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CNN Live Event/Special
CNN Covers Election Results. Aired 11p-12a ET
Aired November 04, 2025 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KASIE HUNT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: As part of Donald Trump's effort. They think that they've flipped it for Democrats tonight, which is critical. I mean -- and those are just a couple of examples.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Maine rejected a voter I.D. law. Those Georgia races you mentioned, it has been since -- it has been 25 years since Democrats won those races. The three Pennsylvania State Supreme Court justices stay. This is an anti-Trump thumping across the country.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: We're about to close in California in just seconds. We're going to get our very first look at whether Californians will accept Governor Gavin Newsom's new U.S. House maps. And we can make a projection in California. The polls are closed as of now. And CNN projects the Californians have indeed voted yes on the state's newly-drawn congressional district map aiming to help Democrats win an additional up to five U.S. House seats in the 2026 midterm elections in one year.
This victory marking a huge win for California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who framed this vote as a chance for his state to rebuke President Trump and to make it easier to deny him a Republican- controlled House for his final two years in office. Again, CNN projecting that Californians have voted yes on Prop 50 to implement the state's newly-drawn U.S. House map.
And CNN's anchor Elex Michaelson is at the headquarters for California Democrats in Sacramento. Elex, this is a pretty quick call. The polls closed, and we said Prop 50 is going to win.
ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, this is a very quick call. Doesn't get any quicker than this, Jake. And what a big moment for the history of Governor Gavin Newsom. He bet big on this one. Imagine if he lost this race, how problematic that would be for him and for his future. He took a big bet, and he's winning big on this, sending a message not only here in California, but to the rest of the country.
He has thought for years that the Democratic Party is too weak and that the party is looking for somebody who will be stronger, not only in what they say, but in what they do. And essentially with this, he is getting points on the board for the Democratic Party in changing the congressional map at a time when a lot of people in the Democratic base have felt bewildered and have felt like nobody has been fighting for them. This, as a move for Governor Newsom, is not only helpful for him here, but as he's now finally saying, he's interested in potentially running for president. This has expanded his donor base around the country. It has increased his popularity in polls, it has increased his social media following in a big way, and it also may change and may inspire other governors in other states to move on the issue of redistricting. But this is probably the biggest night in the political life of Governor Newsom. We expect to hear from him behind me sometime soon.
TAPPER: All right. We will bring that to our viewers when it happens. We are also still standing by to hear from mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who we have projected will be the next mayor of New York. New York, the city, so nice, they named it twice.
And Dana Bash, we should note, so the Prop 50 victory in California tonight, this not only has repercussions for 2026 and the odds that Democrats will recapture the House have just increased.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Uh-hmm.
TAPPER: This also has serious repercussions for 2028 --
BASH: Uh-hmm.
TAPPER: -- because Governor Newsom wants to be president, too.
BASH: Yeah. And this -- I mean, the fact that it's three minutes after the hour when polls closed and it's just not even close, this --
TAPPER: Technically, we called it one second after the hour, just so you know.
BASH: Oh, okay. Okay. So, maybe it was closer than we thought. I'm kidding. Look, this -- this poll, as Elex just said, this was a gamble by Gavin Newsom. I mean, he saw what was happening in Texas. He felt the outrage among Democrats, and he seized on it. And it wasn't even close.
TAPPER: People opposed him at the beginning. Democrats opposed him at the beginning.
BASH: Big time because if you look at what the recent history in California has been, it's that an independent commission to decide the districts has been increasingly popular. And he said, no, this is not about that. He says it's going be temporary, we'll see, and that's technically what the ballot measure says.
But it's not about that. It's about not letting Trump get away with this. He made it about Trump. It is about Trump. And just like in every other race across these elections, it was 100% about Trump. And when it's in a state like California, where the Republican Party is weak at best, it was just a blowout.
KING: And you can more easily spin things that are close. But we were able to project California the second the polls closed because the exit polling was just overwhelming. In New Jersey, the Democratic candidate for governor is winning by double digits, right? The Democrat won it by only three points four years ago.
[23:05:01]
Donald Trump narrowed it to six points in the presidential election. So, Donald Trump made it closer. Republicans said, look at all this progress we're making. Nope. Mikie Sherrill wins by 13 points.
In Virginia, Donald Trump narrowed it to six points. Republicans said, look at all the progress we're making, we're making Virginia purple again, we're taking it back to red. It has a Republican governor today, and the Democratic candidate is winning by double digits.
In your home state, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, three Democratic state Supreme Court justices up. Last time I looked, they were all staying in their seats with a 60% plus margin.
