Dems Score Historic Midterm Wins

0:02I'm Wolf Blitzer and this is CNN's special live coverage of Election Day in America continued. Democrats take back the House and the Senate in very decisive victories. And Wolf, I'm Erin Burnett here in Austin, Texas. The Lone Star State just turned blue. Absolute stunner as Democrats won the Senate seat, the governorship, and all the way down ballot to the Statehouse behind me. Welcome to our special live coverage, Election Day in America continued.

0:44American voters around the country have delivered a political earthquake, upending the balance of power in Washington. First, in the House of Representatives, Democrats have won at least 231 seats, and that brings subpoena power and the ability to investigate the Trump administration. We spoke just a short time ago with the minority leader for the House Democrats and possibly the next House Speaker, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York. He says Democrats won by staying focused on one thing. Listen. Well, listen, we ran on affordability. We won decisively on affordability. We now have a responsibility to govern on affordability, to lower the high cost of all the things, the high cost of groceries, the high cost of housing, the high cost of gas.

1:36We're going to fight to make health care affordable for every single American so that people can actually afford to go see a doctor when they need one. In the Senate, Democrats have won at least, at least 54 seats, two races still undecided, Alaska and Mississippi. They will now have the power to block judicial nominees, including for the U.S. Supreme Court. And many of the wins coming in traditionally red states. In Texas, James Tallarico is the first Democrat elected to the Senate in nearly 40 years in Texas. In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed will become the first Muslim senator in U.S. history, despite the last-minute endorsement drama in that race, as we all watch.

2:25In South Carolina, Annie Andrews will be that state's first woman elected to the U.S. Senate. And in Kansas, Pastor Adam Hamilton beat Senator Roger Marshall. That state hasn't elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in nearly a century. In Maine, a logger is headed to the Senate. Troy Jackson beat five-term Republican Senator Susan Collins. And in Ohio, Sherrod Brown is returning to Washington. It's a major comeback. He lost his seat two years ago. In North Carolina, former Governor Roy Cooper wins. He has never lost an election in the Tar Heel State. Let's send things over to Erin for a closer look at some of these key races we're watching.

3:11Erin? That's right, Wolf, because we've got races still out. So stand by for a key race alert from the final two Senate races yet to be called here. And let's start with Alaska. New results just into CNN with the Democratic challenger Mary Peltola taking a just last minute lead here now over the incumbent Dan S. Sullivan. And that lead is 600 votes. That's a flip. Sullivan had been on top about an hour ago. Now Peltola on top. It's only 600 votes, though, and 74 percent of the vote has been counted. So a lot more to come in. Keep in mind, we had talked about many reasonable scenarios where Alaska was the deciding state to determine who actually controlled the Senate.

3:51and that if Peltola won, we might be waiting several weeks. You might have to have a rank choice runoff, all of these things. But now here's the situation. If Alaska goes Dem, it would be the eighth Senate seat Democrats were able to flip, which would be double the amount they needed to win to secure their party's power in the chamber. And something that I didn't see a single person in the cesspool of social media predict. And to Mississippi, let's go through that one. And shocking there, we're even discussing this, but it is a dead even tie right now between the Democratic challenger Scott Colum and the incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith.

4:27Right now, 43 votes separate the two. 96 % of the vote counted. And if they win off upsets in these two races, as I said, that would be the 55th and 56th Senate seats, something that nobody had predicted. And obviously a stunning rebuke of President Trump. And Wolf, we're awaiting a possible press conference there in Mississippi from the Democratic candidate. it. We'll see if that happens here in this next few minutes. Anxious to see if that happens indeed. All right, Aaron, thank you very much. Let's break all this down with CNN's Phil Mattingly. He's here with me over at the Magic Wall, a resounding and historic victory for the Democrats.

5:01Take us a little inside some of these questions that are still outstanding. Let's start with where Aaron left off, and that's Mississippi. We've been waiting all morning for any new vote to come in in this race that, as Aaron was just laying out, is, I don't know that you can get closer than 43 votes between the incumbent Cindy Hydesmith and her Democratic challenger. 96 % of the vote is. 96 % reporting. What I've been waiting for and watching and wondering about throughout the course of the morning is right over here in Hines County. This is the home of Jackson. This is a county that Democrats, even in traditional Republican heavy years, still roll up a lot of big vote.

5:34And right now, the Democrat here is running up a margin that is almost double what they normally do in this county. There's 90 % reporting here. Normally that looks like a lot, but with 10 % outstanding in a race that's separated by this much and is this far into being reported, this will be a significant, significant vote batch whenever it comes in. They stopped. It was reported. They stopped counting at one point earlier in the night. We are waiting to see on that. We'll wait to see if there's a press conference going forward where the vote's outstanding. Still very much a toss-up race when you actually do the math.

6:05Then we want to go back into Alaska real quick. We saw the only vote we have gotten in these two races came in this race. It put Mary Peltola ahead by 626 votes, 74 percent reporting. There's a lot of vote outstanding in all of the different kind of House precincts in which Alaska uses to report. So we're going to wait and see how that plays out going forward. As Aaron noted, the key number for whoever wins is going to be, can you get above 50 and avoid the rank choice process that would take 15 days to play out? So continuing to watch that as well. Big picture, Wolf. Look, this is stunning. Leading in nine seats and nine Republican seats.

6:39Seven have been called as flips. You want to get even more into the weeds here. Of those seven that have been called as flips, states that Trump won by 10 points or more, five of them, five of the seven flips are states that Trump won by 10 points or more. In the House, there's 30 plus districts right now that Trump won by 10 points or more that Democrats are leading in or have been called. It's a Democratic blowout. Anyway, you slice it. Certainly is. All right, Phil Mattingly. Thank you very much. I want to go over to the voting desk, Omar Jimenez. You're taking a closer look at Mississippi, too.

7:13What do you see? Yeah, because, I mean, the margin is down to literally a few dozen people right now. So we wanted to just go through the two categories of votes, still left to count, and what could actually make the difference here. So for starters, we are now waiting on mail-in and absentee ballots to come in. And really, as long as they're postmarked by Election Day, they can arrive up to 10, up until November 10th, five business days. But what could be more significant is the provisional ballots here. Provisional ballots are typically cast when there's a question about voters' eligibility.

7:42So those ballots, known as affidavit ballots in Mississippi, are held for counting until officials are sure that the vote can be accepted. So what are those reasons? Could be a voter forgets their ID at home, doesn't present acceptable ID. Could be a voter isn't immediately showing up in the voter rolls. Or it could be records show that they voted previously on Election Day or absentee. they can cast one of these provisional or affidavit ballots that would then be investigated further by election officials. So how many are we talking about here? Remember that margin in the vote here, just a few dozen.

8:16The Scott Colombe campaign estimating up to 15 ,000 affidavit votes outstanding in his race with Cindy Hyde-Smith. Obviously, when you look at the margin of a literal football team, that movement in any direction could make a huge difference here. And look, this is going to be a bit of a crunch because the deadline for all this as well is November 10th for the absentees and these provisionals. It's how long people have to go to their circuit clerk's offices to present proper ID, for example, for any of those ballots. But then because we are talking about a tight margin in the vote count, many states that would trigger an automatic recount if this is where it ends up.

8:52Not here. They do not have any automatic or requested recounts. That can only happen through a court order if there is a legal challenge. And then on those grounds, it would be a tight window when you consider that previous November 10th deadline for the absentees and affidavit ballots. The county certification deadline is November 13th. The state certification deadline is December 3rd. So Democrats obviously looking for another pickup. This one would be incredibly significant, but it looks like it may come down to these votes that are still outstanding in this razor thin margin. And they got to count all those votes, too.

9:27That's going to take some time. All right. Thanks very much, Omar. Appreciate it very much. Erin, over to you. All right. Well, we do have some breaking news just in, and I'll tell you what it is. Sources are telling us that the House Speaker, Mike Johnson, told staff this morning he is not running for House GOP leader, doesn't want to be leader of the minority party. This is after, of course, the GOP faced those devastating losses in the House and in a margin that could end up being could end up being 250 for Democrats. We'll see right now 263 leading and we'll see what the total count is, but exceeding far exceeding anything on that anybody expected.

