southern states didn't recognize the election of abraham lincoln as legitimate and they considered him a sectional president for by and large is support no sooner had he been elected than south carolina makes good on its promise to secede from the union. >> he had no choice given the resounding nature of the way that it was reported and it was clear that he had lost but he never conceded that the substance of the argument. he continued to believe that the new deal as roosevelt had framed it during the campaign represented a fundamental threat to the american way of life and so he devoted himself to preventing roosevelt from being able to enact it. >> presidential transitions

8 p.m. on c-span q and a. >> this is 20 minutes. >> good afternoon, everyone.

we just had a lunch meeting conference call where the growing concern about the rise of coronavirus and we adjusted our meeting and conducting what we believe is essential work for the american people. the subject of additional relief is on the minds of lots of our members. you've already spoken to probably senator collins and others and meeting with democrats about a possible way forward. we received a proposal through a letter from speaker pelosi and senator schumer last night. let me tell you where i think we

are. the leader and i have been in discussions with the secretary of the treasury and president's chief of staff to try to ascertain what the president would actually sign into law and i think we have a sense of what that is. i laid that out in the call we had just a little while ago. we are going to send that out to all the offices to get some feedback to see how our members react to a proposal that we can say for sure would be signed into law. i think the one thing we all agree on is we don't have time for these games or lengthy negotiations. the issue is do we want to get it resolved and i would like to remind everybody the way you get it resolved is you have to have a presidential signature so i thought the first thing we need to do is find out what the

president would in fact sign. we believe we've got the answer to that and we are betting that on our side and then we will let you know later whether we think there is any way forward but certainly we know we can say i hope this is something that would be signed into law by the president and be done quickly to deal with of th the things we cn agree on now. and i think we all know that after the first of the year there would be some additional next year depending on what the new administration wants to pursue. >> between now and the end of the year we have to wrap up a lot of the unfinished business of this congress, so we have a number of nominees to important agencies and judgeships that we

will need to be acting on and selling. we have to pass a defense authorization bill as well all of which we have to try to get done hopefully in the next week or two depending on how much cooperation we have. as the leader pointed out, the issue on coronavirus relief is subject for discussion, and i think in terms of ending these year-end negotiations could be if there's an agreement wrapped up considered as a part of the spending bill or perhaps separately but in any case it would have to get a presidential signature and have the votes in the senate and obviously join the house of representatives, so the question is what does that look like and will there be enough movement among the democrats to enable us to get an agreement. i think what we have seen of course so far we have now not once but twice past or i shouldn't say past would have gotten 52 republican votes in

the senate, the majority if you could pass the majority in the senate, the bill that provides funding for vaccines and schools. it provides additional assistance for unemployment insurance and also replenishes the program that helps a lot of our small businesses that are struggling and the workers that work there. these are all things the democrats say they agree upon but they have insisted at least up until now on a messaging bill in the order of a couple of two and a half trillion dollars or thereabouts which is something that obviously wouldn't pass and get signed by the president. the question is what can we get through the house, 60 votes in the senate and a presidential signature. and i would hope that in the course of the next couple of weeks as we are debating the year-end issues that we can get some agreement on a something tg that fits those basic

parameters. we had all but one republican not once but twice that addresses those critical needs. but it would require a level of cooperation and compromise that we haven't seen or witnessed yet in order to get that done. but i'm hopeful and i think the american people need help and relief, small businesses, front-line workersfrontline word help and obviously we want to make sure we are investing everything we can in the vaccines and therapies that will help us defeat this virus. so those are areas of agreement and bipartisan agreement the question is now whether democrats are going to come to the table in a meaningful way and help us get something across the finish line. >> nancy pelosi has been dug in

since she passed her message six months ago, stubborn against doing a coronavirus relief bill in a cooperative way. right before the election, she said she wouldn't budge. she has been dead set for using the pandemic as a way to push a far left agenda because she was going to use this to pick up the seats for democrats in the house about what happened as a result of her actions, republicans picked up over ten republican seats in the house of representatives. why? because the democrats refused to deal with and address the number one issue on the minds of the american voters which was the relief for dealing with the disease. so, now here we are at a point where we have an increased number of cases around the country and around the world. so what is the house of representatives doing this week? i looked into it and they have a bill that is going to be taken up in the rules committee

tomorrow. it's called the more active. i didn't know what that stood for so i looked into it and researched it. this is pelosi's priority. marijuana opportunity reinvestment act. that is the priority of the house right now. i don't know if it has to do with decriminalization, legalization of marijuana, making it easier for kids to get marijuana in the neighborhoods, whatever it is, that is today's priority of the incredibly shrinking nancy pelosi run the house of representatives. that isn't what the american people are talking about or what i heard about in wyoming this weekend. i heard about the good news about the vaccines. people looking forward to having it available to them. or the republican relief bill that is money for distribution on the vaccine. the pelosi schumer approach they really do shortcut the vaccine.

