Post-Election Reflections: A New Political Landscape

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0:55Miller time. After voters rebuked President Trump, he leans in to what they rejected. It is a colossal mistake. Has the president learned anything from his sweeping loss? A GOP congressman who wants Stephen Miller fired joins me live. Plus, sea change. It was an American tsunami. We have new reporting on Hakeem Jeffries' plans. As Democrats prepare to take power. It's about the people of Mississippi. They decided to go in a new direction. And they turned their historic wins into long-term dominance. And off to the races. Who's making early moves and who's on the back foot in the race for 2028?

1:43Inside Politics, the best reporting from inside the corridors of power starts now.

1:53Good morning. Welcome to Inside Politics Sunday for our first post-election edition. I'm Manu Raju. One of the biggest questions following President Trump's historic defeat at the polls was how he'll handle powerful new Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate. Initially, he seemed to extend an olive branch. Well, how quickly things have shifted back. Just yesterday, ordering the Justice Department to launch a probe against top Democrats for unspecified crimes after they announced aggressive investigations into his administration, while also offering the White House press secretary job to the head of the UFC, Dana White.

2:33All in the wake of tapping perhaps his most controversial and combative aide, Stephen Miller, as the White House's new chief of staff. A sign that he's digging in on his MAGA agenda in bare-knuckle tactics, despite being repudiated on Tuesday. This man took a bullet for us. He faced that life in prison for us. He saved the Republican Party from the ash heap of history and has made it stronger, more popular, and more resilient than ever before. We need to stand with the man who has stood with us and this country with every fiber of his name. It is the honor of my life to be President Trump's chief of staff.

3:14And I swear to you, and I pledge you, Mr. President, my absolute loyalty, my unwavering commitment, and my total devotion to your success and the success of this country. So what does this all mean for the new Washington? Well, let's break this all down with my excellent panel, CNN's Kristen Holmes, CNN's Isaac Dover, and Tia Mitchell with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Good morning to you all. Happy Sunday. Happy Diwali to all those who celebrate like I do. Kristen, you cover the White House. This is going to be an interesting two years, to say at the very least. But has the president learned anything from Tuesday making this decision to name Stephen Miller as his top aide?

3:58We'll see if Dana White takes the White House press secretary job. And this investigation to Democrats suggests he's digging into where everything he did in the first two years and he's not changing course. Are you hearing anything different about a course correction in the White House? I mean, just naming Stephen Miller is his own complete change, of course. And this changes the entire trajectory of the next two years. And it's not that surprising. I was shocked only in the sense that I have now been following him since 2022 when he launched his second or third, sorry, presidential bid. And Susie Wiles was just such a staple of all of that and had really reshaped the way that people interacted with the president and with his team.

4:40But when you look at the grand scheme of Donald Trump over the last 10 years of politics, he's doing what he always does, which is when things go badly, he reverts back to the old MAGA. And that's what you saw during the campaign after Kamala Harris had launched her bed and they were kind of scrambling. All of a sudden, Corey Lewandowski is back in the picture, who, by the way, does not get along with Suzy Wiles. These are exactly the steps that he takes whenever he's kind of backed into a corner. The reason it's not working is because we're not dedicating ourselves to the old MAGA. Now, the kind of interesting part of all of this is the biggest break with MAGA he's had is the Iran war.

5:15And that's not something that Suzy Wiles was pushing. That's not there. So it's not really clear what this is going to look like, but we know it's going to be far more combative than it would have been. Yeah. And just to remind viewers of what the president told you, Kristen, just a few weeks ago when Kristen had asked the president about replacing Suzy Wiles. Mr. President, Mr. President, are you considering replacing Suzy Wiles? Are you considering replacing Suzy Wiles? And what if you, what if Republicans lose the midterm? Let me just tell you. The Suzy Wilde story was a fake story. She's been incredible.

5:54Okay, so yes, he said that was a fake story. Turns out she was very much replaced. Tia, you covered Capitol Hill. How do you see this playing out with Democrats and these newly emboldened and very powerful majorities? So, you know, we talk about a mandate. And sometimes I think when an elected official wins an election, they overblow the mandate. But I think in this way, it's very clear that Democrats do have a mandate. And a lot of voters in a lot of states said we are going to trust that, well, we are going to at least try to give Democrats some power to do the things that Republicans did not for the last two years.

