ITH LIVE: Trump's Ultimate Nightmare Begins

0:07Michael.

0:11Joanna. John Ossoff. John Ossoff is the first one back. John Ossoff. One. John Ossoff has won. So what does that mean? It means he's going to run for president. All right, let's back up. Let's back up. Welcome to Inside Trump's Head election night live. This is insane how many people we've got watching. This is a global international watch party. This is Michael's fifth Trump election. Has he done six elections? Well, I'm counting the Biden midterm, which was effectively a Trump election, which is why Biden did well, one of the few presidents. He did well in the midterms. Okay, so we've got so much to get through.

0:58We've got so many seats. Is it going to be a blue wave? Obviously, we have no idea, but we're going to... Well, we do have some idea. Well, we have some idea, but we only have the same idea as everybody else. But what we have is the ability, via you, to go inside Donald Trump's head. What is he doing now? Inside Donald Trump's head, exploding. Inside his head, exploding. All right, so let's start. But where is he? He's been going frantic on Truth Social. So I'm going to come to that in a minute. But set the scene for us. OK, you have to see. It's a full White House scene. So and there are basically three locations for what's going on in the White House.

1:41There's the map room where they have that sort of the maps in the map room. There are maps in the map room. Yes. OK. And that's where everybody who's collecting information, the data people, the people who are on James Blair, who's been running, essentially running this campaign, he'll be there. Everybody monitoring what's coming in. And then we have the Trump who's in the residence. So that's upstairs. They always go upstairs. You want to bring it upstairs. Nobody really wants to bring it upstairs. And what is the residential? Is he in like a living room? There's a living room where there will be people gathered, a small gathering.

2:32Okay. But then he might also be in the bedroom and people gather outside of the bedroom. Why would he go in the bedroom? That's weird. Isn't it weird? If you've got a living room. Is the living room the room with that round window? Yeah, well, there's that. I mean, there's several living rooms, but there is that one with the round, and that's the hallway. And then the bedroom is kind of off there. I mean, it's actually the residence is kind of small. And he likes to lie down. He likes to lie down. And then he will arouse himself at some point. But his ideal position is to post on Truth Social prone.

3:20Okay. But he's not doing it. Is he dictating it to Natalie? Sometimes. I'm assuming Natalie Harp is with him. Natalie Harp is nearby, yes. Okay. And I can do the Natalie Harp thing. She'll be sitting in a chair and her legs will be crossed and her leg goes all of the time. I'm doing this now. You don't see my leg, but it goes up and down. So she's twitching her leg. Yes. And she's waiting for instructions from him. And sometimes she's anticipating what those instructions will be. But she's singularly focused on him. All right. So this is arguably the most important election of Trump's entire presidencies.

4:02Well, I wouldn't necessarily say that. Every Trump election is kind of existential for him. Okay, but this is the last one. Transformational. This is the last one. This is the last one. Now there's another room, just to complete this picture, is the East Room. And that's where a party is gathering. So that's where donors, the billionaires, friends, some Republicans, congressional Republicans will go in there and something will be served. there was in in 2018 it was hot dogs and hamburgers so the last midterm Trump's the last time Trump had a midterm which was in his first term yes that was hot dogs and hamburgers for billionaires well I have a reading about that at some point which I'll do but I feel like we've got more to get to because I was rereading Siege your second book which has a very good description of the midterms 2018 in it, which I'll come on to in a bit.

5:12So I've been really every one of these Trump elections, 2016, 2018, 2020, then you could consider 2022 when it was a Biden election, but Biden actually prevailed in the midterms because of still because of Trump. And then 2024. So all of these elections I have been intimately in the middle of. Okay, so you are joining us if you've just joined us. I'm Joanna Coles, Chief Content Officer from the Daily Beast. This is Michael Wolfe, author of four books on Donald Trump. And this is, I'm not quite sure how many episodes of Inside Trump's Head we've done. I think we've done 182. We're just going to stay with you all evening as we figure out what's going on, you will see disembodied hands, I think, coming in and out of the picture.

6:08Oh, 186th episode as our producers, ferry information back and from our newsroom. This is going to be, I feel like we're in an Aaron Sorkin show, only you're better dressed. I hope not. Well, Michael is very well dressed. He's dressed old style newsroom. Can everybody see that you've got a vest on or a waistcoat, I would call it, and you've got your shirt sleeves rolled up. It feels like we have a business. But the point is, we will be keeping you up to date on all the races and especially the really exciting races. This does feel like the playoffs. Well, they're not just exciting races. These are the pivotal races.

6:53And we should describe them. But I think first we should highlight the stakes here. Highlight the stakes, then let's go back to Trump and what he's actually been doing for the last half an hour. So the stakes here are if he loses, just let's go if he loses the House of Representatives, which he is going to lose. If that happens, that means the next two years for Donald Trump, it means the Democrats have subpoena power, investigatory power, the full range of things. They have the full range of powers that can essentially mean nothing happens in the White House except that Trump has to answer to Congress.

7:47And they can obviously impeach him as they have before, but they can also impeach many other of the people in the executive branch. Hegseth, for instance, RFK Jr., for instance, Todd Blanche, the attorney general, for instance. First case of measles in New York City where someone died reported to death. Was that in New York City or New York City? Sorry, not New York City, New York State. It was upstate. Nevertheless, it's the first death, completely unnecessary death from measles, a disease that we had essentially eradicated and of which there have been what twice as many cases this year than there have been in the last 25 years.

8:32That is RFK Jr.'s achievement to date. So let's entice RFK Jr., which I'm sure all of these people will be up for, the investigations will begin and essentially prosecutions will begin. Okay, so investigations and prosecutions will begin in January, but what happens tomorrow? We know what happens tomorrow. Regardless of the outcome of the election, what happens tomorrow is people start laying out their platform for 2028. The race begins tomorrow. Well, that's the other thing is that, yes, this becomes the launch pad both for Democrats. John Ossoff now already launched. And other, we will look for other surprises tonight, other showings which might promote a Democrat to the front of the pack.

9:31And as for Republicans, the world will change according to how bad the loss is. Okay, well, you've painted a picture of Donald Trump. He's upstairs in the residency. In the East Room, some donors have gathered. They're all eating burgers, hot dogs, probably American-type food. Trump is upstairs. What is he doing? he's raving on Truth Social. And the weird thing about Truth Social, which I've always found strange, is that there's actually very few people on it. So when he posts a Truth Social, it's like 278 likes or something. I mean, it very rarely gets into the serious thousands. So it's not really social.

10:19And we know it's not truth because he's posting all sorts of lies. So it's really sort of lie alone. Truth social has always been this anomalous thing. It's a social media platform, but effectively a social media platform of one. So the entire idea of a social media platform has nothing to do with truth social. You know what we haven't followed up on? And I wonder if anybody in the comments knows this. And the comments are going so fast. I'm going to dig into them, but keep them coming. Keep the questions coming. Joanna, how do you make your tequila drink? Very good question. Thank you. Who's that from?

11:03Naughty man, 1989. Naughty man. What a naughty question. But, well, I've now totally lost my train of thought because of that. I suspect this is going to happen a lot tonight. Anyway, Donald Trump has been going crazy on Truth Social. This is a man for whom this election is essentially... Truth Social. We were talking about his social media platform. Yeah, Truth Social. That's what I said. But you lost the... Oh, okay. So what I was going to say is it's essentially for the media because the media is tracking Truth Social. or pick up his posts and put them out there. But what I was going to say.

11:40No, but it's an important thing that they do, but hardly at all, which means, and this is always what his aides observe, is they say, thank God. Right, thank God it didn't get put up. Because if you looked at this on any kind of systematic and concerted basis, you would see a crazy man. I mean, that's your only conclusion could be this intervention is necessary here. And in a way, tonight might be an intervention. Yeah, I was going to say tonight could be an intervention. But what I was going to ask was if you had followed up on or if anybody on our comments has followed up on him charging for Truth Social.

12:27Do you remember he was going to charge$100 ,000 a month so that people could get his truth socials early, thus monetizing the presidential statements? We don't know where we are on that. I think they decided not. I think some better minds prevailed. Well, I think five people signed up for them. I think five people signed up and they realized. Anyway, he has been going nuts about Fox News. And there's a history to why he would go nuts about Fox News on election night. But I'm going to read a couple of his true social polls. The Fox News poll, always the worst, is so insulting with the questions they ask.

13:08Every question is a hit job and every answer is bullshit. This has been going on for years. President Donald J. Trump. So you want to go over his history? I do, but I just want to do, there are a couple more I want to do. Watching the pre-election results on Fox News, but I can't stand Jessica Tarlov's voice, dumb as a rock. Actually, Jessica Tarlov has a PhD from the LSE, London School of Economics. But it's the voice that gets me, have to go somewhere else until that loser is off the air. I'll be back later, President Donald J. Trump. All right, give us your analysis of why he's so hysterical about Fox News on election night.

13:52and then I'll read another one. So his first run in with Fox on election night was in 2018 and in 2018 during that midterm election Fox News called the house for the Democrats very early in the evening I believe at 9 30 and he went apeshit. I mean why would they have done this. Why would they? How could they know? Impossible. No, in fact, it was possible and it was accurate. But he went out of his mind and focused again on the Murdochs. This is not about an election. This is not about anything. This is just the Murdochs screwing me. The Murdochs, the Murdochs, the Murdochs became the echo of that night.

14:42Then in 2020, even more pivotally, the um they made uh fox made the first call of the night and the first call of the night was to call arizona for the democrats right i remember this was law this was well before the polls in the west in california had closed um this was this was that moment that sort of pivotal moment when when in the White House, they were looking at this and they were seeing all of these races and their data guy, guy by the name of, actually I can't remember his Polish last name, but they called him Oz. I know exactly who you mean. Yes. And had sort of looked at all of these close races and basically assured everyone, including the president, that they were going to win them.

15:39suddenly this was to call Arizona put in jeopardy all of these suddenly put all of these races in jeopardy and again it was focused on Murdoch and he demanded then a whole set of people call everyone they knew at Fox including Murdoch including his son Lachlan um including the the direct, the news director at the time. And they were given the cold shoulder, given the cold shoulder by them all. Well, and of course, then it led to the Dominion case, right? When he started going after the Dominion voting machines, that was 2020, right? Yeah, no. And that was then Fox came to repent in a way because they got scared.

16:27And because there was enormous amount of backlash inspired by Trump. And so then they decided, well, okay, we'll support the presidents, this whole steel thing. And then they got in trouble for that. But it'll be interesting tonight to see when Fox weighs in on calling the races. Okay. Well, he's gone off again, but I've just got a piece of paper telling us we have passed 10 ,000 people joining us. Oh, 11 ,000 of you joining us. This is a global watch party. We've got people from Yorkshire. We've got people from Ontario. We've got people from Ohio. We've got people from Australia. Chris Pappas has just won New Hampshire, apparently.

17:17I don't know if AP have called that yet. We're relying on AP to call the races, but I've got several texts saying that. uh who's who's texting that uh well this is just rumor no it's well there are various people we haven't had it confirmed by ap or have we yes ap okay chris pappas is elected in new hampshire okay well let's go let's go over the races we've got hong kong in the house norway new hampshire michigan new guinea pismo beach california okay we've got a lot of people Singapore, Taiwan, Brazil, Nevada, Zimbabwe. Okay. Atlanta, New Zealand, South Africa. Michael, this is exciting. Cheshire, Cumbria, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

18:03I've been to Chiang Mai. It's absolutely gorgeous. Slovenia, Gold Coast Australia says hello. Mason, Michigan. Okay. We'll come back to where. Oh, Quebec, Sydney, Blue New Orleans, L.A. berlin switzerland scotland okay okay back to you i'm excited this is a global watch party is it a global watch party i think so that this is a global watch party what all right okay i'm gonna keep all these little pieces of paper that we're getting let's do what happens tonight so the big okay i do a big win the the big get is the senate united states senate yeah so so looking at that how do we get to 51 seats for the um the democrats yeah okay now we have we have so john ossoff has won his race georgia georgia um north carolina do we have a call in north carolina yet no but it'll be early north carolina it should be early okay that that will be ray Cooper and Michael Watley.

19:17Ray Cooper, Roy Cooper. And he should win. By all predictions, Roy Cooper is going to win that race. Right, because Mike Watley, isn't he up against Mike Watley? Oh, yeah. Mike Watley is a terrible candidate. Actually, he was made the head of the RNC during the 2024 race and then was considered a joke. They would just put him in a room and just say, sit behind the desk. And you know what? He would do that. Hours on end. Okay, Michael, Michael, this is so exciting. This is our playoffs. The AP has just come in with Roy Cooper wins North Carolina Senate. Okay. Bang. We should have brought in some chime bars.

20:10Okay. The Democrats have to pick up four seats. Okay. Okay. And not lose any. Right. So the races that they could lose are Michigan and

20:29Michigan and Maine. And Alaska. No, no, no, no. Michigan and it's the races that are that the Democrats that are Democratic seats. Oh, okay. Sorry, sorry. Yes, you're right. So that would be Michigan and New Hampshire. But New Hampshire has we're calling New Hampshire, right? Chris Pappas is called. Okay, so Michigan then is in the balance here. And if they hold Michigan, then they just need two more seats to pick up. Okay. And the seats then would be likely, the likely toss-ups are Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, and Maine. And what about Texas? Texas. Yes. No, if they get Texas too. Yes. Sorry. Those are the toss-up states.

21:30The lean Democratic states at this point are Ohio, Texas, Ohio and Texas. So if they get those states, then they actually only need one. Is it my math right there? I think it is. I'm trying to see what the comments are saying. Yes, it is. Someone's saying Yeehaw, Texas. Portugal. So Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, which we've already got North Carolina. Yeah, Roy Coon. And then we need one of Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine. What about South Carolina? Oh, South Carolina. Well, if we got South Carolina, yes. And any others. But so we're just looking at now the toss-ups. The lean Republicans are Nebraska and South Carolina.

22:21So we could get one of those. And I want to look at the South Carolina race, because I think it's an important race, with Darlene Graham. Yes, but before we do that, you know what you and I haven't talked about yet is the implosion, cray, of Haley Stevens over the weekend. because when we last spoke, which was Saturday afternoon, Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, Hayley Stevens was, we left it, Hayley Stevens was going to church with James Clyburn and Abdul Al-Sayed, her nemesis, it turns out. What we didn't know was that in the background, she seemed to be having earnest conversations with her fiancé, who is apparently being important in her decision to vote for the Trumper, Mike Rogers.

23:13OK, and this is in the Michigan race. So the Michigan race is extremely, is pivotal to Democratic fortunes at this point. Well, it's and it's very it's very interesting because he's left of the party. He's specifically not a DSA candidate. He's not a Democratic socialist, he says. but he's pretty left in terms of the party. And he wasn't the person that the establishment Democrats wanted. And you think your call has been that Mike Rogers, the Republican, will win this. I know you're saying that because you think I'm wrong. I was, I, yeah, I will be. Let your money ride. All right. I'm just going to be very impressed if Al-Sayed brings it home.

24:05There's been an interesting subtext, that kind of soap opera of this, that Haley Stevens made this weird decision. So usually, I mean, that was a bitter primary fight. Very bitter. And usually what happens is members of the same party step up and they grin and bear it. Or at best, they recede into the background and say nothing. Very rarely, if ever, do they then come out and support the alternative, the opposing candidate. especially an opposing candidate, that they spent much of the primary dissing and saying terrible things about. Right. But Haley Stevens suddenly, and after saying, assuring everybody that she was still on the team, suddenly, unexpectedly decided to support Mike Rogers.

25:15this is and then and then did a media tour including let's just point out that Mike Rogers dresses identically to Donald Trump and then she went on and did a car crash of an interview on CNN with Anderson Cooper who looked incredulous at her answer well and I would bet my money that she was drunk so let's well let's have a look at a clip I certainly didn't say that. But you were willing to be at a campaign event for him. You wanted to be at a public event with him up until some point, I guess, yesterday. And it's just an interesting change. And I think a lot of people are curious to try to understand it.

26:08Was that a question, Anderson? No, I wanted to see if you wanted to fill in silence, but you don't. Oh, look. Yeah. Was that a question, Michael? That was drunken. Was it drunken? Absolutely. It was just the most nutso appearance. Why did she do that? And then this morning she did an even crazier thing, or as crazy, which is she went to the polls with her mom, nothing crazy about that, wearing an enormous sun hat in Michigan, in Michigan, where people needed coats to go and vote. And she was wearing this huge, you know, straw hat. She looked absurd, but she is enjoying her moment in the sun. So question for you.

26:56Speaking of which, I wonder if we'll get a shot of Melania going to vote today. Oh, I will watch it on news. I will see on news, not going to watch with you. Um, that's just an imitation of Melania for those who haven't seen the Melania documentary, which I highly recommend just for the hell of it. Um, what was I going to say next? I don't know. Oh, Hayley Stevens. So do you think Trump, I mean, various people in our comments are suggesting, uh, Dusty Plasma agrees it was a car crash interview. Some people saying that Trump has got something on Haley Stevens. Others, I think, thinking that AIPAC poured 60 million in total into her primary campaign and may have been squeezing her at the end and just saying, listen, you have to give us something.

27:45We spent 60 million dollars on your primary race. We need something here. I think I think alcohol is the much more logical explanation. Oh, so do you think she just had a drunken moment or do you think she's imploding? Well, I think she's imploding and I think she's hurt, mad, but I think she's clearly out of control. Clearly out of control. I mean, understand, this finishes off. She's been a United States congressperson. she ran credibly and almost got the nomination for the Senate in her state. This finishes off her political career, unless she wants to become a Republican, but that won't go anywhere either because she's pro-abortion and for all of those things that the Democrats are for, which the Republicans can't stomach.

28:42So her political career is at an end, over. So what does she do now? do you think? I guess maybe she goes to work as an AIPAC lobbyist. I don't know. But she is not going to hold elective office as a Democrat. But if I were AIPAC, I wouldn't think she was going to be very effective as a lobbyist. No, I don't know what she does. She's out of a job. Donald Trump welcomed her to the Republican Party. And actually, I will say I was watching it quite closely, Mike Rogers didn't look that chuffed that she'd gone over to him. I thought he was thinking, oh my God, now I'm going to have to deal with this woman.

29:26It's bad enough having to deal with Donald Trump. Now I've got Haley Stevens. But we'll see. I mean, this could, well, this race has always hung in the balance anyway. And this could lose the race for the Democrats and perhaps the Senate control of the Senate will rest on this race. We don't know. But we will know. Well, someone just put in the comments that Kalshi has got El-Sayed in 93 % to win. That's pretty high. I'm not going to do Kalshi. The prediction markets. You don't care. Forget about it. That sounded very sort of Scorsese. Someone saying hello from Portland, Oregon. This is Shane.

30:19Thank you, Joanna, for facilitating this watch party. Let's go, Democrats. Let's smash them and it and it, meaning the elections. Hey, from the Netherlands. Someone saying that they like the fact I'm irritating you. Odd, odd, but possibly true. uh what else crane wreck appearance yeah a lot of people thinking it was well let's let's let's go down you know what one of the things in all of the trump elections that i've covered they each each one has been a surprise in its way so um maybe tonight won't be a surprise and let's just go back and look at the uh at the most reese up-to-date poll which would be the time sienna poll.

