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CNN Live Event/Special
No Change In Minneapolis P.D.; Glenn Youngkin's Tactic Pulled Many Voters; Boston With A New Mayor-Elect; New Jersey Still Waiting For The Results; Governor Phil Murphy Thanked His Supporters. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired November 02, 2021 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00]
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JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST (on camera): We have key race alerts for you right now. Let's take a look at the board. In the garden state of New Jersey Republican Jack Ciattarelli has 49.9 percent of the vote to the 49.3 percent that the Democratic incumbent Governor Phil Murphy has. Jack Ciattarelli is 6,500 votes ahead right now with 38 percent of the vote in. It is a nail biter in New Jersey. Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican up 49.9 percent to 49.3 percent.
In the commonwealth of Virginia, Republican Glenn Youngkin 52.8 percent of the vote over Democrat Terry McAuliffe who has 46.4 percent of the vote. Right now, Glenn Youngkin with 83 percent of the vote counted is up by more than 169,000 votes.
It is quite a night for Republicans as of right now. Let's go to M.J. Lee at the headquarters in New Jersey. Asbury Park of Democrat incumbent Governor Phil Murphy who right now in vote count is trailing. M.J., what is the mood there?
M.J. LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, I was just touching base with a Phil Murphy adviser just about what the mood is and what is it that they are watching. And they simply said, look, we are waiting for the votes to come in, in most of the state. That when they see numbers come in from Ocean County, for example, that they understand that those are numbers that could actually skew the overall production and the returns at how things look at the moment.
We know that the governor is with his family right now, with his wife and his children nearby this election event, and we know that once the race is called, the plan is for him to head over here.
I have to say, Jake, even though as we talked about earlier in the night the governor and his advisers have said all along this is going to be a test and a grade from the people of New Jersey on how he did in his first term. It is difficult to completely separate out everything that has been going on in Washington.
We can report that President Biden during his foreign trip actually called Governor Murphy yesterday. We don't know exactly what they talked about, but you can certainly expect that the president probably wished him luck. It is just a reminder how closely the White House and the president in watching these elections.
And if any of these races end up being incredibly close and if any of the Democratic candidates end up losing by very close margins, there will be folks wondering could last-minute good news from Washington, if Biden had been able to get some kind of big deal before election night, could that have made all the difference? Jake?
TAPPER: All right. M.L. Lee at Murphy headquarters where I imagine they are not particularly comfortable right now.
Let's go to the Republican Jack Ciattarelli headquarters in New Jersey where we find our own Evan McMorris-Santoro. And Even, surprisingly strong showing by Jack Ciattarelli. Right now, he is up with 38 percent of the vote in. Fifty-point-two percent to Murphy's 49 percent. That's with 38 percent of the vote counted. So much more to go, but, still, that is a strong showing so far.
EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, jake. You know, it is always fascinating on these election nights to hear both sides spin the same number. You heard M.J. talking about the Democrats saying, hey, hold on. There is a lot of votes to come in yet.
Well, here at Ciattarelli headquarters, reporters just heard from their lieutenant governor candidate Debra Allen and she came out and said the same thing but with a different tone. She said, hang on. There is a lot of voting to happen yet. There is a lot of vote to come in yet and we feel pretty good about what we're seeing so far. We feel pretty good about some of these down ballot numbers.
She said, look, folks, the numbers are going to go up. The numbers are going to go down, but we feel like we may be able to pull something off here tonight. And they told people here at this headquarters here in Bridgewater, New Jersey to buckle in and prepare for a long night of results. Jake?
TAPPER: All right, Evan, thank you so much in Bridgewater, New Jersey. Let's go to talk to John right now here at the magic wall. John, Jack Ciattarelli up 50.2 percent to 49 percent. Twelve thousand almost 13,000 votes ahead. What -- tell us what else we're waiting for here because this is a very strong showing.
[22:05:05]
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So in an essence, ways to go yet, both campaigns are telling the truth in the sense that the Republicans are looking at this map and saying, hey, we're doing better than the Republicans did four years ago. And we some things we like.
The Democrats are looking at the map especially in places like this. This is Hudson County, Jersey City. you're only at 40 percent of the vote. A little shy of that. Look at the margins. If you just imagine if that margin stays up, that's a lot more for the Democrats if they come in.
We move up over here, Essex County, which is Newark and the Democratic area throughout Newark. Again, less than 20 percent of the vote in. Murphy up. So just think, OK, if you multiply somewhere, if you stay in that margin and more votes come in and the Democrats have a big lead like that, there are a lot more votes coming in for the Democrats.
So, the Murphy campaign has every right to say, let's wait. Let's count more votes. However, if you're in the Jack Ciattarelli campaign, you're looking up here, the largest county in the state, Bergen County, 13 percent of the vote in. And you are in the lead right now in a county that four years ago went for the incumbent governor at almost 57 percent. Fifty-seven percent if you round it up.
Again, we're only at 13 percent of the vote. And so, we have to watch. But if you are the Republicans, this is the most populous county in the state. At the moment, you are leading. So if you can hold that lead, you run up more votes. Again, we're talking about what is the message of these off-year elections.
If you are watching in Republican campaign, the Republican candidate won this county four years ago. That's what Jack Ciattarelli essentially what you had to do. Right? If you have to win the places where you won before, he's winning there. The challenge for the Republicans is most of the vote is in for these counties.
But down here, we mentioned it earlier, Atlanta County, which is Atlantic City that the Republican is ahead is a big deal. This was a county that went for the Democrats four years ago by 13-point margin, just shy of a 13-point margin there. Fifty-five percent for Phil Murphy four years ago. At the moment, the Republican is getting 57 percent.
Again, it's only a quarter of the vote, so we need to be careful as to what happened. The same as you move across here into Gloucester County. jack Ciattarelli right now with 85 percent of the vote in, getting 54 percent. And if you go back four years ago, Phil Murphy won this county with 55 percent of the vote.
So, you do see evidence that the Republican candidate has the potential to flip some counties that went blue in the last election. He would need that to change the map. Remember, the population center is up here.
And, again, let's check again here. We talked about Virginia, and margins matter. In Camden County, the governor is getting the eighth largest county in the state, getting just shy of 60 percent of the vote, 59 percent there. You go back. He's down a little bit.
TAPPER: Yes.
KING: Down a little bit. So, you are looking at the ingredients. And again, in the Murphy campaign, you didn't expect this to be as big a blow-out as it was four years ago.
TAPPER: Sure.