TAPPER: And the governor, Josh Shapiro, had made a big issue about that.
KING: And so, in Georgia, they're winning these two public service commission seats that they haven't held in two decades. So, you're seeing big margins across the country. What does that tell you? That tells you voters are mad. The same cost of living and other anger at the establishment, anger at government that got Donald Trump re- elected still exists. And he's in charge now, and they control both chambers.
One quick thought. Number one, Trump is at 37%. David Chalian just mentioned the House map. At 37%, history tells you the other party will win at least two dozen seats in the House. Now, sometimes, we defy history, but that's the average. So, tinkering with redistricting here and redistricting there, no matter what the final number is, may not be enough if it's that high. That's a projection for what happens a year from now. My big question is, what happens tomorrow?
TAPPER: Yeah.
KING: What happens tomorrow? How do these vulnerable House members, Republicans, whether you live in New York, in the suburbs and you saw what just happened in New Jersey, New Jersey is a big suburban experiment, right? If you are a Republican who represents a battleground suburban district, you're looking at Virginia and New Jersey, and you're saying, forgive me, holy shit. So, do you come to work tomorrow and say, we need to end the shutdown, Mr. President? And if Donald Trump says no, do you find Democrats to do that with? Do -- do enough Republicans stand up and say, Mr. President, we need to do things differently?
HUNT: I've been hearing from some Republicans that that may be what we start to hear tomorrow, that they are much more ready to work with Democrats to try to end the shutdown.
But Jake, to go back to California and Gavin Newsom, one of the things that Democrats are demanding, that voters are demanding, is that their leaders fight Donald Trump and that their leaders fight for them. And the thing that Gavin Newsom did here was he changed -- Dana made the point about this independent commission, right? Democrats have been defending rules and norms that Americans are saying are not working for them, right? They have been running on that. And Gavin Newsom said, you know what? If those Republicans in Texas are going to throw out the rules and throw out the norms, I'm going to do it, too. And voters responded to that. And you're seeing also JB Pritzker in Illinois do it in his own way with the ICE raids that are happening in Chicago.
I mean, there is a shadow presidential primary already unfolding and a lot of it is about how can you both fight Trump but also fight on the issues like affordability that we're talking about tonight.
KING: One quick point on this that you just triggered in my head. You have Newsome, you have Pritzker, have Shapiro in Pennsylvania. Now, you have two new women Democratic governors in New Jersey, Democratic governors. There's going be a lot of focus. Republicans are going to try to make it all about Mayor Mamdani, mayor-elect tonight but Mayor Mamdani. Let them try. Midterm elections are about the president. Midterm elections are about 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and how the country feels.
But I do think Democrats have made a lot of progress in governor's races over the last several years. And you have a new class. When Bill Clinton brought the Democratic Party back, there was an interesting class of governors, both Democrat and Republican, around the country. You used to actually talk to each other about policy in a bipartisan way. Those days are over. But I do think, yes, we're going to focus a lot on Mamdani. Does that work in New York?
There's a very interesting group of Democratic governors from all different parts of the country that I think have a chance to lead the party out of the wilderness or at least try. And I think your point, they're all going to be on the road helping midterm candidates next year. And so, welcome to the auditions.
TAPPER: So, speaking of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, let's go there now. CNN's Kaitlan Collins is there. And Kaitlan, President Trump has been saying that Prop 50 is unconstitutional. What's his response tonight?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Jake, and that also kind of folds into what we just heard from the president a few moments ago. He's basically putting out a to-do list for Republicans here in Washington in light of tonight's election results, and part of that includes, uh, where he says overall to achieve what he is about to tell them to do, Jake, is that they need to get rid of the filibuster.
That has been a new call of his in the last couple of days, something that he has not only said publicly on Truth Social as he has done now twice in the last hour, Jake. It is something I've also been told that he has been making private phone -- phone calls and conversations to Republicans about.
And he is telling them tonight, get rid of the filibuster, despite the fact that we have not seen a lot of appetite, almost no appetite at all for that on Capitol Hill. I was just talking to Senator Markwayne Mullin last night who said he did not think that was the right move at this time.
But the president just said that he wants Republicans to pass voter reform which, he says, includes voter I.D. and no mail-in ballots, and he also says to save the Supreme Court from being packed and no two- state addition, saying to terminate the filibuster.
And Jake, that does come after what you mentioned there where the president had said about this redistricting effort in California, that it is not only unconstitutional.
