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CNN Live Event/Special
Democrats Take Control of U.S. House, Could Win As Many As 35 Seats. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired November 07, 2018 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[00:00:00]
DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Republican leaders Mitch -- particularly the current speaker of the house, Paul Ryan, worked very hard to get the right candidates on there. Josh Hawley is a perfect example.
He made -- he's currently the attorney general. He -- he won only two years ago. He made a pledge not to run for anything else until his term was up, until he was convinced by Mitch McConnell and the president, republicans in Washington please run because they thought he was their best bet to take the seat and they were right.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Yes, good recruiting but also nothing succeeds like having a good man.
BASH: Absolutely.
TAPPER: And the fact is democrats were faded with a -- with a horrible map. They had a whole bunch of Trump seats -- Trump -- Trump states where they had democratic senators that they had to hold on to and they were playing defense all night and -- you know ...
BASH: And you -- you mentioned something I think that's really important that we haven't talked a lot about tonight, which is Brett Kavanaugh. Because I was in North Dakota, I was in Missouri and the republicans there and even the democrats admitted that the fact that the democrats -- incumbent (ph) democrats voted against Brett Kavanaugh that was a huge boost for republicans in those states.
Because it really got the republican base going and it was hard to turn it back. I mean (ph) -- but particularly the case of Josh Hawley and Missouri. It was something that Clair McCaskill really couldn't get over.
TAPPER: Yes. Well, there were a lot of -- there were a lot of republicans who were perhaps not the biggest fans of President Trump had felt a little demoralized and then they felt that a lot of democrats were unfair to Brett Kavanaugh. They felt the democrats piled on.
BASH: Yes.
TAPPER: And it really -- it -- it -- it, you know, it really allowed people to come together. Never Trump republicans and pro Trump republicans and everyone in between to rally around Brett Kavanaugh.
And that did, in some cases it's pretty clear, you know, solidify the party.
BASH: No question.
TAPPER: And -- and get them behind the republican candidates.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: When it comes to the Senate, huge success for the president of the United States. He's already gloating, I assume. He's gloating about the Senate not the House of Representatives. Tremendous success tonight. Thank you to all. He just tweeted that a little while ago.
TAPPER: Yes. It's -- let's just cut through (ph) for a second. He -- he -- he just lost the House.
BLITZER: But he -- but he -- but he did manage to hold on to the Senate.
TAPPER: I know and mazal tov. But the bottom line is like this is not a good night for President Trump. The democrats have just won -- retaken the House and they're going to have subpoena power and they're going to make his life a living hell. That's the bottom line.
BLITZER: That's an -- that's an absolutely fair -- fair assessment because you listen to all the -- you take a look at who are going to be the chairman of these various committees, these oversight committees of the House of Representatives and they're going to certainly make the president's life pretty miserable.
TAPPER: Elijah Cummings is going to be in charge of House oversight and government reform. That's going to be very difficult for him. The -- the -- Maxine Waters is going to be in charge of House financial services.
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: Adam Schiff.
TAPPER: Adam Schiff in charge of Intel. That's quite a difference from Devin Nunes. Not to mention the fact that you're going to have a bunch of democrats running committees who are going to be ...
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: Jerrold Nadler (ph) is going to be chairman of the judiciary committee.
(CROSSTAL)
TAPPER: Who are going to get President Trump's tax returns. They're going to get them. They're going to subpoena them. They're going to get them and that is not something President -- President Trump has done everything he could to prevent that from happening. BASH: So that's a different dynamic. What isn't a different dynamic
and people might be gulping very hard when I say this, but what is likely to get worse is gridlock because another thing that I heard from a lot of these moderate democrats when I was -- I would -- watching them campaign is you don't want to defeat me because they're will be more gridlock.
Because what we've seen losing Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota, Claire McCaskill in Missouri, Joe Donnelly in Indiana; three moderate democrats. They were painted as liberals but they're moderate democrats and with those -- those democrats gone and reliably republican votes in their place it means that there's less discussion in the middle.
TAPPER: So President Trump we're told CNN's Senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, has spoken on the phone with the likely next Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Jim Acosta, tell us what you know.
JIM ACOSTA, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right Jake. The president did call Nancy Pelosi to congratulate her in the democrats winning over control of the House. As you said, she's the likely incoming Speaker. We don't know for sure but the fact that the president called Nancy Pelosi is a strong suggestion that he knows where things are going.
And we should also point out, Jake, in just the last few minutes you were having that conversation just a second ago about what will happen when the democrats officially take control of the House; Kellyanne Conway, the White House counselor out her briefing reporters just a few moments ago and I pressed Kellyanne Conway on what's going to happen?
How is this White House going to respond? Does the White House have a plan for what will happen when democrats take control of all those committees, have subpoena power and ask for those tax returns, conduct other investigations.
She did not answer that question but she did say when I pressed her on this and what they're going to do, what the president will do if democrats ask for those tax returns. She said quote, I guess they could try.
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Jake, as you were just saying a few moments ago, they're going to do more than just try. They're going to push this White House and it could cause a very big clash between two big branches of government.
One other thing I should point out, I talked to a senior republican source close to the White House, close to Capitol hill who said that the expectation is on the republican side up on Capitol hill, is that all of this is going to be a "major headache".
Not only for republicans in Congress, but for this White House when democrats take control of that house. This is something, Jake, as you know during the campaign President Trump refused to release those tax returns.
Over the last two years as President of the United States he has refused to release to tax returns. This is a major battle, a major fight to come between the White House and a newly democratic House of Representatives come this January, Jake.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And thank you so much, Jim Acosta. And let's not forget that still hovering out there, and who knows what his schedule is but perhaps he was waiting for the midterms to be over, is Robert Mueller.