31:08The Times-Siena poll is the gold standard of polling. And in every one of these races, in the Michigan, they have El Syed up by 53%. In Texas, Tallarico, you know, I mean, really, let's talk about that race. Early observers in Texas are saying it looks very good for Tallarico. Well, I mean, the Times-Siena poll has it 50 % for Tallarico, 40 % for Ken Paxton, possibly the worst candidate of this century. And personally selected by your friend and ours. And we will get to that. Maine, Jackson, 51 to 45. And a lot of people still say, no, Susan Collins is going to pull that off. Ohio, Sherrod Brown, the former senator coming back, 49 to 44 percent for John Husted.

32:05Did we say Husted? Husted. Husted. He's the person with the bottom that Trump keeps admiring. um kansas adam hamilton against roger marshall adam hamilton is is a clergyman he's the methodist preacher um and um and roger roger marshall is a um is a doctor he's a doctor i'm trying to think what kind of a doctor he is he's a obstetrician he's an obgyn who chases his patients yes and he He is most famous for hauling his patients into court to get paid. Right. Which Donald Trump then went on an elaborate defense of saying that legally he had to do that. And it was just nonsense. Yeah, and apparently Roger Marshall, against the advice of his staff, released a video or circulated a video, which then got released, justifying this and saying, you know, he really needed the money, basically.

33:16He's a senator. He's been a senator. Yeah, well, this is before he got into this, before he became a politician. He was a doctor who was pursuing the people who didn't pay his bills. Okay, the AP has just called it for Ashley Moody, who's a Republican who wins Florida Senate. So there was some hope that Florida Senate seat in Florida would go. Not too much hope. Do we have a number on that? Let's just look at the margins. She is so demanding. You want a number as well. You want a number as well. No, we've just got that Ashley Moody has won her seat, Senate seat in Florida. So Florida is not giving up to the Democrats yet.

34:01Not yet. We don't have the gubernatorial there. No, not yet. That's also a contested. But the governor is in trouble then, Byron. Byron Donalds, right? And then in Alaska, another interesting race because of the two Dan Sullivans, Mary Peltola, the Times, Siena Pole has at 48, and Daniel Sullivan, S. Sullivan, the actual Daniel Sullivan, although maybe he's not the actual Daniel Sullivan. Maybe the other one is the actual Daniel Sullivan. And the other one's gone missing. I don't know if anybody's seen him. I don't know if we have anybody in the chat from Alaska. If so, please identify yourself and tell us if you've seen John.

34:41No, wait a minute. Daniel J. Sullivan, who's the one that I want to get elected, because I just think it would be so marvellous that he he's a teacher inaccessible. I love the fact that he lives on an island. It's inaccessible. What is it an island? Some promontory that's inaccessible other than by plane or by boat. And apparently he's, and I guess this isn't surprising, he's fled his home because I'm sure the entire world and its media made a way to his door inaccessible than it may be. Anyway, he's disappeared. I don't know if he's popped back, but if he has and you've seen him, then please put it in the chat.

35:23And then we have Iowa, Josh Turek at 48 percent and Ashley Hinson. Josh Turek is the Democrat, Ashley Hinson at 47 percent. So that would be nip and tuck. Just by the way, in terms of this time, Siena poll, they did have Ashley Moody, who has just won in Florida at 50 percent and her opponent, Angie Nixon, at 44 percent. Oh, so she's beaten Angie Nixon. Right. OK. Who was doing an amazing job down there, but didn't quite bring it home. And we are at 13 ,000 people are joining us live. No wonder the comments are going as fast as they possibly can. Please like and subscribe to our podcast if you can.

36:10Share it with your friends. We are independent media, which is why we can have as much fun as we are having. I'm having fun. Are you having fun, Michael? Not yet. Oh, Michael's not having fun, but he is having fun, really. A few more races. A few more races. Come on, this is pretty fun. I'd like to come to the edge of taking over the set. So let's just go back for a moment. So like and subscribe. Yeah, just, I know I said that, but I'm just reinforcing it. Share it with friends. Tell your friends that you're on our live. Come and join us and throw in your comments. Thank you. Good evening from France.

36:47I want to do two single out, two races here. Okay, someone's sponkiest is saying that Michael can take Joanna's irritation. Oh, no, the other way around. Joanna can take Michael's irritation. No, I can't take yours. You can take mine. Take my irritation, please. I'm taking your irritation. Love the question, who will he blame first? That is a good question. Who will Trump blame first if he loses this? And it's not looking like a very good night for him. Well, first thing we will see, and I trust that we're monitoring this at some point in this evening, if it continues to go the way we think it will go and the way it has begun, is that he will then accuse whoever of stealing this election.

37:35Okay, so you think he's going to pull that one again? The thing about Trump is he's very reliable. He does what he's done before. He does what works before. Okay. Okay. So let me do these two races because I think they're really worth keeping our eye on, which is Texas and South Carolina. Because in each of these cases, there are two candidates who would not exist. And actually, they would not exist by any logic at all, except for the fact that Donald Trump singled them out and essentially demanded that they be on the ballot. and that's why they're there, which is Ken Paxton, an inconceivably terrible candidate.

38:25And not only that, but the sitting senator in Texas, the sitting Republican senator, John Cornyn, would have won, no question. You know, just a totally normal Republican who has had several terms in the Senate from Texas. He is, I don't think there's any question he would easily have won that race. Trump pushed him aside, supported Ken Paxton, Ken Paxton, who has been impeached by his fellow Republicans in Texas. As attorney general. As attorney general, been indicted, been... Divorced from his wife on biblical grounds. Yes. And he spent America's 250th anniversary in London.

39:23With, who was that? That was with some woman. With a girlfriend.

39:30Anyway, Ken Paxton is on Donald Trump. And there's no question. There's no way that can be rationalized. Ken Paxton is Donald Trump's candidate. Okay. Can you remember the detail I most like and I think is the most revealing about Ken Paxton? He stole the pen. He stole the pen. He stole the pen. And it's that thing of, you know, it's just such an interesting insight into someone's character that they spot someone who's who's left their pen in one of those horrid gray plastic trays that we all have to put our stuff into. It was in one of the security. Yeah. Going through security. It was an expensive pen, apparently.

40:19It was an expensive pen that a man's wife, and I now forget the name of the man. Someone in the chat may know this. He left his pen in the tray. And what did Ken Paxton do? Instead of doing the right thing, especially as attorney general, which would be to pick the pen up, which turns out to be an$1 ,000 pen, which the wife had bought the husband for an anniversary. Instead of picking it up and handing it to the security guy. I find that peculiar, by the way, that anyone would buy anyone a$1 ,000 pen. What will happen to a$1 ,000 pen? You're going to leave it in a tray going through an X-ray machine.

41:01But nevertheless, Ken Paxton stole it, and it was caught on security camera. and that is a man as i've said before on the podcast you do not want to live next door to um he could be a good neighbor he's not going to be a good neighbor although interestingly he has a lot of neighbors because he's got 15 properties 15 properties oh yeah that's right he's made an enormous amount of money somehow mysteriously um something that James Tallarico's campaign has had a very good series of hats on. Right. Now, that would not discourage Donald Trump, of course, from supporting him. No, he'd probably like him all the more.

41:44Donald Trump has also made an enormous amount of money, vastly more than actually anyone else has ever made in American politics. Yeah. Yeah. The other race is Darlene Graham. So Darlene Graham in South Carolina is the sister of Lindsey Graham. Lindsey Graham has locked up that state for years and years. And he died suddenly. On a trip, well, just after he'd returned from Ukraine. Yes. And his sister, Darlene Graham, was appointed to fill his vacant seat. Now, this is why is this done? It's a kind of courtesy thing. You pick the wife. Lindsey Graham didn't have a wife because Lindsey Graham is gay, and his sister often functioned in his escort role.

42:43She was, Donald Trump pressured the governor of South Carolina to appoint her as the caretaker of that seat that was coming up for, that was up for election. So it was, she would hold the seat for a few months. Lo and behold, Donald Trump decides she should be the candidate. Now, she has no political experience whatsoever, has never had a political job, has never aspired to. I think she was an ophthalmologist, wasn't she? Or isn't she? Certainly she worked in eye care. Yeah, I don't. Something. Yes. I don't know. But and then she famously during the campaign, when asked the question about foreign policy and foreign policy was the specialty of her brother, she said, you know, I'm not really up to date on foreign policy issues.

43:52Well, she said she knew nothing about national security. Oh, yeah, national security. And then she said, but, and then she waited for a bit, obviously, and you could hear the wheels turning and then she went, but my brother supported the military and I support the military. So another race completely on Donald Trump. So if she loses, if Darlene Graham loses, there's no way around connecting the dots there. Donald Trump loses. And the larger implication here is for the rest of the Republican Party, that he can't carry it anymore. Not only that he can't carry it anymore, but he's off the deep end.

44:39I mean, we're just at a level of arrogance here and hubris, my party. I can do anything I want. I can pick the people I want to pick. And he might in the past have argued, and they will win. In this instance, they very well might not win, and that will have a chilling effect. Well, it might have a remaking the party effect. I just want to give a shout out to Genia. Thank you, Genia, for saying it was Joe Joplin's pen that Ken Paxton, Donald Trump's preferred candidate stole. I wonder if John Cornyn, let's just imagine for a second that we are John Cornyn, because the Bushes came out, the Bush family, a huge Texas clan came out and supported James Tallarico in Texas.

45:32Imagine you're John Cornyn. Did you vote for James Tallarico in the voting booth? But I think it's worth making the comparison in Michigan that John Cornyn is, that was a bitter race with Ken Paxton. John Cornyn has every right to feel that this was taken from him. And he has every right to feel that he would have won. but nevertheless and um he did not support um james tallarico because you just don't do that we don't know if he supported him in the ballot box though when he slipped but that would be that would be irrelevant right but he hasn't done it publicly he hasn't done it publicly uh so this is all very exciting um but let's she was a technician in an optometrist's office, says Burb Love, talking about Darlene Graham.

46:31She certainly had a makeover, Darlene Graham. I mean, whatever else she comes out of this election with, she does have a better haircut.

46:43Let's also flag Alaska, because there was another, that became an issue, an October surprise sort of issue. Well, the two big October surprises have been Alaska with the addition or, well, well, in fact, the reveal that the Democrats have been behind the recruiting of Daniel J. Sullivan. And then, of course, Haley Stevens deciding to vote with Mike Roger was the final October, well, November surprise. That was a November surprise. Yeah. Which is, and actually maybe be the bigger story there is that there hasn't been a surprise. I mean, this is Donald Trump has not done anything. And a lot of people were waiting and expecting there to be a Trumpian turn of events that would distract from what all the people are focused on, affordability, the war in Iran, all of those things which are likely to defeat him tonight.

47:48But there wasn't. But there was, in Alaska, this turnabout of, and throughout this campaign there was this other Daniel Sullivan. Daniel, what was his? Daniel S. Sullivan is the incumbent. Hugh Doherty, our executive editor, I had to explain this to me about three times because I couldn't quite believe it was true. Although, in fact, it turns out it's a not uncommon trope. But Daniel S. Sullivan is the incumbent. And on the ballot paper, it said incumbent Republican. I mean, the trope you mean is the spoiler trope. Yeah, the spoiler. Yes, the spoiler. And then Daniel J. Sullivan was a retired teacher who had given money to the Mary Paltola campaign.

48:38He donated to the Democrats before and he got recruited to run. Well, the other point, I mean, the real point here is that the New York Times in an investigation last week. Yeah, last weekend. Uncovered that this was essentially there. I use the word conspiracy on the part of the Democrats that the Democrats recruited Daniel. Jay Sullivan. Jay Sullivan to be the spoiler here. And the interesting thing is that this isn't really going to work. I mean, for one thing, it's clearly labeled. For another thing, there's a ranked voting here. But nevertheless, they went forward with this plan. This plan succeeded, at least to get him on the ballot, and they may lose the election because of it.

49:40Well, Donald Trump also tried to bring in a federal lawsuit against them, which got thrown out by an Alaskan judge, right? I mean, you know, elections are state-run, as we've talked about frequently on the podcast. And again, this was him setting Todd Blanche up to try and do something to muddy the waters. Nevertheless, I do think that Alaska is going to get caught up in this. Yeah, well, let's sort of set the scene for that a bit, because one of the things that we're looking at, and we don't know what's going to happen, is what Donald Trump will do. If Donald Trump believes that this election has been fraudulently won by the Democrats, and he will believe that.

50:29So then what steps does he take? And it's an interesting thing that goes on here because Donald Trump says, do it, do it, do something, sue them, go to court. And the Justice Department, Todd Blanche, who we should also talk about, Todd Blanche does it. I mean, in a more conventional world, the attorney general says, hey, we don't have a case here. We can't do this. This is going to be embarrassing, and we are going to lose. Donald Trump, on the other hand, says do it. Nobody says that to him. He says do it. They go into court, and he has gone into court repeatedly during this campaign to try to exert control over the election system, basically.

51:25And repeatedly, everything has been thrown out of court. As recently as yesterday, the Supreme Court refused to consider a case. They just dismissed it out of hand. And that will again happen. This is what we will be looking at over the coming, likely to be looking at in the coming weeks. Donald Trump ordering his Justice Department into court to try to frustrate any Democratic victories. Well, and I'm sure he'll do that with the Senate to hold up the whole process. Right. So any race that's tight and certainly the exit polls and the New York Times Siena poll suggest a couple of the races are really quite tight.

52:17So if the victory, if the Democratic victories aren't completely, well, I guess if there isn't a huge margin, right, then he's going to wiggle away at it just to delay the whole thing. And just because he can't. I think no matter what happens, there will be an iffy couple of weeks here. But not... I mean, what would be nice... I think the likelihood is that they probably won't be that iffy. They'll be iffy in Donald Trump's mind, but not in the minds of everybody else. That was the 2020 story, remember. Well, I was going to ask you, will Donald Trump understand that he's lost? Because what's sort of fascinating about, I'm reading now from Siege, your second book, was the, hold on a minute, am I on the right page, was about the election that he didn't, I mean, it was almost as if he didn't understand he'd actually lost the midterms.

53:24It wasn't clear that he had his head around what the midterms were. You know, well, I mean, there's an odd thing about Donald Trump. Remember, professional politicians are, among other things, they're counters. And more and more over the past many, many years, they've become data specialists. And they certainly, if they are not themselves, they certainly employ someone who will tell them the numbers and they understand the numbers. It is a numbers game. Donald Trump is, among other handicaps here, is his inability to pay attention. He is functionally innumerate. I mean, he reverses numbers. He can't grasp numbers.

54:10Even when you're talking to him, and I've spent a fair amount of time talking to him about, specifically about 2020, the numbers morph. I mean, within the same minute, he will repeat a number once and then transpose it within the same minute. Right. So there is a thing. He is never up to date or immersed in the dated details of an election. He can't do it. I think he just can't do it. And also, this is compounded by the fact that people only bring him good news. And when they do have to bring him bad news, it is, well, they say it in a way that he doesn't know it's bad news. That he doesn't hear it as bad news.

55:12OK, if you can hear background noise, by the way, our blinds have inexplicably, inexplicably and automatically switched on and off. And we don't know what's happened, but they've got a life of their own. Perhaps we've been hacked. Who knows? Maybe the Russians are watching and they're like, we're going to disrupt their podcast. Anyway, we're taking no notice of it. But what I thought was absolutely marvelous in your chapter in the siege about the 2018 midterms was that Trump doesn't behave as if he's lost the election. And I want to find it. I want to find the bit because it's really very funny where he has a party and he invites people to it.

56:00I should be able to, since I wrote this book, I should be able to tell you what you're looking for. But I actually don't quite remember this book. Well, I remember. OK, I was rereading it this morning precisely because I thought it would be useful background for this. But there's a bit of a setup here. And it's sort of it's a foreshadowing of what happens with the with the with the raising of the money for the ballroom, actually. We haven't even talked about the ballroom as something that I think emotionally people felt was a reason to vote against him. Anyway, in the ceremonial East Room at the White House, the president's staff had staged a mock election day barbecue with hamburgers and hot dogs.

56:41It was a big donor event. And this this list of people is so interesting. Sheldon Adelson, worth 34 billion, was there, along with Harold Hamm, the shale oil mogul, worth 13 billion. Do you remember Harold Hamm pops up when Donald Trump's doing his whole Venezuela thing and he brings the oil moguls to him and he points to Harold Hamm and he says, Harold Hamm is a man who can find, what is it, you stick a straw in the ground, he can find oil if he sticks a straw in the ground. But then he says, but he's got personal problems. He's got other problems. And Harold Hamm looks absolutely horrified. Steve Schwartzman, the Blackstone CEO, worth 12 billion.

57:24Dan Gilbert, the founder of Quicken Loans and owner of several sports franchises, worth 6 billion. Michael Milken, the former Wall Street trader and junk bond king who went to jail in the early 1990s for insider trading, worth 4 billion. And it goes on and on through the people that he has around him. Then there's a wonderful line here where you say it was Trump's tragic duality. He needed either the roar of the crowd or the stroking of billionaires. And then there's a bit in it, which I'm now struggling to find, but as we're live, it doesn't matter where he. Because we're live, it does matter.

58:03Well, no, I think it does. actually. I think people are more forgiving if we're live because we're waiting for things. But this is it. So they're having a wipeout in 2018, as you remember. To one guest, Trump said, great night, fantastic, wipeout, crush, big majority, big wave, what wave? Red wave, total red wave. The guest found himself running through a quick, bewildering progression, first thinking the president was serious, then thinking he was being sarcastic, finally realizing that this was his heartfelt conclusion. So again, getting to your point that he didn't quite get actually what was going on.

58:46So, and then jumping ahead to 2020, you know, I mean, 2020 becomes a historic election in the United States because of Trump's insistence that it was a stolen election and of him trying to reverse it. And, you know, I think the general feeling is that, you know, Trump is, you know, Trump is a despot. He was willing to steal the election back. And I have always felt that actually he doesn't understand what happened there. Everybody else around him does. Everybody in the White House understood. He didn't understand that he was so wrapped up in the numbers because people only bring him good news because he doesn't functionally understand numbers.

59:48And then he went on to believe, I believe, he believed that it actually was stolen from him. It's so strange. It says here in the book that actually Brad Pascal, you remember Brad Pascal who came and went, came and went. He's not still around, is he, in the inner circle? Not only came and went, but he went because he was naked in the street waving a gun. Of course he was, because that's what happens if you work for Donald Trump. Either that or you end up like Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski. Corinne Lawendowski is now being investigated. And Christine has got a divorce from her husband, who is busy with the balloons.

1:00:35But Brad Parscale, just to point out, also has made millions upon millions of dollars off of the Trump campaign, as so many have. OK, well, we're going to take an ad break for a couple of minutes. We will be back shortly with more readings from Michael's book, but more importantly, with more good news for the Democrats tonight as it looks a very, very ambitious election for them. We are back and I'm just getting my cup of tea. I'm just going to reach. Here we go. Thank you very much. Well, this looks like it's going to be a very good night for the Democrats, doesn't it? We just had a quick update from Hugh Doherty, our executive editor, who's roaring around the newsroom.