[23:10:00]
He said the entire way that people were going and voting today and using mail-in voting, he argued, was rigged and said it was under serious criminal review.
Now, I understand we've asked both White House officials publicly and privately for an explanation or any evidence to back up the president's claims. They did not offer any. And we saw a lot of pushback from local officials in California as well, saying that their voting process there is not rigged. But the president has made very clear how he feels about what just happened in California tonight.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: All right. Kaitlan, thanks very much. Probably hear more about this from the White House in the days ahead. As we wait for Zohran Mamdani, I mean, it's what? It's 11:10 here. Likely, he will come out and speak very shortly. What -- what do you expect his message to be? I mean, any -- obviously, nothing different than what he has been saying on the campaign trail.
VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, I mean, he's got time to think about it. I think he's going to do, you know, an extraordinary job. He's an incredibly compelling communicator.
I think about the split in this party in this town. I talked to a young Muslim woman, I talked to a young Jewish woman. They said very different things. A young Muslim woman said, when I was a kid, 9/11 happened. Somebody pushed my uncle in front of a train on the subway. We fled New York as Muslims. We fled this town. To come back and see a young Muslim be elected mayor is incredible to me. And so, for the first time, she feels welcome and safe in New York.
I talked to a young Jewish woman. She had the opposite story. She said she always felt that New York City was a safe place for Jewish people. She says between the right-wing, Tucker Carlson going anti-Jewish, and some of the things she has heard from Mamdani's people, she feels like the horseshoe is starting to squeeze her out, and she doesn't feel safe here.
And so, you have two young women who are going to be looking at the speech tonight. I think both of them deserve a speech that will honor their hopes and their fears and will bring them together and lift them up. That's his big responsibility because you do have people in the Jewish community who have noticed.
He didn't say anything about the hostages when they came home. They've noticed he hasn't denounced Hamas forthrightly. They've noticed that he hasn't denounced the globalizing of Intifada efficiently. And they are not happy. Some of -- some of those people in that community, they're very afraid tonight. So, he is a transcendent figure for some, and he's on trial for others. Tonight, he's got a chance to bring them all together.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER OBAMA SENIOR ADVISER: Yeah, I think that's -- I think that's really important. I think one of the challenges generally, okay, it -- he has unique challenges and unique opportunities because of the way he has presented himself to the city and -- and the positive way he -- he has given people hope that something better is possible, and not just something better in terms of affordability but something better in the kind of politics they see.
But for the Democratic Party generally, the question is, how do you build something that speaks to our common humanity and not to our individual identity concerns and interests? And, uh, I think he has the capacity to do that. He's very gifted. You wouldn't go from 2% to mayor of New York as a 34-year-old if you didn't have great gifts. But part of that gift was being welcoming and opening.
And one of the things I noticed tonight, you know, I heard Mikie Sherrill say, I'm not -- I know every -- I know everyone didn't vote for me, but I'm here to fight for every single one of you.
This country, and I think from coast to coast, people are tired of being sliced and diced and divided and inflamed, not just by their politicians, not just by their president, but by social media. And I think candidates who push against that are going to do pretty well in the next few years.
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR, FORMER WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: But I do think Van hits a very important point. I talked to a lot of voters ahead of this election, Jewish voters in New York City, the largest Jewish population in the country, that were fearful of him becoming mayor. And I think, in fact, there were a lot of votes for Cuomo that were simply votes against Mamdani. And I think he has to address that. I don't think he has been forthright enough. I think it's his duty in representing the greatest city on earth.
And listen, there's a lot of takeaways you could have from tonight, but I think you saw two women in historic races in both Virginia and in New Jersey who rose to the occasion, who united and said that there are going to be people who are going to represent everyone, not just the coalition that they've built. So, I think that's important.
I'd also say this: He is very talented. I've gotten to sit down with him. He's somebody who's an incredibly articulate person. He's got a bright future. But it also pumps the brakes a bit on saying he's the next Barack Obama or something, who's not running against somebody, who ran a competent campaign. He had Curtis Sliwa who has a silly hat and he had Cuomo who ran one of the worst campaigns I've seen. I was -- people were pleading with --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: -- leader of the Democratic Party.
(LAUGHTER)
GRIFFIN: So, I think before we declare him -- well, Republicans will and it's good -- it's smart politics to do it.
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, SALEM RADIO HOST: Can any of you name somebody else?
JONES: Gavin.
JENNINGS: Come on. Listen, he --
[23:15:00]
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: We'll have that discussion in the next --
JENNINGS: I'm going to compliment --
AXELROD: -- session.
