Mississippi Dem Eyes Historic Senate Upset; Race Too Early to Call

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1:10Laura Coates: It's 11 p.m. on the East Coast, 8 p.m. in the West, and the soon-to-be Democratic majority in Congress is continuing to grow. Welcome to CNN Election Night in America Continued. I'm Laura Coates, along with Boris Sanchez. And what we're seeing has been called a Watergate-level repudiation and close to an, quote, extinction-level event for Republicans.

1:31Boris Sanchez: The interesting thing is both of those interpretations coming from sitting Republican officials and a pair of potential 2028 candidates. We have new results coming in as we're watching the political map in this country be redrawn before our eyes.

1:44Laura Coates: And in the House, Democrats continue to rack up wins. And CNN now projects they're going to hold at least 245 House seats. And if they win some of the races we're still watching for us, we could soon be talking about a House majority, the size of which they haven't seen since Barack Obama was first elected president.

2:03Boris Sanchez: You have to go back almost a decade to find the last time that any party, Laura, held at least 54 Senate seats. That's how many Democrats have right now. That number could still grow. There's a pair of races that remain razor thin, one of those in Alaska. The Democrat, Mary Peltola, up by only a few hundred votes. And because both of Alaska's size and the nature of its ranked choice voting system, it's going to be a while before we know how that one turns out.

2:28Laura Coates: All right, we'll be watching it, of course. And the other Senate race that remains uncalled, get this, everyone. Mississippi Democrat Scott Cologne leads Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by around 1 ,100 votes. And that fact that we're even talking about a Democrat potentially winning the Senate in Mississippi, Well, that underscores a seismic shift in outright repudiation of President Trump in this midterm election. I want to start with CNN's Annie Greyer, who's in Jackson, Mississippi. Annie, look, about 1 ,100 votes separate these two candidates. You actually spoke with Scott Cologne. Tell me what he's saying to you.

3:08Laura Coates: I spoke with him earlier tonight at an event at a college campus where he was really excited and confident, saying that he believes he is going to win this race. He believes as more votes come in, it will continue the tip in his favor. And I talked to him just after his lead extended over that 1 ,000 mark. And he told me not only is he feeling confident, he's ready to handle whatever legal challenges may come his way if there is any sort of recount that happens in the state. And I'm told from sources that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called Cologne earlier today to offer his support. And he is sending a ton of legal aides and resources to the state of Mississippi to help Cologne handle this final process of counting ballots.

3:53Laura Coates: Take a listen to what Cologne told me earlier tonight. Do you think that there needs to be a recount in this race with how close the march is? I don't want to get into the legal stuff. I got lawyers down on that. We got an army of lawyers that's ready to protect the process, protect the integrity of the vote. But, you know, I'm confident we're going to win. I mean, you know, it's at this point, it's very obvious we're about to win. Republican Senator Cindy Iade Smith is also confident. She thinks that when the votes are done counting, she will also be, she'll be victorious. Well, she was claiming she's going to win last night, you know, bless her heart.

4:21Laura Coates: She's got to wait and see what the voters are moving in my direction. It's very clear where it's going and asking to do an interview with you. If she's so confident she should get in front of a camera, answer questions, she won't do it.

4:35Laura Coates: Now, it is truly remarkable that the Democrats are in this position. This is a state that President Trump carried by 23 points just two years ago. It's been nearly four decades since Democrats have sent somebody to the Senate from Mississippi. But Cologne is confident that as more ballots come in, he is going to win this race. They're still this race is still too close to call. And it could be days before all of the absentee and provision ballots are counted. Republican Senators Cindy Hines-Smith also remaining confident. But President Trump came to campaign here in the final days before the election.

5:09Laura Coates: just to show how concerned Republicans were in this deep red state and how close Democrats seem to be to potentially flipping it. Laura. Annie Greyer, thank you. Three words to find the South. Bless your heart.

5:22Boris Sanchez: Bless her heart. With us to discuss some of our best political thinkers, Michael Singleton, Karen Finney, Kristen Solstice Anderson, and David Hogg. Thank you all for being with us. Let's start with how a pair of prominent Republicans described these results. Let's listen. It was a blue tsunami.

5:39Laura Coates: It was an kicking. It was not simply a bad 2006 midterm election. It was a Watergate level repudiation. This is close to an extinction level event for Republicans in many parts of the country, as we have seen probably in the last hundred years.

6:03Boris Sanchez: Ignore that those are two potential 2028 candidates that may be table setting, considering that some folks within the administration may run and they want to contrast themselves. Sure, Michael, where does your party go from here? I mean, look, this reminds me eerily of 2010. After the Affordable Care Act, President Obama lost 61 House seats, I believe six seats in the Senate and about 770 state legislative seats across the country. We literally are almost matching that. The only difference is we lost the United States Senate. I do wonder whether or not this unique coalition of voters that Donald Trump brought in in 2024, for Hispanic men, black men, younger voters.