KING: Because this is not a Democratic environment like it was four years ago. But especially if we can look at all of this, right? Trenton again only at 27 percent. Mercer County, relatively competitive if you look at it there.
This is the one we keep an eye on right there. If this one stays red, Ciattarelli has a chance to stay in play, 13 percent of the vote in. Red it is. New Jersey reminding us again we live in volatile times. We have a lot of vote to count.
TAPPER: Right. And I mean, there have been Republican governors and --
KING: Yes.
TAPPER: -- and Republican senators from New Jersey. How much did Joe Biden win New Jersey by? Do you have that -- do you have that there in your board?
KING: Yes, we do, 2020. There we go. We go there. We have to tap president to get a governor and by 16 points.
TAPPER: By 16 points, OK.
KING: Yes.
TAPPER: So, it is a more Democratic leaning state than, for instance, the commonwealth of Virginia is where Biden won that by 10 percentage points but not unfathomably so. I mean --
KING: Not unfathomably so. And again, I'm circling here the areas so you can see the blue. Right. This is the big blue in the map in 2020.
TAPPER: Right.
KING: I circled that just so when we come back here and look at 2021 you see there is some red in there.
TAPPER: There is four counties in red.
KING: Yes, there is. And the last governor's race that was red. So, this is, you know, again, part of what we're trying to factor in here is Trump is not on the ballot. So, you do not have the toxic Trump effect in the suburbs that we saw in the 2018 midterms, that we saw in the 2020 presidential election. That is gone.
So, the question is what is the difference this time? So now we watch this. The circles are here because Joe Biden ran it up in those areas in New Jersey just a year ago and Phil Murphy is now having some issues in those areas, Jake. Again, the Republican ahead, 11,000 votes. Thirty-nine of the votes counted. A lot more votes out in the Democratic areas, but interesting to say the least.
TAPPER: Indeed. Indeed. Much more just content than I think a lot of Democrats had been anticipating. We can now make a major protection on the ballot initiative determining the future of the police force in Minneapolis. CNN projects the ballot initiative in terms of changing the police
force is going to fail. Minneapolis voters deciding they do not want to replace the police department with a department of public safety. This is a significant test of policing reform after the murder of George Floyd.
Again, CNN is projecting that the ballot measure that would have reimagined policing in Minneapolis is going to fail.
[22:10:01]
Let's go to Omar Jimenez who is in Minneapolis. Omar, supporters of this initiative had thought that they were going to have the votes today.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They really did. Their camps trying to figure out --
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TAPPER: Omar, I'm sorry.
JIMENEZ: -- who was --
TAPPER: Omar, start again, if you would. The graphics decided to go like on their own. So, the people who supported this --
JIMENEZ: It's all good. I thought you were just bolstering my report.
TAPPER: We like, you know, you are a superhero to many Americans, so we wanted just to bring that out. You should demand that before every hit. But back on track here.
JIMENEZ: Exactly.
TAPPER: The supporters of this initiative thought that they might have the votes, thought they were going to be reimagine the police force that the citizens of Minneapolis would want the troubled Minneapolis police force to be replaced by public safety. But the voters came forward and said, nope, we don't want that overall.
JIMENEZ: That's right, Jake. Both sides couldn't figure out what the other side was doing and what their logic was. I was interviewing people on both sides of this in the days leading up to this and the people on the no side of the vote, the votes that actually went out here were concerned that there were no specifics as part of this ballot question.
And, so, while there are ideas out there of, this could include mental health support or violence prevention services, that was not explicitly laid out. And so essentially it was asking voters to put their faith in whoever is elected as part of this election to fill this public safety department with some of those purposes.
And then those on the yes side were saying, well, look, we have put our faith in the mayor for so long to try and fix the police department and it hasn't happened. We put our faith in the police department to fix the police department and it hasn't happened.
So, they felt that this was now time for them to force the hand, so to speak. And you remember, they got more than 20,000 petition votes on this, so they really tried to bring this from the ground up. But as you just mentioned, over, about a year and a half after the murder of George Floyd in the first electoral test since his murder, that ballot question fails.
TAPPER: All right. Omar Jimenez, thank you so much. I appreciate it. And let's talk about this with our panel because whether it is the policing reform or the socialist candidate for mayor of Buffalo trailing, at least as of right now to the write-in candidate, the incumbent Democratic mayor, the very, very close race in New Jersey. The not so close race in Virginia, we are seeing something going on here, a trend that seems clearly -- a message clearly at the Democratic Party.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And there are Democrats who are from areas that are not liberal, that are not progressive, that are in Washington we call them front-liners, Democrats who are in swing districts looking ahead to one year from now who I'm texting with some of them are very concerned about what this means.
Because they have been saying for quite some time that this, this conversation, defund the police and so many other issues that are very much to the left of the party because that is where the party has a lot of amplification, that's not where their districts are. That's not where a lot of the country is.
And to them, this is proof of that. And it's hard not to see proof of that with everything that you just described, with the vote in Minnesota, with what's going on just in New York City with an African- American guy who is a law and order now mayor-elect.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: But he's also a critic of the police departments as well in --
(CROSSTALK)
BASH: That's true.
HENDERSON: -- police brutality.
BASH: But didn't do, went nowhere near defund the police.
HENDERSON: Well, very few actual Democrats who have run for office have gone to defund police. Right?
BASH: That's such a good point. Yes.
HENDERSON: It's reform of the police. You know, the Democrats I have been talking to have been worried all night, even with a McAuliffe victory, they have been worried about what is the message from Democrats? What are the deliverables? What are the ways in which Democrats can present themselves as problem solvers for all of the anxieties that people have at this point, whether it's the price of gas, whether it's the price of groceries at the Piggly Wiggly or the Winn-Dixie.
That is what people are living now. That is what they are experiencing. And if you look at some of these races, the McAuliffe race, for instance, he was speaking directly to those issues enough for voters. And you see the result here with Youngkin at least now ahead and we'll see where that race ends up.
[22:15:00]
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes. Because we're learning two things. Right? We're learning the pendulum of American politics swinging as it does, right? And we're seeing that in Virginia, perhaps in New Jersey. But we're also learning about the Democratic Party.
But we're learning something I think we have learned over the last couple of years. So now you saw the ballot measure move down in Minnesota. You noted that the write-in candidate, the incumbent is ahead of the socialist candidate in Buffalo. We'll see how that goes.
Just back up a little earlier this year to the primary season when Terry McAuliffe emerged passed more progressive candidates as the winner of the primary, when Eric Adams defeated those progressives in the New York City primary. Now rewind to 2020 when Joe Biden defeated the more progressive candidates in the presidential primary.