JENNINGS: Yeah, he's the greatest actor you have. You know, he turned himself into a hood ornament for the poor in the downtrodden. He's a rich kid who is a great actor. He play -- he play-acts.
AXELROD: Yeah. I'll tell you what, I can understand why -- I can understand why you'd -- you'd be weary of an actor in politics.
JENNINGS: I'm just saying it. There's no other obvious Democrat. He has all the energy behind him. You talk about slicing and dicing the electorate. He's going to slice it and dice it in one way. Oppressors and oppressed. And I want to find out if he has it in him. I don't think he does because that's the energy in the Democratic Party. It's oppressors and oppressed.
That's why the Jews in this city feel scared, because they know he has labeled them as the oppressors. That's why people who create jobs in New York City are leery, because he labels them the oppressors. That is the world view of the energy of this campaign, and it's also the world view of the energy of Democratic primaries across this country.
AXELROD: First of all, as a Jew from New York, I appreciate your solicitude. And I know -- I know -- I mean, I have friends and folks I'm close to. I just was speaking to a rabbi in this town this morning. I understand those concerns. I think he does need to address that.
But I will tell you, I went over to his headquarters. And after he got elected, I was invited over to meet him. And the thing that impressed me as much as him, and he was impressive, was the young people in that headquarters who believe that they were doing something, not lifting a person but doing something to bring about solutions to problems that weren't being addressed, that they thought they were exercising their agency in our democracy to do what, frankly, uh, the status quo hadn't done, which is to address what is a growing problem around affordability.
So, I mean, you -- I understand the politics of it and I understand --
JENNINGS: You don't think --
AXELROD: I understand the -- I understand the politics of -- at a night when the -- when the Republican Party has taken such a dropping (ph) so to sort of reach out for the worst possible caricature.
JENNINGS: The blue states have spoken. The blue states have spoken.
AXELROD: But if you -- if that's the way you describe his campaign, then you --
JENNINGS: It's the way blue describes his campaign, Axe. This is not me. This is the way he describes it.
AXELROD: That's not what -- then why don't these exit polls reflect something completely different?
JENNINGS: Listen, I know you don't want to be. I know you don't want to be. But it is.
AXELROD: They're from Louisville, Kentucky. You saw those exits. You saw the campaign --
JENNINGS: I'm just saying.
GRIFFIN: But again, we are talking about blue or blue New York City. I think you could take much better lessons from Virginia and New Jersey --
AXELROD: Every area of this country is different. My point at the beginning of this conversation was there are commonalities that bind us together.
JONES: I want to say something about that.
AXELROD: Yeah.
JONES: On the California side, why are people standing in these long lines to register this protest vote? It's not so much. I'm a California Democrat. It's not so much about, you know, the gerrymandering and that sort of stuff.
These ICE raids have been so shocking and so vicious and so unfair. They're not going after the gang members and the people they said they were going to go after. Working people, roofers, electricians, plumbers, nannies are getting thrown on the ground in front of their friends and families, drag away. People are screaming and yelling. It's -- people are -- my ex-wife actually works in the school system. People are afraid to send their kids to school.
And so, there's something that's happening where I don't think the Republicans understand that they have identified some of right issues, whether it's crime or immigration, but the way this administration is conducting itself is creating a massive backlash, and that's why you see these long lines. It's not just about gerrymandering, it's about people saying, we don't want these masked people -- they're throwing women on the ground in front them.
AXELROD: Yeah. I mean, I can attest to this because I -- well, I'm a native New Yorker. I've lived in Chicago for a long time, and I live there now. And what's going on there now is -- is horrific and, like, you want to get violent. People out of the city. Sign me up. But don't harass children and --
COOPER: And here is the mayor-elect of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, coming out on the stage. Let's listen to the crowd.
(CHANTING)
ZOHRAN MAMDANI, NEW YORK CITY MAYOR-ELECT: Thank you, my friends.
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The sun may have set over our city this evening, but as Eugene Debs once said --
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-- I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity.
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[23:20:02]
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For as long as we can remember, the working people of New York have been told by the wealthy and the well-connected that power does not belong in their hands. Fingers bruised from lifting boxes on the warehouse floor, palms calloused from delivery bike handlebars, knuckles scarred with kitchen burns, these are not hands that have been allowed to hold power, and yet over the last 12 months, you have dared to reach for something greater.
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Tonight, against all odds, we have grasped it.
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The future is in our hands.
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My friends, we have toppled a political dynasty. (APPLAUSE)
I wish Andrew Cuomo only the best in private life.
