Washington Today (1-7-25): President-elect Trump says 'economic force' will make Canada part of U.S.

welcome to Washington today on cpam radio for Tuesday January 7th 2024 president-elect Donald Trump holds a news conference at his home and Club in Florida marago talking about many issues including new investment in the US Energy policy the presidential transition his legal cases and whether he would use military force to accomplish his goals of the us acquiring Greenland the Panama Canal and Canada we'll talk with Toronto Star Ottawa bureau chief Tonda mccharles about us Canadian relations with the incoming Trump Administration and elections for a new Canadian government to replace resigning prime minister Justin Trudeau President Joe Biden postpones an announcement in Southern California to create two national monuments to protect a million Acres from development because of a fierce Windstorm house Speaker Mike Johnson asked about the latest plans for a budget reconciliation bill or possibly bills to pass president Trump's agenda on tax suspending immigration and more and where an increase in the debt ceiling fits in house passes its first major bill of the new Congress the lake and Riley act named for the University of Georgia student murdered by an undocumented immigrant it would require Detention of migrants arrested for theft and the casket of former President Jimmy Carter moves from Georgia to Washington to lie in state in the US capital we start with president-elect Donald Trump's news conference at his home in Palm Beach Florida he began by announcing a billionaire from United Arab Emirates plans to invest $20 billion in the United States to build data centers a reuter's article about this reads big technology companies have been racing over the past year to set up data centers essential for powering generative artificial intelligence applications such as open AI chat GPT and Google Gemini which require immense computing power we're honored to welcome one of the most respected Business Leaders in the Middle East indeed the world he's a founder and chairman of dmac properties Hussein Sani very respected gentleman and I'm thrilled to announce today that damac will be investing at least $20 billion over a very short period of time into the United States and they may go double or even somewhat more than double that amount of money there a great thing and uh I believe he will say that he's doing it because of the fact that he was very inspired by the election they wouldn't do it without that election I can tell you A lot of people wouldn't you saw last week where we have somebody who's going to go from 100 to $200 billion dollar and we have many other people and we'll be bringing some of them out some of them like to do it somewhat more quietly and some don't and uh they feel so strongly about the country that they they want to let people know about it but it's an honor to have such a great investor uh investing in our country the investment will support massive new data centers across the Midwest the sunb Bel area and also to keep America on The Cutting Edge of technology and artificial intelligence he's uh very big into the data centers and that's going to be a very hot item in the coming years as you know with AI in particular the first phase of the project will be in Texas Arizona Oklahoma Louisiana Ohio Illinois Michigan and Indiana president Donald Trump news conference in marago his club and Home in Palm Beach Florida he also in his opening statement spoke about the presidential transition from the Biden Administration to the Trump Administration and environmental Announcement by President Joe Biden on Monday USA Today writes that President Biden took sweeping action to permanently ban offshore oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific Coast protecting more than 625 million Federal Acres from future leasing President Biden pointed to a climate crisis threatening communities and the nation's transition to a clean energy economy adding now is the time to protect these Coast for our children and grandchildren that was from the USA Today article back to president-elect Donald Trump we are inheriting a difficult situation from the outgoing Administration and they're trying everything they can to make it more difficult uh inflation is continuing to rage and interest rates are far too high and I've been uh disappointed to see the Biden administration's attempt to block the reforms of the American people and that they voted for they just we had a landslide election we won every swing state we won the popular vote by millions and millions of people nobody even knows how many people Millions and uh they're still counting in some areas you know that they're still counting the vote in some areas can you believe this what a what a place what a horrible Place one of the things we're going to do is we've got to fix the election so that we get honest counts and they get done by 10 o'cl in the evening or something thereabouts they have places where they're still counting votes uh President Biden's actions yesterday on offshore drilling Banning offshore drilling uh will not stand I will reverse it immediately it'll be done immediately and we will drill baby drill and we're going to be drilling in a lot of other locations and the energy costs are going to come way down they'll be brought down to a very low level and that's going to bring everything else down that's what caused it to go up along with the the ridiculous spending on the green news scam all this money trillions of dollars it's like throwing it right out the window what they're doing and they're trying to spend so much now they just taking money and giving it to anybody that wants it for any project at all if