10:05So joining me now, Republican Texas State Representative Dave Phelan, also former Speaker of the Texas House behind me, the former Democratic Texas State Senator Wendy Davis, who ran against Greg Abbott for governor in 2014 and GOP donor Dan Eberhardt. Dan, can I just start with you? Last week, the word out of Speaker Johnson was I'm going to be the speaker. right you know not not not not acknowledging that there'd be any issue at all with Republicans maintaining control of the house now you're looking at what could be a what 60 70 year you know massive massive win for for Democrats and he says he does not even want to be the minority leader well of course he doesn't and I think that he you know he said what he had to say but that the ship has sailed look I think that the Republicans should elect Jim Jordan minority leader he's you know his cherub oversight he's proven he can fight and Trump really needs someone in there that can fight for the conservative cause and push back on all the oversight that the Democrats are going to try to do against Trump.

10:59So I think we'll end up seeing Jim Jordan minority leader when the dust settles. All right. And when the dust settles. Okay. We're sitting here in Texas, a blue state, right? Today it is a blue state. This morning. I mean, every single, right? You look behind us. Speaker Phelan was saying there's an apartment in the Texas statehouse behind us. One apartment in all the state houses in America. You lived in it when you were the Republican speaker. The current Republican speaker is packing his boxes this morning. A lot of people are packing their boxes. So things have changed here. But it's not just here.

11:31You were talking about living along the Louisiana border. So we were watching Louisiana. We haven't mentioned Louisiana all morning. I just checked the numbers. The Republicans are going to win in Louisiana by two points. Two points. No one saw it coming. The independence across this country swung hard Democrat, maybe 70 to 30 against Republicans. I mean, they let their voice be heard. They want to hear about the issues impacting them, their daily lives, and Republicans just weren't talking about them. And they were walking away from those issues, really. And that's why you see Louisiana, too.

12:03That's why you see Mississippi, what are we down to 60 votes right now? 48 votes. 48 votes. So the South swung. The South swung hard. And that's why Texas is blue today. I mean, it is incredible, Wendy, because we're talking about what happened here. A 25-point swing from Trump to Tallarica when you just look at what happened to voters. You talk about Louisiana. You talk about Mississippi. Georgia now, with the first black female governor in history, when one of her not-long-removed ancestors was sold for$1 ,400 as a slave in the state of Georgia. I mean, these are incredible things. That gives everybody chills, right, as an American.

12:44And yet, even in New York state, that was a contested governor's race. People thought it might be single digits. Democrat wins by 20 points. Double maybe what some had expected, if not more, in terms of her margin of victory. Louisiana, they hold on to by two points. What is happening? Yeah, this was a change election, obviously. It was absolutely a repudiation of Trump. It was the pain in people's lives coming forward and activating them to do something about it. But in the South, it's also the fact that so much has been built up over the course of the last several years with people like Stacey Abrams, for example, helping to organize Georgia.

13:28And then she's been doing a lot of work in Mississippi. Like you were doing here in Texas, right? It didn't just happen. What we've been doing here in Texas, you know, from the bottom of the ballot all the way up. You can't build the wins that we saw in these southern states if you haven't built the kind of infrastructure that can tap into a moment like this and turn voters out and make sure that you're helping to remind them you have the power. Here's how to use the power. And you go to every one of their doors. You call everyone. You text everyone. You send them a digital ad. It's a, you know, just huge compilation of work that helps result in the kind of evening that we saw last night.

14:09I'm thinking yesterday afternoon, talking to Tallarico campaign managers. They told me, we're going to know by 9 or 10, central time. That's really early. Sure. Okay? And so it was like, are they just talking, you know, talking it up? They were right. Okay? They were right. Their internal polling saw it. The external polls that we saw out there, they didn't show this at all on any of these margins. And if anything, everyone in the country is like, oh, my God, we don't trust the polls. They don't count Republicans. What I'm curious about, Dan, now that Republicans see this as a donor, did any Republicans see this coming or is that part just literally gobsmacked?

14:44I would use that word. I mean, look, I think that I think that nobody saw this coming. And what happened is basically the the undecided swung 80 or 90 percent to the Democrats. It wasn't wasn't even remotely close. And so we got wiped out. You know, we mostly got wiped out across the map. We barely held on in Florida. You know, we're talking about these other states in the South. Look, in Florida, we won the Senate race and the governor's race, but we underperformed by 10 or 11 points. We lost independents 70 to 30 in Florida, too. Well, you were pointing out in Florida, Republicans, and I've seen these numbers over months, over these past couple years, you had registered more Republicans.

15:18In fact, like a 12-point advantage, and then you barely win either of those by what, a point or two? We have a 12-point voter registration advantage. We won the race by 1.4 points. Byron Donald spent almost$180 million. David Jolly spent $28 million and lost by 1.4 points. Angie Nixon ran a fabulous campaign on peanuts. I think when you look at when the dust settles, I think she might have gotten the most votes for the least amount of money spent across the entire map in Florida. She really overperformed. And I think what this is going to mean is like in Texas, where the Democrats turned it blue, the Democrats are You're going to see what happened in Florida and see it as being worthwhile investing to try to flip it in 28 or try to flip it in 30.

15:59So I think Republicans, we've got to really do a lot of soul searching. We've got to have better messaging. We've got to listen to people more, maybe channel a little bit more Ron DeSantis and a little bit less Donald Trump to have a shot. Or a lot less Donald Trump, as voters may have said. But people watching around the world, right, it is an amazing moment in American politics, and I think one where the entire world is watching to say, well, what is America? What is America? Well, America gave an answer to that last night. Thanks so much to all of you. And still ahead here in Texas with the Texas State House behind me, Senator-elect James Tallarico will be joining us after, of course, his seismic win in Texas, a 25-point flip there from Trump's victory to Tallarico's victory.

16:38So please don't go anywhere as our special coverage of Election Day in America continues.

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18:36All right, welcome back. I'm joined now by this state because you see the Texas Statehouse behind me, Texas's next U.S. Senator James Tallarico. And Senator Lack Tallarico, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Has it hit you yet? I don't know. I didn't get much sleep on site, but maybe later today it will. Great to see you again, Erin. So, you know, I'm just looking here because obviously I met you in person for the first time a couple weeks ago at your town hall here in Texas. and it was at the time, maybe you'd eke it out, maybe you wouldn't. That was the projection. You're ahead by 12 points right now, as all these final votes are being counted, Senator-elect.

19:2112 points. Trump won the entire state of Texas by 14 points. That's basic math. That is a swing of 26 points from Trump and a red Texas to Tallarico and a blue Texas. You had, obviously, access to your own internal numbers. I am just curious, are you surprised by the scale of your victory? I am. We saw incredible momentum on the ground over the course of the last year all over Texas. We saw a coalition coming together. First-time voters, young voters, three-time Trump voters. And so I knew that we were building something special. I didn't know we were going to win Texas by double digits, but I really do believe that the reason we won is that we forged a new kind of politics, not a politics of hate or fear or division, but a politics of love, one that brings people together rather than pulling them apart.

20:23And I think that can be a model for our politics as a nation going forward. You spoke a lot about love in your speech last night. And do you believe that that resonates? I was standing there and I was struck by it. The signs people had, love thy neighbor, right? Obviously, you have made your faith and your religion a crucial part of who you are and your candidacy. But hearing love as that word so front and center from a politician is extremely unusual. Yeah, and it's the most important word in all of our lives. It's the most important word in the English language. and we rarely hear it spoken in our politics.

21:05My granddad was a Baptist preacher in South Texas. And when I was little, he told me that we follow a barefoot rabbi who gave us two commandments to follow, love God and love neighbor, because there is no love of God without love of neighbor. And I was raised to love all of my neighbors, not just my neighbors who look like me or pray like me or vote like me. And that kind of love has been missing from our politics, from our communities, from our country for too long now. And I think this election was really a response to the kind of division that we've seen over the past decade. So you're going to be the senator for a guy named Ken Paxton.

21:51Has he called you yet? He hasn't, but I saw his concession speech last night and I appreciate his kind words. I'm glad that he's acknowledged the results of this election. And I look forward to being a senator for all 31 million Texans, including Ken Paxton, including the Texans who didn't vote for me. I want to serve them, too. I want to fight for them, too. I want to make their lives easier and better and less stressful. I am not going to Washington to represent the Democratic Party. I'm going to Washington to represent this beautiful state and every person who lives here. And so I look forward to working on a bipartisan basis to serve all Texans.