6:39Boris Sanchez: Where do they go in 2028? Where do they go in 2032? I think my party has to moderate a little bit. I mean, this is the reality, that the MAGA movement had 10 years of a run. It was a good run. But the American people rejected it. They said, look, we don't want this anymore. It's not working. Gas is too high. I can't afford anything. My kid's future appears to be bleak. We're in a conflict with no end in sight. We want some level of modesty in terms of how one governs. And it's hard to not pay attention and adjust oneself, reorient after last night's results. So it's not a time to complain about it.

7:13Boris Sanchez: This happens. We have to lick our wounds and try to heal and showcase to the American people that we've learned our lesson going into 28 and 32. And I think we're going to do that.

7:21Laura Coates: Karen, your facial expressions. I mean, I know this is tonight. I know this is tonight. Go ahead. I'm sorry. We had a good run. She was done with your commentary. Well, we do.

7:33Boris Sanchez: Look at the results.

7:33Laura Coates: But go ahead. No, but look, because I think the American people were far more clear than that. After 10 years of Donald Trump putting himself first, American people said, no, no, it's us. And I think it's a much bigger problem. Having been in this position as a Democrat, I think it is much bigger than just we have to moderate. I think the American people on so many levels, I mean, I was joking with folks last night. It was the revenge of DEI because this country stood up and said no, said hell no to MAGA and said we are going to be embracing American values of inclusion. I mean, look at the swath of people, younger people, a disabled person, Native people, African-American, Latino women are back.

8:19Laura Coates: I mean, it's so I just we go somewhere. Well, you know, we were not here. But I have to go over. Those people all still existed two years ago. Just many of them thought that Donald Trump and his party deserved a chance, and Donald Trump and his party blew it. We got kicked out by, I mean, GEI kicked a lot of women and people of color. I mean, Nancy LaCour, that is a very important victory because Hegseth fired her the way he's been indiscriminately firing black people and women from the military. Yes. Almost every piece of the coalition that Donald Trump had put together in 2024, younger voters, Latino voters, working class voters, where he had built this coalition, they came together because they thought he's going to make the economy better.

9:04Laura Coates: He's going to make my cost of living better. He says no wars. He says he's going to drain the swamp. And instead, what my data has been screaming to me over the last year and a half is that they think he's actually not that good at handling the economy. Why are things getting so much more expensive? He's actually not draining the swamp. Why does it seem like he and everybody around him gets to play by a different set of rules? And when that happens, when the two things that people elect you to do are things that they think you fail on catastrophically, this election is what happens. But I will say I think the values piece is important because there was more to it than just that.

9:37Laura Coates: It was what we saw happening in Minneapolis with people saying, no, that is that's not our values. when we saw people falling off of health care and seeing costs skyrocket, and yet we can build an arch, but we can't restore, we can't keep the tax credits for health care. I mean, so it was more than just, you know, a few policies here and there.

9:58Boris Sanchez: But was this an embrace, is this an embrace of the Democratic Party and said policies? No. Or rejection of the president? And I don't think we should blur those lines.

10:06Laura Coates: Wait, you hear what Rhonda Tanta said? I mean, he said if we ran George Washington, he would have lost. Congressman Mike Lawler said, told Monoraju, Jesus Christ could have run and would have lost. I mean, hyperbole. And yet, do you think that there's an accuracy that the Democrats were, to Mariko's point, stronger than the Republicans?

10:27Boris Sanchez: I think that it's a culmination of factors here. I think, you know, as much as I disagree with James Carville, I think a broken clock is right twice a day. It is the economy, stupid. When gas prices are$4 and you ran on the idea that you're going to end foreign wars and then you start a foreign war that directly makes inflation worse. You say you're going to go after the people in the Epstein files and then you're implicated in the Epstein files or what, 30 ,000 times or how many times it is. That is not a good recipe for success. And they took a generational opportunity to lock in young voters, to lock in Latino voters, to lock in black voters and so many others across this country that they made significant margins with and gains with and completely fumbled it.

11:07Boris Sanchez: And nobody else is to blame except the president himself. It's remarkable. It's interesting to hear all of your assessments, the Republican assessments, and then Trump today kind of giving his assessment and remarking that contrast about how he has spent his time. This was specifically at an event where he is in front of a construction project behind him, the ballroom. Let's listen to what the president said.