6:38And so I think Democrats now are saying once we take power in January, we're going to do two things. A, we're going to prioritize all these economic issues that, again, Trump with the Iran war and with a lot of his policies, not only did he not address but made worse. But on the same hand, they know that voters on both sides of the aisle have been concerned about corruption or the at least the appearances of corruption in the Trump administration. and Democrats say they're going to respond to that too. But Manu, I'm going to be interested, what happens in this lame duck where Republicans are still in control on paper, but it seems like it's going to be a mess for the next few weeks.

7:23Yeah, I think, yes, that's a mild way of putting it for certain. And one of the things too is that Susie Wiles played a bit of a role of being a guardrail in some ways to Trump, as did Carolyn Leavitt, who's now no longer in the White House. That was also the thing, you know, last administration of Trump 1.0, there were people who had, you know, restrained Trump, if you will, from some of his impulses. Now you have Wiles gone, Carolyn Leavitt gone, and who else is going to provide any sort of guardrails around Trump? Yeah, the answer may end up being the House and the Senate with the Democratic majorities there.

7:59But this is not just in the last couple of weeks. But, you know, Stephen Miller is the one who pushes this expansive executive power. They're saying, who cares what Congress wants to do? Yeah, and they have figured out over the course of the last year and a half how to use that executive power in a lot of ways. All these things that we have spent a lot of our time covering and talking about, very little of it happened with congressional approval, right? In part because the White House didn't even try to get congressional approval, right? But the Iran war, any of the ICE raids, all of this stuff, which the Supreme Court has continued to basically empower the White House to do, they have still all that power.

8:40They have still all that executive authority. And now Miller, who, let's remember, was one of the earliest aides to Trump when he was running the first time around in 2016 and stayed with him all through it. Even when a lot of other people left Donald Trump, he stayed by Donald Trump. and loyalty is rewarded. Loyalty is rewarded, and he has been, over the course of the second Trump term, really pushing things in ways, some of them visible to the public, and as Kristen knows very well, some of them not visible to the public, and pushing the White House to go further and further and further. Quickly on Hegseth, Pete Hegseth, is he going to survive?

9:19This is an impeachment vote that's happening this week in the House. We think it will pass the House. It seems that way. The Senate's not going to go anywhere, but it'll be a symbolic and significant rebuke. Is he going to hang on? I think so, yes. If Suzy Wells had never been fired, I would say it's 50-50. This really seems like the head that rolled from the midterms and that President Trump is going to stand by Hegseth. The other thing is Stephen Miller and Hegseth are very aligned. And there was a belief by people close to Hegseth that either it was going to be him or Susie that were the kind of collateral damage of this midterm, it being Susie, he seems safe and he certainly thinks he's safe now.

10:03So what did voters actually say Tuesday? What were they actually saying when they came out of the poll, when they actually cast their ballot? This is what CNN voter polls said about the reason for the House vote. Was it to support Trump or to oppose Trump? 44 % of voters said their vote was about opposing Trump. This is nationally when asked voters about why they're voting. And that's more than any other factor there, as you can see there, about their House vote. And the other question, does Trump have the right priorities? 64 % of voters said no. So it was clearly an overwhelming rebuke. And you obviously saw that in the sweeping victories for Democrats.

10:38And then meantime, Tia, there's this vote this week in the House about the direction the Republican conference in the House will take over its new leadership. Jim Jordan, very much in line with the MAGA wing, wants to position himself as a fighter defending Donald Trump. Steve Scalise, the House Majority Leader, also a very conservative member, but doesn't have that same sort of reputation that Jordan does as a bulldog of sorts. How do you see that playing out, and what are the implications of this? Yeah. So the implications, I think, are do you want someone who's going to be able to figure out how to work as the minority party under Democratic leadership?

11:17Or do you want someone who's going to figure out how to be aligned with Trump and kind of fight the Democrats for the next two years? And again, Steve Scalise is very conservative. But in this new Republican Party, he's considered mainline, whereas Jim Jordan comes out of the, you know, those hardliners. But I think that there are plenty of Republicans in the Republican conference who don't want that. They didn't want it, you know, when they had the speaker fight a couple of years ago. They didn't want someone so hardliner and what they considered, quite frankly, obstructionist at times. They don't think that's the way they want the caucus to govern.

