CNN Projects Democrat Colom Wins MS Senate Race In Massive Upset

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0:45Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for a 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. New customer offer for initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms. And we start with breaking news tonight out of Mississippi, where Scott Colom has defied history and shocked the political world. As CNN can now project that the Democrat and the local district attorney will defeat the incumbent Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith. He is now becoming the first Democrat that voters in deep red Mississippi have elected to the Senate in more than four decades.

1:26And he will also be the first black person in statewide office there since Reconstruction. Scott Cologne's victory extends the soon-to-be Democratic majority here in Washington in the Senate to 55 seats, as now are waiting for Alaska to still be called. An midterm election last week that was full of huge surprises. This might be the biggest one of all. The new senator-elect is getting ready tonight to address his supporters, as you can see here from Jackson, Mississippi. His team just put out that sign there that says, picked another senator on the lectern, a play on that oh-so-memorable ad after Cindy Hyde-Smith had said her constituents could pick another protein when she was talking about the high cost of beef.

2:11Mississippians declared, pick another protein, they'd rather pick another senator instead, and that they did. My colleague Annie Greyer has been on the ground. She has been covering this race as we've been counting these final votes, Annie. What are we hearing from the campaign so far? What do we expect the senator-elect to say tonight? Well, we expect him to speak shortly behind me to a crowd, Caitlin, that is so energized. I had an opportunity to talk to some folks in the crowd, and there's a mix of pure disbelief that Cologne was able to pull this off and also people who felt like this could have, this is a long time coming, that Mississippi was bound to turn blue.

2:53And Cologne made a big part of his campaign this idea that Mississippi matters. He felt like he had to work really hard to get the Democratic Party to pay attention to him, to give him the eyeballs, the fundraising, the manpower. And he built a campaign around talking to people, meeting them where they are, and he specifically focused on energizing young people and black women really helped propel his campaign forward. And so in this last week, while the results were still too close to call, he went around to local businesses and tried to use the spotlight to showcase what he would do in the Senate.

3:27Truly an unprecedented situation here in what was once bright red is now turned blue. Caitlin. Yeah, and we will be waiting to see what he says in those first remarks. Annie Greyer on the ground. Again, if you're just joining us, Senator-elect Scott Colombe is going to speak in Mississippi at any moment. Of course, we'll bring you his remarks when they happen. And as we're watching all of this tonight and talking about the power balance here in Washington, right now the White House is warning Democrats tonight about that pledge that they've made to investigate the Trump administration full sail when they take over Congress in January.

4:03In a three-page letter that was sent to the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia, the White House counsel, Will Scharf, wrote this,

4:27He goes on to write that threatening administration officials, they believe, could amount to, quote, blatant criminality. Now, as you noted and saw in that letter there, it was dated two days ago, which is something that happened not long after the president himself on Truth Social accused Democrats of threatening people and called it, quote, extortion at the highest level, a sentiment that was echoed about 24 hours later by the attorney general. You have members of Congress who, after Tuesday, have done nothing but threaten everything that's happening in this administration. That is not governing.

5:02That is not leading. That is not oversight. Now, sources say tonight that the administration was particularly irked over those comments by Senator Alyssa Slotkin, where she warned that even junior staffers could potentially become wrapped up in these investigations that Democrats are going to be carrying out once they take over power of Congress. In response to the White House, House Democrats have largely dismissed the letter. And the likely next House Speaker, Hakeem Jeffries, said, quote, A Democratic Congress is going to be a check and balance on an out-of-control executive branch in the face of unprecedented corruption that they've unleashed on the American people.

5:40And if they don't like it, consult the Constitution. My source tonight is the congressman that letter from the White House was addressed to. He is the top Democrat in the House Oversight Committee, Representative Robert Garcia of California. Thank you for being here. Now that you've had some time to absorb that letter from the White House, how do you plan to respond to them? Well, it's not going to change our posture at all. I mean, it's very clear that the president's counsel and the lawyers at the White House don't understand the Constitution, which lays out very clearly that it's a job of Congress to serve as oversight, to serve as an equal branch of government.

6:16Our job is to ensure that there are checks and balances. and the idea that the president, the attorney general, the White House legal team is trying to intimidate us is not going to work. We were elected to do oversight. We were elected to ensure that through good investigations, we can pass new laws to stop corruption. And the American voters spoke. They want us to focus on not just affordability and lowering costs, but also to take on corruption, folks that are breaking the law, and certainly to take on the crimes that are happening across this country by the administration. So do you plan to respond to the White House counsel?