This special council investigating whatever happened, or didn't happen with regards to obstruction of justice, any possible conspiracy with the Russian government. And now there is a body in Washington, D.C. -- a house, had (ph) the House of Representatives, how that Chamber in Congress that is eager to hear what he has to say.
BLITZER: And potentially make all that information public as well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, absolutely and take action. So it's nice for President Trump to tweet, "tremendous success". It's not a tremendous success and he'll see that in the next few days.
BLITZER: Very soon. All right, I want to go back to Anderson. Anderson?
COOPER: Hey Jake, well thanks very much. So I mean, Abby, are we basically headed for just next two years of complete gridlock and, I mean, the president congratulated Pelosi acknowledging her call for bipartisanship. But, does that seem less likely now?
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Are we headed for complete gridlock? Probably. I think I'm old enough when President Trump wanted to work with moderate democrats on infrastructure, and that lasted for maybe five minutes.
And part of the reason for that was because the president realized pretty quickly that it was more beneficial to him to fight democrats. His supporters are motivated by that, they like to see him fighting for what he ran on. They like to see him going after these people who he has villianized (ph) on the campaign trail...
COOPER: But what you're saying though could probably -- can be said of democrats -- it benefits them...
PHILLIP: And -- I think that's exactly right. But from the president's perspective is he going to want to compromise? I'm not sure that he will, I think he gets as much out of not compromising, as he does -- as he might get from compromising it, if not more.
And as we're going in to a period of a lot of investigations and a lot of conflict from the investigative side on the democratic side, the president is going to do what he does best which is take it under -- he has people, as Gloria knows, that he -- that have signed up to kind of run the fighting back part of this. But the president is going to be the one doing that, we saw it with
Mueller, we saw it with the midterms. He takes it upon himself and he's going to do it -- he's going to do it by creating a foil (ph) (inaudible)...
COOPER: And obviously the presidential race begins, you know, now.
AXELROD: Yes, and that will -- well, probably there are a few hours before it starts but very, very soon. Let me pause (ph) at something though, which is that in an odd way there is an advantage here for him on the whole, I think it'd be better for him to have the house.
But one thing that having a democratic house will do for him is prevent the republican base from pushing him in to taking positions that might make it even more difficult for him. You know, I think about the -- I don't know how you guys feel about this, I actually think John McCain when he turned his thumb down, may have spared him some problems here.
Because you look at how healthcare motivated democrats, so imagine if they had taken the -- imagine if the Affordable Care Act had gone down, and the chaos that would have reigned after that. He has an excuse now, for not doing some of the things that the base wants him to do, if he wants to go that route...
RICK SANTORUM, SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I'll give you a couple things I think the president is going to try to do to attract democratic votes, I think he's going to try to push for a paid family leave, Bill (ph).
That's something that is very high on his priority, something that he would have trouble getting through a republican house, that he can now get through a democratic house and will have sympathy in the republican Senate. So look for that as one bipartisan thing he can do. I wouldn't be surprised, knowing this president, he pushes for some sort of minimum wage increase. Again...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...infrastructure...
SANTORUM: It'd be -- it would be tied to something else, like an infrastructure, Bill but there are plenty of opportunities. Donald Trump is not an (inaudible), Donald Trump is for things that democrats like -- they just don't like him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you see -- and let me make the point real quickly, Rick. That assumes that all the folks who just got elected to these house seats, you know, progressive, people of color, right? To the left -- far left of the speaker they're going to want to go along with it.
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(CROSSTALK)
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Let me say something about - let me say some about those people. Let me - can I say a couple of things about those people?
BLITZER: Van.
JONES: A new generation of people is now a part of the American political process. A lot of younger people, a lot of women, a lot of people thought hey, Hillary Clinton is going to win. Everything is going to be fine. They didn't work that hard. They spent the last two years in shock and upset. And they decided to get involved. And they didn't get everything they wanted, but they got a lot done.
And I think that those forces now have been unleashed in the country. And I think they're more positive than negative. So - so - so on issues like criminal justice reform which is a big issue ...
(CROSSTALK)
... among this - this new mobilized base. They care about criminal justice. That's something this president has said some positive things about. There could be something there. I think you're - you're seeing people - there's a new labor movement that is emerging out of the service sector, domestic workers.
This idea of paid family leave, there could be some common ground. And I don't want us to assume that this - this movement is only the resistance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But they're not going to walk away - they're not going to walk away and be happy with an infrastructure bill. That doesn't sound like they're going say ...
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: No, but I do think the Democrats ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... great.
BORGER: ... have to show, if they're running the House, that there are things they'd want to do. And whether they can get Donald Trump to go along with it or not I think remains to be seen because we've seen him on both sides, on immigration ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well (INAUDIBLE) wouldn't get done.
BORGER: ... for example. But ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But he's the President.
BORGER: ... the President has to be able to, say, work with them maybe on infrastructure or criminal justice reform, et cetera. And - and draw a line because they are going to do everything they can to subpoena him, and to - and to push him up against the wall on all kinds of things like Puerto Rico, Hurricanes.
What happened in Puerto Rico? What happened with your border policy? We want to know how that unfolded. So they're going to be pushing him on one side, and I don't know that he's able to do both of those things at the same time. SANTORUM: Yes, I think he is. And I think that you're going to see the big problem the Democrats are going to have is the same problem that Paul Ryan has. You're going to have your version of the Freedom Caucus. I don't (inaudible).
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The majority of the majority.
SANTORUM: I don't know what you're going to call it. You're going to call them a radical caucus, or whatever you want to - the socialist caucus, whatever it is who are going to be dogmatic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I doubt that.
AXELROD: Yes, you know what?
SANTORUM: And who are going to - who are going to insist upon (inaudible).
AXELROD: Well, I think if you look at the map ...
SANTORUM: Family has to.