it's if it's certified under the green news scam and they don't work and it's too expensive and uh you know they told me that uh we're going to do everything possible to make this transition to the new Administration very smooth it's not smooth because they're doing that they're playing with the courts as you know they've been playing with the courts for four years probably got me more votes cuz I got the the highest number of votes ever gotten by a republican by far actually by by a lot and uh you know we had a great election so I guess it didn't work but they're even to this day they're playing with the courts have their friendly judges that like to try and make everybody happy on the Democrat side it's called lawfare it's called weaponization of justice and it's happened at a level nobody's ever seen before president-elect Donald Trump starting off his news conference at marago Palm Beach Florida it ran about an hour and 10 minutes we covered it live on the cpan networks you can find the full video at c-span.org president Trump mentioning the courts at the end an appeals court judge today in New York rejected his attempt to stop the sentencing for his criminal conviction in the Manhattan hush money case scheduled for this Friday Also from The Washington Post the federal judge in Florida who dismissed Donald Trump's indictment for allegedly mishandling classified documents has temporarily blocked the justice Department from releasing special counsel Jack Smith's report detailing the findings of that investigation two codefendants said releasing the report would unfairly Prejudice them their motion cited a letter from Trump's attorneys that also argue the release of Smith's findings was not in the public interest and would interfere with his presidency and his presidential transition that was from The Washington Post President Biden was to establish two new national monuments in California to honor Native American tribes Chuck Wala National monument in Southern California near Joshua Tree National Park over 600,000 acres and the Satia National monument in Northern California near the Oregon border about 225,000 Acres declarations would mean no drilling mining or other development on that land President Biden was to speak in Thermal California but due to bad weather a Santa an a windstorm would Gus up to 100 mph the White House said the event would be rescheduled for next week at the White House so that stakeholders can attend White House stating that the president has in his four years protected a record 674 million acres of land and water through monuments and other designations president has stated a goal to conserve at least 30% of us lands and Waters by 2030 through his America the Beautiful initiative President Biden and First Lady Joe Biden Monday night were in New Orleans for an Interfaith service for the victims of the New Year's Day Bourbon Street attack in which a US Army veteran drove a pickup truck into the crowd killing 14 injuring 30 others President Biden posting on X Jill and I travel to New Orleans to stand with a community defined by strength and resilience to grieve to pray and to let them know that America stands with them and Mourns with them here's a portion of his remarks at that service I know it's been 5 days St to that empty chair in the kitchen around the kitchen table we not hearing the voice you think of the birthdays the anniversaries the holidays to come without them you think of everything everyday thing the Small Things the details you'll missed the most the morning coffee you share together the bend of his smile the perfect pitch of her laugh the rest of America has learned about about them as well students who dreamed of becoming engineers and nurses star athletes who worked on Wall Street or helped coach small children Warehouse managers Bluegrass fan cook engaged to be married single mom just promoted at work and teaching her young son to read they came from different states even different country there were children at dinner with their parents beur before joining their friends on New Year's Eve some even ran toward the chaos try to help save others we remember them today we also stand with the 35 people who are injured in the attack and we think of the Brave responders and law enforc officers officials who risk their lives to stop the terror and save others including two of those officers that I met tonight injured in the firefight now thankfully both are recovering in our home I've directed my team to make every resource available to federal state and local law enforcement to complete this investigation quickly and do whatever else we can French Corridor is also home to so many people we will support everyone who lives there all the people of New Orleans as they heal and if there's one thing we know New Orleans defines strength and resilience you define it whether it's in the form of this attack from this attack or Hur hurricanes or super storms this city his people get back up that's the spirit of America as well President Joe Biden Monday night in New Orleans at the service for the victims of the truck ramming attack New Year's Day on Bourbon Street this is Washington today story from Politico trying to raise the debt limit in a massive reconciliation bill could completely derail an already messy process speaker Mike Johnson is insisting it's still his plan Republicans were already worried that passing new policies On the Border energy and taxes via the budget reconciliation process which they can use to pass bills on a Partyline basis was going to be difficult Johnson then promised incoming president Donald Trump in December that he would also use a Reconciliation Bill to raise the debt ceiling adding another layer of complexity conservatives