11:32Laura Coates: I mean, if I were in the ballot, we would have won. You saw the people. There were thousands and thousands of people at every rally. And if I was on the ballot, we would have won. But you couldn't transfer that love. There was such love at those rallies. It was an incredible one. We weren't able to transfer the love to candidates.

11:51Boris Sanchez: Something that you said early on, Michael, stood out to me. And it wasn't just that you wanted the party to moderate. It was also that you mentioned a modesty in governing. Modesty, not a word that we associate generally with President Trump. I wonder how his fingerprints are on the future of the party. I mean, there's just no evidence that suggests if the president was on the ballot that he would have won. There's no evidence of that. If you look at our data, even our internal stuff, our voters were jumping ship. Even the vice president in the lengthy post on X, he said when he looked at the data, the posters were saying our people are turning out, just not for us.

12:27Boris Sanchez: This was a massive rejection, just as Governor DeSantis stated. And we have an opportunity to learn. This reminds me also, remember in the 90s with Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich, Democrats held the House for 40 years and we won. It led to balancing the government, welfare reform. Everything worked economically for working class people. There's an opportunity here for Donald Trump to learn from former President Clinton, to work with Democrats where possible. I know Karen is making a look, but this is important though, Karen. This is important. This is really important.

13:00Laura Coates: If he could learn, you would not be in this position. But he has to for the sake of the country. He doesn't care. He has to. He has to. I love that you believe this is a place called that he might care. He doesn't care.

13:12Boris Sanchez: Would you not agree this is bigger than party?

13:14Laura Coates: Of course it is. But he's not someone who embraces that. And I will say, I think America took him at his word. Yes, we are going to vote like you're on the ballot.

13:22Boris Sanchez: But he's the president and Democrats have to work with him on some things. Sure.

13:27Laura Coates: I'm hearing you say the love did not transfer. David, I mean, the president, the vice president, offered four steps going forward. End the war. Focus on cost of living, inflation. Put America first. That was number three. Change all this into Israel. How does that compare to, you think, what these newly elected Democrats actually just ran on? Is he actually now making the case for Democrats?

13:49Boris Sanchez: I actually want to go back to what you were talking about earlier. But I want to go to this one. Wait a second. On the moderation piece, though, people are not looking for moderation, in my opinion. They are looking for people who deliver. Zoran Mamdani is not the most popular politician in America because he is a moderate. He is the most popular politician in America because he is consistently delivering and showing people every day what he's doing to make government actually work for them. And across the board, that's popular. It may look different in some states, in some places than it does in New York City, but that's what's happening here.

14:18Boris Sanchez: They are sick and tired of Republicans because they had the opportunity to actually deliver on stuff. And what did they do? They raised your health care prices. They got us in another foreign war and they raised your cost. David, I want to push back. Most of the candidates that won were centrist Democrats, not the DSA types. Only six or seven of them won. How do you explain Randy Vegas, who won by 30 percent? Six or seven of them won, David. Most of the folks who won were not radical, flamed. Well, actually, I think we're... Let me respond to that really quick, because I think that there's a growing division between not just old and young, obviously, in D.C., but what I think is happening is people on panels like this get confused because it's like, oh, is it a left versus right thing?

14:58Boris Sanchez: And I'm telling you, this is top versus down. This is about people feeling like the system is rigged against them. And if you look at James Tallarico, he ran on a populist message of rejecting corporate back money. James Tallarico, you think he's Zoran Mamdani? You think Keisha Lance Bottoms is Zoran Mamdani?

15:13Laura Coates: I want to hear Rusty's point.

15:15Boris Sanchez: The point that I'm getting at is that I think that this is not a left versus right debate so much anymore as it is, do you feel like you're a part of the system that is rigged against the majority of people in this country? Or are you actually not part of that system? Are you part of Trump's inner circle where you're texting your boyfriend saying, please, can I get$100 ,000 for my American Express and I'll get you a meeting with the president? Or are you somebody that's worried about how you're going to pay for your insurance? Because let me sum up the perfect race that I think defines this election.

15:43Boris Sanchez: And that's that of Christina Knickerbocker, who ran against Mike Turner as a neuro-oncology nurse practitioner and Air Force veteran. She ran after Mike Turner, voted for the big, beautiful bill that cut her patients' health care, that she also has seen not only their premiums rise, but has had to literally argue with AI chatbots to get her own patients chemotherapy. Most of the candidates who won were centrist Democrats. I have to tell you guys, I was told to wrap like five minutes ago, but this is just such a good conversation. Let's stand by for more, because coming up, as Democrats plot oversight and investigations with their new majorities in Congress, Texas Senator-elect James Tallarico says Democrats should not be focused on political retribution.

16:23Boris Sanchez: we have a reaction from a Texas Democrat who sits on the Oversight Committee when we come back.