6:51Well, our response is that we're going to keep doing what we've been doing every single day, which is focusing on the serious allegations against the Trump family, whether it's Don Jr.'s red wedding, whether it's sitting on boards getting contracts from the Pentagon, whether it's crypto schemes. They are billions of dollars richer, the Trump family, while the American public is struggling between paying the gas and the groceries. DHS and ICE is out of control, And there are allegations about pay to play from Christian Noem and Corey Lewandowski, who created that ICE and deportation program. So all of these allegations of corruption are serious.

7:25And it is a job of Congress to investigate them to ensure they don't happen again. So we heard from the White House counsel tonight, actually, in his own words, about why he drafted this letter. And this is what he said. What we've seen in the last week is this explosion by new Democrat members of Congress, by existing Democrat members of Congress, and they're talking about subpoenas and investigations for blatantly unlawful purposes. And I thought it was very, very important that just at the outset, we set the tone. If there's going to be an investigative process here, it should be a dignified, lawful investigative process.

8:06Congressman Garcia saying that he was motivated by his own pettiness to bring subpoenas and investigate this administration is just so wildly inappropriate that I felt like it called for a vigorous response. What's your response to that? He's saying you're motivated by your own pettiness, not the rule of law. First of all, he's actually just lying. I mean, he's referring to a clip where I make a joke and then the next sentence I say, it's actually not about pettiness. It's actually about going after and getting accountability. And so, first of all, he's taking things out of context. He is not quoting members of Congress correctly.

8:43But this is what they do. They lie. They don't tell the full truth. They put information out there that ends up being inaccurate. And they are so thin-skinned. I mean, give me a break. This is a president that attacks everyone, that weaponizes the government, that puts out insane, crazy memes and AI slop every single day. Yet they cannot take members of Congress actually stepping up and calling out what's happening across the country because of his actions. They're going to be investigated because we want to stop corruption and we want to pass laws to ensure it doesn't happen again. And that is our right as members of Congress.

9:18So you take over and you're presumed to be the House Oversight Chairman. If you issue a subpoena and Todd Blanche, the attorney general, or Real Sharp, the White House Council says, you don't need to respond to this, and they defy it, what are you going to do? Well, look, that's where I think Congress has to flex all of its power. As you know, when you're in the majority, we have the power to sue on behalf of the House. We have the power to go look at contempt, not just criminal contempt, but also civil contempt. And so that's a process that goes through the courts, not the DOJ. And we also have to continue to organize.

9:48We have to continue to get the American public on our side. And the results on Tuesday made it really clear. When you ask people across the country, and I certainly did back home in California, but when you ask people across the country why they were motivated to vote and to bring change, they said the same two things. It was about affordability, and it was about rooting out government corruption. Well, we have a mandate to take on corruption and certainly the corruption of the Trump family. But what if the White House says, we don't care about your mandate, and they ignore you? We're gonna do everything we can to go through the courts and use the courts and use the contempt process to ensure that we actually get a response from what we're asking for, which is just getting questions answered.

10:24Do you fear that this could just get stuck in the courts, though, going back and forth where you don't actually see these documents or get this testimony that you're going to be seeking? Look, we should be very clear-eyed that Donald Trump from day one has lied, has been dishonest, has called things like the Epson investigation a hoax, has tried to divert our attention from the issues that actually people are facing in this country. But we're going to do everything that we can and be aggressive to get to the truth. And so we know there are going to be huge obstacles in front of us, but I think the American public expect us to do everything we can to get to the truth.

10:58And if we have to use the courts, we will. If someone doesn't respond to your subpoena, do you have any confidence that the DOJ is going to enforce any recommendation to them? Well, that's why there's two other pieces of this that are important. One is going through the civil contempt process through the courts, if that's necessary. But also, I've been talking to attorneys general from across the country. There are also actions that our AGs are taking in states, in the state process, at other state courts that there will also have to, there's different levels of accountability for. It's not just the federal court system where there should be concern by the Trump administration, but also the state court system.

11:34And that, I think that piece of it, and also knowing that they're not going to be in office forever. Donald Trump's going to be in office for two more years. They were going to have to answer questions whether they're now or whether they're tomorrow or in the future. Alyssa Slotkin had insinuated they could go after future staffers or junior staffers, I believe. That's been something the administration has focused on particularly. Is that going to be your target, or are you going to be going after the more senior people in the federal government? I mean, look, right now our focus is on senior officials.

