Dems Eye Stunning Mississippi Senate Flip

0:02Democrats may be on the verge of pulling off one more stunning upset. I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines and inside politics.

0:18It has been a long, wild, historic week, and the 2026 midterms, they're not over. Democrats are eyeing another flip in a deep red state to expand their already really big majorities in Congress. I want to show you the Senate vote in Mississippi. It's a state President Trump won by nearly 23 percentage points, only two years ago. The race between Democrat Scott Cologne and Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith is still too close to call. Cologne's razor-thin lead keeps getting just a bit bigger. Now about 1 ,900 votes. Tens of thousands of ballots remain uncounted, and both parties are calling in legal reinforcements.

1:05I'm going to get straight to CNN's Annie Greyer in Jackson, Mississippi. Annie Cologne just held an event. Maybe he's having it right now. What's the latest? Well, Cologne was here thanking supporters and senior citizens in the community, and he spoke to us after and said that he is increasingly confident that as more votes come in, that his lead will only increase. He even said that Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith no longer has a path to victory. That's how he sees it. And he also called on the Republican senator to come out in public and make her case. Colom has been holding multiple events a day.

1:38I've attended many of them since coming down here and we have not seen an event from the Republican senator. So take a listen to how Colom is framing the race at this point. They need to accept the results, right? That's what our democracy is all about. When people lose, they can't be sore losers. They have to accept the results. The senator needs to speak out, right? Where is Cindy Hyde-Smith? Where is her? Why can't she speak for herself? Why she got to have Chairman Hurst speaking for her? We want to hear from her. She needs to answer questions. What is her path to victory? She doesn't have one.

2:11And this is a really unprecedented situation that we are in in Ruby Red, Mississippi, as you point out, a state Trump carried by 23 points. And both sides are watching every single vote as they come in, Dana. And Annie, one of the questions is how the vote counting is going. I know that's where you are right now and you have been. You've been watching as they've been going through the ballots. Just quickly, what is the latest there? So there are about 20 ,000 provisional ballots and absentee ballots that election officials still have to go through. And these absentee ballots could really be what comes down to the ballgame here, because these are where election officials are going through to determine whether votes can be accepted or rejected.

2:55And both parties have had a cavalry of lawyers coming to the state. Republicans have 50 lawyers spread out across the state. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also has deployed a number of lawyers and resources because both sides are prepared to challenge whatever happens with these absentee ballots. In fact, Republicans sent a letter to election officials saying to preserve all of those affidavit ballots. Democrats say that that is ridiculous. But that is what we are watching very closely. And it could be days before those affidavit or provisional ballots are actually counted. And we know those results.

3:30All right, Annie, we're lucky to have you down there. You've been doing great work. Keep us posted if anything changes. And our smart reporters are here on this wonderful, wonderful Friday. And I say wonderful because it's Friday. We got here. We got here. By the way, to those who celebrate, some of us will be here this weekend, but that's okay. Can we just talk about Mississippi for a second? Just the fact that we are where we are right now. And the whole notion of Scott Cologne doing as well as he did, win or lose, although he does believe he's on track to actually win there. Even on Election Day, the morning of Election Day, I was hearing from Republicans who were kind of looking at this big picture who were worried about it.

4:21because they did not think Cindy Hyde-Smith was taking her candidacy, taking her campaign seriously enough. And now look at where we are. I mean, the reality is when the president went back down there and it was clear that this was at the center of everything, it did not look good. But depending on how big the wave was, they thought they could hold on. And she still might, but it does not look good. And talk about not a position of strength. I mean, the fact that she has not been seen for four days now is not how most slow count or recount situations are. We've covered a lot of them over the years.

4:57You get out front and you act like a winner because that kind of creates this perception of reality. And that is not how she's going. But look, imagine if resources had been invested in this state from the very beginning. But what's also so rich about this is just the connection between the two. I know. That she voted against him. He would have been a federal judge at this point and not running against her. So sometimes politics and life is a bit ironic. It is. She blocked him. She blocked him. Yeah. Let's she hasn't been out there. The Republican chair in Mississippi has been. Let's listen to what he said.