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17:32Boris Sanchez: A pair of stunning Lone Star State rebukes of President Trump's agenda has ushered in a new age of Texas politics. As Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa ousted three-term Republican Governor Greg Abbott and Democratic Senator-elect James Tallarico pulled off a breakthrough Democrats have been dreaming of for decades. Today, the Texas senator-elect laid out his top priorities in Congress in an interview with our colleague, Aaron Burnett. They didn't send us to Washington for political retribution. They sent us to Washington to lower costs, to root out corruption, to get this economy back on track. And that needs to be our focus.

18:11Boris Sanchez: Our next guest was a major supporter of the Tallarico and Hinojosa campaigns. He's a member of the powerful House Oversight Committee. Democratic Congressman Greg Kassar of Texas joins us now. Congressman, thank you so much for being with us. First and foremost, congratulations on your own reelection. Texas Democrats have dreamed of this moment for decades. What made this election in 2026 different? We had incredible candidates from James to Gina. But really what made the difference is the Texans who never gave up, who kept talking to their neighbors, who pushed out a message that we don't have to put up with the kind of corruption from folks like Ken Paxton and Greg Abbott, and we could elect decent leaders who would, as Senator-elect James Tallarico just laid out, fight to deliver for people, lower costs, root out corruption, raise paychecks, and take care of people in our state instead of continuing to basically just steal and lie and cheat, like we saw from folks like Ken Paxton.

19:15Boris Sanchez: So now that you have a substantial majority in the House, what should be the very first thing the new Congress does day one?

19:26Boris Sanchez: Congress day one needs to chart a new path, have bold action. We should be banning stock trading by politicians for the first time ever. We should be ending this war. We should be lowering costs by taking on the tariffs and reinvesting money that's been going to the billionaires back in and the American people. But this isn't just about day one. This majority is not just 100 days or it is 100 weeks long. And every week we should be passing bills that are broadly popular amongst Democratic and Republican voters that lower costs, that take on corporate greed, send it to the president's desk. And of course, we hope that he signs it into law or if he chooses to veto it, then that sets up the platform by which we will run in 2028 and get those laws signed in 2029.

20:13Boris Sanchez: I did not hear you mention investigations of the president, something that many folks in your party ran on, getting accountability from folks in the administration. How big of a priority is that? Do you agree with Leader Jeffries when he says that voters didn't elect Democrats to get even with President Trump? I agree with Leader Jeffries. I agree with what James Tallarico said. We didn't get elected for retribution. we got elected to make things better for the American people. And of course, getting rid of corruption can make things better for the American people. If somebody got a sweetheart federal contract because they were putting money in the president's coin slot, then, yeah, we should look after the federal taxpayers' money and redirect that as appropriate.

21:06Boris Sanchez: Of course, we also, as you mentioned, we cannot just be known entirely as the anti-Trump party. We have to be more than that and have to be willing to investigate the corporations that are ripping people off, the corporations that could be profiting off of ripping seniors off of their Medicare using AI, the corporations that are profiting off of surveillance. We should be dragging these corporations in front of the American people that have chosen to price gouge or try to purchase favors from the president. President Trump did float the idea late last night, I think it was actually early this morning, of working with Democrats on the issue of immigration.

21:45Boris Sanchez: That's an issue that you and I have spoken about before, one that Congress hasn't tackled at a broad level in decades. You previously said that you would not negotiate down to Trump's level. I wonder if you would take a meeting to talk about comprehensive immigration reform. we would take a meeting to fight for having decent immigration policy in this country absolutely we should not start out by saying what would donald trump do because we just had the most resounding resounding rejection of donald trump and you've basically seen of any american president in our history and so we should start out with what the american people Democrats, independents and Republican voters are asking for, like a safe, orderly and legal system of immigration where you don't have American citizens shot in the street or people fleeing nations but have nowhere to apply to try to become a part of our country.

22:41Boris Sanchez: And so, yes, we should be passing policy that can get to the president's desk. Of course, I just I just wonder if when it does get to his desk, if he has the veto power, you would negotiate with President Trump specifically on immigration reform? I would negotiate with anybody of any party, but what I'm trying to lay out here briefly is that we have to push. And a great example of this was really the one big deal that got done, the thing that folks didn't think could get done this last Congress, was Elizabeth Warren pushing forward a proposal to ban private equity from buying single-family homes.

23:16Boris Sanchez: That isn't some moderate centrist watered-down proposal. In fact, it's the kind of populist proposal that's overwhelmingly popular. And somehow she got Donald Trump to let it go into law. Congressman Greg Kassar, we have to leave the conversation there. Thank you again for joining us. Thank you. Of course. Coming up with Democrats about to take control of Congress, how can the party prove to voters they can deliver on their campaign promises? We'll discuss with the panel after a few minutes.