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But let tonight be the final time I utter his name!
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As we turn the page on a politics that abandons the many and answers only to the few.
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New York, tonight, you have delivered a mandate for change --
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-- a mandate for a new kind of politics, a mandate for a city we can afford --
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-- and a mandate for a government that delivers exactly that.
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On January 1st, I will be sworn in as the mayor of New York City.
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And that is because of you.
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So, before I say anything else, I must say this: Thank you.
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Thank you to the next generation of New Yorkers who refused to accept that the promise of a better future was a relic of the past. You showed that when politics speaks to you without condescension, we can usher in a new era of leadership.
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We will fight for you because we are you or as we say on (INAUDIBLE) (SPEAKING IN ARABIC LANGUAGE).
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Thank you to those so often forgotten by the politics of our city who made this movement their own. I speak of Yemeni bodega owners and Mexican abuelas.
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Senegalese taxi drivers and Uzbek nurses.
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Trinidadian lime cooks and Ethiopian aunties.
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Yes, aunties.
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To every New Yorker in Kensington and Midwood and Hunts Point --
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-- know this, this city is your city and this democracy is yours, too.
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This campaign is about people like Wesley, an 1199 organizer I met outside of Elmhurst Hospital on Thursday night, a New Yorker who lives elsewhere, who commutes two hours each way from Pennsylvania because rent is too expensive in this city. It's about people like the woman I met on the BX 33 years ago who said to me, I used to love New York, but now it's just where I live. And it's about people like Richard, the taxi driver I went on a 15-day hunger strike with outside of City Hall --
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-- who still has to drive his cab seven days a week.
[23:24:59]
My brother, we are in City Hall now.
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This victory is for all of them. And it's for all of you, the more than 100,000 volunteers who built this campaign into an unstoppable force. Because of you, we will make this city one that working people can love and live in again.
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With every door knocked, every petition signature earned, and every hard-earned conversation, you eroded the cynicism that has come to define our politics.
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Now, I know that I have asked for much from you over this last year. Time and again, you have answered my calls. But I have one final request. New York City, breathe this moment in. (APPLAUSE)
We have held our breath for longer than we know. We have held it in anticipation of defeat, held it because the air has been knocked out of our lungs too many times to count, held it because we cannot afford to exhale. Thanks to all of those who sacrificed so much, we are breathing in the air of a city that has been reborn.
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To my campaign team who believed when no one else did and who took an electoral project and turned it into so much more, I will never be able to express the depth of my gratitude. You can sleep now. To my parents, mama and baba --
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-- you have made me into the man I am today. I am so proud to be your son.
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And to my incredible wife, Rama --
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-- (INAUDIBLE), there is no one I would rather have by my side in this moment and in every moment. To every New Yorker, whether you voted for me, for one of my opponents or felt too disappointed by politics to vote at all, thank you for the opportunity to prove myself worthy of your trust.
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I will wake each morning with a singular purpose, to make this city better for you than it was the day before.
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There are many who thought this day would never come, who feared that we would be condemned only to a future of less, with every election consigning us simply to more of the same. And there are others who see politics today as too cruel for the flame of hope to still burn. New York, we have answered those fears.
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Tonight, we have spoken in a clear voice. Hope is alive.
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Hope is a decision that tens of thousands of New Yorkers made day after day, volunteer shift after volunteer shift, despite attack ad after attack ad. More than a million of us stood in our churches, in gymnasiums, in community centers as we filled in the ledger of democracy. And while we cast our ballots alone, we chose hope together. Hope over tyranny, hope over big money and small ideas, hope over despair.
We won because New Yorkers allowed themselves to hope that the impossible could be made possible. And we won because we insisted that no longer would politics be something that is done to us. Now, it is something that we do.
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Standing before you, I think of the words of Jawaharlal Nehru.
[23:30:00]
A moment comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation long suppressed finds utterance. Tonight, we have stepped out from the old into the new.
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So, let us speak now with clarity and conviction that cannot be misunderstood about what this new age will deliver and for whom. This will be an age where New Yorkers expect from their leaders a bold vision of what we will achieve rather than a list of excuses for what we are too timid to attempt.
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Central to that vision will be the most ambitious agenda to tackle the cost of living crisis that this city has seen since the days of Fiorella LaGuardia.
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An agenda that will freeze the rents for more than two million rent- stabilized tenants.
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Make buses fast and free.
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And deliver universal childcare across our city.
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Years from now, may our only regret be that this day took so long to come.