1:01:23Is this chocolate for me? Yes. I put two little pieces of dark chocolate to keep you going. Yes. It's like on one's pillow at the hotel. It is a little bit, except that you're not expected to talk about Donald Trump for hours in a hotel. But it's incredibly exciting to have everybody with us. I was just going to say it may be our last opportunity to talk about Donald Trump, but then we would be out of business. Not at all. Donald Trump's going to be around for the next two. Two years. Well, two years and perhaps longer. We'll get into that. Yeah, I mean, that's very interesting. What does Donald Trump do?

1:02:02So what does, let's just talk about that. What does Donald Trump do tomorrow morning? Let's get caught up on where we are right now, because I think all reports coming in is that this is trending heavily to the Democrats and in even a greater, at a greater level than even the most, the optimists, the Democratic optimists have expected. OK, but I am, however, going to test you. The AP has just called it for Byron Donalds, who's won Florida governor.

1:02:42Yeah, no, I mean, no, no, nobody put that race. Nobody expected that race to. OK, but he was challenged at one point. He's the Republican. Yeah, we don't have numbers on that. So the issue there will be, does he achieve the margins that they expected to achieve? And I will bet that they don't. But we're hearing potentially exciting news for the Democrats in Georgia, but it hasn't been called yet. So we're not going to call it until the AP calls it. Yeah, I think it seems pretty obvious that Michelin's bottoms is going to win in Georgia up against Rick Jackson, who spent, I think,$200 million against her.

1:03:28And the early returns from all of the, I think, pretty much from all of the races that we're looking at are good for the Democrats. Well, that's exciting for people. All right. And Donald Trump off again on Truth Social. Fox News ratings are way down 27 percent because they're spending too much time covering the Trump deranged Democrats. All of those people who used to watch Fox no longer do it. Get it. It's them, not me. My numbers are better than they've ever been. The new CNN poll stated that Trump is at 99 percent among Republicans and among Republican presidents. Trump is at 53 percent compared to Ronald Reagan at 18 percent and Abe Lincoln at 8 percent.

1:04:15Fox knows this and so does everyone else. Again, these these numbers come out of where? What is he talking about? Well, sometimes, you know, he asks for numbers and then he gets past numbers and then he He misunderstands the numbers or just, I mean, he's innumerate. So they just don't mean anything to him. So then he makes them up. Okay. Henry McKean here is saying, I'm a politics student. And honestly, this is like Christmas Day. Louise Reed saying Trump is unhinged. Beverly Kirby 411 raising a really good point. Elon wasted his money. He's got so much money. He probably doesn't even notice. I mean, does he care?

1:04:58Does he care? But this will be, if James Tallarico takes Texas, and right now it looks as if Ken Paxton is not going to win Trump's preferred candidate, John Cornyn must be doing a little dance around his living room with his friends. This will be bad news for Elon. A Trump dance. No, Trump dance is more like that, isn't it? I can't even do the Trump dance. But this is also not just a vote against... John Cornyn doesn't look like a dancer to me. Oh, I think John Cornyn will be dancing around his living room tonight. This is also a vote against billionaires. It's a vote against oligarchs. And it's a vote against Elon Musk.

1:05:44Yeah. I mean, I can hardly think of what it's a vote for at this point. I mean, this is all against the things that Donald Trump has become most associated with. The affordability issue, the war, what is basically a private Trump army of masked men in the streets, the embrace of Vladimir Putin, the embrace of Natalie Harp, the embrace of Elon Musk, the embrace of Benjamin Netanyahu. everything down the list, everything. I think literally everything that Trump has brought to the second administration is being rejected. And I think the demolition of the ballroom. Sorry, the demolition of the East Wing for the ballroom.

1:06:48And I mean, the remaking of Washington. I mean, he stood in front of the reflecting. We haven't even talked about that. His last sort of public performance in front of the reflecting pool, which does at least finally have some water in it, because for the longest time it didn't have any water in it, just had tread marks from a car that had gone across it. But talk a little bit about his sort of obsession with the physical projects, with the building, the building of things, the repairing of Washington, which in fact he's done disastrously. You know, I mean, I think it has probably two things. He actually, it's the one area where he actually kind of knows what he's doing.

1:07:32I mean, he's an experienced contractor, in essence. I mean, he doesn't have taste, but he certainly knows how to get a building up and also how to get a building up fast. although I can't say that in he was very successful in contracting out the reflecting pool terrible I mean a no-bid contract to someone who's never done a swimming a reflecting pool like this but I think I think it I think he likes doing it so and and then there's the issue of legacy and the and it's interesting that other presidents view legacy in political terms, in philosophical terms, in ideological terms, in how you remake the United States government.

1:08:29And he does. I don't think he does. I think those things are irrelevant to him. So legacy is a physical thing to him. You know, I have to put my name on something. I have to be associated with a building in some way. I have need ownership over concrete. And I think that's important to him, elemental. I had a friend who went for dinner with Donald Trump about three weeks ago, and they said that all he did was talk about the ballroom. And the friend had gone thinking that there might be some kind of reprimand possibly or some kind of negotiations that would need to go on. And Donald Trump was fixated only on the ballroom.

1:09:20And I'm going to tell you something else that if this all goes south for him and he has to deal with a recalcitrant and rebellious Congress, what he will double down on and concentrate on is building things. Building things. So Washington, I think he will, the more he can put his actual physical stamp on Washington before he leaves office, the more he will feel that he has been a success. Interesting. Well, I thought his speech, his sort of rambling weave in front of the reflecting pool yesterday was remarkable. I mean, not least because he just went on and on and on about how Biden and Obama had failed to stop the leak.

1:10:13And then there were all sorts of little pictures of cracks in the stone that he said Obama and Joe Biden were responsible. Of course, going on about Joe Biden and Barack Obama would be nothing new. He does that and he reverts to that trope. It's a standard piece. Who do I blame? I blame my Democratic predecessors. Right. I did think that the rallies, and goodness knows he's done a lot of them, but the heckling at the rallies had become a lot more effective. The protesters had figured out how to protest and shout things in those tiny periods of silence, the best one being the man that shouted, shove the ballroom up your fat ass.

1:11:04And Donald Trump himself, looking at me, who's realised that there was nothing he could do apart from look away and start smiling to himself. No, I think it's been interesting to see a turn in the rallies, that the rallies are attracting fewer people, that you see a lot of empty seats. So let's look at this 10 years of Donald Trump as a 10-year performance. And, you know, I remember in 2016, when he started to, the Trump campaign started to hold these rallies and started to attract, you know, 20 ,000, 30 ,000, sometimes 40 ,000 people. Hillary Clinton had to scrape to turn out 500 people. But the Democrats were still dismissing this.

1:11:57This is an old way of campaigning. This was, this is not, not serious. And then they obviously learned that it had a profound meaning. And it has basically been the mainstay of the Trump political career. These kinds of rallies, this kind of performance. So the performance kind of overshadowed anything he did or failed to do. And I think the difference is that in the second term, the power grab has become part of the performance here. And he's been sort of so identified with that, that the rallies, the Trump shtick, the Trump weave could no longer overshadow the war in Iran, the affordability issue, the masked men in the streets, the desecration of Washington, D.C.

1:12:59Right. And also just his, well, the incompetence. And also, let's not forget, yes, he's forced himself onto the ballot. He's not technically on the ballot, but he's made it about himself. But he is surrounded by a group of incompetents. I mean, even those who might appear slightly more competent have become craven. So you have someone like Marco Rubio, who in theory, you know, got through his Senate confirmation more confidently than some of the others, certainly by Hegseth or RFK Jr., but has turned out to be craven in the job, sort of pathetic in the job. And then he sort of has that amazing karmic moment when he goes to make his big speech about Western democracy in Greece.

1:13:51And, you know, he's got the Acropolis behind him. He's all set up to essentially lay out his future as. OK, I'm just going to interrupt the anecdote to say the AP has called it for Keisha Lancebottom. she will be the first black governor of any state in the US. And if you want to see what? Oh, black female. Sorry, black female. She's won Georgia against up against Rick Jackson, a healthcare billionaire who spent, I think, $200 million fighting her. That's an incredible win. Former mayor of Atlanta. We did an interview with her at the Daily Beast about three weeks ago. She was incredible. and if you want to see a speech that moves you, go and look at the speech Keisha Lance Bottoms did after the rioting with George Floyd in Atlanta where she addressed the young men largely rioting and told them all to go home.

1:14:50It is one of the great modern responses to violence in the streets that you will see. You watch that and you cannot see it without getting shivers up your spine of a real political leader. So congrats to Keisha Lanzbottom. Worth noting, too, that this race on the part of the Democrats is a race against Republican money. So the Republicans have outspent the Democrats at a frightening velocity. Frightening velocity. I mean, Elon Musk's sinking$450 million into this midterm election, and so far it's got him nowhere. And Rick Jackson has spent$200 million. I'm going to disagree with that. It's gotten him nowhere.

1:15:36I mean, I think that he won't get elected the people he wants to get elected. But I think this is a debt that Donald Trump will have to deliver on. Oh, interesting. And much of Elon Musk's business comes from the United States government. So you think he'll get what more, even better preferred government contracts? Yeah. You know, I mean, the last time in 2024, when he spent$350 million, that bought him not only a seat at the table, but basically the table for until until he began to to overshadow Donald Trump. And then it was then then he was out of the table back. Right. OK, so we've got a question here from Sharice on Substack.

1:16:27Michael, are you concerned that J.D. Vance could replace Trump as president? What do you think that would look like?

1:16:40Well, I mean, interesting. I mean, I don't know how we're going to replace Donald Trump. J.D. Vance is not going to replace Donald Trump as president unless Donald Trump heels over dead, which is always a possibility. In that event, well, I don't, you know, I mean, I'm loathe to say anything good about J.D. Vance, who seems like a horrible person and an unlikable person. I want to hear his comments. He was up in Rome, in upstate in New York, in an area that Donald Trump took by 20 points, and they're struggling. And he called Kathy Hochul the governor of New York a witch. Yeah. At any rate, what I would say is that Donald Trump is a crazy person beyond reason, beyond reality.

1:17:39And J.D. Vance is a snaky person and an opportunist and all of that. But he is a person who I think lives in reality. What would you prefer? a person who doesn't live in reality or one who does? Well, it won't happen. It's actually a very good question. It's a very good question because do we think that J.D. Vance then just falls prey to whoever? I think J.D. Vance is a cynical, a highly cynical guy. Yeah, I agree. And I think that he's looking at this and saying, I could be the president of the United States in order to do that. this is what I have to do. I have to, I, this, you know, Donald Trump is, Donald Trump is my ticket here.

1:18:36And if I can use that ticket and get to where I want to go, then I would be a much different kind of president than Donald Trump. I would be a, I think JD Vance looks at Donald Trump and says, this man is, this is a crazy man. He's a crazy man. And do you think that J.D. Vance was in too much of a hurry and that if he had resisted the offer to be vice president to Donald Trump, that he would have been in a better position? No, I think in politics you take the opportunity when it comes. Even when the opportunity is with Donald Trump? you know that's just um just how how it how it breaks yeah well it may have cost him his political career right no i don't think i think that that's ridiculous he he is he has been he had no political career um and and donald trump and the trump years have made him have made him might make him president.

1:19:47Okay, we have another very good question here. Mojo Mum's husband, 6378, wants to know, if Trump loses control of Congress, how will that change anything? He's been ignoring Congress and the courts for three years. Well, you can't ignore a subpoena. You can't ignore it when all of your people are subpoenaed. You can't ignore it when nobody can do anything else but sit before Congress. You can't ignore it when everybody has incredibly legal bills that mount up by the minute. This, just the House of Representatives, which we believe will certainly go for the Democrats, can entirely frustrate. It just changes everything.

1:20:47And this has happened before. In the first Trump term, 2018 came around. The Democrats won overwhelmingly the House in 2018. and it effectively stopped the Trump presidency. It meant that the Trump presidency limped on until its end. And, you know, and I mean, I vividly remember that night. I was with Steve Bannon that night, 2018 election night. And as that happened, and I remember Bannon was, He couldn't believe it was going so, it went so heavily for the Democrats. And he said, basically, it's a two-year presidency. It's over, ended tonight. Okay. Well, we know that Donald Trump has been much more aggressive in this second administration.

1:21:46Here's a question from Williams3441. Will any of this matter? if he vetoes everything, would it be wise for Dems to choose not to impeach him? What could happen? This is a great question. What could happen between now and January the 3rd? So much could happen.

1:22:11Yeah, I mean, what will happen is that he will use the Justice Department to try to interfere with or derail or frustrate any number of close elections that there might be. And that will be particularly in the Senate, but probably House races too, although I suspect there are going to be so many. The numbers in the House will be so overwhelming that there isn't much that he can do. There is there has always been kind of discussion about what extreme measures might be taken so that he could call on the states, particularly red states, not to certify their representatives before they get to Washington.

1:23:15Therefore, they wouldn't certify the elections, and therefore they would not be, well, it would be a constitutional crisis. And he could also ask, he could, Mike Johnson, so the procedure for the Senate, if he wins the Senate, if the Democrats win the Senate, would be for the clerk of the Senate has to certify each of the new members.

1:23:55that means that the, I mean, the clerk now is a perfectly respectable person who would not do that. Mike Johnson could theoretically point a point, a dupe who would agree to do this. This is for the Senate or for the house is for the Senate. Right. And therefore, I'm sorry to sound stupid about this, but why does Mike, why, why is that Mike Johnson's responsibility and not John Thune's? If it's the Senate. Um, uh, you're right. This is not the Senate. This is the house, right? We're talking about the house. Right. Okay. Okay. Um, right. So we're talking about the house. And so that would be Mike Johnson, the clerk has to certify each new member.

1:24:40So the issue is so theoretically he could do this. But the issue then becomes there would not be a new Congress. So what happens then? Among the other issues here is if there is not a new Congress, that the Republicans in the old Congress don't get paid. Oh, they don't get paid. No, they don't get paid. Their staff does not get get paid. So you, I mean, this is a potential threat, but the threat is up against politicians who are looking at their own careers. Right. And do you think that Mike Johnson is back chatting or back channeling with Mike Pence here? I mean, Mike Johnson is young enough to know that he's still got another 20 years in politics.

1:25:42Donald Trump. Well, I mean, Mike Pence, Mike Johnson has pretty much said that if he loses the, if he loses, if the Republicans lose their majority, then he's no longer the speaker. And, you know, maybe he leaves, maybe he goes back to, he had some unlikely profession that he was returning to. Really? I bet he goes on to lobby. Okay. I'm going to, I'm going to read out a couple of tweets. Here is one from Bill Malugan, who says, some of what I'm hearing from congressional GOP sources right now, this is fucked, Senate GOP source, bloodbath across the board, House GOP source. Nothing is going our way.

1:26:32We stabilized in Florida, but the margins were so close. That's the only good news, second Senate GOP source. And we've got another one here, Kentucky key bellwether house seat. Republican has just conceded to the Democrat. So Ralph Alvarado, the Republican. This is a big, this is a bellwether race. Big, big deal. Ralph Alvarado, the Republican running to replace Representative Andy Barr in a Kentucky district around Lexington, conceded to Democrat. He's a newcomer, this guy. Zach Dembo in a call. Zach Dembo, very appealing candidate, not been in politics before, first time round, fresh, young, local politician now, very exciting.

1:27:22Dembo is his name? Dembo, D-E-M-B-O, and he's got red hair. He's got red hair. He's awfully close to Dumbo. Oh, don't say that. Now you're sounding like Donald Trump. You're sounding like Donald Trump. OK, and the Hoosier Inquirer is calling it J.D. Ford has won Indiana's fifth congressional district, J.D. Ford. So there's the two house. Those are two house races. I was actually thinking as you know, those are those are that's both of those races are battleground races. You know, that could have gone either way. I think the key word might be bloodbath from what I've just read out, that this is going to be a bloodbath.

1:28:05And this is very much. Yeah. In the end, a fifth was, I think the Cook Report had that as leaning Republican. Leaning Republican. Well, it ain't leaning Republican anymore. Kentucky's sixth was a toss up. Look at you with your Kentucky fifths and six. What about the seventh, Michael? What about Kentucky seven? But two things are clear. The gerrymandering hasn't worked in favor of the Republicans as they'd anticipated. But more importantly, this is very clearly a referendum on Donald Trump. Donald Trump and his incompetence and the people that he surrounded him with. And I was mid-anecdote about 25 minutes ago on Marco Rubio.

1:28:49Marco Rubio, who just looks so craven in the shoes, the Florsheim$148 shoes that Donald Trump distributed to his cabinet, insisting they all wore them instead of the sneakers that they were wearing. And Marco Rubio's shoes were just too big for him and he had to keep sitting there. And we were merciless in just taking pictures, as were various other photographers, merciless in taking pictures of his feet swimming in these shoes. Meanwhile, his boss's cankles were spilling over his oxfords. But the interesting next chapter of this is how they emerge from under this shadow. Marco Rubio will run for president in 2028.

1:29:36J.D. Vance will run for president in 2028. How do they emerge? Well, Pete Hegseth will also be running, right? And so will your friend R.O.K. Jr. you i i would say pete hegseth won't run that's just my my why do you think pete hegseth ain't gonna run i thought that his state of the force second well i'm sure he would he would like to run i just don't think he's gonna have you just don't think he's gonna have the money yeah i know yeah so he won't have the support won't have the money i think he's he's um i don't think anybody likes pete hegseth i don't think anybody likes any of them nobody like no no i i think that that's not true.

1:30:19I mean, there's a whole donor, certainly there's a donor base that J.D. Vance has. Do donors become less important now? No, the donors are never less important. They've become more important because it costs more and more to run these elections. And RFK Jr. has a considerable peculiar, but a considerable base. I just wonder if people, if you're a donor and you've given the Republicans a lot of money in this last round and you've seen your money, basically you might as well have just set fire to it and watched it go up in smoke, you know, smoke like the conclave, just disappearing, your money vaporized.

1:31:06Why would you want to carry on donating to people. Do you really want me to answer this? Well, I sort of, I'm being rhetorical. Because that's the game you play. Yes, you're going to lose sometimes. All the more reason to spend more money so you win the next time. I mean, these people who do this, I mean, understand donors that A, there are donors who have so much money. I mean, this is a development of the last generation. So much money that it doesn't matter. And then there are donors who want specific things, and there's only way they can get them is to donate. I mean, that's the price of entry.

1:31:55And yet we know that certain candidates, I mean, Rick Jackson is an interesting candidate in Georgia running for governor up against Keisha Lance Bottoms, wildly outspent her, poured all this money into himself and his own race and just couldn't bring it home. Is that because he's just a terrible candidate? Or is it because, I mean, people don't like it when they see very rich people getting into races like that? Well, first thing, I'm not sure that that's true. I mean, there's a lot of rich people who have been elected and there's a lot of, you know, sometimes it doesn't work. Sometimes it doesn't work.

1:32:35All right, hold on. I've got a question for you from Substack, from Nancy Labov. Do you think that once the House, and hopefully the Senate, it looks as if the Senate's going to go in the same direction, doesn't it? Well, let's... Let's see, let's see. Turn Democratic that we will be able to subpoena DJT and find out about the Epstein files. Can we finally get somewhere with the files? And more importantly, I think Donald Trump. Well, I mean, it's hard to subpoena a sitting president of the United States. But earlier you said that he might be subpoenaed. Well, no, I mean, people in the government will be subpoenaed and people within the government and people around Trump can be subpoenaed to give evidence about Trump and which might lead to his impeachment.