So, we keep learning from Democrats over and over again, that as a party overall they're more aligned with a more centrist approach. But like just in this Minnesota ballot as you saw it. You had Ilhan Omar and Keith Ellison on one side. You had Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, the senators from Minnesota, the Democrats, with the majority side here, with the winning side.
BASH: Yes.
CHALIAN: And so, I think Democrats are saying, hey, we want to be a bit more in the middle here. To your point, Nia, I think voters are saying so that there can be a bigger appeal to the issues that are --
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HENDERSON: I think we are also seeing --
TAPPER: Can I just say on that point, what about the Buffalo mayor's race? Where are Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand when it came to the Democratic candidate, the socialist candidate?
BASH: But that was different.
CHALIAN: Party loyalty. She won the Democratic nomination. And Chuck Schumer is speaking aside of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
(CROSSTALK)
BASH: Yes, exactly. CHALIAN: And wanted to make sure they are not --
HENDERSON: And I think -- I think --
BASH: Yes.
HENDERSON: I think we also see the enduring power of the culture wars and the Republicans are better at playing this game because it's essentially white identity politics. That works for Republicans. We saw it in 2016 and we're seeing it in some of these races now, particularly in the McAuliffe race with the CRT issue and education issue.
BASH: And at this point --
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: All right. Well, I'll come right back to you --
BASH: OK. OK.
TAPPER: -- as soon as we get back. We got to squeeze in a quick break. We still don't know who won the Virginia governor's race. We still don't know who is going to win the New Jersey governor's race. Many, many more races to cover. We're going to squeeze in a quick break. Stay with us.
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(APPLAUSE)
TERRY MCAULIFFE (D-VA), GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: And the great work today had done. So, we still got a lot of votes --
TAPPER: Let's listen to Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Virginia Terry McAuliffe giving remarks to his supporters.
MCAULIFFE: Every single Virginians deserves to have --
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MCAULIFFE: It has been a great campaign. I started this campaign 328 days ago. I have done an average of seven to 10 events a day for the last 328 days.
(APPLAUSE)
MCAULIFFE: And it was great to be out here. And we opened --
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MCAULIFFE: -- campaign down in Richmond with my great co-chairs Levar Stoney and --
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[22:20:02]
MCAULIFFE: -- Louise Lucas and Charniele Herring to talk about how we needed to rebuild all of our schools here in the Commonwealth of Virginia and raise teacher pay and get every child access to a pre-K education and to get everybody access to broadband here in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
(APPLAUSE)
MCAULIFFE: And we have continued to take that fight throughout this commonwealth. But, first of all, I want to thank my family. I want to start by thanking --
(APPLAUSE)
MCAULIFFE: I want to thank my wife Dorothy.
CROWD: Dorothy! Dorothy! Dorothy!
MCAULIFFE: As you know, she has within a champion, a true policy expert. And through her efforts as you know, 13 million more meals served to needy children here in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
(APPLAUSE)
MCAULIFFE: And I wanted to thank my family. You know, you don't get to pick your parents, as you know. You are born into the family, and they have survived campaign after campaign. And I want to thank Dori who is here with me tonight with her fiance Nick who is here with us tonight.
(APPLAUSE)
MCAULIFFE: Jack McAuliffe who is here with his fiance Shannon tonight.
(APPLAUSE)
MCAULIFFE: Sally McAuliffe.
(APPLAUSE)
MCAULIFFE: And Peter McAuliffe.
(APPLAUSE)
MCAULIFFE: So, let's go, let's count all these votes. But let me thank each and every one of you, over the course of the last 11 months for the doors that you have knocked down, the phone calls you made. Just last weekend 450,000 doors knocked on. Two million during the course of this campaign. I want to thank you.
The McAuliffe family loves each and every one of you. Thank you for your countless effort. (APPLAUSE)
MCAULIFFE: And I want to thank my campaign staff. It was the greatest campaign staff ever assembled and give them a great round of applause for all the great work they have done.
(APPLAUSE)
MCAULIFFE: But, folks, as I said long ago, this is a different state. When Ralph and I were elected eight years ago, we have made our state open and welcoming. But the fight continues. We got to protect women's right to choose here in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
(APPLAUSE)
MCAULIFFE: We got to make sure everybody gets quality affordable health care here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Everybody is entitled to a world class education here in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and we are going to continue that fight tonight and every day going forward.
So, I just want to thank all of you for what you have meant to us. I look around this room and I see so many friends we have worked with for so many years. This is a different state. We are the greatest state in the United States of America. It is because of you. Thank you. God bless you. And let's go out in form. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Terry McAuliffe not giving a concession speech at this point but saying keep counting the votes because every vote counts. Van, what do you think of that?
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, there he is, Terry McAuliffe. He's the energizer bunny of the Democratic Party, but it looks like this may be the end of his career. Look, I think that he was trying to run a campaign that fit his time and that fit the state. I think that he was trying to run against Donald Trump and this guy was able to run as a champion for parents.
You got a lot of parents who just spent a year home schooling their kids and were forced to do so. To tell those people, look, we don't care what you think about education, that is a big insult. I think you are going to see that a bunch of moms said, we don't like that attitude and they rose up.
Now, I think you are going to see Republicans try to demagogue this issue around parental rights going forward. I think you have a play book here. But look, Terry McAuliffe, I think he would have been a great governor. I hope he gets a chance to be a governor, but I don't think he ran a great campaign.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. You know, he -- they only have one-term governors in Virginia. I was struck the other day. Kamala Harris came in, the vice president to campaign for him. And she said the question in this campaign is whether we will move forward or whether we are going to move back. And she is standing next to a guy who was governor some time back.
HENDERSON: Right.
AXELROD: And it seemed like a discordant message. But I want to make a point about the messages and how they're going to be read of this election. David Chalian talked earlier about 53 percent of the voters saying that the Democratic Party was too liberal and Youngkin winning 75 percent of that vote.
[22:25:04]
They broke, they each got the equal numbers of votes or percentage of the votes from Republicans and Democrats. And Republicans and Democrats voted almost in equal numbers. But independents broke nine points in favor of Youngkin. And that proved to be devastating.
Just remember that Joe Biden I think won independents by 18 points --
COOPER: Yes.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.
AXELROD: -- ten years ago. So that is -- that is a real concern for Democrats. One of the questions I have is if you are a Democrat sitting on Capitol Hill and you are from of these swing district in suburban areas, are you rethinking tonight your vote on this reconciliation package. Are you thinking maybe it's best we should do?