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This new age will be one of relentless improvement. We will hire thousands more teachers.
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We will cut waste from a bloated bureaucracy.
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We will work tirelessly to make lights shine again in the hallways of NYCHA developments where they have long flickered.
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Safety and justice will go hand in hand as we work with police officers to reduce crime and create a Department of Community Safety that tackles the mental health crisis and homelessness crises head on. Excellence will become the expectation across government, not the exception. In this new age, we make for ourselves, we will refuse to allow those who traffic in division and hate to pit us against one another.
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In this moment of political darkness, New York will be the light.
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Here, we believe in standing up for those we love, whether you are an immigrant, a member of the trans community --
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-- one of the many Black women that Donald Trump has fired from a federal job, a single mom still waiting for the cost of groceries to go down, or anyone else with their back against the wall. Your struggle is ours, too. And we will build a city hall that stands steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers and does not waver in the fight against the scourge of antisemitism, where the more than one million Muslims know that they belong --
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-- not just in the five boroughs of this city, but in the halls of power.
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No more will New York be a city where you can traffic an islamophobia and win an election.
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This new age will be defined by a competence and a compassion that have too long been placed at odds with one another. We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve and no concern too small for it to care about. For years, those in City Hall have only helped those who can help them. But on January 1st, we will usher in a city government that helps everyone.
(APPLAUSE) Now, I know that many have heard our message only through the prism of misinformation. Tens of millions of dollars have been spent to redefine reality and to convince our neighbors that this new age is something that should frighten them.
[23:35:00]
As has so often occurred, the billionaire class has sought to convince those making $30 an hour that their enemies are those earning $20 an hour. They want the people to fight amongst ourselves so that we remain distracted from the work of remaking a long-broken system. We refuse to let them dictate the rules of the game anymore. They can play by the same rules as the rest of us.
Together, we will usher in a generation of change. And if we embrace this brave new course, rather than fleeing from it, we can respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength it fears, not the appeasement it craves.
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After all, if anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him.
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And if there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power.
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This is not only how we stop Trump, it's how we stop the next one.
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So, Donald Trump, since I know you're watching --
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-- I have four words for you: Turn the volume up!
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We will hold bad landlords to account because the Donald Trumps of our city have grown far too comfortable taking advantage of their tenants.
(APPLAUSE)
We will put an end to the culture of corruption that has allowed billionaires like Trump to evade taxation and exploit tax breaks.
(APPLAUSE)
We will stand alongside unions and expand labor protections because we know, just as Donald Trump does, that when working people have ironclad rights, the bosses who seek to extort them become very small indeed.
(APPLAUSE)
New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants --
(APPLAUSE)
-- and as of tonight, led by an immigrant!
(APPLAUSE)
So, hear me, President Trump, when I say this: To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.
(APPLAUSE)
When we enter City Hall in 58 days, expectations will be high. We will meet them.
(APPLAUSE)
A great New Yorker once said that while you campaign in poetry, you govern in prose. If that must be true, let the prose we write still rhyme and let us build a shining city for all.
(APPLAUSE)
And we must chart a new path, as bold as the one we have already traveled. After all, the conventional wisdom would tell you that I am far from the perfect candidate. I am young, despite my best efforts to grow older. I am Muslim.
(APPLAUSE)
I am a Democratic socialist.
(APPLAUSE)
And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this.
(APPLAUSE)
And yet, if tonight teaches us anything, it is that convention has held us back. We have bowed at the altar of caution, and we have paid a mighty price.
[23:40:01]
Too many working people cannot recognize themselves in our party. And too many among us have turned to the right for answers to why they've been left behind. We will leave mediocrity in our past. No longer will we have to open a history book for proof that Democrats can dare to be great.
(APPLAUSE) Our greatness will be anything but abstract. It will be felt by every rent-stabilized tenant who wakes up on the first of every month --
(APPLAUSE)
-- knowing the amount they are going to pay hasn't soared since the month before. It will be felt by each grandparent who can afford to stay in the home they have worked for and whose grandchildren live nearby because the cost of childcare didn't send them to Long Island. It will be felt by the single mother who is safe on her commute and whose bus runs fast enough that she doesn't have to rush school drop- off to make it to work on time.
(APPLAUSE)
And it will be felt when New Yorkers open their newspapers in the morning and read headlines of success, not scandal.
(APPLAUSE)
Most of all, it will be felt by each New Yorker when the city they love finally loves them back.
(APPLAUSE)
Together, New York, we're going to freeze the --
CROWD: Rents!