AXELROD: ... if you look at the map. A lot of these Democrats who won, won in places that weren't terribly ideological, and aren't going to necessarily go down that road. It's - there's no doubt there's some who - who were.
SANTORUM: But there is a huge part of this caucus that is very dogmatic.
AXELROD: I don't - I wouldn't - I think it's more complex than that. I don't think it's like there's going to be the Democratic version of the Tea Party. I think you're going to find it's - it's much more complex. There are new members who just got elected in districts that are newly Democratic districts.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So Dave, you think there's going to be a whole - a resurgence, and the Blue Dog caucus is coming back?
AXELROD: No.
(CROSSTALK)
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No - no - no. I think what David is saying is really important to pay attention to. To your point, Anderson, about the presidential election begins right away because there is an immediate conversation now happening inside the Democratic Party off of these results tonight. So when Van was talking before about the emotional pain he was feeling by not having Gillum, or potentially Abrams, or ...
JONES: Beto. CHALIAN: ...Beto O'Rourke. These are the folks that were the folks that were touching the zones in the base that was getting them really excited about reshaping what the future leadership of the party looked like. But actually, the people that won tonight that created the Democratic majority, they won on Republic turf.
PHILLIP: Yes.
CHALIAN: That - that's where this majority is coming from, not necessarily a Blue Dog caucus.
SANTORUM: But that's the majority in the caucus.
CHALIAN: If you're Joe Biden and you're ...
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: Let him finish - let him finish.
CHALIAN: If you're Joe Biden, you are waking tomorrow morning ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. That was my point.
CHALIAN: ... feeling much better about what you learned tonight about ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think about Biden.
CHALIAN: ... the Democratic Party than you were, necessarily, a couple of months ago when you thought maybe it was going to be the Elizabeth Warren party.
GRANHOLM: And this is, I think, why having somebody with the experience of Nancy Pelosi at the helm, who knows how to garner votes and count them, is going to be really important if there is going to be something done. I think she knows how to corral.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Deal with all of those young whippersnappers.
GRANHOLM: She will - she will, but she ...
BORGER: She got half of them elected.
GRANHOLM: ... knows how to do it. She's got the seniority and the experience, at this time, to be able to do it. I know she's controversial. And she's going to take all of those incoming barbs, and the others are probably going to be glad that she's the one who's doing that. But she can - she can corral votes.
SANTORUM: The reality is the Democratic caucus, before this election, was a hard-left caucus. That's just the reality.
JONES: But - but why?
SANTORUM: They may be people coming in ...
JONES: Man, I ...
SANTORUM: ... who won in Republican districts.
JONES: ... I have to say this.
BLITZER: Let him finish.
SANTORUM: I - I've been here. I've been here.
JONES: Yes.
SANTORUM: OK? I've been here when ...
(LAUGHTER)
... when we took the majority.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was a member of the caucus.
SANTORUM: And we came in here. And we wanted to pass things.
[00:15:00]
And we wanted to pass things and we want to do things that we wanted democratic turf and we -- and we found out there's a hardcore base within our caucus who said hell no, we want to do this. And that's what's going to -- they're going to run into this in the democratic caucus in the House. I guarantee it.
(CROSSTALK)
GRANHOLM: But that's not who came in tonight.
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: I just want ...
(CROSSTALK)
SANTORUM: It doesn't matter who came in. It's who's there. The majority are hardcore left.
JONES: The only thing I want to say in the defense of the people you are calling hardcore left is that I think that there's a misunderstanding. That these are people who are just wild eyed crazy people who are mad for no reason.
And sometimes what gets erased is how awful Donald Trump has been, the things that he has said, snatching babies from moms, you know closing the door to refugees. He's -- he's -- he's done things that I don't like what he's brought out in a lot of democrats but I understand the pain.
And I understand the frustration. And the -- and the idea that people now are supposed to kind of compromise with this person who did that is ... (CROSSTALK)
GRANHOLM: Let him finish. Let him finish.
JONES: It's emotionally difficult for -- for folks. So it will take an extraordinary amount of leadership to get people back on a constructive side but don't make it seem like these are just some crazy people. They're responding to a crazy president.
SANTORUM: They're -- they're not crazy people but they are committed -- look, I have great respect for people who have ideological certainty and -- and believe in a certain way of doing things. I mean I felt that way and I was going to go out and fight for the things.
I mean some of -- some of the folks that I got along with the best on the democratic side were 100 percent opposite of me because I believed they believed what they ...
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: Here's what we -- here's what we -- here's what we have. We have John Lewis. We have people who have the moral authority, I believe, to help us get things done for people where we can and fight where we have to.
That's what I believe about this party. We'll see if it's true but I just -- I hate the way that these young people get dismissed. They -- they're a mad for a reason.
AXELROD: I think what Jennifer said is -- is important though. You know Nancy Pelosi may -- maybe a liability to -- and there is a reason why a bunch of candidates said they wouldn't support her.
She may be a liability outward facing. Within those four walls, she is a genius of bringing a very fractious caucus together. She's a master at it, she's done it before. My -- my guess is she will -- she will either know that she doesn't have the votes and orchestrate something here.
Or she will have the votes; put together what she needs to bring the caucus together. But I actually think there's a pretty good argument that she may be the only person who can actually bring coherence to this new caucus and lead it through what is a very strategically tricky time.
COOPER: So do you think there are -- I mean is there common ground that can be had between this new House and -- and the President.
AXELROD: Well and the president. Well, look I -- I think that ...
COOPER: Or republicans in general.
AXELROD: I mean there are things -- you know there are issues like infrastructure that people have an interest in. The devil is in the details and you know what the president considers a good infrastructure bill may not be what the House democrats do. I think Van is right on issues like criminal justice reform. That's
been sitting there waiting to get done and there may be some opportunity there. I'm not suggesting that there's going to be this new era of ...