12:02And so that's not, for us, something that we've contemplated at this moment. I think that's, for me, the most important folks that we want to talk to. We want to talk to Kristi Noam. We want to talk to Crimley Grofoyle. We want to talk to Don Jr., Eric Trump, Stephen Miller. Those are the folks that we want to speak to. And we want to talk to anyone that was involved in Jeffrey Epstein's crimes, whether they're co-conspirators, folks that were involved in the abuse of women and girls. And so our investigations are going to be focused. And I think at this moment, people just need to understand that the American public have been clear.

12:35We've got to focus on accountability and affordability. Stephen Miller is the chief of staff now. Do you think you can get him to testify? Well, look, we're going to do everything we can to get him to answer questions. He certainly should be preserving documents. And I think what people need to realize is that if people thought that Donald Trump was somehow going to change his posture, that evaporated with the announcement of Stephen Miller. And this is the person that has created the deportation and the detention current system that's in place. It's incredibly inhumane. We've seen ICE agents murder people on American streets.

13:06We've seen, I think, Stephen Miller calling people that were out there protesting assassins. I mean, this is not someone that should be leading anything at the White House. And certainly, it's someone that we have serious questions that we want answered. And whether that's now or in the future, we want answers from Stephen Miller. When you see what Will Sharp is saying today, what Todd Blanch said on Sunday, what the president himself said, what do you think this is going to look like as you try to conduct oversight when you're the majority? Well, I think it's a president that is clearly hiding something.

13:36It's a president that is cowardly, that doesn't want to actually take the heat. For someone that gives so much anger and is so aggressive in his social media posts, he can't take a few members of Congress demanding accountability and demanding for there to be actual responses. I mean, it's comical how cowardly the actions of the administration have been just over the course of the last few days. Do you have any one official that you want to testify or hear from first? I mean, look, we're not going to—there's certainly a group of folks we want to hear from first. We have a lot of questions for folks within the administration, whether that is now former Chief of Staff Susan Wiles.

14:17We certainly have questions for former officials like Corey Lewandowski and Christian Ellum. And certainly we have questions for members of the Trump family. And so I think you're going to hear very soon folks that we're very interested in as we take the majority in January. Congressman Robert Garcia, thank you for taking the time to join us tonight and respond to the administration. Thank you. Appreciate your time. Of course, we have also invited members of the administration to come on with their view. Up next year for us, though, on The Source, NVIDIA's stock has just dropped, as the board is apparently right now weighing the CEO's future after now reports of not one, but two affairs.

14:50One with a woman who is alleged to be a Chinese spy. Another who is an NVIDIA executive who reports to him. Kara Swisher will join me on it all right after this.

15:10This holiday, all plans, even unlimited, are just$15 a month. A holiday deal this good obviously deserves an enormously expensive holiday song, like All I Want. Right. Okay, we can afford that. You know what? Forget the music budget. We're going to stick with whatever's in the public domain. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for a 12-month plan required,$15 per month equivalent, taxes and fees extra. New customer offer for initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms. Afternoon glare totally ruined my watch party for the big game.

15:45That's when my buddy recommended Blinds.com. With custom window treatments made to fit your style, space, and budget, customers who shop at Blinds.com experienced overwhelming satisfaction. Side effects may include a fuller, deeper night's sleep and the sudden urge to host the watch party again. Blinds.com isn't a medication, but it can improve how you feel about your home. Shop Black Friday all month long at Blinds.com. Don't miss huge deals dropping every week. We're covering more breaking news tonight as CNN has learned that NVIDIA's board is now meeting to weigh the CEO Jensen Wong's future as he's now facing scrutiny over two extramarital affairs, one with a suspected Chinese spy.

16:27Right now, sources say there is some expectation among Trump administration insiders that Wong could be ousted. The Wall Street Journal first broke this news tonight and the board's urgent meeting comes after the New York Times earlier reported that Jensen Wong is said to have had a previously unreported separate extramarital relationship with an NVIDIA executive who reports to him. Their shares dropped sharply in the after hours trading tonight as the future of the man who co-founded the company three decades ago remains uncertain. My source tonight is the tech expert and journalist Kara Swisher.

17:04And Kara, I think everyone's watching this tonight to see what is going to happen here. If you could make a prediction, do you think he's going to last as the CEO? I do not. I had said this last week. This is really a very serious issue. You know, many people who have extramarital affairs have gotten ousted from companies, just that. In this case, it was a client, another thing. Third, it might have been a Chinese spy. And now with this next one. It's a real issue here. There's also issues around what the Trump administration knew and when they knew it and what they told him. They should have told him this woman was thought to be a possible spy, which apparently they didn't, according to Donald Trump.