5:37We believe if the laws are followed to a T and these 20 ,000 outstanding ballots are counted, that Senator Cindy Hott-Smith will be reelected. I'm always willing to accept a scenario where the voters have spoken and the law has been followed. There is no, let me be clear, there is no election denying going on here. If the laws are followed and the voters spoke, that is it. And Mississippi Republicans will accept that. Jasmine. I mean, it's such a different tone than we've heard from other election cycles. But this is the role of a party chair to come out and advocate for both his candidate, advocate for the process and try to inject perhaps some calmness into the situation.

6:17We see him out. We don't see Cindy Hydesmith out, but we see Scott Colum out a lot. Not only is he doing media availabilities every day, he's basically on Twitter talking about how he read the LBJ series, talking about all of these things, making it seem like he is not somebody that is worried. I can't tell you the number of Democratic strategists I've heard from in the last two days who called me and said, remember when I told you about Mississippi? I do not, but still. The Democrats are really elated, and I think you're just seeing the process play out in real time. I remember when he came on Inside Politics this summer, and he's like, I have a chance.

6:50I just want the Democrats to give me money. I mean, he certainly didn't get as much as he wanted, but he's obviously in the hunt. The advantage that Democrats have with black voters, I mean, historically that is the case. One of the storylines two years ago is that the president and some Republicans made inroads with black voters. Not this year. Scott Colombe will put on the screen, plus 94. James Tallarico, 82. Annie Andrews, 73. Roy Cooper, 86. John Ossoff, 87. These are all southern states where the black vote is so enormous and so powerful and important, particularly in Mississippi, the state we're talking about, which has the biggest percentage of black voters of any state in the country.

7:37James Clyburn is the most senior black House Democrat. Listen to what he said to Pam, or aside from Hakeem Jeffries, he's the most veteran House black Democrat. Listen to what he said to Pam Brown this morning. We don't like people insulting us the way they have been doing. And so I think the South is responding with those votes in Mississippi. This will be the first opportunity for Mississippi to elect an African-American United States Senator. And I think that's part of us being redeemed here in the South and demonstrating that we won't anybody playing us as the front door shoe cleaners. Yeah.

8:21Well, I can't argue with James Clyburn, who knows this issue way better than I do. But talking to Democrats leading into Election Day, they were skeptical that Mississippi was going to be this close or even winnable. And in large part because they were unsure of how much the black turnout was, if black voters were actually going to turn out in numbers that they needed. Because of the math in the state of Mississippi when it comes to registered voters and registered Republicans, it turns out that the aftermath of the Voting Rights Act was an absolute motivator for people. And, you know, not just in Mississippi, but across this country, but especially in the South.

9:03I want you to just quickly look, I want you to come in at what Troy Carter, a Democrat from Louisiana, said. This is in a Politico story, The South Rose Up. Black lawmakers want Democrats to invest in the region before 2028. You cannot reap for which you don't sow. The South rose up this election without the timely resources. Now imagine, with a little bit of investment, not just at election time, but 365 days a year. Yeah, I mean, that quote from Troy Carter was from today, but I've been talking to black Democratic strategists for months who have basically been begging the Democratic Party to invest more, particularly after that Supreme Court ruling.

9:39I remember there was a story in which Congresswoman Sewell basically put, you know, basically begged the Democratic Party to come in and invest, saying that this was a motivator. And I don't think she convinced Democratic leadership at large. And so, you know, I think people are coming upon this and saying, oh, my gosh, black voters woke up. I think they've been awake for six months. The South has something to say, and they made their point. And I think Democratic strategists now want the Democratic Party to invest in a way that they invest in other demographics. And Terry Sowell, she certainly knows.

10:15She represents Selma. So don't go anywhere. Coming up, Republicans are searching for someone to blame. Will Pete Hexeth fit that bill? And later, she flipped a GOP seat, lost it. Then on Tuesday, flipped it back again. I'll be joined with Virginia Democratic Congresswoman-elect Elaine Luria.

10:42Hey, I'm Anderson Cooper. On my podcast, All There Is, we explore grief and loss in all its complexities. My guest is Lil Jon. He's a rapper, DJ, and producer known for hits like Get Low and Turn Down For What. In February 2026, his 27-year-old son Nathan went missing near Nathan's home in Georgia. Three days later, his body was found in a pond nearby. Lil Jon has a memoir that just came out called I Only Shout So You Can Hear Me. It takes time to heal. And I kept myself busy that I didn't let myself mourn. I needed to laugh again. I needed to be silly and interact with people and feel other people's energy and make people happy too.