22:33All right. So that's really interesting because it was something I remember from when you and I spoke at the town hall. You said the same thing. I'm not going as a Democrat. I'm not going as a Republican. I'm going as a Texan. But you are walking into Washington, D.C., where a lot of people are going with their jerseys on. Right. Even in your own party, Abdul El-Sayed, that race has been called. He is on the far left of your party. There are a lot of things he may believe in that you may not share. Are you going to stand up? And I remember the gentleman at our town hall who asked you that, right?

23:05He was talking, they were talking about voter ID in that particular case. But are you going to stand up to the Democrats in Washington? Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to vote against your own party? I will stand up to anyone I have to to defend the people of Texas. And I will work with anyone I can to help the people of Texas. And this is what I've done for four terms in the statehouse long before the Senate race, long before I was doing interviews on CNN. I was working quietly in the halls of the legislature with both parties, with far-right Republicans and far-left Democrats, to pass 60 bipartisan bills.

23:44Bills that raise teacher pay, bills that lower the cost of housing and child care and property taxes and prescription drugs like insulin. And that's exactly what I'm going to do in the U.S. Senate. I'm going to build bridges with all of my 99 colleagues in the U.S. Senate. I'm going to build bridges, or at least try to, with President Trump, because my mandate is to deliver for working people in my state to make their lives easier and better, to lower their costs, to root out corruption and get this economy back on track. You may be on an island that is not highly populated as a Democrat saying you want to work with President Trump.

24:24So let me just ask you about that. He did say in response to this, right, I mean, the results of this election are overwhelming, Senator-elect. He's not talking about it being rigged. He said that he would work with Democrats on things like immigration. So are you just openly saying, yes, you will work with President Trump on something like immigration? Absolutely. We have masked men in unmarked vehicles, kidnapping people off our street here in the state of Texas. We have federal agents murdering our neighbors in cold blood like Lorenzo Salgado in Houston, Texas. And so we have to take action to protect our neighbors across this state.

25:04And I will work with anyone and everyone to make that possible. I think there's an opportunity here to finally pass comprehensive immigration reform to secure our border. I'm a border security Democrat. And also create more legal pathways for hardworking immigrants to come to this country, contribute to this economy, and make us richer and stronger as a nation and pass a pathway to citizenship for our neighbors who have been here for years, for decades, so they can come out of the shadows. I have not given up hope that that kind of comprehensive immigration reform is possible, and I will work with anyone to get it done.

25:39You may be walking into a Washington where, defying any expectations that anyone had, Democrats have a majority in the House of possibly 250 seats. Right now we're calling 231. That number is going to go higher. It could go significantly higher. A Senate, which could have 56 Democrats, again, something that nobody would have predicted. Mississippi may be on that list, Senator-elect. In that world, impeaching the President of the United States could be a very real thing. It could happen in the House. It could come to the Senate. Are you open to that? Well, obviously, as a senator, I wouldn't be charging anyone with impeachment, but I would be sitting in an impeachment trial, which I've done before.

26:21I sat in an impeachment trial as a state representative, and I reviewed every shred of evidence. I listened to every expert, and I did my duty accordingly. And that's exactly what I would do in the U.S. Senate. I will say, though, I think our top priority has to be delivering for the people of Texas, for the people of this country. 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. I really do believe that the people of this country are giving Democrats one last chance to deliver for them, make their lives easier and better.

27:06And that's what we have to accomplish.

27:11One big person, of course, in all of this here in Texas and for the entire country is Elon Musk. He posted, I don't know if you saw it, it was sort of a joke saying, well, I guess nobody can blame the space lasers for this loss. He also made a comment about how he now is thinking, well, gosh, AI data centers in space might be a good idea. It was a central issue here in Texas. But he put half a billion dollars into elections in this country, Senator-elect. I just did the math. That's 0.04 percent of his net worth, right? It's like buying a lottery ticket for him. But he had thought it could influence this election.

27:46You've been very critical of money and politics. You're critical of billionaires and obviously is the world's richest man. Has he called you and are you willing to take his call and work with him? Like I said, I'll work with anyone. I think last night we showed that all the money in the world is no match for the people of Texas. We sent a clear message to every billionaire megadonor, every trillionaire megadonor that in this state, in this country, power belongs to the people. This was a win the size of Texas. We went up against the most money of any Senate candidate in the country. In the biggest red state in America, we won by double digits.

28:28And it shows the power of the movement that we built, the kind of politics that we forged here in the Lone Star State. And now we have a mandate the size of Texas. And I think the first thing we got to do is get big money out of our politics. So no billionaire, no trillionaire can buy our elections in this country. All right, Senator-elect James Tallarico, I appreciate your time. It is good to talk to you again. And thank you. Thank you for having me. Mark Short joins me now, former legislative affairs director for President Trump, former senior advisor to vice president Mike Pence. So, Mark, when you hear a conversation like that with the senator-elect here from Texas, James Tallarico, what do you hear?

29:12I mean, there's a lot there, but some things that stand out. Not a Democrat, not a Republican, right, going to legislate. Yes, he'll work with President Trump. Says he's willing to vote against his own party. What do you make of that? And I ask you that in the contrast to others like Abdul El Syed, right? That party, Democrats that are walking into the Senate, talk about Big Ten, right? There's some really different people in that group. Yeah. Well, thanks for having me, Erin. You know, early in my career, I was chief of staff for Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson from Texas, and she won a special election in 1993.

29:50It was the last time a Democrat held a seat in the Senate from Texas. So it's been 30 some years. I think the tone and tenor of James Tallarico was was very appropriate and it should be the right message for today. But, you know, the rubber will meet the road when we when he gets up here in January. I think we've seen what happens to Haley Stevens or John Fetterman if they're not towing the line in the Democrat Party. And so it's easy to say those things today. But, you know, it's a big question of what does Leader Schumer allow as far as leverage for his his newer members. If he has a majority of 55 or 56, then he should be able to afford that.

30:29But he's also got a lot of cross pressures in his conference. And if they're putting pressure on some of these new Southern Democrat senators, it's going to be very difficult to perhaps to keep that same perspective. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And you talk about new Southern Democrats. I mean, you could have a Democrat from Mississippi. And if you do, it's going to be it's going to make a razor thin look like a wide margin. So I don't know if you heard this, Mark, but just a few moments ago, we broke the news that Speaker Johnson says he's out. He accepts the results. You know, last week he had said obviously that he was going to continue to be the speaker.

31:03He held firm on that. Accepts the results and he's not going to run for House Minority Leader. He wants out. What do you read into that? I don't think that's surprising. I think Mike Johnson did a great job of holding the conference together with incredibly slim margins over the last couple of years. But when When you have a defeat that's this decisive, I think it's pretty hard to, I think, frankly, gather the votes within your conference to win again. I think when Mike Johnson made comments that he would run for minority leader, it was probably intended to kind of keep the jockeying internally between Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise at bay while we were still trying to hold on to the House in November.

31:39So I've always assumed that if we actually didn't, that he probably would move on, especially with the margin this significant, it may actually be hard to gather the votes right now. So now we just got a couple developments here. Two people are going to be running at least, at least two for that minority leader role. Congressman Steve Scalise just announced that and Jim Jordan just announced that. So Scalise versus Jordan, which is an interesting competition in a sense, some might've said, well, they would have worked that out beforehand, picked the lane and gone with it. What does it say to you that they're both running against each other well look i think that jim jordan comes obviously from the more conservative wing of the party uh he has been one of the original founders of the freedom caucus but this cycle he traveled across the country trying to elect many of the more moderate members inside the republican conference steve scalise has been a team player for quite a long time and has built his own following i'm not sure it's going to be just those two i know those are the two that put their hat in the ring so far.

32:39But I think if if neither one can actually surmount a significant lead, you might see others decide that this is their opportunity to step into because, Aaron, after what the debacle was last night, there's no doubt that our party needs to go in a new direction. And so you may still see new players get into the leadership race at this point. All right. Well, Mark Short, I always appreciate talking to you and thank you so much. Wolf. All right, Aaron. So they got their a big blue wave. Now what? We'll ask the New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand what Democrats in the House and the Senate will now do with their newfound power.

33:16That's next.