17:44So it's a big mess. And so this company's got to get out from under a point, a CEO who can sort of stop any kind of bleeding the stock's going to have because it's going to have repercussions all over the AI universe, given this is the central company of the AI economy. Yeah. I mean, is it clear that they have a succession plan here? No, no. This guy has been sort of running the place, even though he doesn't own quite the same amount of shares that other tech CEOs own. He still has, you know, he founded it. He's been, you know, his children work there. This is his company. So I don't, there's got to be a lot of really impressive executives within it.

18:24He doesn't do it by himself. That said, there hasn't been a name that you would point to at all in this company compared to a lot of other companies for successors. And so they're probably going to find someone from outside. You know, there's a lot of possibilities of someone who could take over, at least just in the interim, so they figure out what to do. But keeping him is such, there's going to be congressional scrutiny, lawsuits. I mean, this thing is, as I said last week, it's going to snowball and more and more will be found out. And we still don't know what happened to those chips. And of course, the Trump administration is taking a very cavalier attitude towards a very significant national security issue.

19:02But, you know, that's just another Tuesday for them. You know, my colleague Hadass Gold was going through some of his a podcast that Jensen Wong did where he was asked about, you know, what a succession plan could look like, obviously, before all of this happened. And listening to it now, I mean, is quite telling. But this is what he said at the time earlier this year. Just as I can be fired, the next CEO has to be hired. And so, and you know, I like it that way. I like that. I like that we can't be overly complacent about our position inside the company and that we can't take it for granted. And you're always vulnerable.

19:42You're always earning it. You're always striving to be better. How does that sound to you in hindsight? I don't know. I think it was nonsense. I don't know. It's just like those are a lot of words that CEOs talk about when they're not saying anything much. You know, he was running this company just with an iron fist. And, you know, you never saw another executive. You don't know them. The board is somewhat meh, I would say, kind of B players. They're not significant powerhouses in Silicon Valley, which is probably the way he liked it, too. And so a lot of these Silicon Valley companies have boards that are just, you know, rubber stamps for them.

20:20In this case, they're not going to have a choice here because of, you know, the mounting problems. And that's even before the Democrats get in charge and start looking at what happened here with this alleged spy. I mean, the whole thing is a disaster and it will affect the stock. And he doesn't have credibility now when it's coming to talk about the business or China or anything else. He certainly can't appear in public at this point. And so it's really it's a really high profile company and it needs a it needs an executive that doesn't have this much baggage attached. Well, I mean, it's also just remarkable the global ramifications of this.

20:53It's not just, you know, a scandalous story that we've seen, you know, in ways before with other CEOs that has played out. I mean, this led to a fight in the White House Situation Room. This reporting CNN's confirmed between Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary, Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, where basically the Treasury Secretary was pressing Howard Lutnick over the fact that the company where this alleged spy works was not yet labeled a national security threat, despite they clearly felt that it should be and that by that point it had crossed that. I mean, I wonder what that says to you in terms of how the administration has handled this, given obviously we heard what the president himself said on Monday.

21:34Well, was he out of the loop? He knew about this. Marco Rubio had a memo, obviously. A lot of this information seems to be coming from the State Department, which did the right thing, created these memos. But then it was over at Commerce being investigated, and that got messed up because one of the higher people right under Howard Lutnick tried to bother the people doing the investigation. I think over to the Justice Department, which isn't exactly bathed in glory about doing investigations. And this guy is very close to Trump. And Trump has has based his administration on the AI economy. And this guy was the pinnacle of that and the most important company.

22:12The other issue is all the interlocking investments between NVIDIA and they just invested$3 billion in Meta. There's all kinds of stuff here. And I got to wonder what all the other CEOs are like. We're not going to get dragged down by this guy's sloppy and arrogant behavior. And it could, again, be a national security issue. And the White House has decided to back its friends rather than actually think about national security here. And to me, the next person that we need to, that at least someone needs to look at is Howard Lutnick and what he did in these, around this issue, because they knew there was a problem here and they were warned and they continued to either not tell him, which they are supposed to do.

22:56But I don't know, we'll see, but it's got repercussions everywhere, including the stock market. It certainly does. Kara Swisher, We'll see what the board decides tonight. Great to have you and your perspective on this. Thanks for joining us. We're also following that breaking news that's coming out of Mississippi tonight, where the Democrats, Scott Cologne, just won in a massive and historic upset. He is going to be the state's first black senator since Reconstruction. And he's about to speak for the first time since his projected win. We'll bring you that next.

