hour of , every day. i think until governor brown says he is not interested in running or not running, i think this will continue and it's a good -- the president views it as a good message for his base. to go after the california government. if you spend a little bit of time with conservative media, california state government comes up a lot. california's representatives here in washington come up a lot. they view them as part of the problem, this liberal effort as the president says, to instill socialism and other things. for the president it is low hanging fruit even though the , experts will quickly point out that some of the things he says water and what the california state government is

doing is false, but he views it as a good message. host: melanie zanona, staying in california, on the line for democrats. go ahead. i just -- from the behavior of donald trump, normally i do not pay a lot of attention to politics and all that stuff, but this guy has got my attention and what i hope he has done for himself is dug such a deep hole with the mueller investigation. i'm so proud, first of all, let me tip my hat to the veterans, i am a vietnam veteran myself. i'm proud of the women that have stood up and got elected in the congress and so forth. i knew for a fact that he had du g a big hole for himself when he tried to offend the women. touche, donald trump.

hopefully, the mueller investigation opens up whatever they find and shares with the public and we get to the bottom of all this. i never believed in fake news, never heard of fake news until he brought it up. -- i have he says never seen that many people in cabinets fall out of office or that many people get away from a guy refusing to work with him. , something is wrong. host: melanie zanona, couple of issues you talked about. which one do you want to pick up on? melanie: the republican women problem is top of mind. a lot of republicans are returning to washington. they already had a problem with women voters, but that was only exacerbated in this last election. we saw in exit polls that women went for democrats over republicans by even wider margins than they did for both hillary clinton and obama and

white women who trump carried in 2016 action broke evenly. this is got to be very concerned for republicans, particularly in the suburbs. we saw suburban revolts where a lot of the seats flipped from red to blue in the midterm election. and a lot of these moderates and independents, we like the policies, but we do not like the tweets or the rhetoric, especially toward women and minorities. this type of rhetoric has pushed a lot of moderate republicans and independents away from the party and that could be a serious problem for the president and his reelection push in 2020. host: the center for american women in politics where we go to , get some of the stats on this issue, their release after election night. 102 women will serve in the united states house in the next congress and the previous was 85 set in 2016. that we sorted and will serve the united states senate which ties the previous record of 23 as well.

check it out, center for american women in politics, we've had some of their officials on this program before to talk about that issue. bart in houston, texas, independent. go ahead. caller: i want to talk about nancy pelosi. i believe nancy pelosi she should be reelected as the chair. many of the people like ocasio and others were not supported by the dnc during the primary, and i think that may be part of the problem. the majority people in congress, that is why you cannot find someone to challenge her, because they recognize it is her strength as a fundraiser and as somebody who was instrumental in this democratic change. we had a problem -- i'm in the seventh district in houston and we had a challenge between laura mosier and lucy fletcher. lucy fletcher was the dnc choice. laura mosier, who believed in medicare for all, whereas lucy

fletcher wanted to repair the affordable care act. that was one of the big issues here, the reason why i believe lucy fletcher won. i believe nancy pelosi -- there's an institutional knowledge, nobody is talking about wanting to challenge mitch mcconnell in the senate and the fact is that nancy pelosi is a woman. and of course, i believe this is forumped up saying -- thing the republicans to demonize her like they demonized hillary. that is my position. i think the strength of nancy pelosi is the reason why she should be speaker of the house. because these new people who are coming in really do not have the institutional knowledge and wherefores to get

things done. host: melanie zanona. melanie: the consensus is that nancy pelosi will get the gavel. it would be very hard to deny the gavel to the top woman in the party right now. she is also a fund-raising juggernaut, battle tested leader, who knows how to deal with the trump. she worked with a republican president before when she was at the top of her party. it is why there -- it is tough making an argument against her. host: your friend in newberry, florida. a democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. -- vietnam veteran veteran and a recipient of the bronze star. i spent time in germany, too. the whole time i was there i do not see statues of hitler or his generals. cities, most of

them want to say it is part of our history. yeah, hitler is part of but i do history, too, not see statues of his generals and stuff. at the same time, president trump supporting this mess, this confederacy. they were slave owners. that is all i have to say right now. thank you. host: fred in florida. john, do you want to take us to the issue of confederate monuments, something which has not been an headlines as much as it has been early in the trump administration? drawnthe president has heavy criticism from democratic lawmakers and other critics when the charlottesville riots .appened the president seemed inclined to side with those far right protesters. he came out in support of confederate statues.

he dropped some words we hear a lot on the far right come awards like heritage, that those are important to our national heritage. i think it is pretty clear he was talking to a subset of the u.s. population and the electorate. most things with this president go back to the conservative base which he knows he can't win again without a huge turnout, as melanie was pointing out that we mentioned earlier, suburban defection from republicans, especially white women, the math gets harder for the president , but he cannot do it without his conservative base. this is why sometimes when these old, deeply rooted racial issues come back out, the president finds himself i believe, almost feeling like he has to give a nod to his base and of course, that turns out a lot of ill will across the country. host: one more call, conrad on

the line for republicans. go ahead. caller: i am a republican, as i stated when i called. there are some things i like with the president, and a whole lot i don't. i listened to people who called in today how nancy pelosi , shouldn't be the speaker, nancy has a deep pocket book and she knows how to cut checks and if you don't know how to cut checks, i don't care what party you are in, you are not going to get anything. meet yourl and try to senator, it might take six months. but if you donate it will be six , seconds. everybody thinks they are all against each other. when the tv goes off, these guys are wining and dining, swimming going out with girlfriends and , mistresses and everything else so the world needs to wake up. it's about who has the money. another thing for president trump, he wants to be with the million, but they would not accept him. now i see why. the way he acts now, you would never see a republican in this

history talk like a republican. this man done lost his mind and the vice president is supposed to be so religious with his bibles, he needs to take his behind out of trump's rear end. host: john bennett, what are you looking forward to most of this week in washington? john: i want to see if something starts to come together with this border funding fight that's coming. we have got leadership elections this week, will that drown everything out? will we see some compromise form? and of course, what does the president think about it? one tweak could easily blow that up. host: melanie zanona? if anti-pelosi challengers find a challenger, do they get more votes? host: you can follow melanie zanona with the hill, john bennett with rollcall white house correspondent on twitter.

i appreciate both your time. -- time this morning. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. tuesday morning, former republican congressman and corporate growth president david mcintosh on why he thinks republicans lost the house last tuesday. post opinionon writer greg sargent talks about midterm election results in his book, "an uncivil war." and mike sabonis on the upcoming session and this week's house gop leadership election. be sure to watch c-span's washington journal live at 7:00 eastern tuesday morning. join the discussion. >> here is some of our live coverage tuesday. on c-span, the confirmation hearing for president trump's judicial nominees, including third court circuit appeals

nominee, confirmed by robert menendez and cory booker. it returns at 2:00 p.m. after the midterm elections. members consider a bill to remove an animal from the endangered species list -- list. at 9:00 a.m. on c-span to the national action network's conference hears from potential democratic house speaker's about the legislative agendas and possible 2020 candidates. ther, the senate continues debate on renewing coast guard anding andlive on c-span3 come discussion on advances in cancer detection and treatment. that is at 8:30 a.m. the senate judiciary committee holds a hearing on bank bankruptcy 10 years after the fall of lehman brothers and the government takeover of fannie mae and freddie mac. announcer: former vice president joe biden presents the annual