COOPER: Good feeling.
AXELROD: The sun is not going to shine on the Capitol tomorrow morning but I wouldn't put it past the president who is not an ideolog (ph) and who is fundamentally self interested and practical about his own interest that to -- to -- to say well let me see what I can do here.
SANTORUM: I'm going to violently (ph) agree with you. And that the principle problem we have had in this town for a long time now and it comes with presidents and it comes with leaders -- the speakers and the leaders is we have not had good leadership.
We have not had people who have been able to get their caucus and to put aside all of the things that whether it's ideological or political or otherwise and actually legislate. And -- and you have to have a strong leader to do it.
I can tell you, with all due respect to the leaders who have been around for the last 10 years or so, they have not been strong leaders. They have not been effective leaders. And -- and that means the president, no offense to your old boss, and -- and to this president, they have not effectively led.
Because you've got -- when you're a leader you have -- you are going to be incredibly unpopular because you're cutting deals and everybody hates the deal cutter. And so you've got to be willing to do those on popular things and hold your people together and for 10 years we haven't seen that happen here.
(CROSSTALK)
Now, if you think Nancy's possible of doing that, God bless you.
(CROSSTALK)
UNKNOWN: But how about immigration law. Let me just put that out there. On immigration reform, the president put forth a plan. It was wildly unpopular with the republicans so ...
PHILLIP: He didn't stick to it.
UNKNOWN: Yes, but I'm saying it was wildly unpopular.
PHILLIP: But David, he never -- he never followed through with it. This is actually a perfect example of this. A perfect example of the failure of this president to follow through on compromise.
[00:20:00]
He sat down with Chuck and Nancy at the White House and he cut a deal on DACA and then he got enumerable phone calls from people in his own party saying this is a bad deal for us.
And instead of following through on that deal, he said oh, you're right. This is what happens when you have a non ideological president. It is -- it is possible that he can compromise and he can create novel deals but it is also possible that he can be swayed very easily by whoever is talking to him.
(CROSSTALK)
UNKNOWN: You're making a deal -- you're making a deal on some crazy things.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: The open question here is also whether or not President Trump, not just whether or not Nancy Pelosi can do it, whether President Trump has the willingness to do what he decided not to do over the last two years.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Kelly, you said that Joe Biden wakes up tomorrow morning with kind of a better sense either his chances or where he is on the spectrum, but just in terms of the Democratic Party (inaudible), I mean there is still this -- this debate of the -- you know the -- people call themselves progressives and what is the lesson of tonight.
CHALIAN: That debate is going to play out in Technicolor (ph) for everyone ...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Because you could look at (inaudible) and say he did not do anything to reach out to republicans who may not have liked Ted Cruz and that might -- he didn't need to run so far left some people would say.
CHALIAN: Right. And maybe (inaudible) will take his left run that failed in Texas and get on a plane to Iowa and start talking to potential (inaudible) and I'm saying let's try it this way. There's no doubt that the party's going to have that debate.
There are going to be candidates in a lane that are going to get a lot of energy and represent the left wing of the party and I'm just saying that had a lot of the bolder progressives that Van (ph) talked about, running as bold progressives, not afraid in a state like Florida or in a state like Georgia to just not do the let me try to get to the middle thing.
But just run as the progressives they are. If they has been victorious tonight, I think you would have seen that wing of the party just explode as we head into 2020 and really not leave a ton of oxygen for the Steve Bullocks or the Joe Bidens or the Terry McAuliffes to say I can win in purple or red areas.
I think tonight these results say it is still important for democrats to think about as they're going to go through this process about who can win in some of these more moderate areas or purple areas or areas with independence. And it's just going to be a tug of war inside the Democratic Party.
BORGER: You know I think republicans had a worst time with the tea party to be honest. You know the Tea Party came in, you have the freedom caucus and they were, you know, off on the right and Paul Ryan -- Paul Ryan could not get a thing done.
And it was because of his -- it was because of the Tea Party. So I think that was more of a problem. I think the people who came in tonight are not going to be the Tea Party caucus. They're just not.
JONES: I do think this is going to be tough and there's going to be some indigestion. I have a couple of ideas. One is I don't think -- I think that you are a 100 percent correct. It had, you know, five of these, five-one (ph).
You would have taken all the oxygen away from the moderate so that it would just be a progressive party. I think now the debate continues but I do think that Andrew Gillum coming so close -- you know is -- is -- is a strong -- gives a strong case to people and say listen, we can go farther than we thought.
Stacey Abrams is still down there fighting. I think they're still maybe -- they've just stopped voting down there. If that gets very, very close we're going to have a conversation about voter suppression and how much of that was just stolen or hacked or whatever. That's not going to digest well. And so I don't -- we get a mixed result.
CHALIAN: I'm not presuming the conclusion of the debate.
(CROSSTALK)
UNKNOWN: It's complete dispiriting, right, for the progressive wing of the party.
JONES: Well it's mixed. It's mixed. (Inaudible).
UNKNOWN: It's not mixed, you lost them all.
JONES: No. No. No, here -- here's the deal. We just ended one party rule in this country and we're going to do everything we can with it. We -- it hurt to have our hopes hung (ph) ...
(CROSSTALK)
UNKNOWN: But (inaudible) people who said they weren't going to vote for Nancy Pelosi.
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: Can I -- can I talk about Beto O'Rourke for a second because one of the things that interest me about him was yes he staked out some positions on the left but what was distinctive about his candidacy was the style in which he campaigned and we can say he -- we can talk about the fact that he lost.
I don't think many of us actually believe that he was going to win and he did better in Texas than democrats generally have. And he did it in part because he was not -- he was -- he was open.
He approached -- he treated voters with respect whether they were republicans or democrats. I think there was actually a lesson in the way that he campaigned.