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24:09And we are following historic news this hour as we are now waiting to hear from Senator-elect Scott Colombe for the first time since his massive upset in Deep Red, Mississippi has been confirmed. That is, of course, because CNN can now project that he is going to unseat the Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in a state that the president won overwhelmingly three times. He is now going to be the first black senator from Mississippi since the Reconstruction era and the first Democrat to hold a Mississippi Senate seat since 1989. We're following all of this with our panel as we are waiting to hear from Scott Cologne, who is going to be speaking on stage.

24:46We'll bring those remarks live for you when they happen. And Karen, you know, we have been talking about this race, whether or not national Democrats are paying enough attention to it. We asked Scott Cologne himself that. he all but said he didn't think that a lot of elected Democrats were paying enough attention. As someone who was in Mississippi, whose father was a civil rights lawyer who worked to register voters in the state, which I learned today, that's so cool. I wonder how you're reflecting on this moment. It was personally very powerful to be there over the weekend because of that history with my dad, who had been there in 68 registering people, and to just see how much work people have done over the last decade in Mississippi going literally door by door to help register people because, you know, the belief has been for a long time, the numbers are there.

25:35Given the percentage, you know, black voters are a huge percentage of the voters of Mississippi. And so the belief was, if we can get them, if we can turn them out. And Scott even said that I was on a call about a month ago, and he said, all we need is$500 ,000. Because he wanted to get that pick another protein ad. He's like, we just need the money to get this on TV. And you can see why. And you can see why. I mean, I was talking to people today when CNN called and they were crying because this is, you know, this is about our ancestors. This is about people who have worked so hard to make this day happen.

26:11Laborious work again over the weekend, trying to find those provisional, they're called affidavit ballots to let them know you've got to get to the county office with your ID to cure your ballot, like finding a needle in a haystack. So hard earned. Scott Colum also just ran a fantastic race, working so hard all across the state, talking to Trump voters. I mean, we saw him talking to Trump voters in line for a Trump event, just about the issues and really just making it about values and about having a better life. Yeah. I mean, Scott, he showed up at the Trump rally and did something you do not see Democratic candidates do, and he walked the line and talked to those voters about what they were feeling.

26:52Yeah, I'm going to be honest. I kind of like this guy. I don't know a lot about him. I've seen him on TV. Pick another protein, pick another senator. I mean, it was kind of a bop. And I like scrappy sort of candidates and campaigns sort of forgotten by the national parties that he goes out and he pulls it off. You know, as an analysis point, Cindy Eidesmith was always a weak performer. Every time she was on the ballot, she was weak. And I had heard a couple of weeks out some alarm bells going off in the Republican Party. I mean, they had some polling showing, you know, real problem for her. But, you know, even the president's approval rating was pretty low in Mississippi.

27:27So I think there were a few people who knew that there was some trouble. And then you throw this viral ad on top of it, which is probably one of the best political ads of the last 25 years. And in an environment like this and while I you've got kind of an interesting story and I wish him the best. I hope he does well. Yeah. And it came from a campaign that didn't have a lot of outside spending. You know, Wright Thompson, I'm so happy that you're joining us on this story because you're a native Mississippian. You wrote the book, Our Audience Will Know You Well, from your state's history on the barn.

27:56It was focused on the lynching of Emmett Till, how the state had dealt with that in the decades since. When you see this moment and the history that Scott Cologne is about to make, I wonder how you're reflecting on it tonight. You know, I think about a couple of things. I think about that quote from Medgar Evers' widow, you know, yes, Mississippi was, but Mississippi is. I think about the resiliency of black Mississippians to keep betting on a future for a better state, despite all evidence to the contrary. And, you know, I'm a, you know, my family's been farming for a very, very long time here.

28:35And I also think that the farmers of Mississippi just fundamentally rejected the Trump administration and their war against American agriculture. Yeah, I mean, that was something actually, right, you know, that he had focused on. Scott Cologne didn't seem to dwell too much on the history he was about to make. He focused a lot on the issues that the voters were facing, that his fellow Mississippians were facing. Mayor Mitch Landrieu, you're here with us as well. you campaigned on the campaign trail for him. When you look at this and how he did this and pulled this off, when a lot of national Democrats didn't think he could, what did you see in this race?

29:20Well, I'm overwhelmed by it and I'm glad to be here with Wright because he understands this better than anybody else. But Scott did campaign on chaos, corruption, and he stayed focused on the issues and he did not focus on the historical amazement of what just occurred. But to be clear about this, in the state of Mississippi, which has given this country so much and has been dogged out by so many, Ida B. Wells, I mean, you know, William Faulkner came, Elvis Presley, you could go through the list, Oprah Winfrey of people that had to migrate out of Mississippi because of his past, Emmett Till's death that Wright had written about, and Mamie Till Mobley keeping that casket open because she wanted the world to see what hate did, but it was also because she had faith that America could find itself one day.