33:25Democrats win back control of Congress, but how did this blue wave take place? Let's discuss with CNN's Phil Mattingly. He's over at the Magic Wall getting inside information. Phil? Well, there are no shortage of races you can look into to try and figure out the answer to that in House, Senate or governor's races. But I want to focus on House because I think that's where it's just truly astounding. And also goes from east all the way to west. As it currently stands, Democrats leading in 263 congressional districts. Of those, 50 are Republican districts. What does that actually look like? Pull out those districts and you see these are all Republican districts where Democrats are either leading or have already been called to win districts that in many cases, they didn't know they had any opportunity to.

34:09Now, there were certainly a lot of pickups on this map. Wolf, there's no question about that. But look at these in particular. These are districts Donald Trump won by 10 plus points. These are the type of districts, including many, that were redrawn in that mid-decade redistricting process that anything beneath a plus 10 type of wave, most Republicans thought they were going to escape. 32 districts right now that Donald Trump won by more than 10 points in 2024. Based on the district lines, Democrats are leading. And of those 32, 17 of those races have been called. So when you talk about the size and scale of this majority, Wolf, it is beyond even, I think, the wildest dreams of some of the most optimistic Democratic operatives here.

34:52But it also underscores just the scale and breadth of the wave as it is crashed down. It is not just Pennsylvania and North Carolina where Democrats are picking up four and five seats potentially, but it's pushing all the way out and deep into very, very Trump districts. That also, we should note, includes the exact districts that were redrawn to keep Democrats or to insulate that majority. These are districts that in many cases redrawn to be Trump plus 10 districts. Mid-district trying to insulate that very, very narrow majority. in Florida, four seats redrawn. One of those seats plus 17 and a half for Trump.

35:28Right now, the Democrat is leading that seat. The three other seats Democrats have been able to hold on to. When you look at all of it together, this is just in plus 10 districts. Democrats are winning 13 of the 15 districts that were redrawn. 10 of them have been called at this point in time. Wolf, that's not a wave. That's whatever you would call is bigger than a wave based on the results we've seen. It's a huge, huge win, no doubt about that. Phil Mattingly, thank you very, very much. Right now I want to bring in Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York State. What's your reaction, first of all, to the dramatic developments that we've seen over the past few hours?

36:05It's incredible, and in answer to your colleague's question, it's a blue tsunami. It's a tsunami. That's what's bigger than a wave. That's the New York Post front page. New York Post front page in New York City. New Yorkers are waking up to this. It was an incredible night. People voted for change. They They are fed up with Trump's America. They don't like the high cost of gasoline and heating fuel. They don't like the high cost of groceries and housing. And they want access to better health care. They want things to be better than it is. President Trump promised no forever wars. We're mired in this war in Iran.

36:38President Trump has delivered so much corruption to Washington. He's much more focused on his ballrooms and tax breaks for billionaires and bombs for his war than actually getting people the health care they need to survive. And so people voted for change and it was a blue tsunami. So what does the Democratic majority in the Senate allow you to do now? What do you expect will happen? We can deliver for the American people. How? Well, we can try very hard to end this war in Iran so we can get gas prices down and get home heating costs down. We can work very hard to end these chaotic tariffs so we can get food costs and housing costs back down.

37:13We can actually fight to get better health care for Americans. All those cuts to Medicaid, all those cuts to Medicare that Trump made, we need to make sure people have access to good, affordable health care so they can survive and thrive. And so we need to deliver for the American people by ending this war, ending these tariffs, getting costs down, and dealing with the corruption that Donald Trump has put into Washington. With the impressive Democratic majority now in the Senate, you can pass this kind of legislation, but Trump could veto it, And then you would need a two-thirds vote in the Senate to override that veto.

37:45Well, some of these things are so common sense, Wolf. I wouldn't be surprised that they are bipartisan. We can get people the access to the health care they need, better health care, vision and dental, hearing, things that our seniors don't have, making sure people can access the medicines that their doctors prescribe them. These are common sense, arguably bipartisan ideas that we can get done. But really taking on this war in Iran, it's an unnecessary, unauthorized, unwanted war. The American people do not support it. And it is constantly driving up our gasoline costs. Our diesel costs are above$6 a gallon.

38:19That drives up food costs. People are tired of not being able to feed their families. And you add to that all the corruption of Trump and cutting food stamps and cutting programs that people need like Meals on Wheels and early childhood education. People are fed up. That's why they voted for change. It's why they elected a whole new slate of incredible Senate candidates across the country in red and purple places that you would never expect. I mean, we are on the verge of winning Mississippi right now. We won South Carolina. We won Texas, Iowa, Ohio. These states are red, red, red states. And it shows that the American people voted for change.

38:57As you know, I grew up in New York State in beautiful Buffalo, New York, my hometown. What, if anything, can you now do to end this tariff war with Canada? Considering the fact that New York State borders Canada. Yeah, when you have a tariff war with Canada, it means all the inputs that you would get from Canada, whether it's building materials, whether it's pharmaceuticals, whether it's any type of food that we trade back and forth, it's more expensive. And so New Yorkers have been struggling and suffering, which is why you saw some change elections in New York as well. We just won New York 17, which is exciting.

39:30and New York 21 is very close. They're still counting. So people want change. Wolf, it's really that simple. And they want a government that works for them to make life more affordable so they can provide for their families. They've been suffering under Trump's America and they rejected him wholeheartedly last night. Will you support your fellow New Yorker Chuck Schumer to be the next majority leader in the Senate? I certainly will. And he's done such an incredible job. He has not only helped marshal these incredible candidates, but he's raised over a half a billion dollars for these candidates.

40:03He's traveled all across the country to help create this majority, and he's done a great job. So yes, I'm supporting Chuck fully. And what was your reaction to Governor Hochul's win in New York City? It was a big win. She crushed it. Hochul has taken on Trump from the beginning of his administration. She's fought back on policies out of Washington to harm New York. She's fighting every day to get housing costs and grocery costs and child care costs down in our state. She understands what New Yorkers are going through and she's been a really tough fighter for us, which is why she did so well last night.

40:35Senator, Senator, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks, Will. And congratulations to you and all your fellow Democrats. Thank you. Appreciate it. Minutes from now, we're expecting to hear directly from the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. We'll see what he has to say about the Democrats' huge win last night. Stay with us.

40:57We're back with our breaking election coverage. We're watching it very closely right now. I want to bring in our excellent panel, S.E. Kump. You heard James Tellarico just tell our Aaron Burnett that he wants to work with President Trump to get things done. The president told Politico last night that he wants to work with Democrats after earlier insisting he'd become Mr. Vito, Vito, if the Democrats won control of Congress. What are you expecting? It's going to be rough. It's going to be a rough two years. The president's going in as Mr. Vito. We heard the incoming House Oversight Chair, Robert Garcia, saying, lawyer up.

41:34So I think, you know, there is going to be some sense of defensive crouches and digging in. But James Tallarico's right. What he said to Aaron was people are not sending us, meaning these newbies, to Washington for retribution. They're sending us to solve their problems. And I think that's what people expect them to do. Now, does that mean they should ignore the corruption? No. I think there's a difference, and I think voters make this distinction, too, between addressing the corruption and then the performance of impeachment. And I think a lot of voters see the impeachment efforts as a performance that doesn't really solve a problem.

42:13They want the corruption held accountable. They want that tackled. But they also want, finally, for lawmakers to be addressing their very real problems. It feels like lawmakers for the past decade have been going to Congress to get famous, to grift, to make money, to win favor with the president. It's time for people to do their job and remember that they are first and foremost public servants. Good point indeed. You know, David, it's interesting. The breaking news we're following, the outgoing, now outgoing House Speaker Mike Johnson telling his staff a little while ago he's not going to run for Senate minority leader because the Republicans are going to be in the minority, the GOP leader in the Senate.

42:57But it does look like Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan will be candidates for that job. Who do you think should lead the House caucus? Someone from Ohio for sure, right? Far be it for me to tell the House members to do. But listen, both men are very talented. They both bring different skill sets. Jim Jordan is very combative. I think probably, you know, if you're asking me who I think is going to win, I think Jim Jordan is probably going to end up being the minority leader. Why do you think he'll win? Because, you know, he led that oversight. He's a fighter. The caucus likes him, I think, more in that role.