11:54But that Trump factor, I don't know if those mainliners are going to be able to hold their coalition together to block Jim George. And a lot of those guys are gone. A lot of them have lost their races because they got wiped out on Tuesday. So the impact will be significant. Who can lead the Republicans out of the wilderness? So coming up on the show, we'll talk to a GOP congressman who is quite uneasy about Trump's Stephen Miller pick. I'll ask him why. Plus, the latest from Mississippi and Alaska. Will Democrats pick up two more Senate seats? But first, SNL had a special guest last night. Down in Texas, Tala Frigo.

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13:58Who 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. So just how big will the Democratic majorities be and what will they do with them? While right now, CNN is projecting Democrats will hold at least 254 seats in the House, and they are on track to win as many as a staggering 261 seats. And over in the Senate, where Democrats pulled off a number of improbable victories, they will now hold at least 54 seats after flipping at least seven. Still up in the air, Mississippi, where Democrat Scott Colom has seen his slight lead over incumbent Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith grow just a little larger.

14:44And another in Alaska, where this morning Democrat Mary Peltola is still leading GOP Senator Dan Sullivan, but short of that crucial 50 percent mark there. And there are many ballots yet to be counted. But do Democrats know what to do now? My panel is back. So I just first want to get into just the scope and the magnitude of this Democratic victory. I mean, the sea change we're seeing on Capitol Hill. You look at all these swing district Republicans. They're really gone. I mean, the number of Republicans who won in districts that Trump carried by fewer than 10 points. You know how many there are right now?

15:24Two! There are just two who won. One in Colorado, Jeff Hurd, an incumbent Republican who won in a Trump-plus-9.7 district. Trump won that by almost 10 points in 2024. And then the open seat in Maine that Jared Golden, the Democrat, vacated, now going to be represented by Paula Page, a Republican. Just two seats, two seats there of less than 10 points. Okay, then you look at the how many seats did Trump win in Trump seat districts. Oops, let me just clear this out here. Between 10 and 20 points. OK, so this is number of ruby red districts that Democrats will occupy in the new House. Right now, 26 Democrats that are either leading or are projected to win in districts that Trump carried in 2024 between 10 and 20 points.

16:18That is stunning all across the country. You're seeing that from the Midwest to the South to the East Coast. And there are many more. This was not the case in the last Congress. What are the implications, Tia, for this very diverse Democratic caucus in the House that are going to be powered by all these ruby red Democrats from Trump districts? I mean, to me, the biggest thing is that Hakeem Jeffries, you know, it looks like there's not going to be any problem with him becoming speaker. And he won't have to deal with kind of the headaches of having a slim majority. And the socialists, just as you talk here, there's socialists, the Democratic socialists who have been elected to the House.

16:59There's just a handful of them, roughly six or so that we're counting, who have been backed by the DSA. Much different than those moderate, more moderate members. Right. So I think, you know, initially, earlier in the campaign season, there was all this concern that, you know, these DSA members could come in, really wreck havoc, split the caucus, is stymied the Democratic caucus in the way we've seen the Republicans over and over again over the last few years have breakdowns. Well, Hakeem Jeffries doesn't have to worry about that, at least for two years. And so I think that will allow Democrats to really be a little bit more focused on their message and not have to deal with the infighting that can take you off message.

17:42I'm not saying there won't be infighting, but it'll be more of a sideshow than the actual thing that drives the policy on the floor. Yeah, so much cushion to work with. And I asked Jeffries when I sat down with him a few weeks ago about what kind of leader he would be as Speaker of the House. Would it be like Nancy Pelosi, who very much got her members in line, cracked the whip? Will he also be like some other leaders, like Kevin McCarthy or Mike Johnson, who often tried to win over his critics within their own conference by offering incentives? Like Nancy Pelosi? Are you cracking the whip? Is it like Mike Johnson or Kevin McCarthy where you're giving incentives for people to fall in line?

18:23Well, I don't want to get out ahead of what's going to happen in the next Congress, ultimately. But how do you enforce? What is the way? Well, listen, Manu, that's going to be in the hands of the members of the House Democratic Caucus family. And God willing, if the American people give us an opportunity to govern on their behalf, then we're going to figure out what the leadership lineup looks like, what the issue set will be. Very much sidestepping that question. Isaac, you just sat down with the likely future speaker here as well. What did you learn about how he plans to deal with his own critics internally and deal with Trump?