1:33:29And then ultimately he might be impeached. And then we'll certainly have to appear then before the Senate. But let's not get ahead of ourselves here. And that didn't work out so great the last time the Democrats did it. Right. Well, that's what I'm wondering. I mean, And is there an argument here that you ignore Donald Trump from this point on? The Democrats don't waste time. They've got two years. Well, certainly, certainly there's an argument. I mean, the other argument from the other side is that this is a moral issue. You can't. Donald Trump has abused his power, has violated the law, has committed and has committed acts of corruption so egregious that he's made billions upon billions of dollars.

1:34:25And do you ignore that or do you take your responsibility seriously and investigate it and prosecute it? Right. There's someone here saying the Baron is on Kalshi betting against his father. I wonder if that's true. There are other people saying that Darlene Graham looks as if she's in trouble. We should hear from South Carolina tonight. Polls close early there. And a couple of people saying Annie Andrews looks like she's doing well. Of course, we're not calling anything until we hear it from AP. and the minute our newsroom hears it from AP, we tell you, Joanna has failed in every prediction until now.

1:35:10I think that's possibly true. What are our, what our, let's look at our predictions. I'm concerned I've lost in all of them and that's very distressing. Okay, let's go. Cause I think it is interesting just in case I'm right and you're wrong. I mean, If you're right and I'm wrong, that's interesting. All right, where are our predictions? Have you got our predictions? Yes, yes. And then I'm going to read a limit. South Carolina. So I thought I called it for Darlene. Darlene. You called it for Andrews. Okay, we'll see. We don't know yet. We don't know yet. Ohio, we both called it for Brown. Texas, I called it for Tallarico.

1:35:55You called it for Paxton. I know. And I will be very happy to be wrong here. James Tallarico has run an excellent campaign apart from that strange week where he disappeared. And you said if he lost, it would be because of that week. But maybe he was doing some strength training. Maybe he took a break. Who knows? There are no breaks in politics. There are no breaks in politics. Well, Tom Kane took a break and I'm excited to see what happened. There are no breaks in politics. Long, long breaks. Okay, well, let's find out. I can't wait for Tom Kane. He's up against an excellent candidate, another of these brilliant women helicopter pilots, Rebecca Bennett in New Jersey, very curious to see.

1:36:39You love a former veteran. I do. I like the veterans. I think they're mission-oriented, and I think they have an understanding of what public service is. I feel very moved when I talk to veterans, actually. Maine, we both called for Collins. Yeah, but we may be wrong. Maybe the fifth generation logger finally shoehorns Susan Collins out of Maine. We could go back and remember, God, I can't remember his name now. Graham Plattner. Your boyfriend. He wasn't my boyfriend, but Graham Plattner, if you hadn't sexually assaulted people, it could have been your seat. Allegedly. Allegedly. All those ex-girlfriends.

1:37:20It's so fascinating. I mean, you've got to leave things in a good state. Otherwise, people come after you. They come after you. I mean, however did whatever Graham Plattner did, he seemed to do it consistently to these women. He was a veteran that would not have been good in office, it turns out. Anyway, I liked him when I talked to him, but I didn't know about. In Michigan. Right. I have. You called it for El Syed. El Syed. And that's still unclear. I think that I would like to just make the small point that that was before Haley Stevens had it over to Rogers. I still think that could help rather than hurt him.

1:38:08Mike Rogers just looked so anxious about having to deal with Haley Stevens. It's like, be careful what you wish for. If someone had said to Mike Rogers, hey, great news, Mike Rogers, the Democrat who lost the primary is not going to back Al-Sayed. She's going to come and back you. And he would think that would be great. And then he has to sit next to her in church and realize she's imploding right next to him in her big straw hat. Someone pointed out, however, that it was 80 degrees in Michigan today. So she was absolutely right to wear a big hat. Fair. And I was wrong. Now, Iowa, we've both gone for Hinson.

1:38:44Yeah, I think that we were wrong. I think that Josh Turek is going to win, and we were wrong. That would be significant. Kansas. Oh, my God. I can't believe that I went for Marshall. I can't believe you went for Marshall either. Why would you do that? I mean, Adam Hamilton is so impressive, and he's also not a regular, I hate to say it, but he's not a regular Democrat. He's an independent. Essentially, he's an independent. Oh, he was running as an independent. No, and for Marshall, it was the suing his pregnant ladies. I mean, how could he have thought that was a good idea? I know, terrible. And also every photo you see of him, he's got this horrible red bow tie on.

1:39:30He looks ridiculous. He looks ridiculous. Okay, this is a – and Alaska, we're – jeez, I can't – you know, we did these last week, And it all seems now. Well, a week is a long time in politics, right? I did see Daniel S. Sullivan, the incumbent, making a plea and sort of stamping his foot and saying this is unfair. And Mary Peltola is a cheat. She's a cheat. And it looks like he was having some sway with the people in his audience. It's possible he squeaks home. She's made that race tighter by not having anything to do with hiring someone to run as a copycat candidate with her opponent. Yeah, no, I think that's not a good look anyway.

1:40:18It's not a good look. And people don't like to be played, I think. Mississippi, Mississippi is in. Mississippi, you know, I think is one of those transformational races. If that happens, if the Democrats win Mississippi, you know, then all bets are off for the Republican Party. Well, he's an impressive candidate. I was watching some videos of him. Scott Colom, very impressive. Cindy Hyde-Smith, less so. Now, he's not supposed to win this. I mean. No, but I think all bets are off tonight. Yeah, well. All bets are off. Dee Cadders, one of our regular commentators, seems very pleased. She's like, yeah.

1:41:03There's a lot of enthusiasm going on. Oh, Bob Bob is saying, guess I'm going to have to actually buy a Beast membership since I'm so rich that when my Mont Blanc pen runs out of ink, I sharpen the end of it and use it as an acto knife. I think he's making that up. I have a lot of old Mont Blanc pens. I don't know what to do with them, but I can't bear to give them away. Do we have an update on Anna Paulina Luna? I hope so. Not called yet. Not called yet. That was the voice of our, the disembodied voice of Ryan Murray, our producer, who's a very good producer and doesn't usually like to be referred to in any way.

1:41:43I'm going to read us a limerick. I think it's time for a limerick. And I'm going to read a Garfreed limerick. You just got a note. Was that a call? No, it's not. The note says, do we want to go for a break? I don't think we do, do we? No. Well, let's read a limerick, and then perhaps we'll have a short break. This is from Garfreed, who many of us know, regular. I keep looking at my chocolate. I actually would like to. Why don't you eat your chocolate? Well, I don't want to eat it on the air. Well, you could eat it quickly while I'm reading a limerick. But what if I'm not finished in time? Well, that's going to be very weird.

1:42:21I'll wait for the break. I have a certain amount of self-control. Okay, good. This is Garfreed, who regulars will know is our limerick laureate. He's gilding a ballroom in a house he's commandeering, but the price tag keeps climbing and so does the peering. If the house should turn blue, then subpoenas come due. He wanted a ballroom. He's getting a hearing. He's getting a hearing. I read that wrong. I'm sorry, Garfreed. I ruined it. He wanted a ballroom. He's getting a hearing. But we could go back to the harem, too. We could go back to the harem. I don't think he's got a harem because, as he said, everybody's left him apart from Natalie Hart.

1:43:03That doesn't sound like a harem. Yeah. No, a harem. A harem of one. I don't know why I misread that. Maybe we do need a break. Maybe we need a break. We're going to take a short break, but we will be back to bring you more news from what turns out to be a Republican bloodbath this evening. I think it's fair to say we haven't pulled any of the big Senate seats by giving it away. Yeah, but also, you know, not a bloodbath. We've been here before, haven't we? We've been here before. Yes, and let's talk about, we'll come back and talk about the nights we have been disappointed. Right. I think Democrats have election trauma, post-traumatic election syndrome, and we shouldn't call anything before the AP has called it.

1:43:56OK, but let's call our break for the moment. OK, we're going to have a quick break. Don't go away. Go and put your kettle on or shake the cocktail shaker. Have a drink. Settle in. It's going to be a long night. our reporter Sarah Ewell Weiss from our Washington bureau Sarah is in the studio with me and Michael we really need dramatic music did you notice that the uh Halloween music that the Trumps used and Donald was doing one of his funny little dances was our theme music to inside Trump's head and I think it was an inside joke with someone who said yeah I think it was an inside joke by the band leader.

1:44:38Anyway, Sarah, bring us up to date with what's going on. I've got the disembodied hand of our producer giving me another cup of tea. Yeah, we have some wild stuff happening in the Senate right now. NBC is projecting that Democrats will take South Carolina, which is a seat that Donald Trump specifically picked Lindsey Graham's younger sister to be the Republican nominee after her brother passed away over the summer. I don't think he has an older sister. No, but I mean, it's just bringing the Nepo baby sister along in this situation. People didn't like it. They didn't like the idea that she had absolutely no history in politics.

1:45:20Ralph Norman, a very popular congressman down there, also wanted to run for it. So did Mark Sanford, right? The former governor. Well, they liked it enough that they gave her the nomination. Well, that's true. That's true. But she was a terrible campaigner. I mean, it was just like she kind of gave it up. But let's just have a moment because this is huge. Well, the reality is, is that there was an actual primary race. She did win it. But Donald Trump had to rush down to South Carolina to campaign with her for that primary, for that runoff. And he's gone back multiple times now. Yes, very clearly he selected her.

1:46:04Right. And she is around his neck. But the other thing is, it is not just that she's a poor candidate, but that she is running as a representative of Donald Trump. So it is Donald Trump is around her neck. And she's obviously has paid for that. Yeah. OK, so Annie Andrews is looking like she's going to bring it home for the Democrats. a very popular local pediatrician. Yes. I mean, she ran this race that Democrats did not expect to win. They were not putting money into this race. Obviously, things changed when Senator Graham passed away, but it still seemed like such a long shot. Republicans won it by double digits in the last election.

1:46:50And it really is just showing not just a complete rejection of Donald Trump, but MAGA as a whole. And we did see that Ralph Norman was obviously the man who ran in the runoff against now Senator Graham. And he actually told a reporter that Donald Trump should have stayed out of that race. And I think he's still obviously bitter about not winning that primary. He's the Haley Stevens of South Carolina. But yes, so he's basically. Although, again, And he did not do what Haley Stevens so weirdly did, which is openly support the opposition candidate. So is this the moment when the Republicans rise up against Donald Trump?

1:47:41Is this the moment? Do they now have the opportunity to say enough? We're taking the party back? Well, no. But, you know, this begins incrementally. And as I said, I mean, I identified in the beginning of whenever we started this, that there are two races that Donald Trump has, he's not going to escape a defeat. South Carolina is one and Texas is the other. These both races are on him. And that is clearly going to resonate throughout the Republican Party. And we begin, we now enter, as of essentially tomorrow, the official lame duck moment of his presidency. And so all of the people, the Republicans who will be trying to replace Donald Trump are very much going to be aware of the fact that he's damaged goods.

1:48:47He's damaged goods. So, Sarah, what are you hearing from the people you talk to? Actually, just give us an update on what you're seeing in Texas. So Texas has not been called yet, but James Tallarico has been leading all evening long. I should also note that the Democratic governor candidate has also been leading. So that was one we thought would be a lot closer than even the Tallarico race when it came down to it. But Ken Paxton is Donald Trump's handpicked candidate in this race. They obviously ousted John Cornyn in the primary. Trump came in and endorsed Ken Paxton before that runoff. And so those two are tied together at the hip.

1:49:27The president has gone back to Texas multiple times to campaign for him. He held the convention in September in Texas to try and help Republicans there. And it immediately backfired to the point where Ken Paxton was complaining behind closed doors about that. And the audio, of course, leaked. We've seen audio leaking. I forgot that. I'm in time again. Just two months ago. Less than two months ago. Well, what even was that kind of weird RNC mini break with all of the Republicans complaining that it actually made it much harder for them? So many Republican strategists told me that in any of these competitive races, they wanted their candidates to stay the heck away.

1:50:09They did not want them there. When I reached out to candidates directly, I either got complete radio silence and then they didn't show up or they told me they were not going and had other things that were happening in their home state. Susan Collins famously didn't go, right? She's one of those people who no one expected to go because she's really been able to walk this weird tightrope with Donald Trump for so long. She's the only Republican who is running in a state that Kamala Harris won in 2020 in the Senate. That looks like a potential pickup for Democrats. That one also, it's way too early to call in Maine.

1:50:45Maine takes a long time to count, right? So Maine feels like it's not going to come in before the end of the week. Is that right? I think that might be a little bit longer. I think it'll come in before the end of the week, typically the end of the night. But I think it'll be the main comes in by the end of the night. I thought they did lots of voting by hand in Maine. And it's also so disparate that it's actually quite hard to do. But perhaps I'm wrong. Well, I think that there'll be a call by certainly by by morning. But one of the things to look at here is the way that Donald Trump imposes himself on an election, on a campaign, on the Republican Party.

1:51:24You know, most presidents, especially at a midterm election, when they know that they are going to be unpopular, I mean, they are going to be a drag. So they step back and let candidates run local elections. It's just a premise of modern politics. Donald Trump does the exact opposite thing. So he's imposed himself wherever he could, 30 rallies in the last month, for instance. and because, A, because he can't stand not to be the center of attention, and B, because he wants to remind everyone it is his Republican Party. Now, the interesting thing is that were he, and he keeps insisting, pretend I am on the ballot, were he actually to be on the ballot, This might have a different result, but he is not on the ballot.

1:52:25But this act of imposing himself on the party makes it so it's all of the negatives and none of the positives. OK, well, we've just got to note the House will flip. It's looking like 230 Democratic seats in the bag and it may go higher. It may go higher. Still waiting on the Senate. Just remember, a House majority is 218 seats. Right, so that's from 12 ahead. This is already shaping up to look like a substantial majority. Okay, so the AP has officially called it for Annie Andrews winning South Carolina. I was just getting a flashback to Donald Trump, the eulogy at Lindsey Graham's funeral. He's standing up there in the pulpit.

1:53:17He's looking down at the coffin and he cannot remember Lindsey Graham's name. Do you remember? And he goes, that man, that man. And then I'm very sympathetic to this. Well, I am too. I am too. But you're not the president. I'm just you are the president of your own house, Michael. I know how important you are. And you're the president of Inside Trump's Head. You're possibly even the CEO of Inside Trump's Head. But you're not the president of the United States. And I think if you're giving a eulogy to someone, you normally remember who you're eulogizing anyway. Except remember how Donald Trump does these things.

1:53:55This is even a eulogy, which ought to be, you know, one should, it's a eulogy for God's sake. He's free associating. Well, it was very clear. He started reading whatever notes they'd written for him and he just went off and he was reading some lines. And Sarah, you might remember it better than me, where he goes, you know, Lindsey Graham was beloved by all. And then he goes, let's. No, he wasn't. No, he wasn't. And then he leans in. And of course, that's what Donald Trump is so good at doing. He's free associating. He's weaving. He's doing the weaving. All of that stuff has traditionally worked for Donald Trump, does work for Donald Trump, except it doesn't work in the face of affordability.

1:54:38the war in Iran, the masked men in the streets and tearing up the White House in Washington, D.C. Yeah. And the board. Yeah. And the board himself such a hole. But I also am just thinking, like, what does this mean for whatever was left, if anything, of Lindsey Graham's legacy? Because Lindsey Graham tied himself so closely to Donald Trump. Once Donald Trump came to power, Lindsey Graham was attached to him at the hip. He was his little sidekick. And now Lindsey Graham's seat, which they tried to put another Graham into, is going to be represented by a Democrat for six full years. And everything that he ran on, and he had his convictions in some ways, specifically when it came to wars, he was an obvious war hawk.

1:55:28But Darlene Graham didn't have any of that background. She was just this hand-plucked Trump candidate. And everything that she vowed to do, which was basically be a marching loyalist to Donald Trump, is gone. That whole entire seat is gone. Lindsey Graham's efforts and legacy in that seat are gone. Well, I'm not sure about that. I think Lindsey Graham becomes a particular historic figure, if you will, who will be remembered for two things. He's a he's a, you know, a neocon, a strict neocon. Pro-Ukraine. And and he's gay. I mean, those are the those are the two things. People are going to remember that about Lindsey Graham.

1:56:17And, you know, usually most senators are totally forgotten. This will be. And he stood up for Ukraine. He stood up for Ukraine. And he was on his. I mean, he. Well, remember, I think. I think it was Trump said Lindsay never saw a war he didn't like. That's right. Yes, exactly right. It's a crazy story that Annie Andrews would win this seat. But as you say, Donald Trump superimposing himself on it. And also, I don't think people like the negative of it. But also these incredibly weak candidates. And even that, that's a Trump thing. These candidates, they're so weak that they'll be elected and they will owe me.

1:56:58and they're so weak that I will be, when they get elected, everyone will say it was just due to me. Now they will say the opposite. I just got a very funny comment saying, if only Mitch McConnell were alive to see this now. Very funny. Sorry, I'm sorry. That's a bad joke, but it's a very funny joke. If only Mitch McConnell were alive to see this now. Let's go over the rundown here and think about how close are we. So the House is gone. How close are we to the Senate going? Well, we have seen that Democrats have flipped North Carolina now and South Carolina. They need four seats to take the majority and to hold on to all the seats, obviously, that they had coming into the evening.

1:57:45They were able to hold on to Georgia, which once upon a time was a top Republican target. But they had a very MAGA, very weak candidate in Mike Collins and a very strong candidate in John Ossoff. So we have two that have flipped so far. And then we have a whole. We've held one. There's another one that needs to be theoretically held, which is Michigan. And we don't know about that. Exactly. Michigan is obviously one of the biggest battlegrounds and the Haley Stevens of it all this week really threw a wrench in there, though I'm not sure how much that's actually going to persuade voters at this stage.

1:58:26And it led to El Syed's largest funding day ever. I think you told me that. Exactly. On November 1st, his largest fundraising day. Sarah, a couple of people are asking in the chat who you are. Sarah is one of our Washington Bureau staff and she's in the office. She's up here. She's a regular commentator, actually, on the Daily Beast podcast. And she she thinks politics all the time. If you cut her in half, which we're not going to do here, but we could do, but we're not going to do. You would find that she bled politics. A lot of numbers, a lot of numbers. And right. I mean, she unlike Donald Trump, unlike Donald Trump, unlike Donald Trump.

1:59:06But South Carolina, and just let me, so South Carolina has never been among the likely Democratic pickups. It was never a part of the path to the majority up until only a few weeks ago when we started to see a few random polls that started to raise questions and Republicans started spending big in the state. Okay. And also just to the fact that South Carolina has gone for the Democrats is an indication. I mean, it really likely, well, we already think that Texas is lost. Okay. We've got another call here. Democrat Zachary Mollock, unfortunate name, has been elected to Congress from New Jersey's second district, unseating not our friend Tom Kane, but unseating four-term Republican, four-term Republican, Jeff Van Drew.