(CROSSTALK)
SANTORUM: Yes, he's a good authentic candidate.
(CROSSTALK)
UNKNOWN: Yes, he had 80 million bucks.
SANTORUM: Yes, $80 million helps.
GRANHOLM: Beto and Stacey and Andrew Gillum and the ones who are in the middle show, I think democrats that you can do both.
[00:25:00]
That you can reach out to new groups and you can appeal to moderates because we want to create a broad coalition. I think that's really the lesson for that.
COOPER: So if you're Elizabeth Warren tonight, or you're Senator Bernie Sanders -- what is the message you've taken away?
GRANHOLM: I think that the message is that they too, have to listen to the bluecollar workers as well as the progressive wing (ph) -- it has to be a broad coalition. And it's not like one hates the other, it just needs to be a message that's broad enough to appeal to both...
AXELROD: They would argue that their politics actually speaks to blue collar...
PHILLIP: Exactly.
AXELROD: Which the problem is that there is this suburban base of the republican party -- of the democratic party, and the question is how do you weave that base together? I think it's challenging and --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Socialism scares rich people.
JONES: Here's the thing, we've gotten to the point where democrats who want to fix market failures, and education -- and market failures in the healthcare system are called socialists and it is...
(CROSSTALK)
SANTORUM: America's failure was Obamacare, I mean you're trying to fix Obamacare... (ph)
AXELROD: Rick, I tell you what, you've lost that argument -- the country...
SANTORUM: Yeah, I disagree.
AXELROD: I mean, the bottom line is there are concerns about healthcare in this country that was clearly an issue on the ballot today, people feel strongly about it and the candidate who addresses that, I think is going to do well. I think there's evidence of that, so I don't --
COOPER: Do you think we're going to hear the president start talking more about healthcare which is not something we've really heard.
SANTORUM: But remember, Obamacare was to fix the healthcare system. You don't see any democrat out there running on Obamacare. No democrat, let me just predict this -- no democrat running for president will run on Obamacare. They will run on Medicare for all, or some sort of single-parent system (ph)...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which is socialism...
SANTORUM: Which means they believe Obamacare has failed, and they are going to try something else. That's what they're going run. (ph)
GRANHOLM: No, they are going to talk about health affordable, accessible healthcare for people...
SANTORUM: They're talking about changing the healthcare system again...
GRANHOLM: Yes.
SANTORUM: From Obamacare.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys took a wrecking ball to it.
VAN JONES: Guys, guys, guys we're running out of time.
COOPER: Almost every candidate who won tonight, won by --
(CROSSTALK)
SANTORUM: David, you know that that is one paragraph in a 2000 page bill. They ran on one -- the one popular thing in Obamacare they ran on, the rest of it has been a disaster and the democrats are running away from it every single democrat will.
COOPER: Let's not rehash Obamacare. What's going to happen?
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: I mean, I think what everybody maybe is talking around is the idea that what voters are really saying when they talk about pre- existing conditions is that they feel a sense of economic insecurity when they think about the prospect of going bankrupt as a result of having a pre-existing condition. Now, that's a real -- I think that's a real issue and it's more than a
line in a bill. It's -- that's a whole page, that's people's entire lives, that's when they think about...
SANTORUM: About value.
PHILLIP: I think -- yes, it's a value argument. That's what I think could be potentially powerful for democrats...
SANTORUM: I hear you, but Donald Trump when he campaigned for president said he would never sign a bill without protection from pre- existing condition. He has never supported anything that eliminates...
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: His Attorney General is refusing to defend the Affordable Care Act in court.
SANTORUM: But that's -- that's a much bigger...
COOPER: So in terms of investigations from the democrats, I mean, where do you see them going?
CHALIAN: I don't see them going to healthcare.
COOPER: I mean, tax returns -- does -- I mean, obviously there's a lot of people that do care. But you know, "The New York Times" put out this enormous year and a half long, expose on the history of the Trump family, you know, it wasn't a one day story.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're advertising for people to read it,
CHALIAN: I mean, that speaks to the cacophonous system, our media environment is so loud and noisy all the time with different Trump headlines and that didn't sort of cut through in a long-lasting way which is why I'm skeptical about if these tax returns are released that somehow that's going to be a devastating blow to him.
I think the bigger concern for the president is Robert Mueller, may have his tax returns, relating something to his investigation rather than the democrats in Congress being able to get his tax returns and reveal them.
BORGER: I also think there's going to be a fight if Bob Mueller does issue a report. And I think this could become a very important fight about whether that report is public.
And whether the president will claim privilege on what is in that report because he's -- well, he's reserved the right to claim privilege for a lot of testimony, although he didn't claim it at the outset for people who were working in the White House with him. And I think that's going to be a huge fight in the House of Representatives.
COOPER: But the statute says it only has to be a summary, it doesn't require it to be completely -- but is there a danger?
BORGER: They've (ph) been studying that and they have a working group, by the way, inside the White House.
COOPER: But to the point that Senator Santorum made before, I mean, isn't there a danger for democrats that they just see this as a payback opportunity and spend -- you know, they blow a lot of capital and turn a lot of people off.
[00:30:00]
AXELROD: I think there is the danger of going overboard. There is no question about it. But there is also a responsibility to play an oversight role. And they have to find -- they have to find the right tone, the sweet spot, and so on.
They also have agencies beyond this issue, which is going to take up a lot of space. But I mean, what is the EPA doing? What are the relationships between that agency and some of the industries that are involved? And I mean, in every area, there are things going on that just have been unexamined that I think are properly subjects for Congress to examine.
COOPER: A historic shifting in Congress, Democrats taking control of the House, as we've been discussing, while Republicans hold, of course, on to the Senate. Stay with us as we follow the outstanding races. There are still votes being counted that will decide the final balance of power and we have new projections ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back. Democrats, they take control of the House of Representatives. Republicans maintained control of the U.S. Senate. There are critical governors' races. We're just getting some projections on. Nia, what do you see?