the republican bill has the paycheck protection. that's what small businesses are asking for and he has money to help kids get back to school safely so they don't fall further behind. this is the path forward for the country. the republican bill is sizable and significant and the path the american people want to follow. >> it's also safe to say senator shelby said we are making real progress on the omnibus spending bill. i know on part of the education bill we are down to only discussing report language with the full committee help we are going to close that out before the house and senate they've worked for that over the last couple of weeks now and we are getting to a good place with the rest of the bell. the other topic i want to talk

about today is the arms sale. it appears sometime this month there will be a congressional vote on that issue. my personal view is it would be a mistake not to move forward with that arms sale. israel is supporting and i think that it may be the only thing they have agreed on since they formed their coalition government that this sale should go forward. they said in that understanding there would be a qualitative difference between the f35 and israel f35 clearly the abraham

accords and what has happened with bahrain the following and others to follow that will be impacted by weathe whether we ce to have the kind of cooperation on defense issues that we have had again for three different administrations. that will come up and it will not successfully be stopped by the congress but it's a debate we ought to be thinking about and we should continue that arms sale. >> i want to welcome back my senior senator chuck grassley to the united states senate and our work schedule whether it is working from his iowa farm or his office here on the united states senate or whether he is teleworking because of the virus, chuck grassley worked. he's always working. many of you probably heard the chuck norris jokes out there. you know the dark is afraid of chuck norris.

well, we have our own chuck grassley now and covid is afraid. so, we are very thankful to have him back and in good health and continually working for iowans. he's such a tremendous asset to the great state and we wish him continued health. as we are approaching the end of the congressional session, we do have a number of things that need to be done and i want to address two of them some of my colleagues have already mentioned. one is making sure we have a coronavirus bill that's done. just earlier today the governor of the great state of iowa stated congress needs to come together and get a bill done. we have people across the state of iowa and across the nation that are hurting. we want to keep a strong economy and keep our citizens safe and healthy. and finally, we do have a national defense authorization act that is hanging in the

balance. we need to work together to ensure that we get this completed. we have done this for many decades and in a bipartisan fashion we need to do it again. it includes a lot of provisions that are good for the servicemen and women. things as simple as body armor for females in a body armor that conforms to the size and shape of a female, so simple. well, that is included in the national defense authorization act, so it is vitally important that we are putting our servicemembers safety first and getting that over the finish line. so just encouraging our democrats to come back to the table. let's work through these issues. let's get the nondisclosure agreement done and get this coronavirus will done. >> i welcome everyone back i hope you had a good thanksgiving. it is of course december 1st and we still don't have a

coronavirus relief package that has been passed, signed into law by the president and is providing relief to the american people. people are hurting. they are beyond frustrated with this whole exercise. republicans put forth a package that is the leader has emphasized it could actually be signed into law, one that provides assistance to schools and students and one that provides assistance to the hard-hit small businesses and additional resources for testing. so, why don't we go ahead and pass what we know can be signed into law and then we can debate and negotiate and get further consideration to the additional measures. as it relates to small businesses i will tell you that the small businesses have been absolutely hammered as so many others around the country. 75% of the members would consider or go ahead and apply

for the second round of assistance that is included in the senate package. it now has incidentally 58 cosponsors with the addition of senator perdue in the senate, 180 on the house of representatives so i'm going to continue to push on this small business front and the others to provide the much-needed relief to the american people. unfortunately it seems the house is focused on other priorities.

and the request of the constituents around the country you eluded to the bipartisan work that came out today. have you had a chance to look at that and since you are talking about the importance of the findings, the house passed something, tomac and it could be a better way to go the place to start is are we making the law

were just making the point and i think the way you make the law for sure is you know you have a presidential signature. the one thing we all agree on is waiting on till next year is not an answer. we need a targeted relief bill including things we can agree on. >> [inaudible] [inaudible] i haven't given any real thought to that. that is a decision obviously the majority decided to make over there and it will be interesting to see how the republicans in

the house respond to it. >> as senator blunt pointed out obviously given the challenges of moving things across the senate floor speedily i think that it will all likely come in one package. >> the integrity and why have you not spoken on the claim that

it has been stolen. >> as i said repeatedly, we have this for the next three weeks for sure, and what i'm focusing on is to try to accomplish as much as we can during the three-week period that requires what we have right now and that the future will take care of itself as i said repeatedly we are going to go through these processes and the electoral college is going to meet december 14th. there will be in an inauguration on january 20th. >> you keep saying this would have the president's signature. but he has been willing to go with 1.8 trillion. is there anything that you saw today? >> to indicate what he's willing

to sign and the leader and i went over with him this morning what we know will get a presidential signature. i'm sending that proposal to all that have been done now. it's helping members feel about it and determined the way forward. >> we can reconsider it in the future. thanks a lot, everybody.