2:00:07Jeff Van Drew is an interesting one because he actually was a Democrat who aligned himself with Donald Trump, became a Republican in his district, and now he's out potentially because of his alignment with Donald Trump, the district also in New Jersey as part of this blue wave. But is he a Bedminster? Was he in the Bedminster? Was that his constituency? He is in that area. I'm not sure specifically the overlap, but yes, that is his region of New Jersey. Right. But he also blindsided his entire team once upon a time when he suddenly became a Republican during Trump's first term. How weird. I wonder if Donald Trump had something on him.

2:00:47Well, bye-bye, Jeff Van Drew. Welcome, Zachary Mollick. Oh, these notes are coming in. It's happened. AP has called it. No. I'm just going to let you read this. I'm going to let you read this. Tom Kane loses a big surprise to no one. Tom Kane, who disappeared for four months, and nobody was allowed to know where he was. almost disappeared. He was still trading stocks. He was still trading stocks. And he made in that time$190 ,000. When Tom Kane was so depressed that he couldn't go to work, his stock account was still working for him and he made$190 ,000. Nice work if you can get it, Tom. And now guess what?

2:01:35You can. You're not shackled by all those rules that congressmen have. You're free to go and earn a living like the rest of us. Is that fair enough? Is that fair enough to Tom Kane? Jesus. I mean, the guy had this look on his face. Well, it looked like he had been given a lot of shock treatment, actually. I can't believe you just said that. So ungenerous. That's so ungenerous. But maybe the shock was he'd made$190 ,000 when not doing anything. I would like a job where I could disappear for four months and no one would notice. You have to run for Congress. I have to run for Congress. Yeah, well, maybe I will.

2:02:19Maybe I will. You'd be good in Congress. No, no, no, no. I can imagine the surgeries. People would come up to you and they'd say, oh, I've got a pothole in my road. I need you to fix it. You would be so unsympathetic. When it comes to him, though, there's one thing I will say, and it is that I feel. When it comes to whom? Tom King. Yeah. The congressman, I feel that the way it was handled was part of the downfall because no one was going to, maybe not no one, it would be a lot harder to question if his staff came out and said anything about why he had disappeared. But they didn't give any indication.

2:02:56And I just remember a quote in The New York Times when a reporter asked, I think it was his chief of staff, what was happening or where he was. And the response was, there are no cameras where Tom is. And it was just this bizarre, vague response. And then after the fact. But there are CCTV cameras in places where people are recuperating from depression. And have they given. You mean the loony bin. I think there is some sympathy. We don't call it that anymore. You know, I'm from New Jersey. And there was. That does not give you license to go places. Loony bin. No, but when I grew up, there was a famous loony bin in New Jersey, which people always talk about.

2:03:42There is a younger generation to us. She's appalled by this. Let me tell you, it was called Greystone Park. And that's what happened to you. Why does that sound familiar? It sounds like a horror movie. Greystone Park. Yeah. With Liam Neeson. I don't know. Running against some brick wall at the end of it. Or I guess a Greystone wall. And people always used to say when they used to, they would whisper. Oh. he's been sent to Greystone. Oh, interesting. Well, we don't know if that's where Tom Kane went, but wherever he went, he paid the bills handsomely. And we're saying things that should not be said, but it is, you know, we are in our third hour.

2:04:20We're in our third hour, and it's a bloodbath out there for the Republicans. I think I can say that. Well, we don't know about the Senate yet. The Senate may be much closer than we're anticipating. But right now, I mean, it is certainly trending. I mean, the Senate is... Elon hasn't tweeted in six hours. I wonder why he lives to tweet. That's from someone called Ox789. Oh, Johnny Hands is saying, Michael, the criticism of you, it's saying Michael is talking over people again. I thought he was getting better at that. Maybe not. To be fair, it's our third hour, but we're having fun. We're going to keep going.

2:04:59um yeah i hope mitch mcconnell is lucid enough to see and understand everything that's happening tonight i think we know that's not true no i think it is true and i and i think and i think he's secretly delighted oh interesting i mean among the people who really hate donald trump really hate donald trump is mitch mcconnell so this is mitch's revenge maybe mitch seizes the party back. No. That seems unlikely. That does seem unlikely. But we've got a very funny comment here from Pocket Marmo. Darlene Graham sadly will not get an opportunity to demonstrate her enormous oh no, it's gone off. We've got so many comments coming in.

2:05:45I couldn't finish reading it. No, I'm sorry about that. They're just whisking past. We've got 14 ,000 people commenting. This is insane and it's very difficult to, okay, we've got a question here, Michael. It's very difficult to keep on top of it all. Who will get blamed if things go south? Now, I think we should change that to who will get blamed now things are going south? James Blair, low propensity voters, Susie Wild. What's Susie Wild's doing tonight? She's just trying to hold it together. I mean, And she's she's so she will be in the map room and she will be overseeing things, which she's good at.

2:06:28I mean, that's what you know, and she's keeping the information flowing and she's the person who who has to decide what what bad news is brought upstairs and how will that bad news be couched. So she's right in the middle of this. She's the handler, essentially the handler of Donald Trump's moods. OK, we have another question here. Yes, she will be blamed. Everybody's going to be blamed. We can start there. Everybody will be blamed. Susie Wiles, the first female chief of staff in the White House and who's been with Donald Trump since the beginning of the second administration. So lasted a lot longer than she's been with him from the from 2022.

2:07:12So through the 2024 campaign. Okay, through the 2024 campaign. Will she go? She will go. Okay, you've predicted that she will go. She will go. I mean, you know, pretty much, I mean, what will happen now is Donald Trump will focus his anger on the election. It's a steal, it's a this, it's a that, all of that stuff. And so the people around him will cleave between those who are kind of like, well, you know, maybe not quite the steel, and then those who are all on board. So the Rudy Giuliani types, and then they will be the people who will survive, and the others who express some kind of modicum of realism will go.

2:08:08Do you think that people have just had enough of the idea of him stealing it? Do we think, I mean, I know it's early to tell, but do we think it's going to be so decisive, and certainly the early returns are looking like this, that it will be that he can't claim it was rigged? Well, I think he will claim it's rigged anyway. But will he get the following like he did last time? Will he be able to? Well, remember, he didn't get the following the last time in 2020. No one followed him. And he was roundly rejected by almost all of the congressional leaders. And everybody was like, oh. and when he left Washington, you know, he left, I remember that little band of people who saw him off from Andrews Air Force Base, and it was into ignominy.

2:09:06And one of the continuing stories, one of the great political reversals of all time is how he came back from that. Yeah, an amazing comeback. And the reason he came back from that is that the Republican Party came to understand that he still held on to the great base. 40 % of the American people were perfectly willing to go along with this idea of the steal. They were 40 % at least did not want to get rid of Donald Trump. I think part of it also that's interesting in seeing Georgia be called so early is that that was the epicenter of his lies about the 2020 election. And that is where he challenged it, obviously, and got in a ton of trouble legally for challenging it.

2:10:02And he continued just recently on the campaign trail to repeat those lies about the 2020 election and specifically claimed that Senator Ossoff did not win when he won in 2020. And now we're seeing not only has Ossoff won another term, but he's winning by a larger margin and Trump's candidate lost by an even greater margin. So it in some ways makes the other hand, he carried Georgia in 2024. Exactly. But it makes me question whether his continued lies have actually in this situation where he's not specifically on the ballot further backfired with driving more Democrats to the polls and making them potentially be just.

2:10:45Yes, just driving the enthusiasm in a way that they were like, we're not going to have this be a part of the conversation moving forward. Obviously, he'll continue, as you mentioned, to make it a part of the conversation. But it kind of takes away from any kind of, I guess, drive amongst anyone else. But again, one of the great sort of modern conversations that was taped is a great modern political conversation that was taped is Donald Trump calling the Georgian election committee with Brad Raffensperger and saying, I need 11 ,000 more votes. and everybody sitting quietly as he just rambles on and on and on and on in his Trumpian way.

2:11:29And then Brad Raffensperger says to him, finally, someone has to break the silence, break the weave. And he says, well, the challenge you've got, Mr. President, is that the data is wrong. And Trump starts going off again. And then you see that, in fact, Georgia was forced to completely overhaul or not overhaul. That's not the right word. But they were just so determined and to show that there was nothing wrong with their election process. They cleaned it top to bottom. This is absolutely true. But the problem is that then he was reelected. So that was, you know, while that should have been a kind of...

2:12:06Well, America reelected him. I mean, America, I mean... Georgia reelected everyone. So right now, I think that's a mistake to look at that as having any bearing. What has bearing on it now is affordability. the war in Iran, tariffs, the men in the streets, the incompetence around him. So we don't have to go back in time. It is all very present. And Donald Trump lives in the world of the present. Okay. So Robert Garcia has just tweeted out, lawyer up. Robert Garcia is? Ranking member of the oversight committee. Okay. Ranking member of the oversight committee, lawyer up. That's a pretty good line.

2:12:52He has been the driving Democrat leading the charge specifically when it comes to the Epstein files. Right. He is also dealing with a lot of the corruption allegations. And obviously they have been in the minority for the past two years. But he has been saying for some time that he has a list of things he would like to do should Democrats return to the majority in the House. And so that is one of multiple committees that I think will be obviously jumping in between him on the oversight committee, the House Judiciary Committee. Then we have all the committees that focus on the foreign wars. It's just going to be an avalanche.

2:13:39And I don't know. In some ways, I have Democratic lawmakers, when you ask them, where do you even start? and some of them like, well, we're not going to give you a preview. And other ones are like, we have to figure that out for ourselves now. Like we're still trying to determine where do we start? Cause there are so many. And let's, let's remember what the Democrats do is that they turn Donald Trump into what he's really good at being the victim. Yep. So this is a cautionary moment for Democrats who have not over 10 years have not know how to handle this guy. Okay, we've now got 15 ,000 people on messaging us.

2:14:20Okay, these messages are going super fast. So I'm sorry, I'm reading half of them. We've got Australia's woken up now. So Australia is, or perhaps they've always been awake. Has Australia always been awake? I think they were because we started probably eight in the morning in Australia. Anyway, Australia, you're welcome. Much going on. Someone's asking here. Oh, this is hippie artist who is a regular correspondent with us. What will the Supreme Court do now that Donnie is a lame duck? Will they still always go on Donnie's side? I like the informality there, hippie artist of Donnie, trivializing the president of the US.

2:15:01No, I mean, I think that even the Supreme Court will be less afraid. I think they have been afraid of Donald Trump. They have been afraid for what he might do if provoked, what extremes he might take this to, what chance there might be that he would defy them. And they will be less afraid at this point. Okay, I've just passed our producer a note saying, I need a phone charger. I'm trying to get questions on my phone, but my phone is blowing up because there's so much action going on. And here we have a phone charger. So it's all good. I'm going to be able to keep on reading your questions. We have another one here, which is, does any of this matter?

2:15:53Consider January the 3rd seating and veto powers. That's from William 3441. That's your second question, William. Didn't I answer that question already? No, I don't think so. Does any of this matter? Yes, seating powers. Yes. You mean does the election matter because he's going to reverse this or not see Congress? As I said before, one of the drawbacks of that is that then Congress would not be seated and the existing Republicans in Congress would not be paid. So I would submit that getting paid and getting your staff paid and having your office cleaned is more important even than loyalty to Donald Trump.

2:16:40Is that true? More important than loyalty to Donald Trump. A man who demands it but has no idea of it. So someone else is asking, is tonight worse for Donald Trump than the 2018 midterms? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, remember, they held the Senate in 2018. Now, there was never much question that they were going to hold the Senate, but they did. In fact, they gained two seats in 2018. So this will be potentially much worse. Okay. So we've got some questions going on here, too. Is Bolsonaro being sent back? Does Bolsonaro go back to Brazil? Does anybody know? I don't think so. That's a great question.

2:17:23Is he in Miami still? Yeah. Okay, he's in Miami. Someone here, Barbie Girl, saying congrats to Annie Andrews. You've talked to Annie Andrews, haven't you, Sarah? You've spent quite a lot of time talking to her. I have spoken to her, and it is interesting because something you have brought up multiple times, Michael, is the issues that are in play in this specific election. We talk about the war. We talk about affordability. It's things outside of Donald Trump. Donald Trump isn't getting the narrative he wants on these specific issues. And something that has been interesting is Annie Andrews, despite everything that was thrown at her, did stay on message no matter what you threw at her.

2:18:07She was focused on affordability, bringing down the costs of fuel, bringing down the costs of food. She talked about bringing down the cost of health care. And she had a lot of attacks, including Donald Trump calling her tranny Annie repeatedly on Truth Social. And she kind of acknowledged it in some ways, but then she would go right back to just hammering home her specific focus. And that was on helping constituents in South Carolina. And I think that was one thing that also was perhaps some of the challenge for Darlene Graham, because she did spend a lot of time talking specifically about culture war issues and falling for that line of attack.

2:18:52And Annie Andrews really brushed it off, got back up and just kept going. And I think that is something that when I when I spoke with her on the phone, I would ask her about how how she felt about the attacks, the nastiness of it all. And she would just basically pause and then go back to talking about, listen, this is what I'm hearing from people in my state. And so she really just had a narrowly focused, targeted approach to running in South Carolina. She never deviated from her messaging. And she also remained confident because there was a lot of questions about whether a Democrat could win in South Carolina.

2:19:36Because when we look back six years ago, there was a huge wave of fundraising for Jamie Harrison, who was the Democratic nominee then. And people got their hopes up and they were super excited about this guy. And then he was soundly defeated by Senator Lindsey Graham. And so you'd ask Annie Andrews, like, listen, what's changed about the race this go round? And it was really hard to tell. And she told me, she's like, everything has changed. Everything has changed. And then she went right back to talking about the challenges people in South Carolina are facing right now on the ground. And so I think she really stuck to her guns.

2:20:16And well, she's the senator-elect tonight. So So she was spot on with that. Okay, I'm just going to remind people, please, please subscribe to the Daily Beast podcast. Leave us your comments, subscribe, share the link with your friends, become a Bee Beast member or become a friend of the Beast where you get exclusive content. I have a question for Michael. Michael, where is Melania tonight? Is she watching with him? She's not watching with him, is she? No, she's not watching with him. unless she has slipped in. They've brought her in the back. So I don't know. The interesting thing is, did she vote?

2:21:01She has not seemed to have returned to Florida to vote, which is where she has to vote because that's where she's registered to vote, although that is not where she lives. So I would imagine she has either filed an absentee ballot or not voted at all. So when do you think we're going to see the second half of the Epstein files released? That's been a cloud that's hung over Donald Trump the entire of his second administration. um well let me tell i mean i think that there's there's somewhat of a misunderstanding about what what is what what does the second half of the epstein files consist of the second half of the epstein files mostly consists of communications with his lawyers of which there were 75 Okay, I'm going to interrupt you because Donald Trump has just truth socialed.

2:22:03I wasn't on the ballot. And if I was, we would have won in a landslide. Thank you for your attention to this matter, President Donald J. Trump. So he will blame the, he's now going to blame the Republicans. He will blame the election system. He will blame Democrats and he will blame Republicans. He is also going to start to blame his own staff. Of course he is. So are they just, is he shouting at them now, do you think? Did Natalie Hart just put that out? How is Natalie Hart maintaining the information that he gets? Does he know by now? What do you mean maintaining the information? Well, she controls information in, right?

2:22:42Doesn't she? Human printer. Yeah. Well, I mean, right now the information is going to be coming up from the map room. It's going to be coming up from his political people. So he will know by now. going to be she's really controlling information out rather than information in okay so who do you think has delivered the news that his candidate darlene graham in south carolina has lost in her bid for the senate yeah probably suzy wiles and how do you and then he probably will well they They probably, they probably, they, they would have known this a little earlier. And they, they would have had a pretty good, I mean, their, their, their political group is, is pretty good.

2:23:33They're going to know what's going to, they, they have known what's going to happen here earlier than certainly we know, or the networks know, or the news media know, or even the Democrats know. Okay. So they would have tried to prepare him for this. Now, whether they succeed that, I mean, you can never quite appreciate what he might know, or let's say what he might be willing to know. Okay, what he might be willing to know. And does Susie Wiles call him Mr. President? Of course, everybody calls him Mr. President. The only person who doesn't call him Mr. President, and it's jarring to everyone, is Jared.

2:24:20And what does Jared call him? Donald. Donald. Oh, interesting. But everybody calls the president Mr. President. Okay. Well, I wasn't sure. So how would they say to him, Mr. President, Darlene is not doing so well tonight?

2:24:40They would have said earlier in the evening that the exit polls are showing it's a tight race. They would have kept saying it's a tight race. It's a tight race. Okay. Okay. Is Pete Hegseth breaking out the vodka tonight? Is he thinking I'm about to be fired? Because Donald Trump has said publicly, hasn't he, that Pete Hegseth was very pro the war. I mean, he's sort of blamed, he's proactively blamed Hegseth. I think everybody is up for grabs right now. um pete could go any anybody could go and it's kind of random who who will he focus on and there's no there's no necessarily no rhyme nor reason for that um and they will try to double down pete will try to double down rfk will try to double down on their expressions of their absolute loyalty and fealty and they will suck up to the extent that they can.

2:26:07When it comes to the cabinet members, if he doesn't fire them, there's obviously been a lot of talk specifically among Democrats on who they would impeach first. And I'm very curious on your thoughts on how Donald Trump navigates his cabinet members being impeached? Does that mean he'll double down or will he just let them go sooner? No, he'll double down. No, I mean, again, you know, going to war, conflict is good for Donald Trump. Conflict is good for Donald Trump. He loves conflict. He wants to be in a state of conflict. Yeah. I mean, conflict puts the attention on him. he's better at it than the democrats um uh you know that's what i mean he will now pivot to this new conflict this gives him he'll he'll give him a new lease of life yeah he will rise to this occasion so the democrats will go uh they won't know what hit them again i mean one of the things that we should bet on here is predictability.

2:27:15Does he think he was on the ballot? Does he have a sort of sense that these rallies actually - No, no, he's very good at this. I mean, he is, because he lives inside of his own world and believes that he is, I mean, he believes now, absolutely. If I were on the ballot, all of these other people, these pygmies, they don't know how to do this. They don't know how to run. Republicans are weak. I am strong. Okay. So, Sarah, Florida is staying as far as we can see Republican. Who are the Democratic candidates you are excited about for the next couple of hours? Where are the next races? Where are we going to see some results?

2:28:04Sure. I'm just going to point out Florida staying red statewide. But some of those House races, they tried to gerrymander the state. And it's come back to bite Donald Trump because Democrats were able to hold on to the seats that they tried to redistrict to help Republicans. So that's who are those seats? What? Castor is one of them. It's the ninth district, the Florida 22nd district, the Florida 24th district. So at least three seats that they tried to rewrite to help Republicans. Democrats managed to hold on to them. Jared Moskowitz is another one. And so those are specifically Florida. So even there, things are looking a little more purple than we had anticipated.

2:28:46But looking ahead at what I'm most excited about, obviously, we've talked, Ignatian, about Texas. I just can't imagine this state going blue, but it obviously very well could tonight. And that's both Tallarico, but also Governor Greg Abbott is looking like he could be in trouble in Texas, too. The Republican governor, he's trailing right now. So that's Gina Hineroso. Do we have numbers on there? What is our... So right now, I mean, not called, but James Tallarico is leading 58 % to 40 % with 61 % of the vote in. And so that's 18 point lead on Ken Paxton in Texas. And is that because they count the cities first, so the rural areas are more likely?