43:30Steve Scalise is a little bit better in terms of, you know, He's more of a consensus builder. Yeah, he's a lighter touch. He's not a boxer. He's not a wrestler. He's not a grappler. He's not there to do that. And, you know, to Essie's point about does the president want to veto, is he going to work with things? I think it'll be an interesting mix. You know, I think there's a world in which he could work with Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries to get things done. But, you know, to her point about oversight, if they are continually up there investigating his family and the perceived grift, he's going to be less inclined to cut deals if he feels he's under siege.

44:06That's interesting. You know, Jamie, President Trump spent the last several weeks out there on the campaign trail stumping for Republican candidates. Overnight, he said this, and I'm quoting him now. I wasn't on the ballot, and if I was, we would have won in a landslide. After last night, what does the president's role look like moving ahead in the coming year? So first of all, let's just fact check the president. And I want to quote my friend and one of our colleagues, Peter Baker of The New York Times, who actually counted the number of times that President Trump pleaded with voters to vote to pretend he's on the ballot.

44:45And the answer is 47 times at least. Peter counted so we don't have to. Just to go back for a minute to who's going to be the next minority leader, I would add one thing to what David said. Donald Trump wants Jim Jordan to be the next minority leader. He wants someone who's going to be combative. But don't you think that Trump's credibility has really gone down as a result of what happened yesterday? I mean, it's hard to say credibility. People believed him, right? People voted for policies. But a lot of Republicans lost because of him. They did, but everyone believed him. Everybody experienced the policies, promises kept.

45:26All of those things are true. The problem is nobody enjoyed them in their execution, and now they are reaping the fruits of that, and I think that's really difficult. To your point about Hakeem Jeffries and what to work on in the future, keep in mind there are all kinds of issues that have surfaced. Data centers is one. Huge. Where there is a bipartisan sense of, oh boy, should we do something? And Trump, who had been palling around with big tech, telling people they were backwards for not wanting data centers. Again, he was tone deaf to an issue that had grown in a bipartisan way in terms of its backlash.

45:59Right now I'm looking at ballot measures, something like 40 of them are moratoriums or restrictions on data centers, and most of them passed. So I do think housing data centers, we heard them also talking about health care. Those are things Democrats can act on and possibly draw Republicans with them. Where it gets harder is stuff like gas prices, right? Like things that we know fundamentally policy-wise, that's a lot harder. Yeah. All right, everybody stand by. We've got a lot more to discuss. The Senate seat in Michigan remains in Democratic hands. We're going to break down Abdul El-Sayed's massive victory in what was a bruising and chaotic election cycle.

46:35Stay with us. Lots going on.

46:42I'm Wolf Blitzer, and this is CNN's special live coverage of Election Day in America, continued. Democrats have a truly historic night as they take back the House and the Senate. And good morning. I'm Erin Burnett in Austin, Texas, where one of the biggest stunners of the night in America took place. Democrats winning the Senate, winning the governorship, first time in decades, and a clean sweep across the board in the state Senate and other offices. Welcome to CNN's special live coverage. Election Day in America continued.

47:27A truly stunning shift in the halls of power up on Capitol Hill. Democrats flipping both chambers of Congress in a single night. This hour, we expect to hear directly from Senator Chuck Schumer, who could soon become the majority leader in the Senate. He's slated to speak any moment. We'll have live coverage. And in the House of Representatives, a majority with room to spare. Democrats have won at least 231 seats. They needed only 218 to take the majority. In the Senate, Democrats needed a net four seats. They flipped seven so far, giving them at least 54 seats in the Senate. Alaska and Mississippi still undecided.

48:11In Texas, James Tallarico beats Ken Paxton. No Democrat has won a Senate race there in nearly 40 years. And in Michigan, former public health official Dr. Abdul El-Sayed wins a lot of last-minute drama in that race. But El-Sayed will be the first Muslim senator in U.S. history. Kansas has just elected its first Democrat to the Senate in nearly a century. Pastor Adam Hamilton beating incumbent Roger Marshall. In Ohio, two years after losing his seat, Sherrod Brown is headed back to the U.S. Senate. All right, let's send things over to Erin to take a closer look at some of the key races we're still watching right now.

48:54Erin? And Wolf, we certainly are because we haven't been able to call them all yet, right? We are standing by right now for a key race alert from the final two Senate races that we have not yet called. So let's start with Alaska. New results just into CNN. The Democratic challenger Mary Peltola has taken a lead over the incumbent Dan S. Sullivan. A 600-point margin there, 600 votes, I'm sorry. That's 74 % of the vote counted. And I just want to be clear here, we got a dump of about 5 ,200 votes that had caused that to flip from a very marginal Dan S. Sullivan lead to Peltola, just barely on top.

49:32But more votes to come in. That could go back and forth several more times. If Peltola manages to win, it would be the eighth Senate seat the Democrats were able to flip, a number that nobody anticipated 24 hours ago. And Mississippi, another thing nobody anticipated. Our race alert here, dead-even tie between the Democratic challenger, Scott Cullum, and the incumbent Republican, Cindy Hyde-Smith. Unexpected race for the Democrats. Late, late surge of money Democrats put into Mississippi, thinking they could, you know, narrow the margins. But a win wasn't on the radar. A total of 43 votes. That's it.

50:07That separate the two candidates. 96 % of the vote counted. So, again, Democrats, if they're able to battle back and they're able to pull off upsets in these two races, that would be 56 Senate seats. 56 Senate seats. Again, not on the radar 24 hours ago. A stunning rebuke, Trump, Wolf, of President Trump. Stunning rebuke indeed. Thank you, Erin. And now that Democrats will control both chambers of Congress, the House and the Senate, how will they use their newfound power? We're standing by for a news conference from the now expected to be the Senate, the new Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer.

50:43CNN's Manu Raju is joining us from Washington. Manu, what are you expecting to hear from Schumer only hours after his party's truly landslide win? Well, a victory lap for certain from Chuck Schumer, but also unexpected. Schumer was not expecting to have a majority of this size. In fact, he was still uncertain whether they would actually win the majority, given how bad the map was for Democrats coming in. Remember, at the beginning of this cycle, very few thought there was actually a chance of winning back the Senate majority, given the fact that a lot of these races went through truly very Trump.

51:18It states that Trump won overwhelmingly by double digits, and it seemed to pick up the net of four seats while defending all of their own. would seem very difficult, if not impossible, to some. That changed, of course, through the course of President's last two years, the opposition to the Iran war, high gas prices, high diesel prices, putting all those red seats in play. Virtually no one here in Washington expected a majority, where now they have 54 seats in the United States Senate, could get as high as 56 seats. So how will Schumer deal with that majority, which is very diverse, both ideologically, a lot of those members from Trump states, progressive members, balancing those demands and how will he confront Trump as the new majority that are going into the next Congress.

52:00All big questions today, but I expect Schumer to talk a lot about the candidates that they put on the field who could win in states like South Carolina and in Kansas. Some of those members, some of those candidates, too, also said they would now support him to be the next Democratic leader. That election, a leadership election coming up this month, he will, he's expected to have the votes to become the next majority leader. But there's still some opposition within the ranks for him to ascend to that top spot. How will he deal with some of those detractors within his own caucus? All questions for now.

52:30But at the moment, Schumer feeling very good about this very surprising landslide victory that happened last night, Wolf. Manu, has any senator, Democratic senator, said that he or she is going to challenge Schumer for the top spot?

52:45Not yet, Wolf. And I don't expect that to happen, given the magnitude of this victory that Democrats had. If they fell short of a Senate majority and there was a fight for the minority leader position, perhaps that would change. But the fact that they won by such a significant magnitude, I don't expect anyone to actually run against him. And if someone were to challenge Schumer for that majority leader position, Wolf, they would likely lose to Chuck Schumer in that secret ballot election, Wolf. Yeah, I suspect you're right. You also have some breaking news on the now outgoing House Speaker Mike Johnson.

53:18What are you hearing? Yeah, Mike Johnson telling his staff in a call this morning that he will not run for the House Republican leadership position, meaning that he is bowing out from the position for the top Republican after holding the speakership, but recognizing the deep losses, that there's really no path for him to go forward. So he told his staff, according to sources who I spoke to this morning, that he will step aside from the leadership position. So now there will be a leadership fight to succeed him. Watch for two members in particular, the House Majority Leader Steve Scalise running for that position, as well as the House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan as well.