30:05And to have this young man who was an ex-DA, you know, come into his own in Mississippi and help the country see itself again, of all the historical things that have happened in the last week, I think history will record that maybe this is the most profound that is going to live longer and be deeper and better for a United States that's trying to find herself again. Yeah. And, you know, Scott had mentioned that ad that appealed to what voters were the most worried about, you know, cost of living and on the lectern there for people who can't see it says, you know, they told him in the ad to pick another Senator.

30:38It says picked another Senator, um, which is pretty clever. Yeah. Well, that's a, that, that particular thing came because some of investments from American bridge that got into Mississippi early back in early August when, and when it really looked like Scott could do this because as Scott Jennings said, and Scott, thank you for, for being so gracious. Scott Cullum was a great candidate. He's got a great family. He's got a great history. He's a law and order guy, but he also believes in justice and mercy. And he reflects really this moment that the country is in, as well as anything we've seen in the last couple of weeks.

31:10Yeah, it's a remarkable and historic moment. And yes, it's coming a little over a week after Election Day, but that doesn't take away from the historic nature of this. As you can see, we are watching live in Jackson, Mississippi, as Senator-elect Scott Cullum is about to get on stage. We're going to bring you his full speech live. Obviously, everyone can't wait to hear what he's going to say. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back after this. We just moved into our new house, and I didn't realize just how close we were to the neighbors. That's when my friend told me about Blinds.com.

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32:36And we are covering breaking news here tonight as we are about to hear from Senator-elect Scott Colon for the first time since that massive upset in Mississippi. my colleague, Andy Greyer, is at his party where he's set to speak soon. Andy, obviously, this is a moment the campaign was saying was coming. They were confident they were going to have the votes. Now this is the first time we're going to hear from him since CNN has projected him as the winner.

33:03Well, Caitlin, it's been truly a loud and celebration here. They just were playing A Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke. And the whole crowd joined in when they got to a line where it said it's been a long time coming. And that has been the sentiment that I've heard from so many voters who voted for Cologne over this last week who dared to believe that Mississippi could turn blue, even though Cologne said himself it was very difficult for him to get the support from the national party to pay attention, to get the resources and the funding. But he invested early in his ground game. He reached out early to young black voters.

33:42His campaign relied heavily on black women to help deliver his turnout. There's a reason that his event tonight is held at Tougaloo, a historically black college and university. And just take a listen to some of the voters that I spoke to before this event got started about how excited they are and what this moment means for them. It's epic. There are no words to really describe it. I can't explain how elated this feels. It just feels electric. I think I finally feel just that we'll get the representation we need. This is surreal. It's hope. It's about hope for me, for Mississippi and for America.

34:24I never thought I'd see this day. I am so very proud of Scott and his campaign team. So it means a whole lot. It's even more significant because he's from Mississippi.

34:42So we are waiting to hear from Cologne, who is going to be greeting this crowd. I'm told from a source from the campaign that Cologne and Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith spoke earlier tonight, and the Republican Senator conceded the race. But truly a historic moment. A state that voted for President Donald Trump by 23 points just two years ago. A state that hasn't elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in nearly four decades and sent a black man to the U.S. Senate who won statewide since Reconstruction. And we are waiting, Caitlin, to hear from Scott Colom any moment. Annie Greyer on the ground in Mississippi.

35:16Thank you. And, you know, Karen, she mentioned that Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Republican incumbent, called to concede that they have spoken. Yeah. When she prematurely claimed victory, though, on election night. And there was a moment that a lot of people have noted today. I blocked Scott Cologne from being a federal judge, and you blocked him from being a U.S. senator.

35:46It turns out only one of those was true. Right, exactly. Look, she didn't understand the determination of the people of Mississippi who, you know, I mean, Mississippi is one of the hardest states to vote in in this country. They do not have early vote. You cannot register to vote online. They make it very hard to vote by mail. If you cure your ballot, you have to physically go and show up with your ID. I mean, they make it hard for people. And people were so determined. Annie Greer did some great reporting, going with people as they were trying to go around and cure their ballots. The determination.

36:21And you know, the other thing, the hope that you're hearing, and I heard this when I was there, people are thinking next year there's legislative races, there's a gubernatorial race, they're thinking maybe we could get health care passed. Maybe we could get early vote passed. I mean, some of these things that voters have been wanting for so long, the possibility, the sense of optimism that I think Scott and all the folks who worked so hard to make this day possible is really, you know, think about if someone says to you over and over again, it'll never happen, it'll never happen, it can't happen.