MAMDANI: Together, New York, we're going to make buses fast and --
CROWD: Free!
MAMDANI: Together, New York, we're going to deliver a universal --
CROWD: Childcare!
MAMDANI: Let the words we've spoken together, the dreams we've dreamt together, become the agenda we deliver together.
(APPLAUSE)
New York, this power, it's yours. This city belongs to you. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
COOPER: Zohran Mamdani, next mayor of New York City.
JONES: Look, I've got divided reactions from my friends at this speech. First of all, I've got to give the guy a big credit. He defeated a Democratic Party royalty, the Cuomo. That's a royal family in our party. Defeated him, defeated the oligarchs and rich folks who jumped in to try to stop him, and then defeated Donald Trump. So, the triumphalism that you see there is earned. A year ago, nobody ever heard of the guy. And the younger people who I'm hearing from feel a great deal of relief and pride, and they're fired up. They feel they've been silenced for too long. So, that speech appealed to some.
But I think he missed an opportunity. I think the Mamdani that we saw in the campaign trail, who was a lot more calm, who was a lot warmer, who was a lot more embracing, was not present in that speech. And I think that Mamdani is the one you need to hear from tonight.
There are a lot of people trying to figure out, can I get on this train with him or not? Is he going to include me? Is he going -- is he going to be one of a class warrior even in office?
I think he missed a chance tonight to open up and bring more people into the tent. I think his tone was sharp. I think he was using the microphone in a way that he was almost yelling. And that's not the Mamdani that we've seen on TikTok and the great interviews and stuff like that.
So, I felt like there's a little bit of a character switch here where the warm, open, embracing guy that's close to working people was not on stage tonight. There was some other voice on stage that said, he's very young, and he just pulled off something that's very, very difficult. And I wouldn't write him off, but I think he missed an opportunity to open himself up tonight, and I think that that will probably cost him going forward.
COOPER: Scott?
JENNINGS: Oh!
(LAUGHTER)
Are you saying he didn't -- he wasn't the unifying voice of a generation that you predicted mere moments ago?
JONES: I --
JENNINGS: Axe, where was the -- where was the man that you predicted would not slice and dice the other? Look, guys, he started his speech by quoting Eugene Debs, who ran for president of the United States five times as the socialist party of America candidate. He repeatedly attacked people --
AXELROD: (INAUDIBLE).
(LAUGHTER)
[23:45:00]
JENNINGS: I know my socials (ph). I keep a close eye on them.
(LAUGHTER)
So -- so, here is a thing, he went after everybody that he thinks is a problem. People who own things, people who have businesses. He said an interesting quote. No problem too large for government to solve.
GRIFFIN: Or too small.
JENNINGS: And so, when -- when you think of the world that way, that every problem, no matter how small or how large, is something for government to do, let me just decipher this for you. Tax increases as far as the eye can see, which means the people who need to provide jobs to the young people that you say need jobs are going to flee as quickly as they possibly can. I -- I think this was a divisive speech. And he clearly sees the world in terms of the people who are oppressing you and the oppressed. And he said, the oppressed are now in City Hall.
GRIFFIN: This is also --
AXELROD: Let me just say -- I'm sorry. Go ahead. GRIFFIN: I think this was very much, for his opening marquee speech, a wholesale defense of socialism. And oftentimes, people were on this Democratic socialist. But try to talk a little more about economic populism. Democrats have needed their version of like the left-wing Donald Trump who could talk about affordability but back it by their policies.
This was -- I mean, he was just rattling through the points that we'd expect well in the economic capital of the world, New York City. But he also did a remarkable job of setting the highest possible expectations for himself. This is a very young, untested gentleman. He was a state assemblyman. He's 34 years old. He wants to run an economy the size of Japan or South Korea here in New York City. And he is basically saying the most grandiose expectations of what he's going to do, ignoring that he has to work with Albany, he has to work with the state assembly.
AXELROD: Yeah, there's a lot of things that --
GRIFFIN: He get the bulk of it done.
AXELROD: No question.
COOPER: By the way, we are anticipating Governor Gavin Newsom from California in minutes.
JENNINGS: Can I -- can I have one thing, by the way, as the politics tonight. And you've done this, so I would love your opinion. This guy --
AXELROD: -- forgive it.