are generally opposed to raising the debt limit and have demanded huge spending cuts in exchange for their support reporting from Politico speaker Johnson addressed this at a news conference today you talk about the unity of the conference but there are some dissension over how to handle the debt ceiling that's been a priority for president Trump to deal with right away how quickly do you want to address the debt ceiling and what fashion do you see a remedy here to that issue that the president wants to see done as soon as possible well the intention or the intention is to um is to handle the debt limit uh in reconciliation in the process um and that way as the Republican party the party in charge of both Chambers we then get to determine uh the the U the details of that um if it runs through regular order and regular process and as a standalone or as part of the Appropriations for example then then you have to have both parties negotiating and we feel like we're in better stad to do it ourselves so um there is a broad uh range of uh of opinion on that in our own conference and we are working through that that we'll be having very deliberate lengthy whiteboard sessions with all of our members this is something I actually look forward to I I I love this process of uh turning it out amongst our colleagues because people come to the table with great skill sets life experiences U deep uh principled positions and it's it's a really healthy thing to have that debate inside the the tent and come to the the the solutions and the consensus together and uh people feel like they have a sense of ownership in it when they do that so that's what we'll be devoting a lot of my time leadership team's time our committee chairs time over the uh uh coming days and weeks uh to make sure that everybody is on the same page on that so the debt limit among all the issues is probably one of the most important I want to emphasize this and I'm going to say this every time the issue comes up Republicans and this this majority and the house and the Senate Our intention and our mission is to reduce the size and scope scope of government to reduce spending in in a in a meaningful way so that we can get restore fiscal sanity and get our country back on the right track so raising the debt limit is a necessary step so that it we don't give the appearance that we're going to default in some way on the nation's uh debt that that's important to the bond markets and and the stability of the dollar and all the rest but that does not mean that we have any intention whatsoever or will tolerate spending up to the new debt limit the idea is to do exactly the opposite so while that is a almost a proor sort of Step that must be taken the commitment at the same time is to reduce spending not to spend more so that will be the thoughtful discussion we have behind the scenes that that number the final formula for that is yet to be determined but it will be determined here in the coming days and I look forward to having that discussion house Speaker Mike Johnson republican from Louisiana at a news conference today on Capitol Hill with other house Republican leaders an article from the hill President elect Trump made a last minute demand for a debt limit increase as part of a short-term Government funding bill in December but many Republicans blocked at raising the debt limit without significant spending cuts and 38 of them voted against the Trump Endor bill with a debt sealing increase in an internal handshake compromise Republicans struck an agreement to raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion dollar in exchange for $2.5 trillion dollar in net cuts to spending as part of the reconciliation package the internal agreement originally said the cuts would Target mandatory spending which encompasses entitlement programs but one Republican said the agreement was changed to Target cuts from anywhere while the reconciliation process can still be used to address most mandatory spending programs the budget act prohibits using it to change all security asked about potential cuts to entitlements speaker Johnson reiterated president-elect Trump's promise to not cut Social Security benefits that reporting from the hill A View From the house Democratic side the caucus chair Pete agular of California at his own news conference I want to get your reaction to president-elect Donald Trump hosting multiple groups of House Republicans including Freedom caucus members at VAR Lago this weekend to kind of begin negotiations on either one or two major reconciliation packages yeah look I mean Donald Trump is going to have a lot of press conferences he's going to say a lot of things um and some of them are just going to continue to be crazy um we're not falling for this trap and and the the one bill two Bill like it doesn't matter what the American public need to know is that Donald Trump um is working with House Republicans on efforts uh that will hurt them on efforts that will have the potential uh to reduce Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid uh that will harm their ability uh to qualify for supplemental nutrition uh they've talked about eliminating headstar the Department of Education I mean the list goes on and on and on and what they are talking about is they're huddling behind closed doors uh they do not believe in transparency they are trying to cut a deal just like speaker Johnson cut a deal uh to have his Gabel they're trying to cut a deal to hurt the American public that's what this is about and so they're going to have a lot of closed door meetings they're going to say a lot of things but at the end of the day today that is their fundamental focus is how they provide tax cuts to Millionaires and billionaires