If I were sitting in the White House, if I were sitting in the leadership of the, in the Democratic council and the Congress, I'd be worried about that. I'd be trying to affirm these people up. Because there's going to be -- I just know how this goes, I have experienced it. I know when things go badly, people begin to think of themselves.
BORGER: You know, when Joe Biden was elected, he promised things would be normal again and we'd go back to that. And that's not what's happened. And those Democrats that you are talking about are now probably sitting and thinking, well, we have to be clearer and crisper about what we want to do and what we're achieving because they haven't done that.
And that hurt Terry McAuliffe. But maybe they are too liberal. Maybe some of the message is slow down. Slow down. We don't want to do it all at once. And I think if you are one of those moderates, those front line moderates who's got a problem, you are sitting and thinking tonight, why didn't we just pass that infrastructure bill, get that out of the way and let these voters know that the Democrats can have a governing majority that can work for them.
COOPER: Just want to point out the numbers there in New Jersey right now for Governor Murphy, 47.5 percent. For Ciattarelli, the Republican challenger, 51.7 percent.
AXELROD: Yes. This isn't going to make Democrats feel better either.
COOPER: Yes. SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Can I pick up on something Van was talking about on the ed -- on the education issue?
I think this is -- what Youngkin did in Virginia was give Republicans a blueprint. Apparently, it was an issue also in New Jersey. It's been an issue in communities all across the country. But he's giving the Republican Party a blueprint on how to talk to these suburban voters again. And he's given the Republican Party a reminder about how we used to run campaigns based on issues that people care about, actual platforms.
And you know, it seems old-fashioned, but you go out, you listen to people, you find out what they have to say and then you construct a platform around that. I'll remind you we all sat around here last year covering the presidential campaign in which the Republican Party didn't even write a platform.
The platform was whatever Donald Trump woke up that day and was thinking about. This campaign had a platform in schools and crime and quality of life are the core of that platform, and that's how this party is going to get passed it. These issues had in '18 and '20 for suburban voters.
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: However shaken people are about Virginia. This would be an earthquake if these numbers held up in New Jersey.
JENNINGS: Absolutely.
AXELROD: Now that it tends to break late Democrat in that state. But remember, Phil Murphy won by 16 points four years ago. So, this is -- if a message is being sent, it's a pretty loud one. And I do think it's going to create a great deal of this consternation among Democrats who are looking to a year from now and they're seeing their lives flash in front of their eyes in these swing districts.
JENNINGS: I think Gloria's point about whether people think America is on the rails or off the rails, are we having a normal life right now? And that's exactly what Biden promised, boring, return to normalcy. Everything is going to go back the way you like it.
BORGER: Right. Well, --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: And for the last year since he got elected, it's been everything but. And that's not just affecting Virginia. It's happening in New Jersey in everywhere.
BORGER: OK. Well, to be fair, that's COVID. That's you know, that's --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: Yes. But he said I'm going to shut down the virus. And he didn't do it.
AXELROD: Yes, that's --
JENNINGS: And we have not seen this country rebound the way he promised.
BORGER: Right.
JENNINGS: Now you can say it's not all his fault but that's what the voters are experiencing.
BORGER: Exactly. I mean, 70 percent wrong track number.
JENNINGS: Absolutely.
BORGER: People believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. It's hard for the party in power to win elections when, you know, when that's the case. But the Democrats have a lot of work to do. I mean, they've got, they've got, you know, inflation, a bad budget story. I mean, they are fighting each other.
JONES: I think Biden -- to your point --
BORGER: Yes.
JONES: I think Biden rode in on two horses. And one horse was I'm going to calm things down. I'm going to restore kindness. I'm going to restore civility. The other horse that beat Trump in the first place is the system is broken and we need to do something dramatic to fix it.
BORGER: Right.
JONES: And he's had one foot on both horses the whole time trying to figure out to maintain his balance. And what you are seeing at this point is neither side of the party is happy. The progressives feel like we're not getting our needs met.
[22:30:01]
We're not -- we're not, frankly, there is a lot of issues. We were talking about voting or police reform that we aren't even dealing with anymore at the D.C. level. And the moderates are afraid of the social agenda.
And so this party has got to get around the table and figure out that we are either going to hang together or hang separately, to your point, in the midterm elections. But this is, I think that Biden has somehow managed to disappoint both wings of the party. I think he's got time to fix it. But I think it's not only that he had the people who wanted the kindness. He also wanted people to change.
AXELROD: And to Scott's point and Gloria noted this, I think if you had said we were going to have a Delta variant, I think if you had said, there were going to be large -- there are going to be large groups of vaccine resisters in this country who wouldn't get vaccinated and then that would be politicized to the degree that it was, you'd know that this wasn't going to be easy.
And he's confronted that and some other things that perhaps he couldn't anticipate and some that perhaps he could. But there is a sense of unsettlement that there are a lot of things that are out of control.
And, you know, this, by the way, is one of the reasons why it's even more important than ever for him to pass these bills quickly to show a measure of control and progress because more than anything what he promised was confidence.
COOPER: How much of this is a message just to the Democratic Party that it's too far left? I mean, that if you are the squad or if you are, you know, someone who has been calling for defund the police or socialism or Democratic socialism --
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: I wonder if Terry had been able to stick on a message of economic progress, you know, family leave and minimum wage and that kind of stuff, then maybe we wouldn't be making this argument.
In other words, in other words, there was an economic message from the Democrats that was available. It was necessary given the rising cost. But what happened is we pulled out of our own federal bill, the family leave stuff. You are undermining the economic message for Terry McAuliffe and leave him with Trump is bad and vaccine mandates are good.
AXELROD: Yes.
JONES: I don't know if there is an up or date vote on progress -- on progressive politics.
JENNINGS: He leaned into the school issue. I was stunned. When he handed Youngkin the issue of the campaign, I don't think parents should be involved in the schools and then literally on the eve of the election he's running around Virginia with Randi Weingarten, the head of the union that kept the schools closed.
It's not just a curriculum issue. The schools were closed. Parents were pissed. They knew they should have been open. And McAuliffe not only handed it to Youngkin on a tee, he then, at the end of the campaign flicked everyone off and said, I'm going to even run on it even harder. And it has killed him in the suburbs.
BORGER: Youngkin did not start out as an education candidate. He became an education candidate.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: He listened. He listened.
BORGER: Because there were mistakes that were made, and he was talking to the voters out here who had home schooled their kids for 18 months. COOPER: Probably. Isn't that what every politician does or they're
supposed to do.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: They're supposed to do.