36:53And you just have faith and believe and do the work, and then you see it happen. Well, and also, I mean, Scott, to Wright's point, he was saying, you know, how much the federal government's policies impacted people in Mississippi, where it's a state that, you know, they do have a lot of farmers. Medicaid cuts really affect them. I mean, you can see that this is something that actually the voters clearly are sending a message here with this. Yeah, all the agriculture states, I mean, where Republicans have, you know, for most of my career, sort of taken it for granted. And, you know, whether it's Mississippi or Texas or Iowa, Kansas, I mean, all these states where you have heavy agriculture, I mean, that is something the Republican Party is going to have to begin to repair.

37:31I was out in Iowa back in August, and I talked to a lot of folks in agriculture out there, and it was pretty apparent that folks were pretty bent out of shape. And I think that was true in a lot of states. It's, you know, Cologne, this story where he, you know, they tried to put him on the federal bench and Senator Smith wouldn't return the blue slip on him. I mean, she sort of it's like in Ghostbusters. She she chose the form of her destroyer, you know, when when she blocked him. Otherwise, he'd have been a federal judge. And he wouldn't be able to run. He wouldn't. He wouldn't. He wouldn't be running for the Senate.

38:02And so that's pretty amazing. The little details about this race, I don't know, are just, you know, for political junkies. It's kind of fascinating and interesting. And so I mean, right. When you hear that, I mean, it's kind of remarkable to also hear what she said in her speech on election night, which did not come to fruition, obviously. Look, I mean, look, you know, she chose violence. You know, I mean, I keep, you know, I keep thinking about like, you know, they're playing Sam Cooke, Sam Cooke, native of Clarksdale, Mississippi, my hometown. You know, the degree to which. Look, the elections about farmers, obviously, it's about people rejecting the cruelty.

38:45Mississippi is a very Christian state and like actually religious, not politically religious. And so like the cruelty in the language, like really offended a lot of people. But I also think that Mississippians on both sides of the election instinctively understood that this race was about whether we wanted to go back to 1955. I mean, I have a book out last couple of years that, you know, I've talked on your show many times about the barn, about Emmett Till. And, you know, essentially, though, that book is about Mississippi in 1955. And I started noticing through the election cycle that people were getting it and talking about it.

39:24And, you know, and it feels like it was a referendum in Mississippi on what kind of state we want to be. You know, we think we say that Faulkner quote all the time. The past isn't dead. It isn't even past. but this felt like a day where we're stepping into the future for Mississippi. You know, Sam Cooke, a change is going to come. Well, I mean, on that front, in the history of Mayor Linger, I hear you saying amen. The New York Times was reporting tonight, and I was fascinated by this, and it said that Mississippi was actually the first state to send a black person to Congress. He joined the Senate in 1870.

39:56He was followed by Blanche Bruce in 1875, who was born in slavery in 1841 and was replaced by a white former Confederate soldier who disavowed the ideals of racial equality and ushered in segregationist policies. When Mr. Cologne was torn into office in January, 146 years after Bruce, Blanche Bruce, that former white Confederate soldier who replaced him, left office. And I wonder just when you look at that and the history of that, what that says to you as we're about to hear from Scott Cologne tonight. Well, it's just it's just it's just incredible from 1865 to 1877. That was the period of reconstruction.

40:38It's when the federal troops came down to the south and cleared the decks and gave African-Americans based on merit the opportunity to participate. And when they did, they won. Mississippi had congressmen and senators, you know, and other southern states said until the deal went down. And then all of a sudden there was this history of oppression that that created the need for the Civil Rights Act. And of course, it wasn't lost on black Mississippians or anybody else in the country that the Roberts Court just eviscerated the Voting Rights Act through the Calais decision. And African-Americans that are 38 percent of Mississippi, as Karen was saying, you know, just a minute ago, basically said, we're not taking that.

41:16On top of that, what happened was white farmers in Mississippi and white and black working class people figured out actually they were in the same exact boat dealing with cost. and they came above what used to be the cause of division and said, actually, we have more in common now and we're going to vote for the guy based on merit who we think has our best interest at heart. That is the historical, you know, just wonderful thing that happened just now in Mississippi when people said it could never happen. You know, I'll just mention, we talked, Schwerner Cheney Goodman, we talked about as the history of Mississippi.