53:57So those two will battle it out in a leadership election next week. That is a secret ballot leadership election. So it can be hard to handicap how that will ultimately play out. We'll see if any other challengers do emerge to run against them. And for the number two spot, there could be a leadership fight, a fight between a couple of members as well, vying for that number two position within the House GOP. But a lot of soul searching within the House Republican conference about how exactly they should go forward after suffering such staggering losses and seeing Democrats potentially having a majority north of 250 seats, something that was simply not expected by pretty much anyone here in this town, Wolf.

54:35And Manu, you're there where Chuck Schumer is going to be speaking, holding a news conference, right? When do we expect that to begin?

54:44Any minute, Wolf. We expect Schumer to come out here, talk to the press, lay out what he saw happen, and also talk about what's next for him and his agenda, Wolf. And then presumably take questions from the press as well. We'll have live coverage. Manu Raju, as usual, thank you very, very much. Erin, back over to you. All right, Wolf. And so something has just come in. I just want to hold it up here, okay, because it's a couple of pages. It's just happened. I want to share parts of it. This is from J.D. Vance, okay, the vice president, just said this about Republicans' catastrophic midterm loss.

55:15I just can't read all of it, but there's some stuff in here you've got to hear, okay? He says, the reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night. If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next six years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest. but everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there. Okay, there is so much in here. So let's just start with that, because this is a campaign where I heard a lot about Tranny Annie, and I heard about a jihadist in Michigan, and a terrorist that needed a metal detector to go to work, and I heard that James Tallarico was talafrico and weird and gay, and that was what we heard from the president, from the vice president, and now J.D.

56:08Vance, let's be honest, it was the war. Yeah, so prior is on the table. I think J.D. Vance is a very bad politician and an exceedingly deceitful one. What he's doing here is he has a theory of the GOP electorate that he needs to wrap up the sort of Tucker Carlson, Tucker Carlson adjacent, and paleocon Steve Bannon wing of the Republican Party, the isolationist, recalibrate on Israel crowd. And so what he's doing here is it's a sleight of hand, where he's saying it was the war. What Trump said, it was the high gas prices, which were the result of the war. He wants to make it, as it says in that post, it says it's two things.

56:45It's the war, and we need to redo our relationship with Israel. He's making them the same thing. That's what he's trying to do. He's trying to sound extremely reasonable while redefining what the Republican consensus position is around his sort of non-interventionist, anti-Israel, anti-foreign policy, anti-Ukraine kind of point of view, I don't think it's going to work. I think the biggest single loser last night was J.D. Vance, because he is Donald Trump with twice the bigotry and half the charm. And that is not what the country said they want more of for the next two years, never mind the next six.

57:22I mean, I think you're right in that this is the death knell for J.D. Vance's political aspirations for 2028. But beyond that, I think just in plain language, what he is doing there is trying to say, I was always against the war. I'm not the president. The president in Israel got us into war. I was never for it. And now I'm going to come out and say it publicly to see if he can rehabilitate himself in the public conversation. and I'm with you, I don't think it's going to work. I mean, best of luck with that. The reality here is we have said for months, if Republicans do bad on the midterm elections, how bad they do will determine the size of the potential Republican field in 2028.

58:06It was worse for the party than we could have expected over these last weeks and months. So for J.D. Vance, he traveled to all of these states. No one spent more time, even more than the president invested in these. And to your point, he injected the culture war issues in every place that he went. I was thinking back to Adam Hamilton in Kansas. He went there and he was one of the first to question the religiosity, the views, the religious views of Adam Hamilton, who of course is the longtime minister, new time politician. He's only run for office now. And that was J.D. Vance leading the charge.

58:40That did not work. He went to Iowa doing the same thing to Rob Sand, Calafrico here. That became a rallying cry. So J.D. Vance fell flat across the board here. The party has never loved him. He has been on all sides of every issue here. So this is his trying to reset for 2028. The people in Ted Cruz's world and other Republicans out there are going to eat his lunch if he decides to be a primary. And Ted Cruz, who, by the way, said on Friday there could be a Democratic sweep in the state of Texas. And he was right. Everyone thought that was a turnout ploy. There was a complete Democratic sweep in the state of Texas.

59:13But there's just so much in here, Lulu, in terms of what J.D. Vance is trying to do. So he's after we hear about rigged elections, filing a lawsuit in Alaska. If the Republican loses, the DOJ should be trying to say don't certify the election. A thousand election monitors going up, alleging. J.D. Vance, no, it's fair and square. The main problem is not turnout. The main problem is many people who voted for Trump Vance in 2024 voted for the Democrats in 2026. What does it take to just kind of wake up and see reality all of a sudden? I mean, it's an about face, the likes of which we don't see. I have interviewed J.D.

59:52Vance. Which doesn't acknowledge the affordability thing. No, no, no, no. J.D. Vance is a political chameleon. He has transformed himself a million times. He was someone who called the president Hitler and then did an about face and became his biggest supporter and has been on all the sides of every issue, as you rightly say. I interviewed one of his supporters who might be a 2028 candidate, a former Fox News host, and Tucker Carlson, who said that the Iran war was going to be the death knell for anyone associated with its political career and political aspirations. And so you're now looking at the wing of the party of Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massey.

1:00:40These are the three people, among others, who said, I told you so. And he's trying to align themselves with them again. But I don't think he's going to be able to do it. And it's not that he's wrong. I mean, the Iran war was a central issue. But what he's not saying is his role in sort of chilling it. I forgot one other thing on the list. But they cram a swami. I think we see it in giant letters. He went to Ohio and tried to rally Republicans behind that despicable ad that fell flat. I mean, within hours of doing so, it fell flat. And look what happened in Ohio last night. That's a doubling down on the tariff policy.

1:01:12He says basically that that, you know, the affordability, he wants to make the affordability issue actually an anti-Israel, anti-war issue. But if you just track the data on Trump's favorability, it's entirely based upon where the economy was. And that doesn't start with the Iran war. That starts with Liberation Day tariffs and gets worse over time. Chuck Schumer is going to be speaking in just a moment. By the way, somebody who I think it's safe to say had no idea he'd be waking up. oh, Chuck Schumer, no one's going to challenge you, you're going to remain the leader of a majority. I mean, talk about a guy who's shocked today.

1:01:45I mean, Democrats, a lot of Democrats, mainstream Democrats have been looking to replace Chuck Schumer, thinking that his moment had passed. This has given him a new lease on life. He can, he's going to take credit for this. He's going to say it was candidate quality and that this was, you know, to do with what he was planning. It's possible enough Democrats got elected that they can actually fulfill their promise and not vote for him, and he still becomes the leader. I was just thinking about that. That's amazing. Because there's no center of gravity around anyone else. I mean, that is what protects Chuck Schumer in this moment, that there's not a single person running against him.

1:02:18And it's never been about him, per se, for some people. It's been about the idea of a Democratic majority here. But I'm sure a lot of these, I guess, former red state, now Democratic senators, Adam Hamilton, James Tallarico, we'll see if they vote for Schumer. My guess is no, but to your point, they have a wider majority. Can I just say something about J.D. Vance, because you brought up the ad. That ad was one of the cruel, cruelest, most nasty things that I have ever seen. And we have lived in a world that has become cruel and nasty. There was something about that that was different. And it didn't matter what your politics were.

1:02:48And J.D. Vance did go and defend it. And he doubled down and tripled down. And he did that after Trump did that. And Vivek, who could have said, oh, the super PAC did it, I didn't know anything about it, doubled and tripled down because Trump did it. What he was disgusted by was the Republicans not supporting it. Not the ad. Can J.D. Vance ever overcome that? Is that the unforgettable thing, the unforgettable sin? In my view, he cannot. I mean, the list is long. He's not been loved by the Trump base. I like how he put in his statement, the Trump-Vance voters. The reality is there are not voters who, you know, were voting for Vance.

1:03:18They were voting for Donald Trump, and that will not be an option the next time. So, look, he's had many lives. As you said, he's a chameleon. Perhaps he can reinvent himself. We'll be here to watch that unfold. But I think that's a tall, tall order. His real gift isn't appealing to voters. It's appealing to whichever elite faction of donors and supporters. So he says the things that either whether it's the tech bros or the anti-Trump people or the pro-Trump people. That may be where his future lies professionally. All right. All stay with me. Let's go back to you, Wolf, as we are getting ready to hear from one of the most stunned people in all of this, of course, Chuck Schumer.