18:59Yeah, well, so look, I came up covering New York politics. I actually met Jeffries the first time 20 years ago when he was running for state assembly. I've known him a long time, seen how he has operated, and then spent a bunch of time with him the last weekend before the election, and then some more time since the midterms. And he has a real sense of himself as the guy who is there to sort of absorb all of the noise going on and then push for whatever he can do to corner Trump in every way that he can. One of the things that he brought up to me in our conversations was the housing bill that passed with bipartisan support in the Senate and the House over the summer and that President Trump didn't sign, but he also didn't veto.

19:42At the last minute, the president decided not to sign that. Much to the chagrin of many Republicans. Indeed, because there were a lot of Republicans supportive of it. It's a bill that had both Tim Scott from South Carolina and Elizabeth Warren behind it. He said to me that is the model going forward here, that this is going to be about, and this is, of course, much easier with a big majority in the House and the majority in the Senate, to find things, if they can get bipartisan support for it, great, but to pass bills and to say to Trump, look, you're either going to be for it or you're going to be against it or it's just going to pass into law anyway.

20:17They are figuring out how they can legislate around a president to do all the things on the economic affordability agenda that they feel like is what powered them in these midterms and that they want to continue to be the message into 2028. And, Kristen, how did the White House envision this relationship existing with Jeffreys? Because it's been non-existent between Trump and Jeffreys. They've been calling each other names. Jeffreys once called him the dumbest person ever to occupy the White House, and the White House has responded in kind. Will there be a relationship? I do think we have to remember that Donald Trump, at the end of the day, does not have a real political core of beliefs.

20:59So if there are things that he thinks are good legislation that don't go against the kind of cultural issues that he's made the center of MAGA, I'm not sure he's not going to work with them. I was told very specifically it's all going to come down to what those first few weeks look like. Is this a situation like in 2018 where they come in and it's all about impeaching him and everybody and it's all investigations into the family? then you're going to get an aggressive Trump who's going to try to block everything. If they come in, and sure, some of that could be part of it, but if they're trying to actually get stuff done, there's a chance he's going to try to negotiate.

21:38He's a businessman at the end of the day. Again, the political core that some people have is not something he holds. And meantime, there's the Chuck Schumer question of it all. He, of course, will have a significant Democratic majority in the Senate. There are these new members who are coming in. They're noncommittal about voting for Schumer. Some said that they won't, like Troy Jackson, Annie Andrews, Adam Hamilton, among those who said that they will not vote for Chuck Schumer. Look, there are up to 56 Democrats. He will have the votes to become the majority leader. There's no question about that.

22:10The bigger question that I have is will he run for reelection in 2028 when he is in cycle and he is facing a lot of challenges? He's vulnerable on the left side of his party. What is the likelihood that Chuck Schumer is still leading this party past 2028? I mean, it seems like probably higher now, given the results from Tuesday. But look. No, no, that he will stay, that he will run for the election. Given that. But look, he's going to be 78 years old. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is there. It's not vulnerable to challenges on the left. It's her in particular. And then she will have a decision to make if he does decide to run, whether she'd challenge him.

22:45But she has her own decision to make about whether she's going to run for Senate or president.

22:51Do you think Chuck's going to run for re-election, Chuck Schumer? You know, Chuck Schumer, as you and I know, can be very cagey about what he's up to. And far be it for me to decide what his future is before he figures it out. Yeah, that's a good question. There's a lot of speculation, but until he says it, we will see. All right, coming up, should anyone in the Trump administration get fired for their landslide loss last week? My next guest, a Republican congressman from Indiana, has some thoughts. That's coming up next. Fall has never looked or tasted this good. Sweetgreen's fall harvest menu is back with seasonal favorites dressed to impress and made to be devoured.

23:31Warm roasted sweet potatoes, crisp apples, maple glazed Brussels, and crave worthy flavors in the autumn harvest bowl, maple glazed salmon plate, and roasted bacon Brussels side. The season's most desirable menu has returned to Sweetgreen, featuring fall's best dressed. Make your move. Order on the Sweetgreen app. As the GOP got a shellacking on Tuesday, one Republican congressman, Marlon Stutzman, held on in Indiana's 3rd District with a more than 9-point edge over his Democratic opponent. But that's significantly less than his 2024 win of about 33.5 points. And in the days since, Congressman Stutzman has been blunt about what his party should do and how the White House should respond.