um and how they cut programs uh that hurt people um that's all they're trying to do Congressman Pete agular Democrat of California the caucus chair at a news conference today from NBC News the Republican lad house on Tuesday passed its first bill of the new Congress a strict border measure named for a 22-year-old Georgia nursing school student whose murder last year by an immigrant in the country illegally became a flas point in the 2024 presidential campaign Congressman Mike Collins republican from Georgia spoke in favor of the Laken Riley act on the house floor you know Mr Speaker I think it's important that we we record into history exactly what happened to this young lady young lady didn't have a care in the world she was just out for a jog enjoying a day when an illegal criminal took her life away he didn't even have any remorse never hesitated this legislation could have prevented her death her murderer was in our country illegally was a known criminal he had abused a child in New York City was flown to Athens Georgia a sanctuary City and all of this on the taxpayers dime where he was once again cited for shoplifting every part of our system failed Laken that day and there's nothing we can do to bring bring her back but I tell you what we make sure this never happens again because right now ice is unable to detain and Deport these illegal criminals who commit these minor level crimes but the lak and Riley act will fix this and give ice and our local law enforcement the tools to get these criminals out of our country and make our communities safer we need to get these people off the street these criminals are getting Bolder and bold older while our communities become more and more unsafe it's because our lacks policies they gave her murderer the courage to kill lak and Riley and we got to make sure that this doesn't ever happen again Congressman Mike Collins republican from Georgia on the house floor Atlanta news first writing about this bill the legislation would require Federal officials to arrest undocumented immigrants who commit theft burglary larsy or shoplifting offenses and would mandate they are detained until they are removed from the United States would also allow states to bring civil actions against Federal officials who refuse to enforce immigration law or who violate the law Congressman Collins bill would also allow State Attorneys General to sue the Secretary of Homeland Security for Relief if immigration actions such as parole violation of detention requirements or other policy failures harm that state or its citizens that was the article from Atlanta news first back to the US House floor in Washington congresswoman prila jaal Democrat of Washington state opposing the bill lak and Riley was by all accounts a remarkable young woman whose life was tragically cut short by a horrific act that should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law my heart goes out to her family and loved ones who grieve her death and I understand as a mother myself fully why in the face of such senseless violence especially against someone so young there is an urge to do something anything to feel like you are actually helping to fix the problem unfortunately this bill does nothing to fix the immigration system or to prevent future tragedies like this it is simply an attempt to score cheap political points off of a tragic death and in the process it unfairly sweeps up many more innocent lives with no due process so let us be clear this is the Republican Playbook over and over again scare people about immigrants never propose anything that actually solves an outdated and Arcane immigration system that desperately needs Congress to allocate resources and update legal Pathways to make the immigration system work for everyone my Republican colleagues simply want to preserve a broken immigration system as a campaign issue so that they can scapegoat and demonize immigrants all to distract the American people from their real goals of making working people pay for another Republican tax scam that benefits billionaires and the wealthiest congresswoman prila jaalo Democrat of Washington state on the house floor the house passed this bill titled the lake and Riley act by a vote of 20 64 to 159 48 Democrats joined all Republicans in voting yes the bill now heads to the Senate and an NBC news article says that house passage puts pressure on Senate Democrats to support the legislation when Republicans who now control the upper chamber bring it to the floor for an initial vote on Friday what would have been Riley's 23rd birthday all 52 Republicans are co-sponsoring the bill as is Democratic senator John fedman of Pennsylvania that means Republicans need more Senate Democrats to reach the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster from NBC News house Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan Republican of Ohio begins a political article said he's meeting with Mark Zuckerberg in the next few weeks as The Meta CEO plans and upcoming visit to DC meta announced on Tuesday that it would be getting rid of its factchecking program which Republicans have criticized as a way the parent company of Facebook and Instagram has suppressed conservative speech Jordan said Tuesday he was hopeful that Zuckerberg would now be an ally in his Crusade against censorship on social media platforms reporting from Politico here's part of the video that Mark Zuckerberg posted today about the changes we're going to get rid of fact Checkers and replace them with Community notes similar to X starting in the US after Trump first got elected in 2016 the Legacy Media wrote nonstop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy we tried in good Faith to address those concerns without becoming