Fmr. Rep. J.C. Watts on Biden's inaugural address: 'He meant every word that he said'

J.C. Watts, Chairman of Black News Channel and Former Republican Congressman from Oklahoma, joins Yahoo Finance's Kristin Myers and Adam Shapiro to break down highlights from the 59th Presidential Inauguration.

Video Transcript

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KRISTIN MYERS: Now with Trump gone, there are a lot of questions about the future of the Republican Party. We have JC Watts here with us. He's the chairman of the Black News Channel and former Republican Congressman from Oklahoma. JC, thank you so much for joining us. I'm going to throw to you the same question that we've been, you know, asking everyone over the last several minutes. What are your thoughts on this Inauguration Day, and also to that speech that we just heard from President Biden?

JC WATTS: Well, Kristin, thanks for having me on. And regardless of who's being inaugurated or who's being sworn in, Republican or Democrat, inaugurals are special events. I've had them-- I've had the opportunity to sit in a front row seat in two different inaugurations, one a Republican, one a Democrat, and they're special times.

Senator Biden, or President Biden now, I knew him as Senator Biden when I was in the House. I knew him as Senator Biden from Delaware. And I think his speech, it was a good speech. I think it was a heartfelt speech. I think he meant every word that he said. That's who Joe Biden is. However, the difficulty now is going to be executing. And then that's where the tough part comes in.

However, I do think, when I served with Joe Biden, no one ever accused him of not being a decent guy. There were senators that served in the time I was there-- Joe Biden, Don Nickles, Senator Dole, who was the Majority Leader at the time. You know, Senator Dole got things done because he was trusted on both sides of the aisle.

And I think President Biden brings that same trust, or I get the sense that Joe Biden that I knew that I had dealings with brings that same trust to the table. And I think, again, execution's going to be difficult, but he starts with the good foundation. And that foundation is trust.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Congressman Watts, can you help us understand, when he talked about seeing each other not as adversaries but neighbors, can you talk about trust? There are millions of Americans right now who don't believe that he was legitimately elected and reject the truth of this election. How does Joe Biden resonate with them? What did they hear today in this speech?

JC WATTS: [CHUCKLES] Well, you know, just because JC Watts disagrees with the news story doesn't make it fake news. Just because JC Watts disagrees with the facts doesn't make it, you know, false. And I think we put so much emphasis in our politics today on the left-wing and the right-wing that the poor bird is dying. And the fact is that regardless of who won, someone would have cried foul.

But as we've seen over the last two months, there's nothing in the facts, there's nothing in the data, there's no evidence in the court cases, and there's been, you know, 60 something court cases filed, even at the Supreme Court, judges who were appointed by President Trump. There's been nothing that they've seen that would alarm us to widespread fraud or that the election was stolen.

And so, I think one of the challenges for President Biden is going to be having to lower the temperature. You know, there's been so much chaos and dysfunction and lying and, you know, conspiracy theories over the last four years that, you know, Joe-- President Biden is going to have to lower the temperature.

But again, I think going back to the trust theme, I think he's got enough trust I think with Mitch McConnell and others in the Republican and the Democrat side that it will allow him to manage the left and the right-wing and hopefully be successful in getting things done that will move our country forward.

KRISTIN MYERS: You know, Congressman, you're talking a lot about trust. And I want to ask you about trust with the American voter and some of the promises that President Biden made on the campaign trail, particularly to Black voters. He said after he won the election that he had always had the backs of Black voters and-- that they've always had his back-- excuse me-- and that he would now always have theirs.

And I think it's a sentiment that really rang hollow with a lot of Black voters because they don't feel that a lot of things have changed for them under Republican or Democratic presidents-- with Republican or Democratic politicians. How important is this moment right now, the next two years, the next four years, particularly to that voting bloc, really to keep those promises that were made and keeping that trust?

JC WATTS: Well, one of the things we're doing at the Black News Channel, we're kind of, you know, monitoring the next 100 days to see those promises made, if they will be promises kept. And Kristin, you nailed it. You know, there are some conditions in every community, in poor neighborhoods, red, yellow, Brown, Black, and white. There are conditions that it really doesn't matter who's in the White House. Those conditions four years down the road, eight years down the road, they don't change.

And I think it's because we tend to use the same old models and find a deal with the same problems. And we use models that that don't work. And so, I think we have to-- I hope President Biden will be open to looking at new ways of dealing with old problems. Because if you don't, if you're dealing with old problems the same way, you're right. Four years down the road, eight years down the road, JC was saying in 2020 or 2021 when President Biden was sworn in, JC was saying, hey, my conditions haven't changed.

I'm making less money. I'm still in poverty. I'm still below the poverty level. So, if you don't-- if you're afraid to change the way we try to deal with many of our problems, you're going to get the same old results. And again, you look at it under President Obama, under President Bush, under President Clinton, hopefully under President Trump, under any of those presidents, if you were in poverty 16 years ago, you're still in poverty today.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Congressman JC Watts is chairman of the Black News Channel and a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma. Thank you for joining us here during the inauguration--