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24:19Laura Coates: It's been only about 24 hours. Has it been just 24 hours since Democrats won back control of Congress? And Senate Democrats are already making preparations for investigations into President Trump and his allies next year. One aide tells CNN the Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued letters today directing administration officials, Elon Musk and others to preserve documents for a range of probes, including into Trump's Russia diesel deal and the Star Shield slowdown in Ukraine. The Democratic leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, today vowed to hold the president to account. EXPECTING THE

24:59Laura Coates: WHENEVER TRUMP DEFIES THE WILL OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE OR THE LAW, WE WILL LAUNCH INVESTIGATIONS, TAKE HIM TO COURT AND ENTANGLE HIM IN LEGISLATIVE RAZORWIRE. THE DAYS OF TRUMP'S SUPPLICANT SENATE ARE OVER. THERE WAS SUCH RAMPANT CORRUPTION, THERE HAS TO BE SOME INVESTIGATIONS. BUT WE'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE OUR EYE OFF THE BALL. NUMBER ONE, REDUCING COSTS, ending corruption. Our panel is back with us. That's the needle I think he's going to have to thread, Karen, the idea of there's got to be accountability voters are asking for, but not taking the eye off the ball of what this mandate ought to be, as Ace has told you in the elections about affordability and beyond.

25:41Laura Coates: Can Democrats thread it? Absolutely. I mean, first of all, we can both look into accountability. Some of the things that they just mentioned, And like the Russia oil deal, that impacts policy that directly impacts this country in very important ways. So also like the no bid contracts. Right. That is a you know, that was harmful to small business owners and others who had traditionally bid for those contracts. So there are things you can do that actually bring money back into people's pockets that also are part of accountability. in addition to, I think one of the things they're also going to have to do, though, is they're going to have to, I wrote a piece to say, let's do some short-term things like dealing with health care costs, which are going to go up in December and again in January.

26:24Laura Coates: And then let's, but let's also start working on how do we do universal health care? I think they have to do both because to the point that David was making before, this is a watershed moment for change. And so stopgap measures are not going to be enough. but I do think they have to sort of band-aid the pain because it's so acute right now but then grow

26:46Boris Sanchez: bigger it is a tough spot for Democrats in the sense that they have to balance a very aspirational agenda what Karen describes as a watershed moment with the fact that if they do go after Trump he's walked out of meetings before over investigations into him back when it was Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer together how do they how do they balance the two when he has veto power and they don't have 60 votes. They may have a majority in the Senate. They don't have 60 votes.

27:11Laura Coates: Well, I think for folks right now who are trying to figure out how to navigate investigations, the corruption issue, one, the exit polls from last night made clear that this is an issue that voters want to see tackled. But notably, among the half of voters, 55 percent, who said that corruption was crucial to their vote, only about two thirds of them voted for Democrats. So the question is, are there still people who voted for Republicans who nevertheless say, but you know what? I want to see the swamp drain too still. And what that means is, are these investigations just going to be about Trump?

27:41Laura Coates: Or if you are a major corporation, if you are a big business that has done business with the Trump administration, it would not surprise me to see Democrats not start bringing a lot of them in front of Congress, not just make this about Trump, but make this idea of corruption, expand the aperture a little bit and make it more about business itself. So what about day one do they have to do? Because you heard Annie Andrews earlier today, Dr. Annie Andrews, I should say, who defeated Darlene Graham, speaking to Caitlin Collins earlier today about some of these campaign promises that had something to do with what we're talking about, but a lot about the laundry list of things that voters were asking for.

28:21Laura Coates: Listen. South Carolina sending a Democrat to Washington. North Carolina sending a Democrat to Washington. I'm from Alabama. We're also looking at Mississippi tonight. They might be sending a Democrat to Washington. What does that say about voters in the South in this moment, in your view? They want leaders who are talking about the problems and have plans to solve the problems. I don't think this is really about party politics. I think it's about which candidates were showing up and talking about their plans to lower gas prices and diesel prices and fix our broken health care system, lower the cost of groceries and rejecting this career politician self-enrichment cycle that we have fallen into.

29:02Laura Coates: Oftentimes it resonated a lot with voters when I would talk about my plans to support, you know, a ban on partisan gerrymandering and passing term limits and banning members of Congress from trading stock. People want Washington to work for them. I mean, David, I'm hearing nothing about Trump and investigations there. I'm hearing about Washington working for them. Is that what Democrats must do day one through the term to be successful?