the Arbiters of truth but the fact Checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created especially in the US so over the next couple of months we're going to phase in a more comprehensive Community note system second we're going to simplify our content policies and get rid of a bunch of restrictions on topics like immigration and gender that are just out of touch with mainstream discourse what started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas and it's gone too far so I want to make sure that people can share their beliefs and experiences on our platforms third we're changing how we enforce our policies to reduce the mistakes that account for the vast majority of censorship on our platforms we used to have filters that scanned for any policy violation now we're going to focus those filters on tackling illegal and high severity violations and for lower severity violations we're going to rely on someone reporting an issue before we take action the problem is that the filters make mistakes and they take down a lot of content that they shouldn't so by dialing them back we're going to dramatically reduce the amount of censorship on our platforms we're also going to tune our content filters to require much higher confidence before taking down content the reality is that this is a tradeoff it means we're going to catch less bad stuff but we'll also reduce the number of innocent people's posts and accounts that we accidentally take down meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg posting that video you heard part of it he also said he would move his content moderation team from California to Texas where quote there is less concerned about the bias of our teams and to work with the incoming Trump Administration to push back against governments that are again quote going after American companies and promoting censorship CNBC writes that following Donald Trump's presidential victory in November Zuckerberg joined a number of other big technology Executives who visited the president-elect at the marago resort in Palm Beach Florida and in December meta confirmed a $1 million donation to Trump's inaugural fund Wall Street today the Dow down 178 NASDAQ down 375 S&P down 66 Washington today continues in a moment witness democracy unfiltered with C-SPAN experience history as it unfolds with c-span's live coverage this month as Republicans take control of both chambers of Congress and a new chapter begins with a swearing in of the 47th president of the United States on Monday January 20th tune in for our live all day coverage of the presidential inauguration as Donald Trump takes the oath of office becoming president of the United States stay with cpan this month for comprehensive live unfiltered coverage of the 119th Congress and the presidential inauguration C-SPAN demon y [Music] unfiltered welcome back to Washington today available as a podcast on the free C-SPAN now mobile app and wherever you get your podcasts from Associated Press president-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would not rule out the use of military force to cease control of the Panama Canal and Greenland as he declared Us control of both to be vital to American National Security speaking to reporters less than 2 weeks before he takes office on January 20th and as a delegation of AIDS and advisers that includes Donald Trump Jr is in Greenland Trump left open the use of the American Military to secure both territories that was from Associated Press here is president-elect Trump at his news conference in Florida wanted to touch on uh the world on fire that you mentioned but let's start if we could with uh your references to Greenland and Panama Canal so forth can you assure the world that as you try to uh get control of these areas you are not going to use military or economic coercion no and can you tell us a little bit about what your plan is are you going to negotiate a new treaty are you going to ask the Canadians to hold the vote what what is the strategy I can't assure you you're talking about Panama and Greenland no I can't assure you on either of those two but uh I can say this we need them for Economic Security the Panama Canal was built for our military not military I'm not going to commit to that now it might it might be that you'll have to do something uh look the Panama Canal is vital to our country it's being operated by China China and we gave the Panama Canal to Panama we didn't give it to China and they've abused it they've abused that gift it should have never been made by the way giving the Panama Canal is why Jimmy Carter lost the election in my opinion more so maybe than the hostages the hostages were a big deal but if you remember and nobody wants to talk about the Panama Canal now because you know it's inappropriate I guess but uh because it's a bad part of of the Carter Legacy but uh he was a good man look he was a good man I knew him a little bit and he was a very fine person but that was a big mistake giving the Panama Canal to Panama was a very big mistake we lost 38,000 people it cost us the equivalent of a trillion dollars maybe more than probably the most expensive they say it was the most expensive structure if we call it a structure which I guess you can ever built and giving that away was a horrible thing and I believe that's why Jimmy Carter lost the election even more so than the hostages those two things president Donald Trump at a news conference at his home in club marago in Palm Beach Florida in a statement Greenland's government said Donald Trump Jr's visit to Greenland was taking place as a private individual and not as an official visit and greenlandic representatives would not meet with him president Donald Trump was also asked today