11:27We have to share so other people can see that they can get through it too. Talking grief, building community. That's what the podcast is all about. This is all there is. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast. You may have noticed gambling doesn't require a casino anymore. You can just open up your phone. It's designed to keep us coming back or maybe never even leaving in the first place. We're going to talk to Dr. Timothy Fong, co-director of UCLA's Gambling Studies program. You're going to learn what your brain is really chasing when you place a bet.

12:05And also importantly, how to keep the game from playing you. Gambling addiction, gambling disorder is the hidden addiction. You can't smell it. You can't taste it. You can't see it. You can't have a urine drug test. Who are we talking about here, Professor? Who's the most likely demographic to be affected by this? Literally any single human on Earth. Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now wherever you get your podcasts.

12:30The knives are out in the GOP. Republicans who don't want to blame the president for their catastrophic losses are looking for someone or something else to blame. President Trump himself went on a posting spree. His message, look somewhere else. He says he, quote, just wasn't on the ballot. If I were, we would have won in a landslide. He then quoted Newsmax to say Trump is a winner and he's right on Iran. So who does the president blame? Well, after yesterday's massive stock sell off, he posted this. The stock market crashed today because the Democrats had a big Tuesday. So sad to see you only have yourselves to blame.

13:11My panel is back. So that would be the voters he's blaming on which, you know, the voters did make a choice on mass. I want to read some of what you reported this morning, Jasmine, on this whole question of who's going to take the fall, if anybody. You had somebody, a Republican strategist, tell you the following. Honestly, it's the Wild West in there right now. Everyone is looking for someone to blame. And people also see the opportunity to elevate themselves in the process. That's, again, one GOP strategist telling you. I've had damaging stories shopped to me about nearly half the cabinet. Yeah, it's a scary time to be in leadership inside of the Trump administration right now because you just don't know who else is going to come up in kind of the rotary of people that both the base and maybe some inside of the White House are pinning the massive, massive loss that surprised people inside of the White House on Tuesday on.

14:13I think that there are perhaps some truth to a lot of the names that we've heard already. That includes Defense Secretary Pete Hagsack, Marco Rubio, although he's denying all of these. Everyone is basically denying all of these. Susie Wells' name has come up in conversation again after we know she was a topic of conversation just a few weeks ago. But the fact is, is that the MAGA base is looking for a head to roll. I asked multiple people, what is it going to take for this kind of pointing blame game to end? And they said it's going to take somebody to lose. And the question is, who is that going to be?

14:47And right now, the president has a lot of people in his ear complaining and putting this loss on individual people. whether or not that's people within his political team, who I've known, according to sources, that he has actively complained about over the course of the last few months, or people within the cabinet, right? But the blame is going both all around it, also not to one person, which is Donald Trump. Even before the elections, part of the reason why the House left even earlier than they had planned is because the Republican leaders were trying to avoid an impeachment vote against Pete Hexhef.

15:22His name is maybe talked about the most and people are saying it the loudest about somebody who could take the blame. He knows that. And he's mounting an effort to defend himself, including a video. Watch this. A disgruntled, defeated congressman along with all his Democrat allies has also dropped sham articles of impeachment against yours truly. just like they tried against President Trump twice. He literally took a bullet for this nation. He shook his fist and said, fight, fight, fight. And so will we. And I'll assure you, we have only just begun to fight. I'm not sure how much sort of making himself just like the president is going to, how it's going to land in the Oval Office, but we will see.

16:19Leanne, what are your sources telling you about the potential for this impeachment vote, assuming it happens next week, to actually pass? It's expected to pass. I've been reporting for a couple weeks that Pete Hegseth is probably going to get impeached, not when Democrats take control in January, but when the lame duck Congress returns. The congressman he was mentioning, referring to, is Thomas Massey, who has these eight, Republican, who has these eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth. and Republican leadership are admitting that he is like, this is likely going to pass. You're going to have all Democrats.

16:55You're going to have some Republican members who just lost their reelection, who might not want to defend Pete Hegseth anymore or the president. But what's more likely to happen is you're going to have a lot of members who lost Republicans who don't want to come back and try to defend Pete Hegseth as one of the last things they do. And so Pete Hexeth is trying to defend himself. You know, I'm hearing the same thing I wrote about a month ago that Trump's political team, James Blair and Chris Lasavita, were like, were top of being scapegoated for this election. And so it's chaos over there in the White House.