24:15Indiana's Congressman Molland Chutzman joins me now live. Congressman, thank you so much for being here this morning. Really appreciate you joining me. And as you know, there's a lot of debate about what went wrong for the GOP in last week's election and how the party and your party should respond to the message sent by the electorate. So given that, was it the right move for President Trump to name Stephen Miller as his new chief of staff? Good morning, Matthew. Great to be with you this morning. First of all, we need to admit that we got beat, and we got beat badly. We need to listen to the American people.

24:51As you mentioned, my numbers in Northeast Indiana, I've never seen numbers that bad. And as I'm talking to constituents, they said, you guys aren't listening. You're not paying attention. And that's what we as Republicans need to do. And so Stephen Miller, he's the deputy chief of staff and now being promoted to chief of staff. I come from the business world, just like President Trump does. And you know what? If your team takes a beating as badly as we took this last week, you have to fire people. You don't promote those who are who were in charge of what was supposed to be delivered. And just like in the House of Representatives in the Republican conference, we're talking about new leadership.

25:35Speaker Johnson says stepping aside, didn't get the job done. There's going to be somebody else new. So I think that the decision to elect Stephen Miller is a mistake. Uh, he's not liked out here in the Midwest by people. They don't like his tone. Uh, they believe that he didn't offer up a better solution, a more comprehensive solution on immigration. And that's why I think it was a bad mistake. Do you think that Stephen Miller should be fired? Yes. In fact, I said that Wednesday morning, um, you know, that, uh, you know, the fact that the economy is good in, in many cases, you look at the stock market, you look at unemployment numbers, But if you look at the gas pump, that's where we got beat.

26:16And that's what reminded the American people every day that things weren't going as well as they should be. And that goes, of course, back to Iran. But you also had just this deportation message that never had a, OK, what's next? Because this is what President Trump did. He closed the border. He actually did what he said he was going to do. He started deporting criminals. That's what he said he would do. But there's a lot of people here, Manu, who've been here for years who say, OK, well, what about me? I mean, I'm working. I'm obeying the law. In fact, I had a visa at one point. And yes, I mean, we see these immigration cases in our office frequently.

26:55Not every immigration case is the same. President Trump hasn't even deported as many illegals as what President Obama did. So but most people, I think, would say because of Stephen Miller's messaging and the tone that is coming out from the Republican Party on this particular issue is that you would think that, you know, most of the deportations were through the roof with under President Trump compared to Obama. So that's why I think we need a better tone. So what's the danger for Republicans in the future of your party if the GOP does not listen to the message that voters sent and change course?

27:33You know, I was thinking about that this morning. You know, you're from Chicago. I'm from Indiana. I grew up loving the the 90s Chicago Bulls and they do and people love them. And then you have the Detroit Pistons and they won two championships and people love to hate them. I want to be the Chicago Bulls of the 90s going forward where we win and people love us. I mean, that's what we can do. Michael Jordan was the best player of all time and he was ruthless on the court. But but off the court, he was explaining to the American people why he was such a great guy and why people loved him. And I think that that's what we as Republicans need to do.

28:11Do the job. Let our playing do the talking rather than going out and bashing on people that don't need to be bashed on. I like the Michael Jordan reference. Any Michael Jordan reference I do endorse. But beyond Stephen Miller, there are others in your party who have raised major concerns about Pete Hexer. Do you think that he should be held accountable in any way? Well, no, I mean, yes, he always needs everybody needs to be accountable. And I think President Trump's cabinet is phenomenal from Besant to, you know, to the Department of Energy with Chris Wright and others. But, you know, Hegseth's job is a little different than what the chief of staff's position is.

28:53He's the head of the Department of War. So, you know what? I mean, if there's a serious case to be considered for us in Congress, I'm happy to listen to that. I mean, Congressman, you may have a vote. You have a vote this week to impeach Pete Hegseth. Will you vote to impeach him? Yeah. No, I won't vote to impeach him. I mean, he answers to President Trump. President Trump is the commander-in-chief. And so that would be up to President Trump if he wanted to let him go. But I think, you know, the case needs to be made that the chief of staff has a broader jurisdiction and is the broader architect of the agenda.

29:29And, you know, I know, I mean, he's a great fighter. He'll fight Democrats, which that's what we're going to have to do is fight socialism as Republicans. But I think that that's better for him inside the beltway rather than being the voice to the American people. I don't think he's the right messenger. Congressman, I want you to listen to what Callie Means said to Joe Rogan. Means, of course, was a top health officer who just resigned from the Trump administration. And on Friday accused the outgoing chief of staff, Suzy Wiles, of shelving public policy measures in exchange for campaign donations.