about his repeated references to making Canada the 51st state of the United States of America and whether military force is an option there if we were to work under the assumption that you're serious about making Canada 501 state of the United States the leader of the conservative party in Canada said under no circumstances will ever be the maybe he won't win but maybe he will point you would suggest said you were considering military force to acquire Panama and Greenland are you also considering military force to Annex an acquire can no economic Force because Canada and the United States that would really be something you get rid of that artificially drawn line and you take a look at what that looks like and it would also be much better fin naal security don't forget we basically protect Canada but here's the problem with Canada so many friends up there uh I love the Canadian people they're great but we're spending hundreds of billions a year to protect it we're spending hundreds of billions a year to take care of Canada we we lose uh in trade deficits we're losing mass we don't need their cars you know they make 20% of our cars we don't need that I'd rather make them in Detroit we don't need the cars we don't need their Lumber we have massive fields of lumber we don't need their Lumber we have to unrestrict them because stupid people put you know restrictions on but I can do that with an executive order we don't need anything they have we don't need their dairy products we have more than they have we don't need anything so why are we losing $200 billion dollar a year and more to protect Canada and I said that to as I called him Governor Trudeau I said listen what would happen if we didn't subsidize you if we didn't because we give them a lot of money we help them as an example we're buying ice breakers and Canada wants to join us in the buying of ice breakers I said you know I we don't really want to have a partner in the buying of ice breakers we don't need a partner but us the right to lay claim to I oh no right nope no right here's what we have we have a right not to help them with their financial difficulties joining us now from Ottawa Canada is Tonda mccharles Ottawa bureau chief with the Toronto Star thank you for being with us so Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday resigned today president-elect Donald Trump again threatened tariffs against Canada and said he would use economic Force rather than military force to make Canada part of the United States what is the state of US Canadian relations oh um I guess uh if we thought of ourselves as friends and neighbors um now we might be uh we might be fighting cousins um it's what is even happening nobody really knows look you said Trudeau resigned uh the prime minister of Canada isn't gone yet he doesn't leave until there's a new liberal leader leader of his political party so he's in place with a full cabinet and Government powers for the next a couple of months or more and um Donald Trump who's vowed to bring in pretty punishing tariffs on all Canadian products along with Mexico's products um will face uh our government has assured Canadians um pretty punish in counter tariffs as well that will hit um sensitive us products but look the economies are so integrated there there's no no winner out of this and the Prime Minister uh posted on X just a little while ago that there's not a snowballs chance in hell that uh Canada would ever become a 51st state so dream on Donald Trump I guess if you push president-elect Trump on this he he might say that his threat of tariffs is to get changes that he wants out of Canada and he's mentioned immigration and drugs flowing across the border are there changes in the works are there talks going on there are definitely changes in the works because in response to Trump's uh apparent concern about um illegal migration from Canada towards the South and um the uh flow of Sentinel um Canada has said look we're a very minor part of your your much much much bigger problem is Mexico but the Canadian government has conceded that any is too much and so they have increased spending both the federal government and subnational governments at the provincial level have increased spending on border patrols bringing in more technology Dron surveillance technology um manpower to staff the Border broaden powers of Border our Border guard agency to uh assist the royal mood police and Border patrolling but all of that was you know in response to what Trump said was his concern about migration and drugs but knowing that his broader concern is to with through the tariffs to generate uh a significant amount of Revenue um also for us coffers so look I don't think they've been under any illusion that making the argument we not your biggest problem is not the only way to go they are also addressing in to the extent that they can um enforcement at the border but I think pretty much in the works is a significant plan to counter Donald Trump's promised or threatened tariffs with tariffs of their own uh I think that the Canadian government is you know is though wondering like the rest of the world is where does all of it go in the end Trump has promised Global tariffs of 10% on all products going into the us all of that will make life more expensive for American consumers who have to buy those products and American manufacturers who have to buy the input for the products they make um so Canada and it's you know its governments at all levels are trying to persuade decision makers and influencers in the US that you know it's a zero sum game here like you're hurting yourselves whether that argument takes hold whether they're able to persuade uh you know Congressional leaders Governors you you know to the