17:30Yeah. And a couple things we're sort of not saying, but it's important to say that a big reason why things are so bad economically is because of the Iran war. He is the Secretary of Defense. But beyond that, it's not just the Iran war. There are other actions that Pete Hexeth has taken inside the Pentagon. But just a reminder, when the House comes back next week, it's still the Republican controlled House. So what you are saying and what you are reporting and our colleagues as well is that it is likely that the Republican-controlled House is about to impeach the president's defense secretary. Which will be remarkable.

18:12But the question is, that also is not going to end the Iran war. I mean, so the bigger point here on funding concerns and other things, but the whole point of firing someone after midterms, as we well remember from the Bush administration, Secretary Rumsfeld lost his job the day after, is to signal a new direction. So I think that the potential impeachment vote in the House will certainly be a way to event anger in things, but it's not necessarily going to change the direction of things. So, again, the president, this is someone who we've seen now for 10 years. The Bucks never stops with him, ever.

18:46I am still open to the possibility of him blaming or firing someone. He fired a lot of people in his first time around, far fewer this time around, but some cabinet members. So we shall see. But I think the bottom line to all of it, he has to be the one who signals a new direction. But again, the Iran war is to blame for a lot of the midterm election losses, among other things. But is he going to, what happens with the actual policy of the war, regardless of who's leading the Department of Defense? As we go to break, I do want to play one important soundbite, I think, from James Comer. He is the Republican who has been in charge of oversight in this House Republican Congress.

19:26Listen to what he said this morning about Pete Hexeth. I can tell you with a high level of confidence that there's a lot of questions about Hexeth. We have no idea what the strategy is moving forward in Iran. No one's happy about Iran. And I think the Republican voters are more upset about what's going on in Iran than the Democrat voters. I mean, wow, that's very telling. All right, up next, something else that's telling. Big news at the DOJ. The U.S. attorney overseeing the probe of the president's so-called enemies. That U.S. attorney is out. The details are next.

20:15Now to some new CNN reporting. The U.S. attorney pursuing some of President Trump's most controversial desired investigations. He's out. Sources familiar with the matter say U.S. attorney Jason Redding Quinones resigned under pressure. CNN's Evan Perez is on that reporting, joins us now. Okay, so this is really important because he's been the one trying to nail down some indictments in the national security space, mostly the people who President Trump wants to go after, and he's been unsuccessful. Right. This idea that there was some grand conspiracy that stretches from 2016 to 2024, that was his idea.

20:55He was the one who got the attention of people in the White House. And so the president, of course, was expecting that something would come of this. At one point in the past year, people were expecting that indictments would happen in March or April. And that's because of Quinones. And so obviously the problem here was that the evidence did not support that. The career prosecutors in that office told him that, told the Justice Department officials that. And because Quinonez kept pushing for it, you saw a series of other issues. You saw Joe DiGenova brought in to try to do this investigation. He lasted about four months before he hit the exit.

21:36And so it just goes to show you, you know, the problem with the Justice Department at this point in the past year has been these promises made by people like Quinonez, making a big splash, Harmeet Dhillon, who announced her resignation yesterday, making these big promises, raising expectations, and then failing to deliver. And sometimes U.S. attorneys kind of come up from within. In this case, he was brought in as a MAGA sort of supporter, and then some, trying to go after the likes of John Brennan and others. And what you're saying here is that it seems as though the fact that he's out is because he couldn't find any there there.

22:19He couldn't find any there there. And look, I mean, the fact remains that this is always going to be a difficult issue, which is this idea that there is something that ties together the Russia investigation from 2016, 2017, all the way to the Mar-a-Lago case of classified documents. You know, it was never a very easy thing to do. And the fact that people were expecting it because of these expectations became a problem for him. It turns out when you go into a job setting expectations high that you can do something and you can't do it, it doesn't really bode well for job security. Right. It also says a lot about, like you were saying, that the idea that they had anything that was really prosecutable on the people who the president is really mad at, James Comey, John Brennan, and others.

23:09Yeah, this may very well be the end of it. I mean, it's not to say that they're not going to keep trying, but this may tell you where this is going. Thank you, Evan. Great reporting. And she lives at the beach. You might call her a surfer. Well, Elaine Loria is returning to Washington on the latest blue wave. She'll be here next.