BORGER: And I would -- listen, and I would also argue that a candidate should come to a race with a
belief beforehand, not a belief that you sort of just get on the road. But you refine it. You know, you refine it. And Terry McAuliffe handed this to him.
AXELROD: Yes.
BORGER: But even though Youngkin may have run a very good campaign, the problem is with the Democrats now because they keep getting in their own way. They can't prove to the country that they can govern. And we know they have slim majorities. We understood all of that. But this is not a communications problem. This is a problem of telling people what you believe and doing it.
COOPER: Let's go back to Jake in D.C. Jake?
TAPPER: Thanks, Anderson. We're sitting here at the magic wall, me and my friend John King. And we're looking at this New Jersey governor's race. And the vote keeps coming in. And Ciattarelli keeps expanding his lead, the Republican over the incumbent Democratic governor.
And we should note, no Democratic governor has been re-elected in the state of New Jersey since the 1970s. We don't know what's going to happen. There is still a lot of outstanding vote. But look at this. The Republican Jack Ciattarelli, 62,000 votes ahead of the incumbent Democratic Governor Phil Murphy, 51.7 percent to 47.5 percent.
Where are the votes that we're waiting for? There is still 48 percent of the vote coming in.
KING: So, about half of the vote still to count which the Phil Murphy campaign headquarters you say, OK, we're a blue state that better be our vote. But especially down here. I'll show you in a minute. There is a lot more red on the map down here than there was four years ago.
Now significantly, there's a lot more red right up in the northeastern corner of new Jersey which is Bergen County which is suburban New York essentially across. It's the number one county by population. Ten percent of the state population. And Jack Ciattarelli is leading in a suburban -- moderate -- more moderate -- traditionally more moderate competitive suburban, you know, Democratic congressman now.
[22:34:59]
But traditionally, if you rewind the tape 15 or 20 years, this is a competitive area. It has not been the case in the suburbs in the last 15 or 20 years. It started before Trump. It was accelerated under Trump.
This again, 35 percent of the vote, two-thirds just shy of that left to be counted, so we have to wait. But if this state is red, that is again part of what could be a big message of this night.
So, you pull it back out. You mentioned 63,000 votes. If you are Phil Murphy, you are saying are there enough Democratic votes as the other half comes in, just shy of that to come back? The answer is yes, but you better start to see them.
Hudson County here, nearly 60 percent of the vote counted. So, this is a place where you see 40,000 votes right there. So, he has to continue -- Phil Murphy has to continue to keep that 73 percent to 26 margin as the rest of those come in.
TAPPER: It won't be enough in Hudson County.
KING: That's not enough. So here is where the biggest, you know, the biggest outstanding because you are only at 20 percent of the vote shy of that 18 percent in the third largest county. Essex is Newark and the area around Newark suburbs, and you are seeing that's about 9 percent of the statewide population. There is a lot of hope in the murphy campaign right now on Essex County because --
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: Only 18 percent of the vote in.
KING: Right. Right.
TAPPER: OK.
KING: So, you are counting on that there. But then you come back, you start moving down here. You are at half of the vote in Union County. And again, you are winning. Let's just look at a little comparison. What we have seen throughout the night. Republicans overperforming the Republicans from sour years ago.
Democrats underperforming. in this case, Phil Murphy's own performance. He was the candidate four years ago. Phil Murphy in Union County, 65 percent. You think, wow, that's great. Right? Thirty points four years ago. You come back here now, it's not quite as big. Again, the margins matter. We were talking about that in Virginia.
And when you move down as we go south in New Jersey, then it gets more consequential. This is Middlesex County, the second largest of the 21 counties in New Jersey. And again, Phil Murphy at 56 percent but 70 percent of the vote is in. This one he's running about even to last time, right? It's a big population center for Democrats. He's running about even. You hope there.
But elsewhere, Jake, as we keep moving down, just do it right here and you just draw this part of the state. You look here. Right? That's where we are right now in 2021. You go back to the map four years ago, you see all that blue, right?
TAPPER: Look at that.
KING: So, in a race he won with 56 percent of the vote. Four years ago we come up now and Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican is at 52 percent of the vote because he is flipping the counties down here. He is running -- let's just look at the Republican performance, right?
Jack Ciattarelli tonight, 62 percent, so the number could change. At 64 percent in Morris County. You go back four years ago, he's running 10 percentage points higher.
TAPPER: Yes.
KING: So, Republicans are overperforming in Republican areas, which is what, you know, Democratic president off year election trying to send a message to Joe Biden and the Democratic Party. That's what you might expect to happen as you come up there. bang, 64 percent. But this would be a flip.
Bergen County if you are in the murphy campaign, this is your biggest worry right now because that tells you something as you pull it back out, just to check still 61,000 votes, 54 percent. There are enough Democrat votes out there still. But this is another wow.
TAPPER: Go back out to Bergen County for one second. Because this is if Ciattarelli continues this path, he will have flipped the most populous county --
KING: Yes.
TAPPER: -- in the state of New Jersey. Democrat Josh Gottheimer represents some of that district. He's a moderate Democrat. He's been out there sounding the alarm that he thinks the House Democrats have been running to the left too much. He wants the bipartisan infrastructure bill to pass. He does not want a lot of the other things the Democrats are talking about. This must terrify him tonight.
KING: It must. Well, it must. You could argue this might increase his leverage tonight in the sense that he wants to come back to Washington and say shrink it. Slow down. Don't be so big. Don't be so bold. but we'll see how that play out.
But you are making a critical point about the switch in places. Again, the Democrats for the last 25 years have been gaining in the suburbs. In the Trump years it went on steroids. This being red tonight, you go back to the 2017 election. Phil Murphy won this county with 57 percent of the vote.
TAPPER: This is 15 percentage points.
KING: Yes. Yes. Right. This is not a 50/50. Four years ago, it was not a 50/50 that Phil Murphy just eked out. So, we could not be surprised that it's competitive in a much less favorable year for the Democrats. And for the 2020 presidential election pop it up right here.
Again, this was a non-starter. That's a 17 points, 16 points, 16 points or more for Trump versus Biden. So, for that to go -- but that was one year ago.
TAPPER: Right.
KING: That was one year ago, right?
TAPPER: Right.
KING: Fifty-eight percent for the Democratic president one year ago. Then you come back here, and you are looking at 45 percent for the Democratic candidate one year later. The incumbent governor who thinks he had a pretty good record on COVID to run on, that's -- again, we have to count the rest of the votes. This could change. Maps change. That's the one thing we learn in doing all this.