extent that they were able to form allies during for example the last NAFTA renegotiation under Trump's first Administration we'll have to see he's got a as you know better than I do a more bullish hawkish set of advisers around him now and they're coming in with experience and they know how to pull Believers of government fast and so people are watching every word Trump says and trying to calibrate what is the proper response but there's no question that here in Canada you know while perhaps initially they Canadians were willing to accept that maybe Trump was joking it's no longer a joke to anyone up here anymore and so I think they're looking to their government to lead on a harder hitting way to punch back at Trump we're talking with a Tonda mik Charles with the Toronto Star from Ottawa Canada well speaking of the government and the next government president Trump has suggested that retired professional hockey Legend Wayne Gretzky become your new prime minister assuming that is not going to happen uh who will be the the next prime minister and what does that mean for US Canadian relations going forward look uh Trump might want uh grety you know I might want Ryan Reynolds or or or Ryan goling but as prime minister but it just doesn't matter I mean what's more likely to happen is the liberal party is taking a a cold-hearted look at um you know who has the best chance of beating the conservatives uh who are the opposition party here now in the next election which will come almost certainly in April and May and I think though the polls in Canada show that the liberal party is likely to lose that election to the conservatives here so you know there is a a very um staunt fiscal conservative leader of the political party here in opposition Pier pev who may well polls seem to suggest become the prime the next prime minister of Canada on the Liberal Party side trudo successor is likely to be someone who the Liberal Party thinks can punch back against that view of the world and so you know against the the conservative desire to roll back a lot of the progressive policies Trudeau put into place uh and you know that I think remains to be seen there is no I think savior in the wings for the liberal party right now um Trudeau did not groom a successor um it's a doggy dog battle right now uh to see who is going to jump into the race and and who who might get the lead and you've probably heard the name of former Bank of Canada and Bank of England Central Governor Mark Carney floating around he once worked for Goldman Sachs in New York um you know pretty brilliant Economist but um someone who's never ever run for political office and never really tested those Waters and may not have the retail political skills that even the Donald Trump has Tonga mcch Charles out bureau chief with the Toronto Star you can find her articles at the star.com and on X at tondc thank you very much thanks so much Michael president like Donald Trump at his news conference today in Florida also spoke about us relations with Mexico saying that the trade imbalance illegal immigration and drugs flowing into the US has led him to pursue a name change for the Gulf of Mexico and we're uh going to be announcing at a future date pretty soon we're going to change because we do most of the work there and it's ours we're going to be changing sort of the opposite of Biden where he's closing everything up essentially getting rid of 50 to 60 trillion dollar worth of assets we're going to be uh changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America which has a beautiful ring that covers a lot of territory the Gulf of America what a beautiful name and it's appropriate it's appropriate president-elect Donald Trump an ABC news story about this proposal as this paragraph the gulf has been identified by several names throughout its history with gulo de meico first appearing on maps in the mid 16th century when Spain occupied the areas now known as Cuba to the South Mexico to the west and the US states that surrounded to the north joining president Trump at the news conference in Florida was his Middle East Envoy Steve witkoff and Jerusalem Post writing about that saying that Steve witkoff said on Tuesday that he thinks the hostage talks are significantly progressing he said well I think we're making a lot of progress and I don't want to say too much because I think they're doing a really good job back in Doha that was from the Jerusalem Post here is President like Trump at the end of his news conference when he reissued a warning about those holding us hostages I'm just telling you this will be the Golden Age of America this is the Golden Age of America we're going to have a great country again we're a country right now Under Siege we have so many different problems and nobody respects us overseas but now they do the Italian Prime Minister as you know came here the other night just flew in and flew out she wanted to she wanted to see me and uh great respect is being shown when I went to the cathedral in France great respect was shown by the Prime Minister the president by everybody France was and by the way I have to say they did a great job in the cathedral but great respect is being shown to our country again and uh we have a great country but we have to run it properly it's going to be run properly uh we want to get back those hostages for Israel and for us you know we do have people that are hostages being held and I'll just say it again if this deal is not done with the people representing our nation by the time I get to office all hell is going to break out thank you very much president like Donald Trump closing out the news conference at his home and Club marago in Florida again it runs about an hour 10 minutes or so we covered