30:04Listen to this. susie said to me many times we need money for the midterms cali we need money for the midterms we were going to do a big initiative on basic food safety asking whether the amount of sugar in a children's diet was appropriate um and that's where susie told me uh we can't do that i need the sugar industry money congressman this was an election where voters spoke pretty loudly about the issue of corruption in washington does this reek of corruption to you uh it definitely there's frustration around that and i i do hear i in fact i saw that interview um we have to rise above uh any sort of perception and if and i that is i've i hear the people saying there is a perception of enrichment not just in the white house but in washington dc and that's where republicans i know this is done on the democrat side we should not be participating in this at all.

30:58That's not what that role is for. Should the Justice Department investigate that? Do you think the Justice Department should investigate what Kelly means is alleging there? Yeah, I think, I mean, any allegation of impropriety like this should be looked at. And, you know, whether it's the Department of Justice or whether it's taken care of by President Trump, I mean, President Trump should take care of that himself. I mean, that was his chief of staff. And that's why I have hesitations about Stephen Miller. He was the deputy chief of staff. He's been in the White House all along. So a fresh face and a new start here right now would, I think, send tremendous message to the American people that the Republican Party is listening.

31:37We know we have to fight the socialists in the Democrat Party. I mean, that's job one. But second of all, we need to self-reflect and make sure that we're doing what we tell the American people doing it. And we're doing it with integrity and character. Hey, Congressman, we're out of time, but very quickly you have a vote this week to choose your next House Minority Leader. Have you decided Jim Jordan or Steve Scalise? Who do you plan to vote for? Well, you know, I mean, I think that we need a fresh face moving forward, and I'm going to support Jim Jordan. You know, I love Steve Scalise. He's a great friend.

32:07But we need to listen to the American people, and the best way to do that is to put some new people in place. All right. We're going to have to leave it there. Congressman Marlon Stutzman from Indiana, thank you so much for joining with me. Really appreciate your time this morning. Thank you. Great to be with you this morning. Absolutely. One election season over and potential 2028 candidates are already dipping their toes in the water this weekend. Our experts on the midterms major implications for 2028. That's next.

32:38Brussels clean up nicely at Sweetgreen. Maple glazed, roasted and edges perfectly caramelized. Sweetgreen's fall harvest is back on the menu. And the season's most overlooked little green vegetable is dressed to be devoured. You know what to do. Order on the Sweet Green app. Senator, what are you planning to announce here? 2028, Ben.

33:03The midterms are over and the 2028 race. Yep. For president, that is here. Whether potential candidates want to talk about it or not. And this weekend, one of them, Democratic Senator Cory Booker, was already out in an early voting state, South Carolina. And a bunch of potential candidates are already being asked the big question, are you running? You haven't been shy about your possible 2028 presidential ambitions. When do you think you would make a decision? Yeah, I don't know. I have put no further thought into this at all. I think a lot of people are going to make those decisions right away.

33:40I'm going to take the time first All I have been focused on are these midterms. I'm going to be running for high office in 2028 for sure. But that includes Senate as a possibility. Yeah, a senator is a high office. Okay. You know, here in the near future, I will get together with my family. We'll talk it through. I will make a decision sometime in early January. Yeah, that sounds very familiar. I mean, the list of Democratic hopefuls, I mean, you can't even fit all these headshots on the screen. You need multiple screen edits. Wow. We'll see how many ultimately run. Isaac, when do we expect these candidates to really start to make serious moves in running?

34:19I think one of the things that's going to distinguish this time around from 2020, the last time we did this for the Democrats, is that it seems like the process is going to be a little bit later. Remember, on New Year's Eve going into 2019, Elizabeth Warren announced that she was running. That sort of kicked off everybody by January to be gone. This seems like it will be into February, March by the time that we have a fuller field. Maybe that will change. But the people that I talk to who are around these candidates, potential candidates, say they're not quite, not only are they not there fully in the decision, talking to their family stuff, but they haven't done the hiring and the thinking through what this will actually look like.

34:59Someone's going to make a move soon and they're going to start to drive the debate within their party. I want you to listen to what Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania governor, said just yesterday. Do you think Democrats should refuse to vote for a funding bill that keeps funding the Iran war? Absolutely. Period. The reason why I thought this was interesting is because I think what you're going to try to start to see is that these presidential candidates really shape how Democrats in Congress will respond to their strategy in dealing with Trump. Yeah, I think, I mean, it's easier for a governor to say that because he doesn't have to worry about voting for the bill or the implication.