23:36She won in the blue wave of 2018 and then lost in 2022 when Republicans took back the House. Now in this blue tsunami, Elaine Loria is heading back to the House, beating Jen Kiggins, to whom she lost in 2022, by eight and a half percentage points. The congresswoman-elect, I guess you're a congresswoman and congresswoman-elect. You're sort of both right now. Joins me now. First of all, congratulations. What do you think your mandate is when you get back to the House? How will you make sure to address the issues you heard from voters on the campaign trail? Well, Dana, you know, across this district and throughout the campaign, the main thing we heard from people is people are really struggling.

24:21Donald Trump with this Republican Congress have passed so many pieces of legislation, things that have actually hurt people. We hear about the cost of health care, the cost of living exacerbated by these tariffs. And, you know, something very personal in our district here is we hear a lot about the Iran war. I mean, clearly gas prices are affecting everyone across the country. But here we have so many sailors deployed at this point, you know, between the Ford, which had an 11-month carrier deployment, the longest since Vietnam. The George H.W. Bush deployed now. The Eisenhower will go next. And all the other ships and aviation squadrons, like 25 ,000 people from this area have deployed and supported this war.

25:00And people want someone who's going to go to Washington, stand up in these tariffs, put an end to this war, and work really hard to drive down these prices and make people's lives better. And you are a veteran of the Navy. Over your left shoulder to the right of our screen, We can see your uniform in that shadow box from the time at the Naval Academy. When you get to Congress, how hard are you going to push for another war powers vote in order to try to put the ball more in Congress's court on the Iran war? Well, it's assured. My fellow former and future colleague, Senator Tim McCain from Virginia, he's introduced this every month for the last six months, and he plans to continue to do that.

25:47So I am certain that that vote will come before us in Congress, and I will vote for that War Powers Resolution to reassert Congress's power, because only Congress can declare war or enter our troops into conflict. Do you want to see Pete Hegseth impeached?

26:07well it seemed like something along those lines is going to happen well before i get to congress i mean this video that he put online the other day um you know we've been watching a lot of campaign ads it seemed like the longest six minute pr response ad uh to hit every single point where he wanted to defend himself himself and you know he has been a failure he is the least qualified Secretary of Defense we've ever seen. And I know that Tom Massey has already said that, you know, as soon as Congress comes back next week, he'll be introducing those articles again. So we'll all be watching what happens.

26:41But, you know, I don't think he's long for the world. It's pretty unlikely he'll be in that position by the time I get to Congress. Well, yeah, you might be right, but you never know. Let's broaden it out to talk more about kind of the situation that you're going to be in when you get back to Congress. The last time you were there, the number of moderates, you consider yourself a moderate, was smaller. The majority that Democrats had was much tighter. And now there will be many more moderates, a bigger majority. How do you hope Hakeem Jeffries, assuming he is speaker, will take that into account?

27:16Well, you know, the way that Hakeem Jeffries is going to become speaker, every committee chair is going to hold that gavel is because, you know, in tough seats like this and seats that we flip from red to blue, where there's really a mandate, the American people stood up and spoke and we have over a 250 seat majority here. These are the people who delivered that majority and are going to Washington from diverse districts across the country and like myself going there to represent everyone, the people who voted for us or not. And so, you know, it takes 218 votes to pass legislation, I'm sure that we will come to consensus.

27:51And the Democratic caucus is, it's a large tent. There's lots of different perspectives there, but we all want the same thing. We want to go to Washington. We want to make people's lives better. We want to get these costs of health care down. We want to end these tariffs. We want to end these wars. And I feel like under his leadership, we're going to be all marching in the same direction to make that happen. Always differences amongst people about how to get there, but we certainly have the same goals. And I feel that we will come to that consensus of 218 votes to move that forward, send legislation to the Senate.

28:19And, you know, if it lands on President Trump's desk, I truly do hope that we can work with the White House and the administration to pass legislation, because that's what we're sent there to do. Congresswoman-elect Elaine Loria, congratulations on your win. Thank you so much for speaking with us. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back. There are so many shocking results this week, so much political conventional wisdom thrown on its head. So many stories, really fascinating stories that haven't even gotten attention. So let's give them some attention with some terrific reporters here. Jeff, I want to start with you.