29:29Boris Sanchez: Yeah, look, I think if there are investigations that happen, we need to make sure that they're directly into making sure that government is working for them and not just the people that were in front of Donald Trump that are funding his ballroom, that were in front of him at the inauguration, that are people that have no idea what the average American is going through, that probably have not even flown commercial in the 21st century, let alone paid rent this century. Right. If we're going to do investigations, it needs to be directly tied to how corruption is part of the reason why the cost of living has gotten so bad.

29:59Boris Sanchez: And talk about how the fact that right now our country is increasingly drifting from a capitalist country to an oligarchy, where these companies are buying off the very politicians that are supposed to regulate them and stop them from merging to price gouge against the American people and make it so much harder for people to get by.

30:16Laura Coates: And you know, of course, Boris, the time suck of investigations. I mean, we've seen it. I mean, I know you can walk and chew gum at the same time in Washington, D.C., but you investigate all these people, you're going to have to balance priorities.

30:28Boris Sanchez: But I have good news, actually, because we have state legislatures. It's not just here in Washington that we need to deliver or we can deliver. as we're all arguing about the filibuster and everything else that's going on here. Guess what? People are going to be able to get things done in these new state legislative democratic trifectas that I helped to play a role in, that Leaders Who Deserve, my organization helped to play a role in just investing over a million dollars in the past month alone into key battleground races that we've won multiple trifectas now. And we can focus on delivering there even as Washington is in gridlock.

30:56Boris Sanchez: I'm sure Michael's been waiting to respond to Karen for a few minutes now. He was like rubbing his hands, getting ready. No, please. Just like the Medicare for all, how do we pay for it? It's going to cost six, or universal health care. How do we pay for this? Why is that never a question when it comes to bombing Iran? Wait a minute. We're going to add$6 trillion to the debt? That's not what the American people want. You're going to have people who are going to want to ask, do I lose my own private insurance? What if I don't want this option? Democrats are going to have a difficult time, in my opinion, from those who want to govern.

31:23Boris Sanchez: I believe some really do. And you're going to have a huge SWAT that do want to impeach Trump and a whole bunch of other individuals. And they're going to have to wrestle with calming down that faction within their ranks. And I think it's going to be very challenging for them to the points that Kristen made earlier on. So can you govern while also holding people accountable? Or do you only hold people accountable with no governance at all? And that's going to be the challenge.

31:46Laura Coates: I mean, universal health care is something we've been talking about since the civil rights movement. It was in Reverend Jackson's 88 platform. It is John Conyers did Medicare for all. How do we pay for this? How do we pay for it, Karen?

31:55Boris Sanchez: How do we pay for this?

31:56Laura Coates: That is part of what Congress will have to figure out. How do you make it work? We've had these discussions and it never works.

32:02Boris Sanchez: Well, I'll tell you what, we sure have enough money for bonds. We sure have enough money for arches. We don't have the money for it. You're going to start yelling at me if I don't actually rap when they tell me to rap. This is a great conversation. I appreciate it.

32:13Laura Coates: Bring it to glass half full because I fly a commercial. Go ahead.

32:17Boris Sanchez: Stand by, everyone. Coming up with the midterms almost in the rear view, the 2028 presidential jockeying is already well underway as several prominent Democrats take a victory lap. One 2020 Democratic presidential candidate joins us next to discuss who could be the front runner.

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33:35Boris Sanchez: some senate seats have yet to be called and yet the 2020 presidential election is officially underway if you had the tv on today probably hard not to notice a lot of potential candidates taking to the air to celebrate democrats big win and offer their vision for the party as they prepare for what could be a long and crowded presidential primary someone who knows what that's like joins us now former 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang is with us he's the founder of the forward party also the CEO of noble mobile Andrew thanks so much for being with us is there a type of democrat for 2028 that you think most benefits from the results we saw last night and into this morning it's a new day in America Boris very exciting I've got a big idea for Democrats.

34:21Boris Sanchez: $5 ,000 for every American. Have Donald Trump sign it. Good times. In terms of the 2028 field, I think it's going to be someone who did not run in 2020 and someone who did not serve in the Biden administration. One of the themes from the results last night was that Americans want to turn the page. They want new voices, new blood, new energy. And I think that's who's going to strike a chord in 2028, I think it's going to be one of the governors who can say, realistically, look, I was not part of the team that ran, unfortunately, an administration that led to Trump too. I was governing a state. So that's Gavin Newsom, J.B.

35:08Boris Sanchez: Pritzker, Wes Moore, Josh Shapiro. Those are the folks I think are going to be there the whole way. What do you think out of those governors that you named is the strongest differentiator between them? I mean, you mentioned Shapiro. He does lead the biggest swing state in the nation, electorally speaking. Would you think that he has a good shot at a presidential run? Oh, yeah. I mean, having Pennsylvania on lock is a fantastic starting ground. But one of the phenomenal outcomes from last night is the map's a lot bigger and broader for Democrats than it was 72 hours ago. Josh Shapiro has done a formidable job governing, and he's got an incredibly strong case as a pragmatic, results-oriented leader, which is what I believe Americans want in their next president.