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: That's right, Wolf. We can start Iowa. The winner CNN projects here, is Kim Reynolds. She, of course, is the incumbent, now winning a first full- term, defeating Fred Hubbell in that Midwestern state in Idaho. CNN projects that the winner in that race is Brad Little, defeating Paulette Jordan in Idaho.
[00:35:12] We can move on now to some other projections. For Democrats, in New Mexico, CNN projects that the winner in that race is Michelle Lujan Grisham, defeating Steve Pearce. This is a pickup for Democrats at this point, so some good news for Democrats in that state, in New Mexico.
In Minnesota, CNN can project that the winner in this governor's race is Tim Walz, defeating Jeff Johnson. And another projection that CNN can make, the winner in Oregon's governor's race is Kate Brown, defeating Knute Buehler there, in Oregon.
And now, let's look at this. We talked about the pickups for Democrats, four pickups, so far, tonight. They, of course, came into tonight at a real deficit in terms of the number of governorships they had. They had 16, so four pickups tonight.
But there are other outstanding races that we can look at. So let's go to those boards here. And a couple of states we've been watching so far. In Wisconsin, Tony Evers, ahead still. I mean, it's -- this is, you know, tight, tight, tight, tight race.
Scott Walker, of course, has been something of a Teflon candidate. He is the incumbent in this race, about 89 percent reporting, Tony Evers clinging to a very slim lead at this point.
In Georgia, another race we've been watching, Brian Kemp has had this steady lead, about 140,000 votes at this point, 99 percent reporting, hard to see Stacey Abrams making up that gap at this point. And we're going to take you back to Wolf and Dana.
BLITZER: All right, guys. Thanks. Thanks very much, Nia. You know, it's very interesting. The Democrats will be in charge of the House, the Republicans will be in charge of the Senate. We don't know the final numbers yet, and that could be significant.
TAPPER: It could be significant. First of all, how big the Republican majority in the Senate is, going to determine how much they feel like they need to govern towards, at least, a nod towards the center, as we discussed earlier, the fact that Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska had slightly centrist views on some issues.
Made it so Republicans had to listen to them on occasion, whether it had to do with delaying the vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation, whether it had to do with the defeat of their effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. But right now, with Republicans picking up seats in the Senate, they are not going to have to do that as much.
That, if you want to call it a moderating influence, is no longer going to be required. I don't know if we want to look at the -- at the -- at the Senate board here, but right now, if you look, Democrats of the key races we are keeping an eye on, kept West Virginia, Joe Manchin, re-elected, kept New Jersey, Menendez, re-elected.
Republicans kept Tennessee in the Republican file, kept Texas in the Republican category. And then picked up three Democratic Senate seats, Missouri, Claire McCaskill, loses to Josh Hawley, North Dakota, Heidi Heitkamp loses to Kevin Cramer, and Braun, in Indiana, defeats Donnelly. So that's 51.
Let's posit that Mississippi ultimately will likely go Republican. Who knows what will happen. But for the purpose of this exercise, let's say that -- say that that happens. Florida, let's posit that the Republican who is in the lead there, wins.
And let's say Arizona, the Republican in the lead there, wins. That's 54 seats, 54 seats. And that assumes that Jacky Rosen wins a very competitive race in Nevada, and Jon Tester wins a very competitive race in Nevada, theoretically. And this is -- this is worst case scenario for Democrats, but theoretically, Republicans could win 56 seats. BLITZER: You know, in Nevada, we still haven't seen any results.
TAPPER: Not one vote.
BLITZER: Not one vote yet. Nevada has been closed for a while. So we're still waiting to see what happens in Nevada. That could be a very close race.
TAPPER: Yes, just to be clear, I'm not predicting the Republicans are going to win 56 seats. But everything now is gravy. And right now, they -- that's the strong end of where they are. And, you know, just a bad night for Democrats when it comes to the Senate, great night, when it comes to the House.
BLITZER: Right. It's interesting, Dana, because Republicans do fairly well in the Senate, not so well in the House.
BASH: Exactly. You said gravy. It is gravy in some ways, but in other ways, it's not, because every single one of these votes as we've seen in the U.S. Senate, is so incredibly critical. And I think your point about the fact that the moderates in the Senate will have -- on the Republican side will have less power, is really important.
Speaking of power, though, in the House, we were just looking at the, sort of, the Democrats who are likely to get gavels in the House. Maxine Waters, who has been a regular rhetorical target of the President's, on the campaign trail over the past few weeks, she's going to have one of those gavels, financial services committee.
And one of the things that she can do, is use her power of subpoena, which she has, to get, you know, information from and about the President, and from and about the President's cabinet that have not yet been looked at all.
[00:40:09] BLITZER: Yes.
BASH: As Republicans have been in charge of the House.
TAPPER: Look at this -- look at this list. I just want to bring --
BASH: There you go.
TAPPER: one name to the attention of our viewers, and that is Congressman --
BLITZER: Richard Neal.
BASH: Richard Neal, at the end.
TAPPER: Richard Neal, from Massachusetts, who's been in there for decades. You've never -- maybe never heard of him before, he is likely to be the next Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. And why is that important?
Because that is the one House Committee that will be able to get the President's tax returns, if he wants them -- If he wants them, and if the Committee votes to get the President's tax returns. Richard Neal, you may be have never heard of him until just now, that's the name you're going to know in the next few months.
BASH: And it's one of those -- it's an example of, you know, for those of us who roam the halls and you did, for years, as well, of Congress. You see him, you know him. He's been there for 30 years. He was elected in 1988, before you were born, Jake.
TAPPER: Not quite, but OK, thank you.