41:50John Cheney's daughter voted for Scott Cologne. if you think about that arc of history. I mean, there's so many arcs of history in this moment. One of the most important things, though, when we talk about the Post-Calais decision, and Mr. Mayor, I'm coming to you on this. You're going to help me with this one, is that the Democratic Party, we have got to stay connected to the South. We owe it to the Black voters who showed up and showed out to invest. I don't want to see another cycle where we're begging for dollars like this because, I mean, I'm telling you the painstaking work of people volunteering for things that a lot of people get paid an awful lot of money around this country to do.

42:31We have to meet that determination of those voters with our determination to continue to win in the South and to invest in the infrastructure that they built. We didn't build it. They built it. Yes, Mayor Lindner, do you think? Double fist, double fist bump on that. Okay. President Obama cut an ad room at the end. He had Senator Raphael Warnock, Pete Buttigieg there. But when we had Scott Colom on, that was a question of ours for him because, yes, Democrats are spending a lot of money in other places that they also were like, whoa, we can win this this time. But do you think that they that they miss this?

43:05Well, we had we had a massively good night. But, yeah, I think that that is true. I mean, those of us from the South have been yelling about this for a long time. When when my sister Mary lost her race, you know, back in the day after having been in four terms, the Democratic Party had pulled out the last two weeks because they thought they couldn't win. And so the South has always been in some senses. I got a little chip on my shoulder about it because I'm a Southern boy. Kind of, you know, looked down upon and left out. And I just think that Mississippi demonstrated that the South is in play.

43:31Now, Georgia, North Carolina, and now Texas. I mean, clearly what happened. But Mississippi is right there. And Louisiana is next. I just think that we got to stay there. We got to dig deep. And we have to just put our shoulder to the wheel. And things can happen that people didn't think were possible. Yeah, certainly a rude awakening for Republicans. We are waiting to hear from Democratic Senator-elect Scott Colombe in his first remarks since being projected as the winner in Mississippi. We're going to take his full speech live here. We'll be right back after a quick break. In any moment, the Senator-elect Scott Colom will take that lectern in Mississippi and address a lively crowd, as you saw Annie Greyer just reporting.

44:11He'll be speaking for the first time since his projected historic win over the incumbent Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in a stunning upset victory for Republicans. And, Wright Thompson, as we're waiting to hear from him, what are you going to be listening for just in terms of, you know, this moment, the significance of it and what it means for your state? You know, my father helped run the campaign for the first black candidate for Congress since Reconstruction, who was Robert Clark. And they burned a cross in our front yard. And that was 1982. and Mitch Landrieu's dad in 69. I've been thinking about Moses Wright and about Mamie Till Mobley and Medgar Evers.

44:58And it's a really emotional night, honestly. And I'm proud to have lived to see it. And I can't wait to hear what he has to say. You know, Mayor Landrieu, Wright and I have talked about this before when he published his book about Emmett Till's lynching. In terms of how the South does reckon with these moments. And you're proud of where you're from. You love where you grew up. But a lot of people wrestle with the state's history in places like Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama. And I wonder how you are thinking about that. I'm actually getting emotional about this because of right. This is not a normal.

45:37This is not a normal election, this particular one, because it's hard to understand. I mean, four million people left the South because of the racial terror in the South and the amount of intellectual capital, creative talent, just human beings that we lost because of hate. And I think race is this nation's Achilles heel. Obviously, slavery was our original sin. And we as a nation have not really gone through this the way that we necessarily should. Tonight is just a recognition that we can get through it, even though people made it really, really hard. There is a way to get to the other side of this.

46:12And America, in my opinion, will never realize our full self until we get past and through this racial division that we have. Scott Jennings pointed out about the farmers in Mississippi, and this has been true throughout our history, that working class people, white and black, have more in common than we've been allowed to believe. And I think tonight is just a glorious step in that right direction. And I hope that people take it that way and use it as an opportunity to find unity rather than division. Because when we get separated and when we get alienated, bad things happen. And I think this can be a real healing moment for the country when we try to find higher common ground.

46:52Yeah, that's beautifully said. Mayor Landrieu, Wright Thompson, Karen Finney, Scott Jennings. It was so nice to have all of you here for a really lovely conversation as we are waiting for Scott Colom to speak. Stay with CNN because we are going to take that speech live. CNN Newsnight takes over right now. traditional home security only alerts you after a break-in and that's too late simply safe is changing that stop this is simply safe police are on the way we don't just alert we help stop crime before it starts plan starting around a dollar a day right now get 70 off your new system with professional monitoring at simply safe.com slash spotify simply safe ahead of crime in real time outdoor deterrence plans start at 49.99 a month visit simply safe.com slash licenses for alarm license information.

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