36:01Boris Sanchez: We've been having the conversation all night discussing some of the hunger within the Democratic Party. certainly throughout the campaign for accountability of the administration to get even, is how Leader Hakeem Jeffries put it, when saying that that's not really a priority for him, that he's more focused on getting a legislative agenda through. I wonder what you think should be the priority. Is it the investigations or is it new legislation? And if it's new legislation, other than the$5 ,000, by the way, did you steal that from President Trump? Other than the$5 ,000, what should it be? I think he took it from me, Boris.

36:41Boris Sanchez: You know, I think an anti-corruption package would be very, very popular. But you can't get bogged down in these investigations. The American people aren't here for that. The fact is Trump would not be in office now if the Democrats had actually run a primary in 2024. So giving the White House back to Trump and then saying we're just going to prosecute him, that's yesterday's news. What Americans want to see is that you're actually improving their way of life, putting money back in their pockets, easing the costs that are hitting them when they head to the grocery store or the gas station or the doctor's office.

37:17Boris Sanchez: And I think that a lot of the new folks who are heading to the Senate and Congress got that message loud and clear that this isn't a tit for tat type of election. It's a please improve my life election. You were right about correcting me. You ran in 2020 on giving folks money as a way to tackle AI and potential impending doom. A conversation to be had another day. Andrew Yang, we always appreciate your perspective. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Yes, America, we're back. Someone's back. Someone's on the way out.

37:53Laura Coates: You know who's back? Our panel with us right now. That's right. Nice. Yay. There you go. I love the pivot. Karen, do you? I found some money. Did you? I did? No, I found$21 trillion that Donald Trump says we're giving back from the tariffs. So that would pay for health care. That would make a nice dent. That's how we'll pay for it. Right. I have my cheat sheet. We could sell the Qatari jet for a billion. We could send the National Guard home. That's$1.4 billion. We could not repaint the OEOB for$7.5 million. We could not do his statue garden for$40 million. I'm okay with all that. It still doesn't get us close to paying for it.

38:35Laura Coates: It still doesn't get us close to paying for it.

38:36Boris Sanchez: We can also investigate all the actual fraud, waste, and abuse that the administration is committing. Here's a new rule that I think Democrats should take. If we want to know if we should do an investigation or not, we should ask ourselves, does it relate to direct fraud, waste, and abuse that is directly costing American taxpayers money? If it doesn't, don't investigate it. If it does, investigate the hell out of it and get the American people their money back. Maybe we can send them a check instead of Donald Trump.

38:59Laura Coates: rather than accountability. Is that what the mandate is? Or both?

39:03Boris Sanchez: Yeah.

39:05Laura Coates: Is that a question? I mean, I'm going to show and I'm going to, at the end, reflect my voice up and then be like, okay, okay. Keep it lively.

39:17Boris Sanchez: You guys get what I mean, right? I mean the polling.

39:20Laura Coates: I'm relying on Kristen because I need your polling sensibilities here in the sense of what is it that you saw and we're hearing in all of your extensive polling about whether people do want the accounting and the exact tie that David has described, or is it more of the conceptual ideas of accountability and corruption being targeted? So it's all of the above, because for a lot of people, when they're saying, I think that the system is corrupt and rigged, it doesn't just mean, it can mean everything from, I think that Donald Trump and his family are making money off of the fact that he is president right now.

39:55Laura Coates: And that feels gross to me and wrong, considering that my cost of living has gone up. But it can also mean people who hear stories about government benefits getting diverted. And so that's why I pointed out that there are lots of people who said that government corruption matters to them, but nevertheless still voted for Republican. That there's overall a sense that we have systems that right now people who do play by the rules actually kind of get screwed because there are lots of people who are willing to try to break the rules on scales large and small to benefit themselves. And they're looking for leaders who are going to make that stop.

40:27Laura Coates: So that's why I think when you said that to me, I thought, well, I don't view it as an either or. When people are talking about, I want to get rid of corruption in the system, they just want to make sure that people who are playing by the rules are actually the ones that are benefiting.

40:39Boris Sanchez: Karen, curious to get your thoughts on Andrew Yang's assessment that a potential 2028 Democratic presidential ticket should not include alumni of the Biden administration, that it should be one of the governors, perhaps.