35:38of shutting down the government, shutting down the government and around the holidays, mind you. So, you know, I do think that's kind of what they're wanting to do is shape the debate, make it harder for maybe their opponents or potential opponents, make it uncomfortable for, you know, their potential rivals. Particularly ones who serve in the Senate. Particularly ones that serve in the Senate that are going to be on the hot seat and then have to run on their record. You know, again, that's why a lot of people say sometimes it is a little bit easier for governors in this way. But I do, I agree.

36:14I think there's a lot of people who want to take a beat. Democrats have a lot to figure out with the change and balance of power, not just in Washington, but in a lot of states where Democrats were successful. So we're going to have to let a lot of things kind of shake out in the next few months. Let's talk about the GOP, shall we? They have a laundry list of possible candidates as well. and the list I'm sure will continue to grow, but let's drill down into that person at the bottom right there, J.D. Vance, the Vice President of the United States. The impact, how damaged has he been from these midterms?

36:49Newt Gingrich thinks he was damaged. He said the slow-go strategy of blowing up in Iran in his defense of the Vivek Ramaswamy's what he called horrible, inhumane ad loses a good bit of luster off of the bloom, referring to Vance. How damaged is Vance and how seriously is he still considering running? Look, I really don't believe that he has fully decided on running. I think he's doing things and taking the steps to run, but he does have a young family. And I've heard that he has taken that into consideration. I mean, this is a really politically toxic environment. Now, I also think that the damage that he has done is not necessarily just with the general public, but also within the GOP.

37:30because what he has done is he has enabled people who likely would have kind of sat back and let him be the heir apparent should he decide to run. And now they have an opportunity and a whole to go in and say, well, I wasn't part of this Iran war, but he was. He's the old guard now. And that's why you're saying Cruz and DeSantis makes some early moves here. Yeah, but Trump is going to loom over all this. All the reasons why Gingrich says Vance has got a problem are things that Donald Trump is very involved in himself. And it's not like he ever sits back and lets things play out without getting involved.

38:04But Cruz and DeSantis are the ones who've been making probably the most amount of noise post - Yeah, I think it's just interesting. A lot of, they lately, late in the campaign or after the election, have made a lot of noise. But not a lot of these Republicans made much noise about Trump when I think voters were wanting them to. That could matter. Yeah, we'll see if it does. All right, a lot to discuss there. And up next for us, corruption, war, inflation. No, I'm not talking about 2026.

38:332026 was not simply a blue wave. It was a blue tsunami. It was an ass kicking. It was a Watergate-level repudiation. To find any American election comparable to this week's historic midterms, you need to go back more than half a century to 1974. Back then, the American people delivered Democrats a decisive victory amid anger over corruption, war, and soaring prices. Sound familiar? Well, Richard Nixon had just resigned in the wake of the Watergate scandal less than three months before the vote. And like President Trump's rock bottle approval ratings today, Nixon's favorability had completely cratered by that time, with impeachment and removal from office a real possibility.

39:25So just like now, Americans then unleashed a tidal wave of discontent across the country, sweeping away Republicans, flipping 43 House seats, and three in the Senate to the Democrats. That's not too far off from today's numbers, which could grow even larger. It wasn't just about water grade, but also anger over the Vietnam War and sky-high inflation that drove the historic results, much as backlash over Iran and higher prices drove the electorate just last Tuesday. And just as this year's midterms are igniting the 2028 presidential race and reshuffling the electoral map, the 1974 election put Democrats on the path to the White House just two years later, propelling a virtually unknown peanut farmer to the presidency.

40:13Our country has lived through a time of torment. It's now time for healing. We want to have faith again. We want to be proud again. We just want the truth again. It's time for the people to run the government and not the other way around. Only time will tell if this week's stunning results will also reverberate for years to come. That's it for Inside Politics Sunday. Up next, City of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dan Abash. Dan has a packed show where guests include the incoming chair of the House Oversight Committee, Congressman Robert Garcia, Attorney General Todd Blanch, Kansas Senator-elect Adam Hamilton, and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

40:55Thanks again for sharing your Sunday morning with us. Happy Diwali, everyone. We'll see you next time.

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