BASH: You're welcome. And he, you know, he's the veteran, the head of the Massachusetts delegation, because he has been there for so long. But he's not on T.V. He is not -- or at least on national T.V. He doesn't go out and, you know, sort of make a name for himself in that way.
But he is, you know, a hard worker, and he's worked his way up the ranks in that incredibly important committee, that is Ways and Means, the Tax Writing Committee.
TAPPER: Yes.
BASH: And he is going to have a lot of power.
TAPPER: Access --
BLITZER: He keeps getting re-elected from the state of Massachusetts.
BASH: He does.
TAPPER: Access to the President's tax returns. Let's put up that graphic again, because I want to bring people's attention to a few of the other chairman. So obviously, this is just -- we're just projecting, we don't know this is what is going to happen, but in all likelihood, Nancy Pelosi will be speaker.
Jerrold Nadler, very, very feisty Democrat from Manhattan, will be the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, we assume. Congressman Elijah Cummings, who's been the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, he has been there through Republicans controlling that committee, Darrell Issa's tenure --
BASH: Yes.
TAPPER: Trey Gowdy's tenure, the --
BASH: So contentious.
TAPPER: The Benghazi investigation and all the like, now finally, he will be able to be the chairman of that committee. And then look right next to Richard Neal at the bottom right, Adam Schiff. Adam Schiff.
BASH: Unlike Richard Neal, he is on T.V. a lot.
TAPPER: Adam Schiff, is on T.V. a lot, and he will be the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, which used to be a very successfully bipartisan committee. And under Devin Nunes, who is now going to be in all likelihood the ranking Republican, has completely devolved, and Adam Schiff is going to have a choice.
Is he going to try to bring the committee to back to what it used to be, where it was bipartisan, where Democrats and Republicans would sign off on investigations --
BASH: Yes.
TAPPER: Together. What it was like under Mike Rogers, a former Republican congressman, or is he going to be as partisan for the Democrats, as Devin Nunes has -- was for the Republicans. That's a choice the congressman, soon to be chairman, Adam Schiff, will have in front of him.
BLITZER: And you know, Eliot Engel is going to be chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He is a feisty Democrat as well --
BASH: He is.
BLITZER: from New York. And Adam Smith, he is going to be chairman of the Armed Services Committee. He is pretty feisty as well.
BASH: That's right. But again, kind of, going back to the future a little bit, on those National Security Committees, both of those Democrats have a history of working in a bipartisan way. Eliot Engel does, Adam Smith does, on important issues of Foreign Policy and of National Security.
And it's hard to imagine, them, not doing that now, particularly Eliot Engel, who has been around for a very long time and is waiting -- has been waiting a long time to get -- to get the gavel of a committee. But I think your Adam Schiff note is really important.
It's going to be a question of whether he puts his money where his mouth is, because he has been, you know, understandably very upset about how partisan the committee is. And it's still incredibly important, that Intelligence Committee.
TAPPER: And obviously, the Mueller investigation continues. And that's something that's soon to be Chairman Schiff has talked about quite a bit, Wolf.
BLITZER: I think we'll be getting some developments on that in the days ahead. So how divided will the new Congress be, with Democrats in charge of the House, Republicans leading the Senate? Coming up, new results in key races that are still undecided.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:45:00] BLITZER: Democrats win control of the House of Representatives. Republicans maintain control of the U.S. Senate. It's sort of a split decision over there. Democrats, pretty happy, though, right now about the House of Representatives. JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Certainly. When you look at this map in 2010, remember, Republicans took over the House in the first Obama midterm. Here in the first Trump midterm, the Democrats take it back. You do see -- you do see -- let's go back and see where we started the night.
Here is where we started the night, Republicans at 235, Democrats at 193. Here's where we are now, we don't have the final numbers here yet, but we know the Democrats will have the majority right now. They've picked up 25 seats, and they have.
If you look at some of the uncalled races, as we look at some of the races across the board, still opportunities, races here in Maine, that'll pull away for us here, races in Maine, races in Michigan, races in Iowa, races in Utah. We're still waiting for California to fill in.
Republican incumbent Dino Rossi, trailing in Washington State right now, as you look up here. So the Democrats have an opportunity. There are 25 or so now, to go higher. The question is how higher they get the 35? Can they start to approach 40? We'll see that as it fills in. So, there is a blue wave when it comes to the House of Representatives.
The counterbalance is, a red wall, when it comes to the United States senate. That is the mixed verdict of America tonight. The House, going Democratic, the Senate getting more Republican. The question is how much more? At the moment, Republicans leading there, they have flipped here, they have flipped here, and they have flipped here.
Now, the question, after you go through all that is can they hold here? This is Jeff Flake's seat. He is retiring. Martha McSally, holding on to a narrow lead right now, just at 60 percent reporting, so we have ways to go here. McSally has been leading consistently.
But you'll watch this one play out. And you'll notice this one state on the map, with absolutely no votes. They kept some polling places open late, in Nevada, because of some long lines. They won't release any of the results they already have in until those -- that is all done and everybody has voted.
So, any second now, we should see some results here. Again, Republican incumbent, the most vulnerable Republican Senate incumbent is Dean Heller. The Democrats are hoping, they're just hoping they have Nevada and Arizona. It has been a very bad night for the Democrats looking at the Senate map. They are hoping, out west, to get different news.
[00:50:09] Otherwise, the Republicans will gain. The question is how much will they gain? You can't see it on this race because it's a special election. I can get it to you and go for you here. This race is headed to a runoff. Cindy Hyde-Smith is an incumbent now. As my guess, that the Democrat, you need 50 plus 1, in Mississippi.
This one's going to a runoff. Everyone will tell you that she will be heavily favored in Mississippi. Democrats will say hey, Doug Jones won in Alabama, it's possible, but we'll have to obviously have the runoff there. But the Republicans will be favored there.