2:29:36There was a very good, strong early vote from the Hispanic community, especially in the Rio Grande, right? The early vote among Hispanics was record-breaking, according to people who were crunching the numbers that I spoke to. Across the board, there were more than 700 ,000 people who voted specifically. in the Texas race that hadn't voted in 2024. So they expect those are a lot of younger voters, Hispanic voters. So a mix that is obviously helpful to the Democratic coalition in Texas. And so people who are looking at that early data were really excited. But we still have a lot coming in across the entire state there.

2:30:17And so Texas is one that had been looking at the numbers, Very likely Democrat is the way it's being categorized at this moment, which is something that would just completely blow up the map going forward. If Democrats can win Texas in the midterms, then they're going to be competitive in the presidential cycle, potentially in 2028 there, or at least we'll put more focus and money into it in 2028. So that really could change the entire political landscape going forward. Do we have an update on Ohio? Well, we do. But before we do, we have an update from Laura Looma, our friend, Laura Looma. OK, Laura Looma, get ready.

2:31:02She's made a statement. I hate to say it, but America is over. America is over, people. The communists and the jihadists are going to open our borders and replace our votes with votes from illegal aliens. We now have reps who openly speak about their hatred of America, their love of communism and their support for Sharia law. We won't be able to undo the damage they cause on our country come 2028. America 250 was a funeral. The American dream. I will just ask why we are even quoting this wacko. For humor, Michael, for humor, because we are here until. Well, who knows? We are here until we get victory in Texas, I hope.

2:31:46And, oh, big news. I'm going to let you read this. Big, big news. Fantastic news. Whoa. Whoa. So we could just go whoa and not tell people. I was literally just about to look at that one. I was like, I want to know what's happening. Yeah, okay, come on. Read it out. Vivek Ramaswamy has gone down. Vivek Ramaswamy has gone down. Another billionaire bites the dust. It's the anti-billionaire election, isn't it? I think it was more than just him being a billionaire in this case. Yeah, no, it's being an asshole. Can we call Amy Acton's mother and ask her what she thinks? Do you have a number for Amy Acton's mom?

2:32:29Good for Amy Acton. Good for Amy Acton for running a good campaign and Vivek Ramaswamy literally imploding on the stock. So that was my question about Ohio. Do we have an update on Ohio? Now, do we have an update on the Senate race in Ohio? That's what I was looking at because I had Sherrod Brown is still leading, but this one's looking particularly tight. 84 % of the vote are in. Sherrod Brown is currently at 48.4%. John Husted is at 46.7%, so less than a two-point race there. But, I mean, it's obviously a Democrat in the lead there despite his anatomy of trying to do that. Right. I mean, I thought John Husted's ass should have just run on its own without John Husted.

2:33:21It might have done better. We're both, Sarah, in our predictions, Michael and I both predicted that Sherrod Brown is going to win. I'm ahead. I'm ahead. I would just like to point out, despite some commentators saying that all my predictions were wrong. Not entirely true. I was right about Annie Andrews in South Carolina. I think if Trump had chosen a man in South Carolina, I think they might have been more likely to win over Darlene. But Darlene was a uniquely weak candidate and sad for her because awful that her brother, you know, literally collapsed and died unexpectedly. A horrible thing. And he was a protector to her because their parents died when she was young.

2:34:06But she was a terrible candidate. Well, that was one of the interesting ones because Ralph Norman also, while he gave a very kind of weak endorsement of her, not really an endorsement at all, his family members were actively promoting a write-in campaign for him. I mean, I don't know what the final breakdown of those numbers are, but that does show that some conservatives like were not sold on Darlene Graham also. And at the Daily Beast, we literally reported on how in the past she had donated to a state senator who was, while not completely pro-choice, had blocked the total abortion ban in South Carolina, which also raised questions with more conservatives in the state.

2:34:48So she was facing challenges from both sides, obviously Democrats, those who were against the fact that she was just Lindsey Graham's sister and had no background and never run for public office before and never served in elected office. And then conservatives who were also questioning her credentials because she had no proven track record and had a few red flags in her past just in terms of the donations. so a conservative who ran maybe would have done better um had ralph norman won the runoff potentially could have won the the general election um but we did see a woman that donald trump endorsed in the governor's race lose the the primary to alan wilson the attorney general and then that was the bet right yes yeah and this was where donald trump then in fact endorsed Both candidates.

2:35:37But let's be clear on what her biggest handicap was, which is Donald Trump. Donald Trump. So let's just have a look. Do we have any news about the DSA candidates, Sarah? You know, I'll be honest, I have not been really paying attention to them. The states where I do know that they had run, they were in pretty much safe blue seats, but there weren't as many of them as had been actively promoted by Republicans. Obviously, Republicans wanted to run against Democratic socialists, who they thought would help them with moderates and independent voters. Donald Trump repeatedly attacked Democrats across the board as socialists.

2:36:20But the districts they were running in, their New York City specific districts, those were already safe blue. So we'll expect them to be elected tonight, even if those races aren't called um one of course in colorado also a safe blue seat is that milak kiros so we're basically going to go from two um self-proclaimed democratic socialists who are already in congress to a little more than a handful in total um between seven and nine i believe is is the the number that could be locked in i just don't have the who's actually been called officially at this stage. We've got a list down here. We've got AOC, who's obviously one of the two, the incumbent, Rashid Tlaib for Michigan, 12.

2:37:05Then we've got Chris Raab, Donovan McKinney, Milat Kiyos in Colorado, Angela Gonzalez-Torres, Daryliza Avila-Chevalier, the big friend of Zoran Mamdani, Claire Valdez in New York, New York 7, Mia Vang, California 7, and Lauren Jewett in L.A., Louisiana, Louisiana 1. But we don't have particular results. No, we don't have results yet. So definitely a larger contingent. Interesting races. Definitely a larger group joining the House. And it'll be interesting to see, with Hakeem Jeffries likely to become the next speaker, how he handles them. I think it really depends on how big a House majority Democrats get, because if they're looking at 130-plus seats, these handful of democratic socialists will be irrelevant in some ways going forward in terms of him getting the support he needs to pass legislation.

2:38:02And so it does come down to what are the final numbers? And the numbers are looking big for Democrats. So he might just be able to, frankly, write them off in some ways. They'll make a lot of noise, obviously, but they won't actually have the political sway. To actually form a caucus and really influence votes. We've got a comment tonight from Meghan McCain. Regardless of who wins tonight, Darlene Graham never had any business running for Senate. Neepo, baby, isn't something that's popular anywhere, let alone Neepo sister. Neepo or Nepo? Or is it Nepo? You say Nepo, I say Nepo. Let's just get an update on the Senate races, because I think that's what everyone is on the edge of their seats about.

2:38:49So Georgia, the Democrat. Ossoff. Ossoff is returned. North Carolina, Cooper has won. The seat has flipped. Yes. In New Hampshire, the Democrat has returned. Chris Papas. So the other Michigan is the other race in which a Democrat, there might be a flip. The seat is now held by a Democrat. And that's the race between El Syed and Mike Rogers. So we still don't know about this. Texas, we think, is looking very positive for the Democrat. And that would be the first time that Texas has turned Democrat for how long? Well, the Senate since, I believe, 1988 and statewide since 1994. Wow. Ohio is still in the balance, the Democrat ahead, but in the balance.

2:40:00and Sherrod Brown familiar to people in Ohio because he was a senator there before he then got knocked out two years ago and now he's back South Carolina we now know is has is is a flip to the Democrats to Annie Andrews the pediatrician Nebraska did we have news on on Nebraska that the we had news earlier in the night, not called, but the independent is ahead. So, and that's pretty much, so the Democrats have now gained one seat, two seats, Texas may be on the verge of three seats and um and having held all of the seats that they need to held save for Michigan which still which uh we don't have results yet I would just also note we haven't mentioned Kansas Kansas is another one that I'm obsessed called yet yes I'm obsessed by Democrat Adam Hamilton is very much ahead with 89 % of the vote in.

2:41:23And that is a very interesting. How much? So he has 53 % right now to Roger Marshall, 44%. That is the last state where Donald Trump held a rally and over the weekend. And this is one where Roger Marshall obviously was. Okay. Okay. I'm going to interrupt you. This is the big news. This is the news of the fucking night. Can I use the F word? Texas Senate called for James Tallarico.

2:41:54We had him on the podcast six months ago and he was delightful and he was exhausted. He was exhausted. We interviewed him late at night. It was, I think, 1130 my time, 830 his time, which is late in Texas. I think he'd just come back from a fundraiser. Texas Senate has been called for James Tallarico. So those are the two races, South Carolina and Texas, which I have marked as the two races that would that would wound Trump the most. I have chills right now. I have chills about James Tallarico. That is incredible. So right now they've flipped three seats so far. If Democrats are able to hold on to the seats they have, we're still raising questions about what will happen in Michigan.

2:42:41But if they hold the seats, we now currently would have a 50-50 split Senate, which means Democrats need just one more seat to have the majority. So South Carolina, Texas, North Carolina are seats that have been flipped. They need one more and they need to hold Michigan or they need two more. Yes. Or they need to flip another combination. And Kansas, you think, is close. It's looking good for Democrats right now. I love that candidate. Adam Hamilton, he's a fantastic candidate. Like James Tallarico, talks a lot about God. His faith is clearly. So we may have four. We're looking at four seats now.

2:43:24And it could, I mean, we haven't called Ohio. I mean, we haven't called Iowa, which were both on the Democrats list of targets. obviously we have this main uh seat that is held by susan collins and she's a republican trying to hold on and nebraska might might might go to the independent who would call us with the democrats in the details guys guys james tallarico was just taken texas hello elon elon i'm sorry you've wasted so much money not able to buy your own paxtonian senate candidate in this is huge yeah We're circling back to vote against Trump. It's a vote against Elon Musk. Remember Elon Musk and Doge?

2:44:11Remember basically Donald Trump handing Elon Musk the keys to government? Remember him demanding that public servants wrote five things that they'd done that week to prove that their jobs were worthwhile? Well, I hate to tell you that this is that Elon is back. His$450 million is going to buy him back into the White House. You think he is? Yes. Okay. Tallarico is currently at 20 % margin over Paxton. 20%. You know who's victory dancing? John Cornyn. John Cornyn. Although, didn't Trump go against John Cornyn because John Cornyn had been criticizing him? Barely. Barely criticizing him. I mean, he voted for every one of his nominees.

2:44:59He voted for all of his legislation. Obviously, he did all of this more recently, knowing he was up for reelection and needed the MAGA vote, especially in that primary. Right. Of course, he started fawning over Donald Trump, didn't he? He had a brief moment of criticism and then he started fawning. Michael, do you need some more chocolate? No, I'm just looking at this. Oh, my God. Again, he's into the details. He's into the details. it's it's james talarico people are going nuts there's someone shouting here from france that they've just opened a huge magnum of champagne this is very exciting people globally are thrilled this is texas moment this is uh this is an earthquake i mean an earthquake's an understatement in in texas right now the 20 percent margin whether they've been well i mean i i just want to the earthquake is taking the senate so i am like well we're almost there though i mean if If Tallarico and Tallarico is being called now, right, it's being called now.

2:45:59It's still early in the evening. This is a very good sign for the Democrats winning the Senate. It's a very good sign. It's a very good sign. Tallafrico. Tallafrico. And how brilliant was it? I mean, the interesting thing is the candidates learned this time around how to take Trump's absurd nicknames for them and use them themselves. He turned it around. He was selling T-shirts saying Tallafrico. and none of Trump's nicknames for people this time around stuck not like Sleepy Joe not like Crooked Hillary the first time they were so shocking people couldn't quite get their heads around it but this time people are on to him well this was one of the ones where I feel like Democrats who in many ways still struggle terribly when it comes to how to handle Donald Trump The candidates didn't actually focus so much on Donald Trump.

2:46:50Obviously, he is the president and people were voting in many ways against the president. But their messaging still remained very focused on the kitchen table issues. And Democrats are always talking about how we need to focus on the kitchen table issues. But here they actually had the gas prices and the food costs in front of them and could actually point to these things directly in many ways. And Tallarico, in his response, in many ways, was something that was a challenge for Republicans because he was asked at one point about Ken Paxton and he called him a child of God. And he continued to go with his messaging and talking about his faith in a way that I think Republicans really struggled to actually combat and turn against him.

2:47:44And so it was a different set of candidates this go around than candidates in the past. I'm going to disagree with this. I think all of these people could have stayed home that they had, you know, that the issue was Donald Trump again and again and again and again. that they were running against. They didn't even have to run against him. Donald Trump was running against himself. But even in Texas, though, with Calarico? Hold on, hold on. Anybody? So Abbott is delivering his concession speech, apparently. Yep. How do I pronounce her name? Gina Hinojosa? Gina Hinojosa. Gina Hinojosa has won governorship of Texas.

2:48:24In a way that's even more remarkable. Isn't it? I mean, Greg.

2:48:33Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia and Gene Hinojosa in Texas. Amazing. And Steve Hilton, our mutual connection. You're going to tell me Steve Hilton has won. No, Steve Hilton has lost. Steve Hilton has lost.

2:48:51Our producer's just given us a notice saying, sorry, Joanna and Michael, Steve Hilton lost. Well, that means there'll be more time to hang out and have dinner. No, he's a very good hang, Steve Hilton. And he did an interesting campaign. But in the end, Javier Becerra won because he was a Democrat.

2:49:13Imagine being in Texas tonight. I mean, that's crazy. People are probably losing their minds. Losing their minds. It's going to be, Austin will be on fire, people. Austin will be on fire. This is just blowing up. The live chat blowing up 15 ,000 people in the live chat. Everybody hysterical. But don't let the door hit you where God split you. I don't quite know what that means. But this is really, you're right about Elon. Elon's given$450 million to the Republicans. What does he want back? He wants contracts for SpaceX, for Tesla, for Starlink. What else is he going to want? He's going to want more babies.

2:49:54Are Republican women going to be forced to give him babies? He just wants to be Elon. He wants to be the second most powerful person in the country. And he will be, I think he'll be back. I mean, who does Donald Trump have at this point? Does this make the Republicans less attractive to Elon, however, because they are losers? I understand why before he wanted to ally himself with Trump, because it was an incredible comeback. but now it's an incredible demise. And as you've always said, the thing about Donald Trump that makes him so fascinating is he very clearly has the seeds of his own demise.

2:50:35I think Elon just, well, I think at this point you take what you got and he's got two years left from Donald Trump. And remember, then he'll have J.D. Vance. So he's now going to position himself. Who does he support? Does J.D. Vance have a promising future, though, based on what we're seeing tonight? Well, I've always said that nobody has a promising future who hopes to succeed Donald Trump, that he will undermine whoever might have the temerity to think they can replace him. And Donald Trump, the one thing Donald Trump cannot have is another Republican as president because he becomes irrelevant then.

2:51:23If a Democrat becomes president, Donald Trump returns to Mar-a-Lago still as the head of the Republican Party. And we go through this whole thing that we've done this before. All of the Republicans will have to come to Mar-a-Lago, pay homage to him. They will be looking for his endorsements. And he will remain Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago will be a White House in exile supported by the billions of dollars he has raised from corporate America. We're going to go to a break in a moment. But before we do, quick question for you, Michael. What does this mean for Jared Kushner and Steve golfing buddy Wyckoff?

2:52:10um i i think that makes them all the more important to donald trump having to bring in what he has to do is is is is he has to have some accomplishments he has to bring in peace as he said he would overnight well it's two years later but but um there's still wars in Ukraine and in Gaza and in Iran. Okay, we're going to cut to a break. Don't go away. Use this as a chance to nip to the bathroom, put on your kettle, open your champagne bottle, uncork that Chateaubriand that you've been keeping for a special occasion, and a quick toast to Annie Andrews in South Carolina who's beaten Darlene Graham for the Senate And James Tallarico in Texas, two incredible upsets that no one, I think even two months ago, could have expected to actually, what are the words?

2:53:14Well, people didn't expect them to win. And Elon, I'm sorry you've lost all that money in Texas. But as Michael says, you're going to be hustling for contracts while Donald Trump is in office. Okay, we'll be back in five minutes. Don't go away. We'll be back. And leave us your comments. And don't forget to subscribe to The Daily Beast. Joanna. Michael. You. Done a quick swap. I'm not Sarah. I'm not Sarah Yule-Weiss. Big thanks to Sarah Yule-Weiss for giving us some proper numbers and background there. We've now got Hughie, Hugh Doherty, our executive editor, coming in to give us some light relief.

2:53:57And what do you bring to the party? Very little, if I'm honest. A Scottish accent. Scottish accent. I'm Scottish, if anybody's wondering. I'll tell you what I'll bring, actually, is first of all the ability to hit my microphone. Oops. I'll tell you what I'll bring. We finally have some words from Donald J. Trump. He has picked up the phone to the New York Times and he has kind of incoherently said that he will accept these election results is his word any good no no his word is not and it's just is uh okay let's michael paint a picture what's going on in the white house right now the map room well i think there's the map room the residents upstairs and the east room and i think i understand that he has gone down to the east room yes the east room is filled with donors and congressional leaders, Republicans, of course, everybody here, and worthies, Trump circle worthies, and they are being served some sort of food, and hot dogs and hamburgers.

2:55:11Actually, we know that the food was from the Cheesecake Factory. Is this true? This is true. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. and he is then you know sort of pressing the flesh and beginning he's now looking for a narrative so he's looking to for who to blame I mean he has to blame somebody he cannot take this on himself so he has to deflect this well he's already said that if only he'd been on the ballot he would have won. It would have won in a landslide, but he wasn't on the ballot. Thank you for your attention, President Donald J. Trump. I made a mistake earlier. I said people should be opening their Chateau Briand.

2:56:02That, of course, several people have pointed out, thank you, and then Michael pointed out too, is in fact a beef dish. What I meant is your Chateau Haut Briand. Open it, whatever your wine is, even if it's the sweetest Riesling, and I like dry Riesling, open it, and enjoy it tonight. We'll celebrate James Tallarico, an incredible campaign, an incredible campaign by Keisha Lance Bottoms and an incredible campaign by Annie Andrews up against Lindsey Graham's sister in South Carolina. Okay, it's 11.23 in New York, on the East Coast. The House is gone from the Republicans and to the Democrats. The majority looks like it will be substantial.

2:56:51So that leaves the Senate hanging. And the balance now looks like there are three seats that have been flipped. The Democrats have to hold on to their seats, and they have held on to all of them, save Michigan. So we don't know that yet. There are three seats, three Senate seats that have flipped. One more, Kansas, that looks like it will go to the Democrats. That would be four. So if they hold all of their seats, that would include Michigan, and Kansas goes to the Democrats, that would give the Democrats control of the Senate. Okay, just remind people who are joining us now who may have been out or doing something else altogether there.