But again, just look at the red, right? Just focus. This is 2021. That's a heck lot more blue in 2017.
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: So, and let's look at -- do you have the underperformance model thing?
KING: We do not for this.
TAPPER: You don't have it for this one? OK. So, but I mean, the idea --
(CROSSTALK)
KING: But I can show it to you. You can just go through it.
TAPPER: This was state by state. He is basically underperforming.
[22:40:00]
KING: Yes. Let's go look at. Look at where Ciattarelli is here in Hunterdon County, right?
TAPPER: Right.
KING: Sixty-one percent. Right? So, you are looking at there. Again, 94 percent. So, this one is about almost done. You are looking at 11,000 votes right there. Right? So, you just go back four years ago. You think that doesn't matter, 59 percent. But watch -- look at that number, right? Twenty-six thousand there.
TAPPER: Yes.
KING: Republicans are coming out, right? It's a couple thousands votes here, a couple thousand votes there. The Republican turnout is good. You come back down here. Mercer County, 54 percent. It's only half of the vote. So, again, this could change. But you see this is --
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: It's not over for Phil Murphy, but it is a lot tighter than anyone thought it would be.
KING: Right. Let's go to 10 points higher there. He was 10 points higher in that county four years ago.
TAPPER: I'm guessing a lot of the same issues as in Virginia in terms of education, in terms of taxes, in terms of what they want their leaders to be focused on.
Let's go back to Virginia if we can. John.
KING: Sure can.
TAPPER: I want to check in because we've gotten some more votes coming in.
KING: Pull back up.
TAPPER: OK. So now we have 89 percent of the vote in in Virginia. Glenn Youngkin, the shrink -- the lead he has shrunk a bit. It was about 200,000. Now it's about 111,000. But still Glenn Youngkin the Republican 51.6 percent of the vote. Terry McAuliffe, the Democrat, the former governor 47.7 percent.
So, there is about 11 percent of the vote is outstanding to count. I don't see it. But tell me where those outstanding votes are. I don't see potentially enough to make up 111,951.
KING: I'm with you. I'm with you. I don't see it in the sense especially let's take the McAuliffe campaign and what it is saying. What the campaign is saying. Terry McAuliffe did not say this in his speech where he thanked his supporters and thanked his campaign. He didn't say anything about who wins and who loses. He did not concede.
But his -- their campaign is saying what about Fairfax. OK. Well, what about Fairfax. We're at 95 percent. Right? We're at 95 percent. He's getting 60 percent of the vote there, which is a strong performance in Fairfax. But let's say another 20,000, 15 or 20,000 votes come in in Fairfax. Let's say Terry McAuliffe won 100 percent. He's getting 64 percent right now. If 25,000 more votes came in and he won 100 percent of them, it's not enough.
TAPPER: No.
KING: Right? They say look at Richmond. Right? So, you look at Richmond. Richmond is now up to 95 percent.
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: Now also at 95 percent.
KING: So, again, he's winning by a lopsided margin here. So, let's say if several thousand more votes come in, you are talking several thousand more votes. You're talking five, maybe 6,000 votes at the high end, at the high end, right? If Terry McAuliffe won 100 percent of them, it still doesn't get you 111,000 of them. And most of the Republican vote is in. But we just going through. I'm
just going through. So, you see 99 percent here. We're done. Right? You see 95 percent here. But you get some of these at least a few moments ago. Let's see. No, more are up. I was going through this a while ago. There is 82 percent.
TAPPER: Look at that.
KING: So, there's, you know, some of these smaller counties, they're still in the 80s. Right? That's 95. They filled in a lot more in the last 20 minutes or so.
TAPPER: Let's go to where we're all seeing this outside Virginia Beach the suburbs in the southeast corner of the state.
KING: And they are still red.
TAPPER: He kept them red.
KING: He's kept them red. So, let's see the percentages. We're up to 71 percent here. That's a lopsided margin. It is hard to make that up. You are at 91 percent in Chesapeake.
TAPPER: Look at that. And just to remind people, just to remind people, so in -- so last year these were blue for Biden.
KING: They were overwhelmingly blue. This is last year.
TAPPER: That's last year.
KING: You see all the blue down here. That is one year ago.
TAPPER: One year ago in the presidential race.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: And again --
TAPPER: And four years ago.
KING: And again, the margins, you know, 53, they're not huge, but 52, you know, 52.
TAPPER: A win is a win.
KING: -- and 58. Right. A win is a win there. So that's where we were one year ago.
TAPPER: How about four years ago when Northam won, the Democrat.
KING: All blue.
TAPPER: All blue.
KING: All blue.
TAPPER: Right.
KING: And by, you know, Northam from the area. They were more competitive. Fifty-two. But this is what Youngkin had to do, go into previously competitive areas --
TAPPER: Yes.
KING: -- that wandered away from the Republicans. This is in especially in the Trump years. These were more recently Republican areas. In the Trump years they have gone away from the Democrats. What did Youngkin have to do? He had to take places that were blue and turn them red and he's done it here.
You want to take a look at this. Watch this map as we go through this Virginia race. OK? So you want to look at, let's look at places that Northam won in 2017.
TAPPER: Bang.
KING: Look at the flips.
TAPPER: I mean, it's just --
KING: So, you are seeing -- you're just seeing areas where -- you are seeing areas where the Democrat is underperforming. And you come back. Let's take this one off and come up again to show. This is the live vote right now. McAuliffe underperforms Biden almost everywhere, right?
TAPPER: Yes.
KING: Nothing -- you didn't see anything turn up, right? McAuliffe underperforms Biden. Youngkin overperforms Trump. Right. You see some -- not a ton. So, you come through this. But you just see the Democratic, if you can look numbers here, this is where it jumps out to me. So, you look here, right? Washington, D.C. is here, Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax --
TAPPER: My God.
KING: -- especially Clark County, you move up. Yes. So, look at the margin, right? In the Republican areas, so the Republicans going to win this county. Right?
TAPPER: Sure.
KING: But it's all --
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: But not by 70/30.
[22:44:57]
KING: And look, and do the raw math, right? So, the percentages, right? You need, the Republicans need the raw map here to offset the bigger counties here. So, you are looking there. Just shy of 10,000 votes. It's 9,000.
TAPPER: And what was this?
KING: So, you go back four years ago, and you are looking at 6,000 votes.
TAPPER: Sixty-forty.
KING: So, 6,000 votes versus 9,000 votes, you know, close to 10,000 votes.
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: And adds up.