40:51Laura Coates: Well, personally, I do think it's going to be a governor because when you think about the problem, look, I think 2028 is going to be all about the future. People are going to be wanting what is the net? What's next? What's the vision? What are we doing about A.I.? What are we doing about jobs? Not give me a 1965 fix up the Voting Rights Act. What is a modern Voting Rights Act look like? What does modern health care look like? And I think governors are the ones who, interestingly enough, have actually been having to deal with these issues right now. So they're able to talk about how they've dealt with it, how they've gotten results, what's working, what's not working.

41:25Laura Coates: So I tend to think the next president will come from a governor. But, you know, I think, you know, I think Yang was talking about Kamala Harris with that one. And, you know, who knows what she's going to do and who knows? And, you know, look, the other thing I would say about the Biden administration, I mean, And already think about how much just the way we live our lives has changed since 2024 in terms of how the data center issue has exploded this election cycle. We weren't talking about that in 2024 so much. So, you know, and she's been traveling around the country. I think she could she is just as capable of talk about the future as anybody else.

42:02Laura Coates: Do you think that Vice President J.D. Vance is in a similar boat as to Vice President Kamala Harris and being tied to, tethered to, frankly, the presidents that they served alongside of? Because, I mean, she infamously made that comment on The View. I mean, the things she would do differently. You heard me talk about J.D. Vance saying that he had some directives, essentially, for things to do. One of them included the end of the Iran war.

42:28Boris Sanchez: Yeah, look, he's definitely trying to draw separation from, apparently, the president and even the administration in an odd kind of way. I don't know how successful he'll be. I actually agree with Karen. Well, hold on.

42:39Laura Coates: Do you think he'll be successful in being able to untether? I don't think so. Because 2020 is two years away.

42:44Boris Sanchez: It's two years away. I don't think it's enough time, personally. I don't think it's enough time. I think, to Karen's point about a governor on the Democratic side, I think the same applies for Republicans. People want someone who can execute. In D.C., we ideate, ideate, ideate with zero execution. GOVERNORS HAVE TO FACILITATE THINGS. THEY HAVE TO FACILITATE THEY HAVE TO FACILITATE THINGS. THEY HAVE TO FACILITATE OFTENTIMES THEY HAVE TO WORK WITH DISPARATE PARTIES TO DO SO. I THINK THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, TO KEREN'S POINT, AI IS GOING TO WIPE OUT A QUARTER OR THIRD OF ALL JOBS. WHAT IS THE ANSWER TO THAT?

43:10Boris Sanchez: IS THERE SOME TYPE OF SOLUTION TO HEALTHCARE THAT FUSES TECHNOLOGY INTO IT? GOVERNORS ARE DEALING WITH THAT EVERY SINGLE DAY. I DON'T THINK THAT IS A singular Democrat thing. I think it's also a Republican thing where people want someone who has a proven track record of success for a future that appears to be uncertain to most people. Kristen, is that Ron DeSantis or Ted Cruz? What Republican stands up to you?

43:33Laura Coates: Oh, it's way, way, way, way, way too early for me to start attacking names. But I do think that Sir Michael is right that J.D. Vance is going to be, it's going to be very hard for him to separate from this administration. But I don't think that that is fatal to you in a Republican primary still. I think the night, the results of last night notwithstanding, I do think that if you are the person who is the next in line and Donald Trump picks you, you would be hard, not impossible, but still remains hard to unseat. And today you saw Vance put out that statement, you know, in some ways, I really think that it was an ill-advised statement because it's, I like my leaders to be leaders, not pundits.

44:11Laura Coates: And I think what you do on the day after your party gets beat really badly in an election is you put out a statement saying, here's what I want to do differently and here's what I'm looking to work with the next party on and here are the things that I'm going to stand firm on and instead it was a lot of inside baseball fights within the right references to specific pundits within the right it just felt it didn't feel like the sort of thing a leader does it feel like it feels like the sort of thing a pundit does no offense to those of us on this table and to me I just think that's going to be the other problem is like if you're the next in line, you're in good shape, even though the midterms have gone so horribly for Republicans.

44:49Laura Coates: But I don't know who's yet going to be the person with the right blend of charisma and an agenda that speaks to Republican concerns, but has that broader appeal. I don't know who that person is. The vice president no longer the automatic heir apparent. Interesting to think about how that may unfold. Stand by everyone, because coming up, we've got an update on that Senate race in Mississippi that, do you know, it is still too close to call. Our special coverage of the 2026 midterms continues after a quick break.

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45:48Boris Sanchez: The secret society of semi-homemade. Listen up. Sam's Club has pre-made dishes for a Thanksgiving feast that's ready in two hours. All while tasting suspiciously homemade.

45:58Laura Coates: Come join us. Sam's Club. Individual oven times may vary.