2:57:45What else is there really? Which are the three Senate seats that the Democrats have flipped from Republicans? that would be South Carolina, North Carolina, and Texas. With, as I say, Kansas looking like it will go any minute. We're waiting for that. And it also looks like Iowa will go. Now, if Iowa goes, hold on, if Iowa goes, it doesn't matter about Michigan. That will give the um democrats majority control of of and it doesn't matter about maine and it doesn't matter about alaska but it's possible that they might get both of those yes and i think just to go back to your wine joanna um there's a few states that we could be drinking from tonight uh we're all on water and tea and coffee but um it's through adam hamilton has won kansas the first time hold on let's just remind people how historic this is.

2:58:48My favourite fact. Yes, go on. The last time, the last time a Democrat was voted into the Senate from Kansas, 1932. 1932. There is nobody alive who voted in Kansas in that election. There's one person alive in the United States who could have voted in that election. It's, I mean, this is Bob Dole. Bob Dole's no longer alive. Bob Dole was the person. Well, Bob Dole was there that time. But it's a lady living in Pennsylvania. That's right. Bob Dole is not alive. I mean, I don't know. I mean, look at the president. I mean, why not bring him back? But can I just make that terrible Mitch McConnell joke again?

2:59:30If only Mitch McConnell were alive to see this now. Although Michael's prediction is that Mitch McConnell is absolutely thrilled that this marks the end of Trump's stranglehold on the party. OK, let's just get to it. we have now flipped four seats. So if we, all that is required is to hold Michigan or to flip one more. That's how close the Democrats are to taking the Senate. Yes, that is right. That's it. So yeah, so look, they flipped Ohio, huge, deep red state. They flipped Kansas. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Have they flipped Ohio? Oh, sorry. No, we haven't got Ohio yet. That's Sherrod Brown.

3:00:20We have Ohio. When you took a break. What? How could you do this? Sherrod Brown. Sherrod Brown. Oh, then we have the Senate. In fact, I was about to say, we now have the Senate. We have the Senate. We have the Senate. The Democrats have the Senate. The Democrats have the Senate. We have the Senate result. The Democrats have the Senate. Oh, my God. Okay, okay. Oh, my God. Our predictions are looking better and better, Michael. Our predictions are looking better, though. I was wrong in Texas. I'm trying to mark your work here, Joy. Oh, my God. My work's okay. Annie Andrews. I was right about Annie Andrews.

3:00:49I was right about Sherrod Brown. Wrong about Paxton. Oh, and Marshall. I was wrong about Marshall. Marshall, the guy, the doctor who sued the pregnant ladies. I flickably thought he was going to win. I think we're about to get Iowa as well. Oh, my goodness. This is all crazy. And we were both going to be wrong about Iowa. This is amazing. I mean, so the Democrats have the Senate. The Democrats have the Senate. Do you realize how do we do? We can officially announce that. We can officially realize how amazing this is up until, you know, not that long ago. It was inconceivable that the Democrats would take the Senate.

3:01:38Amazing. We can go home. No, we can't go home. We can. There's more to come. There's more to come. There's a few results just worth adding in, by the way. You're right. This is academic, right? They've got both the House and the Senate. This is a sweep. So this even rules out Fetterman swapping sides, right? Are they now protected against Fetterman? We are not yet protected against Fetterman as we stand. Okay But if Iowa Comes to us It says here Iowa is gone Well it's not official So we are being very careful Not to get ahead of ourselves Oh get ahead of ourselves Yeah We believe That we know Democrats flipped five Senate seats as Adam Moss Okay have we got that What do you mean five Well, that's just, that was a huge crash.

3:02:38We've got the five. The five gives them, the five we've. The five without Michigan gives them control of the Senate. Okay. With Michigan, we don't have to worry about Fetters. Fetters, let's just call him Fetters from now. Or Iowa, if we get Iowa, which seems like. It looks, we are, I can't see how that is not about to be called, but it's still not quite been called. And that's Josh Turek, who was a very impressive candidate. Could I just get a reading on Mississippi, which I've been... So Mississippi... This is Cindy Hyde-Pierce. Smith. No, Hyde-Smith. That's the actor. This is great. We've been talking for three and a half hours.

3:03:26I'm allowed to make the occasional slip. A lot of people going, come on, Michigan. Come on, Michigan. If you are an actor from Fraser and you're in the comments, please give us a shout. Shout yourself out. So Mississippi, and by the way, we should also say Louisiana and Alabama. There's been all sorts of belief in a Democratic way forward. Mississippi is incredibly close. They have counted 89 % of the votes, and the Republican, Cindy Hyde-Smith, is on 49.5%. Oh, my goodness. a 49.5. And Scott Column, Democrat is on 48.3. I mean, that's wafer thin. Is it going to flip? Well, that's already a phenomenal indication of the weakness of the Republicans.

3:04:23But still, we need one more seat here. Well, Iowa, we're going to get, right? I think we're very quickly going to get an Iowa declaration. I can't can't assume it's not happening soon. Do we have any numbers? 92 % of the vote counted in Iowa. Do we have any numbers in Michigan? In Michigan, we're still only in a third of the vote. 37 % of the vote. Not enough for anybody to make a call. It is still running close. It's still pretty tight, isn't it? Michigan, I think everybody will remember that Detroit is where basically all the votes are and that it tends to count more slowly. And this has been, you know, the basis of conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory.

3:05:09Until we get big numbers from Detroit, which we don't yet have, then we are, you know, Wayne County, there's only 9 % of the votes in there. 9%. 9%. So count harder, please, folks. And not surprisingly, by the way, Abdul Al-Sayed is on 70 % there. Of course. But with those 9%. But until we have some measure of big numbers from Detroit and its immediate suburbs, we are just, I think, in territory of blind. There is so much relief coming in from people watching across the world. I mean, someone here, Ruta Hodgson, is saying fireworks going off in my neck of the woods. I'm watching from Queensland, says Tim Apple.

3:05:55That's funny. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Yes. a yippee from new zealand kid finally asleep and just had to sign on here from my favorites that's from lauren apg michigan it's my bedtime the world can breathe again give michael chocolate and we won't get hurt that's right um someone's saying is that chocolate on the table it's dark very good quality chocolate to keep michael energized oh we've got another um okay so i tell you what we are going to do we're going to go quickly to our correspondent in texas okay we're going to go to a break and then we're going to go to terry moran who is in texas i think celebrating with james talarico that'll be fantastic okay i'm very excited to see that uh stay with us put your kettle on to make a quick cup of tea run to the bathroom but we're going to come back to you live with terry moran who's in texas i'll just say it's been oh god iowa oh this is just you know this is live uh so john fetterman is neutral irrelevant history is irrelevant right oh that's amazing after we've talked uh to terry moran i think we can take some of the maga reaction we can take and josh uh terry moran ready terry moran did a little documentary actually from iowa with josh Turek, which is where I learned what an incredible candidate he was, up against a good candidate too in Ashley Hinson, an effective candidate.

3:07:32So congratulations to Josh Turek there. So just before we go to the break and connect with Terry afterwards, where are we on the Senate? How are we doing with our predictions? We were both wrong about Hinson. Can I just demonstrate by the way to those watching there we go look, there is a scorecard There is a scorecard I'm one ahead at the moment It's totally kosher This one is not This one is not marked I think we're the same I think we're the same These were printed out before or Joanna and Michael are not changing their predictions. No, we're not changing. I was wrong on Paxton, but I was right on Andrew, so that they cancel each other out.

3:08:22Can we, and we're both wrong on Hinson in Iowa. Yep. What, Minnesota, do we have anything on that? We don't have much intel from Minnesota. The 44 % of the vote in And the Republican is very slightly ahead Michelle Tafoya She's on 51 Peggy Flanagan, Democrat, is on 46 Again, big urban area still to come in Hard to tell Minnesota is always forgotten It is very closely fought state each time Peggy Flanagan would be the first Native American woman To take a Senate seat, right? Yes And there's a whole load of pioneering things tonight. We've got the Keisha Lance Bottoms, African-American woman. First black female governor.

3:09:10As a governor and in the South, I mean, hugely significant. We've the first openly gay member of the Senate, Chris Pappas. Chris Pappas in New Hampshire. So this is a DEI victory. Given that Donald Trump's steamroller, every single public company appeared to take out the word inclusion and take out all their DEI departments. And it turns out it's the DEI election. Let's do the flips again. Okay. North Carolina has flipped. To Roy Cooper. South Carolina has flipped. To Annie Andrews. Texas has flipped. To James Tullarico. Ohio has flipped. To Sherrod Brown. Sherrod Brown. So Sherrod Brown's reclaimed his seat, right.

3:09:54Kansas has flipped. To Adam Hamilton. And Iowa has flipped. And Iowa has flipped. massive night great moment to take a break massive massive this is massive this is huge it's bigger than we thought it's a blood bar i mean i am used to election nights being pretty dismal affairs well they have been dismal for democrats for the last few years i mean not uh you know joe biden actually won the midterms um by losing yes by losing. He won the midterms and then he lost the general. All right, we're going to take a break. We're going to be back with Terry Moran. I hope Terry Moran hasn't been drinking with James Tallarico, but he'll be in Texas and we'll be here and we're being very monastic with our chocolate.

3:10:47Don't go away. We'll be back shortly.

3:10:53Welcome to Inside Trump's Head. If you have just joined us, it is a Democratic wipeout. The Democrats have taken the House, they've taken the Senate, and there are still more flips possibly to come. This is a Republican bloodbath. There is no other way of putting it. We have had, we've got 15 ,000 people in the chat all over the world and the incredible relief that we are hearing from people. Michael has been painting a picture of what it's like. But right now we have Terry Moran at the Tellurico headquarters in Texas, where James Tellurico has overturned a massive Republican majority for the last 40 years with an incredible campaign.

3:11:42So overturned history itself. Overturned history itself. Terry Moran, tell us what it's like.

3:11:53It's so good that Terry appears to be unable to tell us. We are going to get those feeds up and running. But in the meantime, Michael Wolff, what do you think is going on in the White House right now? If you're inside Trump's head, what is happening? Let me just get a count on this first, that it is, if I'm not mistaken, it is now a 4952 Senate. Yeah. To the Democrats. To the Democrats. Amazing. So it doesn't matter if John Fetterman wants to saunter over to the Republican Party in Pennsylvania. He can do that and farewell. Good night. Amazing. Amazing. He could pull a Haley Stevens. It's going to be a new.

3:12:38But I don't think. I mean, and for what reason? That doesn't get him anything to go over to a minority party. Right. To a losing side. So that's that's not going to happen. What's in what's in Trump's head? Well, as I said, this is what's in Trump's head exploding.

3:13:00I mean, so it's interesting. I mean, and he really has two things that can happen to him. He can go to the barricades or can go into a fetal position.

3:13:17So, Jesus. Well, what do you think he's going to do? Do you think he's going to claim that this is all fake? It's rigged. I think he will wake up tomorrow morning in a fighting mood. Okay. Okay. Let's just see if we can connect with Terry Moran. Are we going to get that? It says that Terry is. Oh, Terry, tell us everything. What is happening at Tallareco headquarters? Here we go. now i can't hear that oh no he can't hear us we're going to try very hard to get him back no no i got you i got i got you tell us everything tell us what was it like the moment it became clear and it was announced tell us everything paint us a picture i mean what a night john i mean this is there are people have gone in now teller was expected to speak uh very very soon but it was it was not just a political victory It was a deliverance.

3:14:19I was in Grant Park in Chicago the night that Barack Obama was announced as president of the United States. And that, of course, was a historic moment deep for the whole country. But expect it. Right. He was going to win. People were on pins and needles. I got a text this evening, beginning of the evening from the chair of the Bastrop County Democrats. We had visited Bastrop County the other day and she said, I got up this morning, had a good cry and then got to work. send your best thoughts, send your prayers to the rural people of Texas, because we are going to turn out the boat. And they did.

3:14:50She texted me later. She said, I've never seen anything like what happened tonight. Texas turned blue. And when it happened, the release, the sense, people were weeping up here where the crowd was outside. And it was because they felt, I talked to a bunch of people, and the theme was the same. We aren't that divided, they said. We aren't that different. We aren't outcasts. We aren't people from another planet. We did this together. And it was because and in some ways he set the tone for the whole country, the whole Democratic effort. James Tallarico approached this struggle with Trumpism in Texas and with Republicans in Texas, not with the answering rage with rage or hate with hate.

3:15:37He answered it with this refashioning of Democratic ideals and policies in the language of his Christian faith, in the language of the Gospels as he understands them. And it connected with people. We talked to people who didn't vote for him, but respected that part of him. And the whole Tala Frico thing that they tried, it didn't work. For most people here, he seems normal, right? And they tried to make him a freak and all the rest of it. People proudly adopted that moniker for themselves. I am a talafrico, meaning he's my candidate. And Gina Hinojosa winning the governorship. A Hispanic woman is now the governor of the state of Texas.

3:16:23And once again, the sense of change is profound. It is the defeat of Republicans, no doubt about it. But now a responsibility in this opportunity. Are the Democrats just going to, you know, scorched earth? or are they going to do what we heard here in Georgia, in Iowa, in Ohio, in Maine? Fix it. This is not an endorsement of the National Democratic Party. This is a rejection of the selfishness of Donald Trump, of the failure of his policies, of his corruption. The corruption was high up in the list of issues for people here and around the country. And now the challenge is, you know, can Democrats do what people really want, which is to get past this era of rage and disconnect and division and actually fix things.

3:17:12It's a tall order, but it sounds like Trump wants to deal. Okay, so that's very interesting. Thank you for that, Terry. And can you please get me, if there are any left, a Tala Freako t-shirt? Because I want one. I just want to wear it under my jacket for inside Trump's head. Terry, I'm here with Hugh Doherty, our executive editor. I know you know him, and also Michael Wolff. Michael, make Terry the point about this being such a rejection of Donald Trump with Ken Paxton. Yeah, I mean, I don't, I mean, as good a campaign as James Tallarico has waged, I think he won because of Donald Trump. And Tallarico seems like a mature politician, was the contrast gainer to Donald Trump very clearly and was even more importantly the contrast gainer to Ken Paxton.

3:18:18So, I mean, in this Polarico victory, let's not discount Ken Paxton. But I think very much what we're seeing, what we're seeing across the country, not just in Texas, is a rejection of Donald Trump. And that is what makes this an historical moment. No question about it. I do think, yes. No, I was just going to say, what are you hearing about Ken? When you are talking to people, what were you hearing about Ken Paxton and Trump? Well, every single person in Texas knew who Ken Paxton was and had reached a judgment on him to begin with. And when Trump kind of foisted him into the lead because he has the loyal base of the Republican Party who can win primaries, there was a sense of despair among a lot of Republicans.

3:19:15But I do think that Paxton's unique loutishness and low-lifishness kind of opened the door to a reconsideration of Trump and Republican Trumpism in general here. So it is part of the national wave. And, you know, would John Cornyn have won in this? Probably. It's still Texas. But the door was open to change because Paxton was such a uniquely terrible candidate and everybody in Texas knew it. There was no hiding. He'd been notorious, impeached by his own party, indicted for for being corrupt. He was in he was in London on the Fourth of July with a Russian gangster on the 250. I mean, there's he was such a bad candidate that that it kind of allowed people to reconsider.

3:20:09I think it was infectious. The rejection of Paxton opened the door to a broader sweep, right? Out in Bastrop County, all the local races, except for two, were won by Democrats. And that, I think, that wave is built because Paxton here opened the door to that. But then Donald Trump, it's over. It's over. It's over because the gigantic blunders he made, starting a war that no one wanted without consulting people in advance and failing to not only win that war, but he's stuck in it. The tariffs, all of that, rural America in all kinds of states, very, very unhappy with him. But then look at him. He's a wreck.

3:20:57and I think he's lost the oomph. He's lost that ferocious personality that has dominated American politics for a decade because he is in palpable decline. And as he's screwing up and he's failing and the fact that he was all about himself, he never once really mentioned any possible solution to the actual problems that people were talking about, the cost of living, housing, medical care, healthcare, all kinds of things. He never talked about it. He talked about his arch, his ballroom, the reflecting pool. And he got rich. He made$2 billion as president of the United States. And that was not lost on people.

3:21:41People aren't stupid. So yeah, Paxton was a really bad candidate and did open the door for reconsideration of Trumpism in general. But what we're seeing across the country is a personal rejection of Donald Trump. And because the Republican Party en masse knelt down to Trump and would not utter a peep. They shut down the Congress rather than do their job because Trump wanted that. They're now paying the price. They're going down with it. Terry, tell us also about Greg Abbott. I'm not sure that I certainly I was in Texas recently. I talked to a lot of business people. They all thought that Greg Abbott would survive.

3:22:20Clearly not. I mean, this has been an incredible revolution in Texas. Tell us a little bit about Gina Hinojosa and what that means for Texas. Well, it's a historic moment to Gina Hinojosa as governor, as I said. But the defeat of Greg Abbott after three terms as governor, he's a towering figure and people did not really see it coming until the last week as as there was this consensus building a wave building but the consensus around we've had enough so abbott you know a lot of people upset with a lot of his policy but he still had support except i think there was a kind of throw the bums out they've been in charge and and it's time for them to go one issue that was very much alive that you could hear obviously here in austin but also the other places we went.

3:23:13And it was one of those issues that I wasn't aware of was so important in Texas, public education. Abbott is the father of school vouchers into defunding public schools in the state of Texas and putting state control over local control. And it just wasn't working. And not only for liberal Democrats, but for ordinary people whose children were in these schools, The schools were failing. The money was going elsewhere. And the people who were running it were inaccessible to local because they're all statewide officials. And that, I think, was a driver for Abbott as well. But he would have won, I think, had the landslide not built up speed.

3:24:03She's an excellent candidate, Gina Hinojosa, and I think it is a moment for Texas. But he went down with the ship. Okay, so Terry, how are you planning to celebrate with the Tallarico campaign tonight? How excited are people there? Are they all throwing barbecue at each other? What's happening there? Joanna, he's vegan. That's what we kept hearing. He's a vegan meat eater. I don't know. he's he's gonna have a good time like james tallarico does but i think a lot of people in austin are gonna have a good time the way they do up and down the streets in the in the city right after it was announced you can hear uh horn talking people just getting in their cars and honking their horns in the street you know you don't see that a lot in in in elections it is this deliverance right we're in austin which is the you know the main democratic stronghold so you'd expect that but they're gonna party tonight here and he's gonna come out there i think he's waiting waiting probably for a concession, perhaps, from Ken Paxton.

3:25:05He might have to wait a while. That's tradition anyway. But we were told that there wouldn't be a lot of people. There's 2 ,000 seats, but every seat was filled. Well, they just opened the doors and let the people who were outside in. So they want a big, roaring crowd when he does come out. If I can get in, I will. They said they have enough press. But look, I'll just put down the microphone and go in myself. it talking to people after he won was so powerful it it was it was not just this sense that that we won but that it could be a new chapter for their state and for the country that texas sent a message to the country we don't have to be this way and no matter you know the far right and the the the loony bins of social media see in james talafrico as they call him a very dangerous man Most people see a nice young man who has some good ideas and isn't going to be a jerk.

3:26:02And that seems revolutionary in this time. We'll see what he has to say. He's a fine speaker. And I'll bet it'll be a moment. Okay. Well, Terry, thank you so much. We know that we're going to talk to you again tomorrow on the Daily Beast podcast. Go and have a drink for us. I was in Austin last week. I'm sorry not to be there. And I saw that John Cornyn has just passed on his congratulations to James Tallarico and said he'll do anything he can to help him serve the people of Texas. So doing the anti-Haley Stevens there. Terry, many thanks. Go and have a drink. Have fun. And we'll talk to you tomorrow.