KING: That's 3,000 votes, it matters. And then you do the flip side of it, you come in here, this is 2017. Ed Gillespie loses by 20,000 plus, right? Twenty-three thousand, 23,000 and change. You come back to this year. Yes, Glenn Youngkin loses but by 16,000.
TAPPER: There was just clearly and this is obvious to anybody who had set foot in Virginia in the last month, a lot more enthusiasm for Glenn Youngkin among his supporters than there was for Terry McAuliffe among his supporters.
KING: Right. And you don't have to win everywhere. It's about margins. It is about running it up where you have your voters and he did --
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: And what he did definitely --
KING: -- and about cutting into the margins we have to.
TAPPER: And what he did definitely is we talked about earlier is he kept this very Trumpy part of the state, of the commonwealth while also winning over enough or at least not turning off enough people in the northern Virginia. Let's go back to New Jersey for a second because that one is still --
KING: Sixty-five thousand votes.
TAPPER: Sixty-five thousand that's the Republican Jack Ciattarelli still ahead with 55 percent reporting. We're still -- where are we on Hudson County?
KING: So, let's walk-through. This is Essex first.
TAPPER: Essex, the biggest.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: That's the biggest count -- the biggest county, the relatively small percentage of the vote in. So, you are looking at that right there. Then you move over to Hudson County which is getting close to 60 percent. This is the fourth largest county in the state.
Again, you know, big margin for Murphy. So, the potential to run up considerably more votes there. Again, you move just to the north. Bergen County stuck at 35 percent. Here's the key. So, we're at 35 percent --
TAPPER: Yes.
KING: -- in the biggest county, which would be a major flip if it stays red. When we get to 50, when we get to 55, does this stay red? If that's the case, then you start -- then you start doing what we're doing in Virginia. OK. If you are going -- if Phil Murphy is going to lose this, where could he make that up?
And that gets interesting if not hard. In the sense that you are seeing down here again, change. Right? Elections. What's new? What's changed? What's the message? Look at all that blue. That's 2017.
TAPPER: Yes.
KING: Phil Murphy won in a walk 15 points. Then you come here. You are seeing a lot more red on the map. And it's not just in areas where you say, they have been Republican before. Up in the suburbs as well. Republicans aren't running stronger everywhere. The question here is, is it enough. Sixty-three thousand votes at 55 percent. That's --
TAPPER: And when you talk about the theme of these two, Virginia and New Jersey, change. That's the theme. Change. People want change.
KING: Here is what you are looking at right now.
TAPPER: Yes.
KING: Two of the states, one of the bluest states in America, this is a relatively new blue state but again, Republicans have not won statewide since 2009. That's 11 years. That's 11 years they haven't won statewide. Right? And so, you have had Democratic governors. You had Democratic senators. You have had presidential wins by Obama and by Biden and by Hillary Clinton.
TAPPER: Hillary Clinton.
KING: And by Hillary Clinton. So, when you see this red on the map, that is the message. That is a shot across the bow to the Democratic Party. They're not done yet. We need to be careful about that. We are not done yet. We haven't called this yet, although the numbers here, again, we're at 91 percent.
It's getting close. We knew it was going to -- you know it's going to tighten up because as they count votes up here late. But, again, Fairfax, what's left, there is not enough. So, you check over here. Much smaller. Alexandria, but it's at 86 percent.
TAPPER: Right.
KING: So, a little more comes in, it's not enough. Up in Arlington here they're at 95 percent. And so you are looking at the places that you know are the deepest blue where the Democrats are going to get 60 percent, 70 percent or more they're in.
And again, we come down here. Another example about margins. Glenn Youngkin winning Chesterfield County which the Democrat, just narrowly, but the Democrat --
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: Still won.
KING: Margins matter. Margins matter. And so, winning in the suburbs south of Richmond central part of the state more down --
TAPPER: Yes.
KING: -- more conservative. Right? Traditionally Republican suburbs that ran from the party under Trump. Then Henrico County here, Glenn Youngkin is losing. And you say, that's terrible. You see that margin right there. But then you go back in time and a little bit more.
TAPPER: A little better.
KING: Just a little bit better.
TAPPER: And one of the things that's interesting while we talk about all of this, is I think the exit polls indicated that the economy was one of the most important issues. And Terry McAuliffe thought he was a pro jobs governor when he was governor before, but he ran in a way, a Democrat was saying to me earlier, Terry McAuliffe basically ran as an incumbent, right?
KING: Right.
TAPPER: And Glenn Youngkin ran as an agent of change. Well, this is -- this is a change year. Right? And right now, in terms of like economics being the most important issue, inflation, gas prices, home heating prices, the economy is not back where people wanted it to be because of the Delta variant and COVID, et cetera.
Not to mention then the local issues that have to do with education.
KING: Right.
TAPPER: Glenn Youngkin ran a deft, agile campaign where he kept the Trump people, in fact, increased the numbers, did not alienated and convinced people in the southeastern part of the state --
KING: Right.
TAPPER: -- that they should try with, try with him.
[22:50:07]
KING: And so, this will be heavily started -- studied in the sense that how did a guy overwhelmingly win Trump country who, for the whole campaign kept Trump out here.
TAPPER: Yes.
KING: He said, don't come, I don't want you here. I'm doing this myself.
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: Well, he wasn't that rude about it. He wasn't that rude about it.
KING: He wasn't that rude about it. You are right, which was key, actually. He definitely sent the message. I don't want you here. He did it by saying I'm doing this all by myself.
TAPPER: Yes.
KING: Nobody is coming -- nobody is coming.
TAPPER: Nobody is coming.
KING: I'm going to do this. But Trump repeatedly endorsed him. And again, if you looked at the Trump messages, yes, he complained about his big lie, voter fraud here, voter fraud there. But what he said was this time, he said flood the system. Flood the system. Flood the system in Virginia.
So, does Trump deserve credit for this? People will debate that forever. But Youngkin did not get into a war with Trump, which of course -- which prevented, which kept, is a better way to put it, a unified Republican energy, Jake.
You pick up the disaffected Democrats, more importantly, you picked up independents who are up for grab right now if you look at the president's approval rating. And so, if you are looking at the map right now, having called it yet but Virginia looks to be more and more as the last votes come in. And this one we're going to continue to watch as we get later into the night.
Again, there's still room for Democratic comeback here, but New Jersey as you get up to 58 percent, now no matter how it ends up, it is sending a message. The question is, does it stay red?