it live on the cpan networks find the full video at c-span.org story from Reuters the foreign Ministers of Japan and the United States said their country's ties were stronger than ever on Tuesday even after Japan's prime minister called US President Joe Biden's decision to block nipon Steel's $14.9 billion bid for us steel perplex ing Biden's move last Friday was a jolt to us efforts to boost ties just as neighboring South Korea's political crisis potentially complicates a deepening trilateral relationship between Washington soul and Tokyo formed to counter China's growing military Power reporting from Reuters Secretary of State Anthony blinkin visiting Japan today spoke to reporters in Tokyo it's not by accident the very first trip that I made to secretary of state was here to Japan that I've TR traveled here seven times over the course of these four years and that in fact my last uh trip as secretary brings me to Japan it points to the centrality of the US Japan Alliance and partnership uh for the United States the importance that we attach to it and we've seen that Alliance develop in extraordinary ways moving over time from a bilateral relationship focused on issues between us to a regional focus and now to a global Focus where Japan and the United States together are a force for Progress for good for making a difference in the lives of our people and people around the world and I think as we look at the last four years we've seen uh an alliance a partnership a friendship that's grown stronger than it's ever been before if you look at what we've done together uh on strengthening our security partnership relationship modernizing our uh command and control working together on defense co-production so that we can strengthen our defense industrial base uh and have an even stronger deterrent uh remarkable steps just in these last few years our economies are extraordinarily intertwined we are the largest investors in each other's economies we work together to strengthen and build more resilient Supply chains critical mineral security uh shaping the rules of things like artificial intelligence uh and in each of these ways and so many more uh we're strengthening the foundation for many years to come Secretary of State Anthony blinkin in Tokyo Japan standing beside him was the US ambassador to Japan Rama Manuel the two making statements but did not answer any reporter's questions sounds of the hor drawn Quon with the casket of former President Jimmy Carter on Pennsylvania in Washington DC as state funeral observances for the 39th president continued today he died December 29th at age 100 his remains were transferred by air force plane from The Carter Center in Atlanta Georgia to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland then by motorcade to the US Navy Memorial he's the only Naval Academy graduate to become commander-in-chief then to a Quon for the trip to the US capital where former President Carter is lying in state for 2 days on on the Catapult used after the death of President Lincoln at an arrival ceremony for members of Congress inside the capitol rotunda vice president kamla Harris president of the Senate speaking about President Carter's legacy first president of the United States to have a comprehensive energy policy including providing some of the First Federal support for clean energy he also passed over a dozen major pieces of legislation regarding Environmental Protection and more than doubled the size of America's national parks including protecting our beloved redwoods in my home state of California he was a president who between the years of 1977 in 1981 appointed more black Americans to the federal bench then all of his predecessors combined and appointed five times as many women and in the wake of Watergate Jimmy Carter passed historic ethics legislation to help rebuild America's faith in government Jimmy Carter as president was also a respected Global leader to be sure the years of his presidency were not without International crises or challenges but his legacy of Global Leadership is well established in Asia he instituted full diplomatic relations with China which he would later call one of the most historically significant accomplishments of his presidency and his legacy lives on in the Middle East because do recall in the decades before Jimmy Carter became president Israel and Egypt had been at War numerous times few thought peace could be achieved between them yet Jimmy Carter did that through his persistence and perseverance through his unshakeable belief in the power of American diplomacy he secured the Camp David Accords one of the most significant and durable peace treaties since World War II vice president Kamala Harris at the memorial service in the US capital rotunda where former President Jimmy Carter is lying in state also making remarks the house Speaker Mike Johnson and the Senate Majority Leader John th you can find the video of this arrival ceremony at our website cp.org former president we will be lying in state for 2 days the public can pay their respects tonight from 8:30 p.m. Eastern until midnight Eastern and then Wednesday 7:00 a.m. eastern all the way through the day through the night until 700 a.m. eastern Thursday and the state funeral will conclude Thursday with a service at the National Cathedral in Washington and then former President Carter will return home to Plains Georgia for a private funeral and interment at his family home buried next to his wife of 77 years first lady rosand Carter thanks for listening to Washington today sign up for c-span's free evening newsletter word for word and get the stories making headlines in Washington send to your inbox every day subscribe at c-span.org connect have a good night [Music]