3:26:46Thanks, guys. A couple of points. Go on. just to remind you that when you went to texas you came back and reported that all of the people i did i did uh talarico would lose i did i totally said that i've been waiting for this reckoning that is that is a number one point number two point is i i believe that trump is up to four billion dollars in his take in this term four billion dollars so it was 2.2 in his first year and then he's made another two. Didn't he tell you he wanted to leave with 20 billion? Or one of his friends told you that? Yes, yes, which he may yet. The third point is that I have been doing this for a long time and I have been at the death of Trump quite a number of times in the past 10 years.

3:27:46And as for Terry Moran and the cars honking and people celebrating, you know, that was 2020 election, cars honking, people celebrating only to see Donald Trump reelected again. So what are you predicting? I mean, that sounds ominous. You're saying Donald Trump is Donald Trump. He comes back from defeat. Now he's 80 years old and there is a limit for us all. But Donald Trump has some abilities which in some, well, the people around him say, you know, there is some magic that he has. And he comes back from the dead again and again and again. Okay, so Donald Trump has just posted this on his Truth Social, which I now call Lie Solo or Lie Alone because it's not social and it's not truth.

3:28:46but he's saying veto. So I'm assuming that he's threatening already to be... He's threatening already, yes. So we're beginning to get from him some... He's dribbling out a public reaction. He got on the phone to the New York Times and he said he'd accept the results, which we talked about before the break, before hearing that great contribution from Terry Moran in Austin. Can you trust him in that? I think we answered that question. Nope. but he's beginning to tweet or he's beginning to fire up the truth social we've got this the veto hat which tells you what he says this is his power right his power is the veto he's also saying oh we can probably make deals that's something he always says I believe we're still making a deal with Iran the last time I checked I think there's a healthcare plan coming and he's also making kind of he basically sounds a bit incoherent, I think.

3:29:45Well, he always sounds a bit incoherent, which has never held him back. But the important thing to remember here and the important thing to focus on is this is, although this seems like he has lost and it is the end, this is actually the sweet spot for Donald Trump. He is back in. He's energized. He's a conflict. It's just is that this is the this is the thing that he lives for. This is the thing that he thrives on. This is the thing that makes him Donald Trump. OK, so we've got a truth social post that he just put out. I'm going to become a political pundit, both good and bad, on the reasons these candidates won and lost.

3:30:31President Donald J. Trump. I think we'd know why they won and lost. It's all because of him. So, you know. But he will make it because of them. And also, he has just picked up the phone. He's, you know, put it down and stopped his truthing to call Fox News. What's he saying to Fox News? We are just about to find out. They are teasing that he's going to come on air, so we hear shortly what he's got to say. But Fox News was in a bad place as well. and this is actually good for them, worth talking about. You're always better if you're Fox being in opposition and they can present themselves now as being in opposition.

3:31:10Well, I'm not sure that that's true. Sometimes it works in opposition. I mean, what works for Fox, what has worked for Fox is when Donald Trump is the star. and does being in conflict again put him in the starring role yeah potentially it it does i mean it may also be maybe terry moran is is right and this is donald trump's long fade out and that would be fox's long fade out too yeah it's fascinating fox a damarong say that with more time go to dameron like you know never mind um we got any other results i was going to say what are the other results coming in um so we're getting we're still waiting uh on minnesota and on michigan minnesota's up to 77 percent um peggy flanagan has taken the lead 54 to 43.

3:32:10Oh, that's a big lead. Big urban areas came in. How much is the vote in there? 77%. So, you know, you don't want to call that because clearly there's reasons not to, but Michigan's still only in 46 % of the vote. And so tight there, 49.5 Abdullel Saeed, 48.6 Mike Rogers. Oh, so Mike Rogers is going to be pushed to win this. I mean, with Hayley Stevens and her big sun hat. Well, we're still waiting for those big urban areas, I think. I'm going to tell you something. Since the Senate is safe for the Democrats, very safe for the Democrats, the Democrats are now, many Democrats are going to hope that El-Sayed loses.

3:33:01Interesting. Go on. I think he's just a He's an edge to the Democratic Party That they can well do without Right And they've got a load of moderates Who have won up and down the ballot But these big races South Carolina North Carolina Moderates Georgia Moderate Iowa Kansas Moderate So if he were to win And Texas I mean Very moderate. If he were to win, he'd be such an outlier. Yeah, I think it was probably Devin. Okay, just read me again where we are in Michigan. So we're talking about the Mike Rogers versus Abdul El-Sayed race in Michigan. So we're sitting on 47 % of the votes have been counted.

3:33:50Yep. And Abdul El-Sayed is on 50%, and Mike Rogers is on 48.1. 40.1 or 48. Oh, so it's very tight. So it's very, very tight. It's very tight. I think if you were putting it on Polymarket, I'd probably say it looks better for Abdul El-Sayed right now. Wayne County still waiting for big numbers to come in from there. We have a tiny proportion of the votes counted in Wayne County. Detroit, biggest single population in Michigan. But if you're Chuck Schumer, you don't want El-Sayed in your constituency. Bingo. Right. Correct. constituency. You know, there's no bad outcome now for the Democrats, right?

3:34:34Right. And they might pick up Maine. That's probably trending in their direction right now. Is it? What are the Maine numbers? Maine, we are sitting on just above 65 % of the vote there has been counted with Troy Jackson 51, Susan Collins 48. That's still awfully close. It's very close. But what we're seeing also is generational change here, aren't we, with James Tallarico? Although less Adam Hamilton. Adam Hamilton is 60, I think, 62. Yeah, those kinds of days are roughly the same age. Annie Andrews is younger. Annie Andrews is absolutely younger. I think generational change is a hard one to pin on these seat flips, weirdly.

3:35:21But what it is, is a big, I mean, you know, the Senate is completely redrawn now. and I think the age profile of who is high profile here is definitely changing. Chuck Schumer looks like the edge of age here. And by the way, if you're Chuck Grassley in Iowa, it's not looking good for you. It's also another question, who becomes the majority leader of the Senate? It's for another day, but an interesting question. Okay, we've got Trump on Fox. Democrats did a good job. They've been fighting me for a long time, but they did a good job. I come up on top all the time. I don't consider this a defeat for me.

3:36:00Of course he doesn't, as Michael predicted. This is in fact a victory for Donald Trump. Donald Trump is presenting this as a victory. If you've just joined us, don't forget to subscribe to the Daily Beast, please. Leave us a comment. We're trying to stay on top of all the comments we've got. It's just incredible how excited people are. It has been a Republican bloodbath. The Democrats have taken the House. They've taken the Senate. They've overturned seats that no one, no one thought was imaginable. Darlene Graham, down, down. Ken Paxton, down. Donald Trump's personally selected and promoted candidates that he went down and rallied with have failed to get elected.

3:36:45Kansas and Iowa. Kansas and Iowa. Kansas and Iowa. Oh, my God. What's Nebraska? Nebraska, very good question I was going to bear with this because I was just going to add another quote from Donald Trump Some of the candidates that I endorsed fought me and they didn't like me I'm not sure which candidates those were but there's certainly a lot of self-soothing going on here So Nebraska, we have two-thirds of the vote counted And oh, my God, this is so, this is unbelievable. We have the independent candidate, Dan Osborne. He is on 47.1%. And the sitting Republican senator, Pete Ricketts, is on 47.1%.

3:37:34Wow. So this is obviously, this is Nebraska. This is going to go on counting.

3:37:43We have a lot of votes in some areas, not a lot of votes in others. is one of these situations where, you know, everything's going to add up eventually, but nobody's going to be calling that in the near future because that's just incredibly close. Yeah. So we're not going to hear from Maine tonight. We're not going to hear from Alaska tonight. Two important races. We may not hear from Michigan. We may not hear from Michigan tonight. What do you think, Huey? What are you seeing in terms of the time for Michigan? I think we're going to go into the middle. I mean, we're in the middle of the night, Joanna.

3:38:16It's 10 past 12. It's well past my bedtime. But we're only at 48 % That's going to go on 3-4 in the morning Maybe later Minnesota were People are saying it's about to be called Minnesota I think is about to be called Because they have a big 79 % of votes are in now And they are very close And I think AP's just called Minnesota For Peggy Flanagan They called it for the Democrats? Yeah, they've just called it. AP has just called Peggy Flanagan for the Democrats in Minnesota, the first Native American woman to go into the Senate. So that is now, we are now at 49.53. Is that true? That's... I think it is true.

3:39:06I saw Peggy Flanagan at a lunch about three weeks ago. No, no, that would be 48.53. 48, because we've no... Yeah, 48. 47. Yes. Okay, I'm leaving you guys to do the math. Ryan, you should just come on and do this. No, no, but we're still out several seats. Well, we're out Maine, we're out Alaska, we're out Michigan. We just called Minnesota. We have 53 seats. And we're out Nebraska. Democrats have 53 seats, and then we're still... That's amazing. So the outside prediction, I think, was that they would get 54%. That was the absolute outside. And that felt like a crazy dream, as if that would be not possible.

3:39:59I think it's worth talking about some of the recrimination and the crazy that started already inside MAGA. sometimes you dismiss these things as gossip but Trump is out tonight talking about the MAGA base is incredible, the most loyal, the greatest people so we've done some checking in on what they have been saying and I think everybody will have heard of Laura Loomer who is this let's just call it honestly she is crazy but she is a voice in Trump's ear oh we read this earlier and then Michael attacked me for reading and said why am I doing it but I was doing it for comic relief. Yeah. You mean she's like the American dream is done, America is dead.

3:40:40More than that, don't have children. If you do have children, leave. Laura, you should leave. Laura Loomer, you should leave. But the other recrimination that's going on is, oh, they want to blame John Thune. They want to blame anybody but Donald Trump. John Thune, my friend. Your favourite. I knew the mention of John Thune. immediately motivate Joanna. Where's he from? North Dakota. He is. Isn't he North Dakota? Yes, he is. And I think, you know, whatever you can, you know, Laura Loomer is an absurd figure. Many of these figures are absurd. Most of them spent the last few weeks tweeting and posting for social engagement about how there was no blue wave.

3:41:28Everything was going to come up roses for MAGA. It was a red wave. And they all, you know, They all lost. But this is a bit of what Trump's doing, I think. They're working out how to get attention again. Okay, okay, okay. I have crazy, crazy news. Susan Collins has conceded. Susan, I'm not sure about that. Susan Collins has conceded. That 54. We both thought Susan Collins was going to win. We both did. Our predictions are hopeless. Yeah, hopeless. Wow. Congratulations to Troy Jackson, the fifth generation logger. Susan Collins is out after 30 years. This means, oh my God, they could go to 56, 57.

3:42:20It's going to feel so different in January. I mean, they could almost get to 60 and they're not going to get to 60, but then they would have a serious majority. well that's the you know the filibuster level isn't it that's incredible susan collins down troy jackson i wonder if graham platner would have won i mean how imagine how graham platner is kicking himself i'm gonna say if only he hadn't graham if only you'd be nicer to your ex-girlfriends you too could have disrupted the senate with a little more than that but anyway With a little more, they could be in reach of impeachment and conviction.

3:43:07Yes. So hold on, hold on. Let's just do the numbers here. How many seats do they have in the Senate? Well, they now have, we're now up to 54, right? 54. So they would need another six, but there aren't that many seats in play. it's you know but by the time they get to you know there's a certain point in which in which you get to in which the republicans you will be able to you are in sight of being of being convincing republicans to oh oh and join me hate him republicans also hate him yeah remember they have republicans have always been cherry of breaking with him because they weren't going to win and then he would punish them.

3:43:50Right. And a lot of these flips, by the way, create states where you have a Republican and a Democratic senator side by side. And if you're a sitting Republican senator and you've just seen what happened to the last guy, then you're going to be sitting there thinking, hmm, how does this play out for me? Right. And Ed Cruz. Well, let's not get carried away. But you're certainly wondering about your future. Two years or four years is whatever, but there are many of them that are looking at a two-year future. Right. And how does that play out precisely? Well, I think we're getting carried away now.

3:44:27But let's have the moment to be... But it may not be impeachment, but it can be about reining in war, about voting about a War Powers Act that they've been reluctant to get in front of, about what do they do if Pete Hegseth gets impeached, for example? Do they entertain that in any fashion? Jock McFrosty, one of our regulars, is saying, press the like button, please. Everybody, please press the like button. I'm going for my like button right now. I have already. You can't like... This is our longest live by far. We've got 16 ,000 people in the chat. This is insane. And how many people have we had through the night?

3:45:14How many people have we had through the night? I think three, four hundred thousand. Definitely. Definitely a lot. A lot. Scientific invasion. We're very grateful that you've joined us. This was an experiment for us. We didn't know how the night was going to go. We came in with a pile of papers and our predictions. Our predictions were about half right. Fifty percent right. We were terrible at the predictions. terrible at the predictions although i am glad that i thought amy andrews would win annie andrews would win over darlene i never thought darlene would deliver it but darlene you have got a very nice new haircut it's all good it's all good uh and james tallarico in texas a james tallarico kem paxton don't steal people's pens it's a small insight into a character and you don't like it Joanna Coles, don't talk to your friends.

3:46:10No, I'm not talking. What are you leaving? All let me down. You Texan friends. Everybody, everybody. All let me down. Always. All let me down. All let me down. So we still don't know about El Syed in Michigan. Yeah. We don't know about Alaska, of course, because that's in some other planet. Has anybody, come on, people, nobody's had a spotting of Dan J. Sullivan. What's wrong? Come on. We'll take any Dan Sullivan at this time of night. Any Dan Sullivan. If you'll call Dan Sullivan, join the chat. And we will nominate you for Alaska next time. Nebraska is looking possible, right? It's certainly possible.

3:46:51Very hard to tell. It's so tight. What's Mississippi? Mississippi is still in favor. It's, wow. 94 % of votes are now in. Cindy Hydesmith is on 49.8. Scott Colum is on 48.1. That's incredibly close. What are the remaining votes? I think, again, we're... She's had a shock. If she doesn't win, she will certainly be... I think we're talking about military votes and the sort of remains because basically almost every district is around the 95 % mark. There's some missing in the south of the state. So she'll probably prevail, but by a hair's breadth. And I think the Democrats, there will be, I know this is not a night to talk about recriminations among Democrats, but I think there'll be some self-examination about where money got spent.

3:47:59that a bit more money in Florida and a bit more money in Mississippi and we might have been looking somewhere different. And in Florida, the statewide offices, the Senate and the governor were very, very close. But the Florida gerrymander was a disaster. They got nothing out of it. They appear to have got nothing in Texas. A longstanding gerrymander in North Carolina has turned into what is a route for the Republicans. in that state in terms of the House. But I think the question among Democrats is, could they have put a bit more money in, in some of these states and got even better? Right. And the Hispanic vote, obviously, historic change.

3:48:45Well, there may be recriminations, but I think there's going to be mostly celebration. Well, I think so. I mean, as I say, I don't know. I mean, you can't win them all. Can't win them all. It's difficult for Scott to come in and show everybody how they could have done it even better. I wasn't saying that. This is a historic evening, Huey. This is absolutely a historic evening. Europe is waking up and seeing these results and being absolutely thrilled. People in France, people in Britain, people in Germany just saying this is great. Someone here, needful things, saying Joanna is having the time of her life.

3:49:15I sort of am, actually. This is an incredible evening to be doing this with the two of you. Michael, we've sat here week after week, three times a week, going inside Trump's head. Okay, final word to you, because I think it's, well, we've been talking for four and a half hours, and we could go on. But we have to come back tomorrow. We're still missing Michigan, Alaska, Nebraska. Those are still, and they could all go the Democrats. They could all go Democrat, which would put them within a hair's breadth of 60 votes. and as you say, they could pull in some Republicans to do the impeachment. And they could not.

3:50:00The impeachment would be easy to do. That's in the House. It is conviction that has. Well, conviction in the Senate is what they would do. They need 60 votes for it. So, Michael, final word to you, because we have to let our production team, who've been brilliant here this evening, I can't tell you, Ryan Murray and John Romero seamlessly organizing the evening. And it's hard when you've got so many people sending us comments. And I'm so sorry that we haven't been able to call everybody out because it's just a torrent of opinion, but thrilled opinion. MAGA is dead, says Rick, we hear. Michael, final word to you.

3:50:39Let's go back to the central premise of Inside Trump's Head. What is going on inside Trump's head as we speak and as these results come in? just imagine that he has to go through whatever the chemical process is to go to take defeat and turn it into victory which we can see in his comments he's already in the process of doing it will be a victory for him and it will be defeat for other people and it won't just be defeat for other people it will be people who have failed him so it will be blame blame who does he blame who gets the blame how does he process the blame and then who does he go to war with i mean that will be the thing he is not this this or trump becomes an opportunity and the opportunity is to do what he does best which is which is to embrace conflict in a way that almost nobody else in the political world does.

3:51:53Okay, so we'll be back tomorrow with more from inside Trump's head. Huey, any last minute predictions? I predict we'll be back tomorrow. No, I mean, this is just going to be so great, so dramatic. I cannot wait for the latest thoughts Three times every week from Michael Because he has been Virgil leading us through the crazy mind of Trump And what we're seeing tonight You predicted everything Everything that's happening You have predicted Hold on a minute He didn't predict that Hold on a minute Okay, okay, okay Okay. Neither of us predicted. But the big picture here of the winner in Iowa, what happened?

3:52:43How did he get this wrong? It's all been predicted here on inside Trump's head. And it's a privilege to be part of it. So, and let's, this story does not end. All Democrats, you know, you know, I mean, you know, Terry Moran representing the Democratic point of view there is that this is that they have now won. This is never the case in Trump, in the Trump era. Trump is, you know, he just doesn't go away. Right. He just doesn't go away. And neither will we. We will be back inside Trump's head on Thursday. and tomorrow I'll be back with Terry Moran but I think we'll be back, we'll be doing something tomorrow.

3:53:24I guess we should do a live tomorrow, shouldn't we? We'll discuss it after we close down. Okay, so thank you so much for joining us wherever you have been joining us from. We have seen people from all over the world, from every single continent. Absolutely thrilling, an incredibly dramatic evening. Could not have been more exciting. A bloodbath for the Republicans, a huge tsunami for the Democrats, better than their dreams. And still two seats, three seats come in. Nebraska, Michigan, and Alaska still to report. We will see you back here tomorrow. Have a wonderful evening. We are, well, Michael, have a, yeah.

3:54:09Well, I guess if you're in California. Yeah, if you're in California, you're busy celebrating. Thank you for joining us. We'll be back tomorrow. Please like and subscribe to the podcast if you haven't done already. We are independent media, fully independent. So we love your support. Share it with a friend and we will see you tomorrow. And big thanks to Sarah Ewell-Weiss for joining us, our production team, Ryan Murray, John Romero, Rachel Passa, Heather Passaro, and we didn't need Neil Rosenhaus tonight. when you're live when you're live the lawyer is irrelevant and the good news is we have so many BBC tier members and some of them are new tonight thank you to every one of you who has joined us we are so privileged to have you in the Daily Beast family more to come and good night and good luck America