So, again, you come back to the full Senate map. Let me bring you out of here. That's the other Senate race. And a blue wave in the House, a red wall when it comes here. Now, we go to the governor's races which are more of a mixed verdict.
Democrats are going to pick up governorships tonight, but they're disappointed and that they're not picking up that one, and they're not picking up that one, and they thought, very much, they would pick up that one.
So, you have Democratic gains in the governors' races. We don't know how many just yet. We have (INAUDIBLE) go across. The Democrats would be very happy if they -- Wisconsin, they're ahead right now, it's not done yet. They've picked up Michigan. They've picked up Illinois. That's going to sting. That's going to sting a lot. That's going to sting a ton.
BLITZER: Yes, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. I believe those are the three states that the President Trump won, two years ago.
KING: They are. And so if you're looking -- the President, if you visit the Oval Office, he likes to tell people, and guess what? Looking at the Senate races, he's going to do a lot more of this. I'm President, you're not. I know what I'm doing. I trust my instincts. That's what the President said.
When he flipped in 2016, he flipped this, he flipped this, and he flipped this. Now, Pennsylvania had a Democratic governor. Now that you have Democratic governors across the board, it does matter when it comes to 2020. It does come to control the state parties that are running it. But the Democrats -- the Democrats believe -- and this is very significant, by the way.
Kris Kobach losing, the Republican in Kansas, the Democrats picking that up. Well, that's significant for the Democrats. Nobody is going to say Kansas is going to go blue in 2020. But it is good for the Democrats as they try to rebuild at the state level. But if you're the Democrats, you're thrilled.
These have been Republican states, even Illinois, at a Republican governor. You're thrilled to change those. But, again, if you're talking about how big was the wave, did you leave any opportunities on the board, losing, the Ohio governor's race, and losing it by a decent margin.
BLITZER: I just took a look. I noticed that Connecticut is red over there.
KING: Let's go over and see how that one is turning out. That has been a remarkably close race as you watch it go through, 86 percent reporting. This would be a big win for Republicans, if this -- if this lead holds. We'll watch and see if it does play out.
This is one of the races late in the campaign. Republicans started to say hey, keep an eye, watch Connecticut governor, see if we get a surprise there. That would be a big deal too. Especially, you think of New England as blue, Democratic. Charlie Baker, the governor of Massachusetts, winning easily tonight, New Hampshire, Vermont. So you do have --
BLITZER: Republican won in the Larry Hogan in Maryland, as well.
KING: Republican Larry Hogan.
BLITZER: How did he do over there?
KING: Convincingly, 56 to 43.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: So you start seeing different -- very different Larry Hogan, Charlie Baker, Bill Scott, not Trump Republicans. Trump Republicans can't win up here, but there is still a moderate wing of the Republican Party at the gubernatorial level that is having great success tonight.
BLITZER: Even in Democratic states?
KING: Even in Democratic states. And you have the moderate Republican House members in the same states in the same region, getting blown out tonight, which what are you going to get? You know, the House Republican Minority in an odd way will be more Trumpy than the House Republican Majority, because they're losing their moderates.
BLITZER: Yes. So, the Democrats are making some inroads among the governors. Let's go back to the House, right now, because they have more than 218.
KING: They do.
BLITZER: The question is, will they have 230 or 240?
KING: And so, where are we going to look for that? Again, here are the uncalled races that are potential pickups. These are uncalled races that if they switch, would be switching parties. So, you see two Republicans leading in districts that are now held by Democrats. This one, again, would be interesting.
There are always surprises in midterms, but the Democrats are winning big in the governor's race. They're winning the senate race. John Garamendi, Former Secretary of State in California, losing at the moment. But we'll see. Only 23 percent of the vote in, could be in from a rural area up here. So we'll have to wait and see as the vote comes.
But that would be -- that would be a stunner, especially given what's happening in the state-wide races in California. But let's come back out and look. And you're looking down here. One of the interesting things is, you look down here, I watched this, 56 votes. I checked in on this a little while ago.
This would be a Democratic pickup, obviously, Katie Hill against the incumbent Republican Steve Knight, neck and neck, big target of opportunity. But it's almost the interesting parts down here, let me stretch this map out a little bit, is what you don't see. You're going to see here, this potentially Democratic pick up here.
Now, the Democrat has pulled ahead in this race. Dana Rohrabacher, veteran Republican, has been there for a long time, even a lot of Republicans critical of him, soft on Russia, cozy with Russia, 249 votes, though, with 28 percent reporting. We'll watch that one play out.
Duncan Hunter was under indictment. He's leading in his race. Democrats thought that could be a target of opportunity, even though it's a safe Republican district.
[00:55:09] But in San Diego, Duncan Hunter, in Buffalo, Chris Collins, two Republican members of Congress under indictment, at least at the moment, leading in their races there. But if you're starting to figure out how high can the Democrats go, there's no question Democrats will be the majority.
So we're just going to watch out here. We'll watch some of these races out here. This is the Mia Love district out here. She is losing the 71 percent of the vote and losing quite convincingly there. And then you come out and keep looking for more. We'll see. We have no results in Nevada yet. There's just the one up there.
And another interesting thing here is Democrats are on track. These are just the pickup opportunities. Democrats are on track if this holds, to pick up, if you pull out to the full map, let me take this off and tour the House, one, two, three, of the four districts in Iowa, which means a couple of flips, Steve King, though, leading in a race, very late.
The Democrat sent some money here, thinking can we flip this after Steve King thought his tongue got him into even more trouble about issues of immigration, race and the like. But it looks like Steve King is going --
BLITZER: All right, stand by for a moment. Coming up, what will Democrats do with their new power and now that they're taking charge of the House of Representatives? We're getting more on that as we stand by for late results in uncalled races. Our election coverage continues.
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