28:56What is one of your under the radar issues or stories? Look, for all we talk about the control of Congress, state legislative races were absolutely fascinating from governors, but also House and Senate districts. If you look here at the trifectas, which means that Democrats control a state House and Senate and governor's race. It is incredible. I mean, the map is just really extraordinary across the board there. I mean, Arizona, for example, for the first time, Democrats are controlling the legislature for the first time in 60 years. Look at Wisconsin for all that we have talked about over the years, about Republican control of legislatures there led to so much more via gerrymandering.

29:34Democrats control that as well. But it's just a fascinating look at there. And in several other states, not to trifectas, also very interesting, the Texas House, for example, flipped to Democratic. The North Carolina House also flipped Democratic. But in swing states, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, those states all have Democratic control at the statehouse level. And that matters for redistricting. It matters for races going forward. So to me, that is an underappreciated impact of this wave. The Democratic wave was wide and it was deep. And the opposite of the first midterm of the Obama administration, where a lot of these Democrats were wiped out.

30:16So it's the restoration of that. Yeah. Jasmine? One thing that we've been talking about a lot is Florida and whether or not Florida and the loss there for Democrats at some of the top of the ticket places. I'm thinking of governor and senator, was not because of this idea that Angie Nixon was too progressive, but it was because this idea that the Democratic Party writ large did not fund Florida to the levels that I think some people inside of the state would have wanted. I know that there's been a lot of kind of just looking at where they're at, right? I mean, that's close for Florida. That's close for Florida.

30:48I mean, you go to the governor race, also close. Folks were asking just for a couple more million dollars. I've heard from some folks who lay the blame at Andy Beshear, who runs the DGA, the Democratic version of the Governor's Association, who is making some of these decisions. In Texas, they say he got really lucky. And Louisiana, too, right? Louisiana. It's another place in which people wondered whether or not they were putting enough money. And so you see kind of these losses across the map. We talked about Montana a little bit before. That's a little bit different. John Tester today in The Washington Sun said that that was a big missed opportunity for Democrats in that state.

31:22But the money here and where these folks are spending it, I think there is an underplayed story versus the idea that some of these candidates were just too progressive. Jazz, we have Louisiana on the screen there. Yes. I mean, I said Florida was close. Yeah. This is Louisiana. 25 ,000 votes. 25 ,000 votes. I mean, when we first started covering the Senate, it was John Breaux and Mary Landrieu. And so it wasn't that surprising that there was a Democrat recently, very surprising, and they came so close. And so I think a lot of Democrats are asking themselves, what would happen to this race if you just injected two to three million dollars?

31:57I'm just thinking about the amount of money that they put in places like Texas. Obviously, that worked out well. But I mean, look at that. Leanne. So for the past decade, it has been the conventional wisdom that scandals and character no longer matter in politics. Right. We have had Donald Trump, who's overcome indictments and impeachments and convictions and all of the things. But this cycle, the candidates who had scandals or bad character lost. You had Ken Paxton in Texas. You had Mike Collins in Georgia. He was running for Senate. He was under ethics investigation. He had lots of issues with white nationalism around people around him.

32:37In the House, you had Brendan Herrera in Texas, a Second Amendment enthusiast who had praised Hitler several times. He lost. In northern Nevada, you had David Filippo. a congressional candidate who had tons of scandal behind him. Don't forget Max Miller. And Max Miller as well, absolutely, a member of Congress who lost. And so I think that when it comes to this, perhaps is a flip back to where character actually matters, especially when corruption and these issues permeated so deep with voters, when affordability, when people can't afford things, they aren't willing to look the other way. And so I think that that proves that maybe we are going back to where you might have to at least present as a decent person.

33:24There's one person who's Teflon. Who? Donald Trump. Yes. It doesn't tend to expand beyond that. Mine is women. A record number of women will be in the House of Representatives. This is according to Rutgers University, which does excellent work through their Center for American Women in Politics. 132 women, at least there's some yet to be called in the next House of Representatives. The record was set just two years ago at 127. Now, the vast majority are Democrats because you might have heard there was a blue wave. So that's why there will be at least 111 Democrats and fewer than 20 Republicans.

34:03That's actually a big problem for Republicans because they've been trying very hard to increase their numbers on women. record number of black women, at least 31. Latinas, at least 26. 17 female governors. 17 female governors. And up until now, 17 states had not had women governors. That changed a lot this year as well with Georgia and Minnesota and Ohio finally crossing the hurdle of having a woman elected governor. All right. Up next, a giant step in the U.S.-China diplomacy. Two envoys make their Atlanta debut. This is executive producer Ben Gelden's golden rule. When you have news about pandas, you talk about the pandas, and we're going to show you next.