1:03:54We'll hear what he has to say. We'll have live coverage of that coming up, including the Q &A that will unfold. All of this is happening as the Democratic Senate candidate in Mississippi, who is up just a couple of dozen votes in that state, is developing some reaction out there to what's going on in Mississippi. We'll have a lot more on that and all the other major election news right after this.

1:04:26our less listed right now to the soon to be former senate minority leader chuck schumer is expected to become the senate majority leader very soon he's speaking in washington dc let's listen new wall but most of the time he's he did things that hurt them it raised their health care costs It raised their electricity bills. It raised their fuel, their gasoline and diesel costs. Republican eyes were so glued to Trump's truth social feed that they missed the truth, staring them dead in the face. Americans hate the direction our country is going in right now. So now, Republicans are going to have to choose whether to keep listening to the nonsense that's coming out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or start acting in the interests of the American people.

1:05:24If they continue to embrace Trump, they're going to be following him right over the cliff, as this election has shown, and it'll get even worse for them. What is our assignment? First, Americans want Washington to bring down the cost of living. The anguish that American families feel as they ask themselves, do I pay for gas to drive to work or groceries to feed the kids? Do I pay for health care to keep my family healthy or electricity to keep my family warm this winter? Second, Americans want us to clean up corruption in government. They know that Trump is the most corrupt president in American history.

1:06:06No American should have to make trade-offs at the supermarket while Trump is making insider trades on the stock market. Americans are calling for accountability, not accommodation. And third, they want us to check on Trump's chaos at home and abroad. We've seen too many Americans die on our streets and in uniform overseas because of Trump's erratic judgment. The American people don't know what the heck we're fighting for in Iran. He's never made it clear he changes his mind day to day and minute to minute. This war must end. It must end. And make no mistake, 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 razor wire.

1:06:58The days of Trump's supplicant Senate are over. I'll have more to say in the coming days about how Democrats pulled off this victory, how our majority plans to deliver for the American people. But if there's one hopeful, I'd like to conclude on this note, if there's one hopeful optimistic takeaway, we should remember that from this election our democracy runs deep, very deep. Our founders created this amazing document, the Constitution. They envisioned co-equal branches of government. What they said was ambition was made to counteract ambition. But when ambition turns to blind loyalty, there's only one last firewall.

1:07:48They thought the legislature would check a king-like president. This legislature, this Senate has failed. And so there was one last firewall. In our system of checks and balances, where power derives from the consent of the government, elections have always been the strongest lever Americans have to counter a wannabe king. So long as Americans are willing to use it. Yesterday, America did. Even during the most difficult times, and these two years have been among them, Americans have never lost faith that they can change this country with their vote. The onus is now on us to prove them right. Have you spoken to the president yet about how you're going to be that firewall on what your working relations is?

1:08:48Are you going to? Mr. Shimmer. How are Democrats going to end the war with Iran? Are you going to use defense funding as leverage? Look, we are going to end the war. We have some Republicans already who have joined us in ending the war. And the founding fathers had the power of the purse as one of the ways of deterring a president who does war without the consent of the American people. Mr. Shimmer. Yes. You took a lot of criticism in the last couple of years as leader by frustrated Democrats. Was this a vindication for you and your vision for the Senate as a place where red and purple states...

1:09:24This is not about me. This is about the American people and what they want and what they need and what we can do to help them, plain and simple. Yes, Igor. Go ahead. No, Igor. Were yesterday's results a mandate for Democrats to impeach Pete Hexet? I wouldn't, you know, you'll have to make, everyone will make their own interpretation of what it meant in terms of Hicks. What's going to be the Democrats' approach to judicial nominations? Is this going to be a blanket hold or is there room for bipartisanship? Look, we want judicial nominees like we showed in 23 and 24. Who obey the law, who have fidelity to the rule of law.

1:10:09Too many of Trump's nominees did not have that at all. Yes. The Press, Senate Republicans ran on this message that Senate Democrats would abolish the filibuster, nuke the filibuster if you took control of the Senate. Do you, would you support nuking the filibuster at this point? Look, we are focused. The first thing we're going to do is reduce people's costs and work the legislative process so it does. Thank you, everybody. The Press, Senator, can you work with the President, Leader Schumer? We are going to be asking, I work with the president, okay? We are going to work hard. We are going to work hard to drive costs down with the president or without him, period.

1:10:51How are you going to deal with the people who are voting against you? All right, there you had Chuck Schumer, the incoming Senate majority leader. He was the minority leader, but he's about to become the majority leader unless somebody steps in and tries to block him. But we're not expecting that. to happen, delivering a very strong statement, attacking Trump in all sorts of ways. He says that he is, Trump is the most corrupt president in American history. He's got an erratic judgment. And then he made a strong point that this war must end. Let's listen to see if he's saying anything else. ...with a lot of senators from very red states.

1:11:27So is this a repudiation of the left? And how does this, how does this change how you govern moving forward? Okay, if you listened to our candidates, whether they were progressive or more moderate, and we had some of each because we're a big tent party, they were saying the same things. Just this morning, they had Cory Booker, before I went on Morning Joe, they had Cory Booker and Adam Hamilton. And what they said they wanted to do was remarkably similar, reduce costs, end the corruption. Each of our candidates, soon to be senators, said it in a way that fit their state. So it's different that you talk about it in Maine differently than you talk about it in Kansas.

1:12:13But it was all the same message. And we will be united as a caucus focusing on those issues. What about investigations? The balance between doing investigations and policy. How much are you all going to investigate? Look, there has to be, 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. Where are you, Senator Schumer? That could be seen as a way to lower electricity costs. Well, we have a bipartisan group working on permitting reform. And hopefully they'll come up with a good solution.

1:12:51How do you do it, Senator Schumer? I finally got to Manu. Thank you. How do you deal with those candidates who won, who said they were not going to vote for you? Adam Hamilton, Troy Jackson, Abdul-Haziz. Again, to repeat the answer, the issue is not me. I'll be re-elected as majority leader. But the issue is focusing on the American people and what they want. Have you spoken to a lot about it every summer? All right, there you see Chuck Schumer making it clear he's going to run to become the majority leader in the U.S. Senate, even though there's some opposition there, but nobody has stepped in to announce that they want to challenge him directly.

1:13:33We have a lot to assess based on what we just heard and all the other dramatic developments unfolding on this historic day. We'll take a quick break, resume our special coverage right after this.

1:13:52here in texas democrats have flipped the state blue for the first time in more than three decades president trump appearing to distance himself from his party losses writing on truth social i wasn't on the ballot and if i was we would have won in a landslide joining me now is texas republican congressman pete sessions congressman i'm wondering how you see it if trump was on the ballot would would Republicans have won in a landside or did Americans do exactly what Trump told them to do which is vote as if he were on the ballot? Well I think it's important for us to note that this is a series of decisions that have been made inside the state and outside the state that had a profound influence on what we whether we were going to win or not and how we would win but I don't think it's really a matter of whether Trump was on the ballot or was not on the ballot.

1:14:43I think that everyone was part of the contributory negligence that occurred during this election. And I think that there were a lot of decisions that were made, some a year ago, that we never really caught up from. So look, this is the things that happens. It is now up to Republicans and Democrats to make the government work. I listened to Majority Leader Schumer, and he is going to present their agenda. He's going to present what they're doing. We still have to make the country work. He spoke about democracy, but half their candidates, a good number of their candidates, are not even for the Constitution.

1:15:32They want to change it. So where we can work together, we will. Where we cannot, Republicans will not be a part of changing the Constitution, doing away with the Senate, taking private property. We'll see how they handle what their legislation is. But I will tell you, we need to work together for the best interests of the country. I congratulate them. I have been on that winning side before. I've been on the side as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee when we waged a war against them. And it causes change within a party. It causes reflection. But this is about reality. And we have to face reality.

1:16:15Congratulations to my friends in the Democrat Party. And obviously, the gracious, appropriate response, Congressman. I'm curious. I mean, I look at your seat. Obviously, you won. and if I'm right, and we got final numbers coming in, but you won by seven points. You won by 33 points two years ago. You survived last night. A lot of your peers did not. I mean, you could be looking at 250 for Democrats in the House when all is said and done. May not go that high, but it possibly could. Here in Texas, your former House Speaker, Dade Phelan, who worked in the building behind me, he called it an extinction event, what happened here in Texas.