TAPPER: All right. John King, fascinating. And we have an update on the historic mayor's race in Boston. Annissa Essaibi George conceded the race a short while ago even with votes still outstanding. Her opponent Michelle Wu now is poised to become the first woman and the first woman of color to ever lead Boston. Mayor-elect Wu spoke moments ago. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE WU (D), MAYOR-ELECT, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Today at the polls and over this last year, and over generations in this city, Boston has come together to reshape what is possible. We are the city of the first public school in the country. The first public park. The first subway tunnel in the country.
(APPLAUSE)
WU: We are the city of revolution. Civil rights. Marriage equality. Boston has always been that city that punches above our weight, where our activism, our community and joy radiates out in to progress across the country. And today, together, we are marching into Boston's promise.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (on camera): That is Mayor-elect Michelle Wu of Boston, a historic victory for her. Let's talk about it with our panel. It was going to be a historic victory no matter which one of the candidates won. But there you go, Mayor-elect Wu.
BASH: And it really is remarkable. You guys were talking about Bergen County where I'm from, maybe you should talk to the Boston guy over there also. But the notion of an Asian American woman as the mayor of Boston and one of the reasons why maybe it's not that unbelievable in 2021 is because of how much that city has changed.
So much like other cities around the country in that it is minority majority. Meaning, whites in Boston are now the minority and vice versa. She is such an interesting figure as well. She is a protege of Elizabeth Warren who of course is the states' senator. And she is somebody who has been kind of well-known in Democratic politics but she never, and she was up against of course, another Democrat.
But she had more of the middle of the road, if you will, campaign and more traditional establishment campaign. And I think it's possible, maybe it's a less extreme version of this, but it's possible to put this in the bucket tonight of examples of Democrats winning who are more like that and less on the progressive side. Even though she would consider herself a progressive, but not in the way others would.
TAPPER: And there is an intense mayor's race going on in Buffalo as well. Nia-Malika, bring us up to speed on that.
HENDERSON: Yes, it looks like Byron Brown, who was the write-in candidate but is also the incumbent mayor. I think he first got elected in 2006. He lost the primary to the Democratic challenger also a Democratic socialist, but he has declared himself the winner in that race. He was running against her as someone who was an extreme candidate. And would sort of ruin the progress that many folks have seen in Buffalo.
So that is an interesting detail here. He passed out stamps with his name on it so people could just go to the polls and write in his candidacy with a stamp, and so it looks like he is going to remain the incumbent mayor of Buffalo.
[22:55:04]
CHALIAN: Just think about this.
HENDERSON: Yes.
CHALIAN: He is going to remain the mayor of Buffalo it seems. You said the more moderate of the two in Boston that Minneapolis ballot measure to replace the police department with the public safety department goes down despite the progressive support for it.
It just -- we are learning a lot about where voters are in the Democratic Party right now and how Democrats are going to in Washington start positioning themselves around this. We have spent the last several months in Washington observing a battle between moderates and progressives up on Capitol Hill.
Voters, I think, are making pretty clear, again, not just tonight, which they are doing that. But in this year's primary season, in the presidential primary of where they believe the Democratic Party should be positioned. And you know, add into that, the panic that will ensue in the Democratic Party because of how well the Republicans are doing in this key two big gubernatorial contest.
And you've got and the tradition of the Democratic Party doing the circling firing squad thing.
HENDERSON: Yes.
BASH: Yes.
CHALIAN: And you've got now Joe Biden, if he thought he had headaches when he went overseas before this trip, he is coming home to dealing with a massive amount of political headaches inside his own camp.
HENDERSON: I think that's right.
TAPPER: Can I just say something. The Youngkin, we haven't called Youngkin yet. But let's -- suffice it to say, he is having a very good night.
CHALIAN: Yes.
TAPPER: OK. I don't think that this is a surprise.
CHALIAN: Yes.
TAPPER: Like there are plenty of people who have set foot in Virginia who have said, it feels like Youngkin might do well here and his numbers started going up. When I would ask Democrats about this, they would no, no, no, it's going to be tight, but we are going to win. It's going to be tight. Maybe that's just what they are saying even though it's off the record. But still, there's an out of touchiness. Did they really not see this coming?
CHALIAN: Well, my -- in my conversations with Democrats, Jake, in advance of the Virginia governor's race, was this notion was, had the state, just in the political DNA of the state. We know it's been trending Democratic over these last many years. Had it moved enough to move out of reach of a Republican, even a very skilled, successful Republican like Glenn Youngkin who navigated the Trump factor who was campaigning on the issues of where the voters are.
Was the state just too Democratic and move out of reach for that? The Youngkin folks were saying, no, we think we are in this and we've got this. But that's what I think Democrats are saying. I didn't hear any Democrats say, Virginians are rejecting --
BASH: Right.
CHALIAN: -- what Youngkin is projecting.
BASH: I think just to bring it back to where you started this conversation which is exactly where we're going to be going, David, on what this means for the party and we see the movement towards the middle, if you will, or more importantly, more aptly the rejection of a lot of these progressive ideas and the candidates in conjunction with that.
What is going to happen like in the next two days here in Washington?
TAPPER: Right.
BASH: Because it is true that since Joe Biden won the Democratic primary in the presidential in 2020, the party has been largely embracing the so-called moderate wing. But he has embraced a lot of the progressive ideas. Which and that, number one. And number two, progressives have a really large number. They have big numbers in the House of Representatives which is why they have had leverage.
And so, that is going to be a question about that tug of war, and how that is going to shift. I'm already hearing from some moderate Democrats that they are going to want to see changes in the bill that they took so long to negotiate maybe to make it, to take some things out that are going to be used against them in campaigns.
TAPPER: Well, quite frankly if you look at what started in that bill, the Build Back Better Act and what is there now, a lot of the most popular provisions have been taken out. They are still wrangling over whether or not to include Medicare expansion --
HENDERSON: Right.
TAPPER: -- which is very popular when you poll for it. They are still wrangling on whether or not to allow Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug costs.
HENDERSON: Yes. And it's not clear that that bill in 2022 will affect those voters that are turning against the Democratic Party over economic and cultural issues, right? Are those people going to feel what that bill does around Medicare and around childcare. It's unclear.
I mean, if you back to 2020, the Republicans not named Trump did quite well. Right? They overperformed to the surprise of everybody in the House and the Senate and a lot of those Republicans ran on the economy and on cultural issues. And what did Glenn Youngkin run on? He ran on the economy and cultural issues and so far, it doesn't look like Democrats have a real answer for that cultural war arguments or the economy.
[23:00:02]
At this point, if you look at sort of, inflation, the price of gas and issues like that.
TAPPER: Yes.