34:51Their doors open and ready for visitors. Zoo Atlanta's two new giant pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, they debuted today as their habitat officially reopened to the public. Look at those adorable pandas. The Chinese ambassador to the U.S. was there and emphasized the moment for both conservation and diplomacy. This has injected fresh momentum into China-U.S. giant panda cooperation. It also opened a new chapter in the friendship between our two peoples. Now there's one Chinese ambassador in D.C. but Atlanta alone boasts two panda envoys who are both much weightier than me.

35:44Isabella Rosales is there at the zoo. Isabelle, I was joking with you during the break that you have to cover a lot of really heartbreaking stories and it's nice that you get to cover a heartwarming story. Yeah, I don't do this every day, but I am here for it because these pandas are unbearably cute. Sorry about that, Dana. The puns are easy with this one. I'm here for any and all puns you have. I have dad joke humor. Go for it. Thank you. I'll continue with my list from now on. But Ping Ping, by the way, the male, six years old, his name means peace. I just caught him inside there taking a nap.

36:24Not even a wink of an eye opened the entire time that we were there. And then the female, Fushuang, five years old, her name meaning double blessing, was just going to town on the bamboo. And after my two or three hours in there, I'm not sure if the kids are more excited or the adults. It is pandemonium inside Zoo Atlanta. And these pandas, they have done a long journey, 15, 16 hours on a plane, 8 ,000 miles to now a quarantine that they have broken as of today. a month-long quarantine, to now Zoo Atlanta welcoming all of the folks, the families, the kiddos, everyone to see these two giant pandas.

37:07Meaning that Zoo Atlanta here is now one of three facilities in the entirety of the United States to actually house these bears. And you've heard of panda diplomacy before, right? Pingping and Fushuang, they landed just one day after Xi Jinping made his state visit in Washington. We also heard in there during the ribbon cutting and the opening ceremony from the Chinese ambassador, Xi Fung, who, by the way, back in 2023, when he was introduced to the United States as the new ambassador to China, he warned of the serious difficulties between the U.S. and Chinese relations. But that wasn't what we saw here today.

37:44We saw him smiling, cracking jokes, doing his own puns, saying that this is the start of a bright relationship. And we saw for ourselves this panda diplomacy using these furry creatures to build culture and fix relations between the U.S. and China. Now, it's not just the panda diplomacy side of it. There's also the other conservationist side of it. They're here to breed. They are here to get a job done because they were endangered. Now they're vulnerable. It's been getting better. But still, these are notoriously difficult creatures to breed in captivity. The females are in heat one to three days out of the entire year.

38:22And they are picky about their mates. So they're really hoping that Fuxuang is going to be enticed by the tremendous and exceptional, as the Chinese officials say, tree climbing skills of Ping Ping. That is yet to be seen. But maybe here in a couple of months to a couple of years, we'll keep our eye out. You guys can send me back to Zoo Atlanta and we can talk about the family that's growing. And I'll leave you with this, Dana. Fu Shuang is actually famous because her father was the real-life model to Po from Kung Fu Panda. Really? So she comes from royalty. Panda royalty. Yes. That is a good, fun fact.

39:06I also like how the female panda is discerning. That is a good thing to know. Thank you so much. It's nice to have a little fun at the end of this week. Thank you so much for joining Inside Politics. The week is not over. I will be here for State of the Union this Sunday. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders will be on the show with me, along with Senator-elect from Kansas, Adam Hamilton, and incoming Oversight Chair, Congressman Robert Garcia. I hope to see you this Sunday at 9 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN. CNN News Central starts right now.

40:05She has done biographies of both. And she is also the sort of rare fashion writer who, at this point, kind of outside the system. And so the question that we're going to try to tackle is... Is fashion terrible now? Well, no, I mean, I would phrase it as how do you develop a personal style in the age of AI slop? You know, on social media, like creators have to try a whole bunch of different things and see what catches. And then they make it over and over and over again. The same thing happens with clothing. So they're sort of seeding the market, seeding the internet with all of these different ideas.

40:36And then they can see what sells and then they can just make them really fast. Follow Engagement Party. Wherever you get your podcasts.