1:16:56I mean, And so what do you think accounts for? I mean, like I said, you managed to survive. But but even look at the swing in your own district. That seems to be. Do you think it is a lot of people who voted for Trump voted for the Democrat?

1:17:14Well, let's just put this way. Those are two distinctly different seats. I won two years ago off a different seat than I won off of last night. A decision was made to do redistricting that was going to diminish necessarily the success of big numbers in our party. I picked up the same area that James Tallarico served. And so there was a change. And then the profound decisions, including about the decision of redistricting, including the decision was made about Ken Paxton. And so all of these things came to play. And James Tallarico was the person who ran against Ken. So that is what happened. But I think our members of Congress, Roger Williams, a number of other people, Craig Goldman, survived an onslaught in other areas.

1:18:15I think we perform better than than statewide people. And I think we perform because we went and sold who we were. People knew who we were. And we talked about common sense. And interestingly, you talk about that redistricting. It obviously started right here in the statehouse behind me. Right. When when President Trump worked on that with with Governor Abbott, then you had the Governor Newsom, California response. And it all went on from there. But four of the five seats here in Texas, I understand, Congressman, that the Republicans redistricted, thinking it would help Republicans, flipped, flipped.

1:18:51So it backfired in many ways. As I said, you managed to be the one to withstand that. J.D. Vance has posted something I want to ask you about. It's a really long commentary. And he's saying that this is all about the war. He also said that the Republicans need to be honest. A lot of people who voted for Trump Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026. and he goes on to talk about that. I'm curious what you think, Congressman, about what we heard from J.D. Vance and President Trump in the final days of the campaign. From President Trump, his final speech was at the reflecting pool talking about algae and his golf course and his arch and the helipad and the rebar, okay?

1:19:33From J.D. Vance, he called James Talafrico, along with Trump, he basically called him gay. He came out on Vivek Ramoswamy's ad and his comment to Republicans who said it was vile was stop whining. And I'm, quote, a little bit disgusted by my own party for standing up against that ad. Can someone like J.D. Vance recover from that? Well, I think that that some of the people that you've spoken about need to begin by looking in a mirror and seeing that they are party leaders. Party leaders became very myopic through this process. We had the same thing just two days before the election. The Speaker of the House said it was going to be an overwhelming victory for Republicans.

1:20:22We need to be able to see things for what they are. And it talks really specifically about whether you leave your own special interest aside and listen to other people. Our party needs to begin listening to every single elected official taking into account these things and listening to the American people. I go to the store to shop also. I go to buy gasoline also. I go to do these things. But it became the setting up of the time frames that the administration did put members of Congress and the American people on a little bit of the back burner. We still, it's been said many times, we still don't know where we are on this war.

1:21:13I don't think just ending the war is the thing. I think the conclusion about how it has ended or concludes is just as important as just stopping the war. We need to make sure that we understand we live in a dangerous world. So there's still a lot of work that we have to do working together. Well, I'm sure there's a lot of people who are happy to hear that. It has been a long, long, long series of years here where it's been a lot of hate thrown around. So I appreciate it. Congressman Pete Sessions, thank you very much for your time tonight. I appreciate. Yeah.

1:21:56And we are awaiting election results in Mississippi here. It's been one of the biggest surprises. The Democratic Senate candidate has a lead of just 43 votes waiting for more to come in. It's almost all counted. He just spoke, though, moments ago about the tight race. Scott Colum just spoke, and you're going to hear from him in just a moment.

1:22:18We're still waiting for a number of races across the country to be called, including in Mississippi, where Democratic Senate candidate Scott Colum just spoke. Listen to this. I'm confident once the process lays out where we are, where the ballots are, we're going to win.

1:22:39And it's because the people of Mississippi turned out in historic numbers to make this race possible in a midterm election. And we are blessed to have prepared for this moment. Unlike all the people across the country that might be surprised, our campaign, our volunteers, the people of Mississippi are not surprised. My excellent panel is back with me. And Bakari, what do you think of what we just heard? I think the audacity, just the sheer thought of us having a discussion about Mississippi right now should send shockwaves through the Republican Party, the country. And you have a black man in Mississippi who relied on black voters, rural voters, able to talk about local issues.

1:23:23I mean, this is going to sound a little counterintuitive, but the best thing that happened to him probably was the DSCC did not get involved in his race. So he was able to make it a hyper local race. Look, people want to point to the war in Iran as the sole issue. And there are some tentacles from that, such as fertilizer costs, fuel costs, et cetera. But people really are, they're having a lot of pain in this country. In Mississippi, Louisiana, we lost Louisiana by 45 ,000 volts, Wolf. That's literally one megachurch in most states. I mean, that's a really close race. I mean, you look at what Angie Nixon did in Florida, South Carolina, Annie Andrews.

1:24:00I mean, the great American poet, Outkast, and Andre Benjamin, they would always say the South has something to say. And so this was an amazing, amazing night for the South. It also shows Ken Martin, the Democratic leadership, that we have to invest in the South starting today to help build some of those same things that Stacey Abrams, et cetera, did. So you think there's still great potential in the South? I've always thought there was a lot of great potential because of black voters coming out. And when you saw yesterday black voters and Hispanic voters, I mean, Hispanic voters truly are the new swing voters in this country.

1:24:31And Democrats, I mean, the biggest problem, I mean, I know Republicans have their own problems. That's why I keep laughing and basking at David Urban. But Democrats now have to lead because people are sick and tired of being sick and tired since we're in Mississippi, Fannie Lou Hamer. But, you know, we actually have to show them something and do something. And so that's going to be the next issue. And I would just say, look, in this race, like in Kansas, both the Republican candidates had never really run a race before. You know, they were sitting on their hands, weren't paying attention. They were taking everything for granted.

1:25:04I'm in Mississippi. I don't have to run a race. I'm in Kansas. I don't have to run a race. And all of a sudden, they just took it for granted. They took it for granted. They're in a tough race. And it's too late because Mr. Colm and, you know, the pastor in Kansas were good candidates. They connected on a local level. And once that grass fire starts, you can't put it out. And that's what they found out last night. But so much of the vote clearly was an anti-Trump vote. Yeah, and I think one important takeaway for Democrats, too, is that voters rejected the culture wars. And thank God, because kneeling football players and Sharia law and white replacement and the caliphate and transing your kids, that didn't put food on anyone's table.

1:25:47It was only good for the grifters who profited off of that utter bullshit. it. And they pushed it on our moms and our dads. They pushed it on our congregations. They pushed it on our friends and family. They pushed it on our kids. And it was never righteous. It was always corrosive and gross. And it turned people into quacks and conspiracy theorists, turned people against their neighbors. I mean, it was really, really ugly stuff. And Democrats can get sucked into those culture wars, both by taking the bait from Republicans who want them to, but also by listening to some very online far left folks that want to go down that route.

1:26:30And they have to resist it because it's bad politics, but it's really, really bad for like the American soul. You know, it's interesting, Jamie, when we heard Chuck Schumer, he was about to become, by all accounts, the Senate majority leader. He was the minority leader. What went through your mind? So Democrats are not known for discipline, but I would say with both Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, there was no gloating. They were disciplined. Did they mention that people have to be held accountable, that there might be investigations? Yes, but they kept going back again and again to serving voters, lowering costs.

1:27:13And I think that's key. You know, to go back to what David said earlier about the end of the movie, the candidate, you know, what do we do now? I think in addition to looking at what Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries and Democrats do, you have to look at Republicans. And I'm already hearing from people in the Republican Party who are saying, so do you think Republicans will now understand it's not good for them to rubber stamp Donald Trump? Is this the moment? Have they gotten the message? Will they break with him in the House and Senate? Still to be determined. But the one I got that was most interesting was from a major Republican fundraiser who told me this morning that he hopes the election is a wake-up call and that more Republicans we have not heard from will be running in 28.

1:28:12you already see a dismissal of Vice President J.D. Vance, who's been talked about a lot. Yeah, and what he said today is not certainly going to help. Everybody stand by. We have a lot more to discuss, and we will. Still ahead also, Democrats will maintain control of a majority of the districts targeted by GOP redistricting. We'll speak to one of the lawmakers who held on to her seat despite those Republican efforts.

1:28:45to have i got news for your ears the podcast i am your host michael ian black we are talking about the final polls going into the midterms the hot races getting the most attention trump's final argument have i got news for your ears check us out on apple amazon music wherever you get podcast even better you can watch the podcast on spotify