(LAUGHTER)
JENNINGS: -- this guy did not sound like a mayor. He put every old guard national Democrat on -- this man sounds like --
(CROSSTALK)
-- talking to Donald Trump. AXELROD: Listen, I agree with everything that Van said about that speech. I was disappointed by it because this was his big introduction to the city as the new mayor, and I think he could have -- he -- if he had approached it the way he did so much -- so much of his communications. This was a shouted speech, not a -- not a -- not a talk with the city on the night of his election ushering in a new era.
But let me say that -- and I was happy to hear him with a full- throated denunciation of antisemitism. I was happy to hear him talk about working, uh, side by side with the police to, uh, reduce crime and violence. But the one thing that I will say that I'm happy about is to hear Scott Jennings talk about how he is repulsed by divisive speech.
(LAUGHTER)
And I think that everyone should note this, and I think you should carry it forward today and use that index to judge all of our leaders.
JENNINGS: I'm repulsed by socialist speech, is what I am repulsed by.
AXELROD: So, you can be as divisive as you want.
JENNINGS: But you got to -- you got to admit, by spending half the -- the back half of the speech screaming into the camera at Donald Trump, that is the mark of someone who has national ambitions, I'm telling you.
JONES: I think you're trying to be a telepath here. But let me just speak --
JENNINGS: Before he spoke.
(LAUGHTER)
JONES: I can't speak for the Mamdani supporters. I want to speak up for -- notice for them, though. Notice the joy and the excitement in that room. I think that people have felt unheard and unseen.
AXELROD: Yeah.
JONES: Especially some of younger people. And when he's talking about the people with the bruised hands and the burned hands and them being able to reach for something greater, he's speaking of something very deep in people because the sense that the American dream is now out of reach and that working people don't matter and that they can just be automated away, A.I.'d away, gigged away, he's speaking to a real -- the tone was a little bit off.
AXELROD: Yeah.
JONES: But the substance of --
AXELROD: Look --
JONES: -- your dreams matter, I think that matters. AXELROD: You know, for all you said, Alyssa, the fact is everyone here is going to go home to great comfort tonight. Everyone at this table is going to go home to great comfort tonight. There are a lot of people in this city, there are a lot of people in this country who have to worry every single day about how they're going to meet their bills. And that is a crisis --
GRIFFIN: And a lot of them are my friends and family --
AXELROD: for the city and a crisis for the country. So, the fact that he is addressing those things is an important thing. Did he address it in the way I would have? Uh, no.
GRIFFIN: To be honest with you, it felt Trumpian. He started by saying he dare not say the name of Cuomo again, saying he's not going even going to say his name again. Juxtapose that to Abigail Spanberger who took a moment to acknowledge Winsome Sears' service and to thank her for running a good race.
[23:50:02]
There's a moment to rise to the occasion. He did not choose --
COATES: Let's go back to Jake in D.C. Jake?
TAPPER: All right. Thanks so much, guys. So, taking that in, that was quite a stemwinder of a speech from Mayor-elect Mamdani where he was really -- uh, I think Van Jones's analysis was interesting, talking about how it wasn't the smiley uniter necessarily, but more of a firebrand.
BASH: Yeah. I mean, it was almost as if he was listening to Kasie Hunt talking about --
(LAUGHTER)
-- talking about the fact -- the point that you made right before he spoke, about the fact that maybe the bookends or the geographical bookends with him in New York City and Gavin Newsom in California --
TAPPER: Hmm.
BASH: -- the push among the Democratic base, members of the Democratic base, for their leaders to stop following the rules. The rules would dictate the guy who just won the most important city in America, maybe even globally, that he would say, I'm going to unite, let's reach out to everybody. He did in some ways, but he also was incredibly defiant in his defense of Democratic socialism.
KING: He's incredibly smart to have done what he just did. So, he clearly made a choice, to speak to his base, to his supporters.
UNKNOWN: Yeah.
KING: That was a we told you so. You all told us we couldn't do this, and we did. And I'm proud to be a socialist in this. And, you know, to Scott's point, quoting Debs, that was a --
TAPPER: (INAUDIBLE).
KING: I am. I'm not backing down.
TAPPER: Yeah.
KING: So, it was a defiant speech and a proud speech and yes, little bit of an in-your-face speech to the people, whether they're Democrats or Trump, to anyone who opposed him. The bigger challenge is, how does he set these? He's an aspirational guy.
TAPPER: Yeah.
KING: When I was in New York, the young people think, do they think he's going to do everything? No, but he set a high bar, and he himself said he was setting high expectations. How does he deliver? The New York City mayor does not have a ton of power when it comes to generating all the revenue he's going to need to pay for what he wants to do. So, he's going to ask the Democratic governor and the Democratic assembly to raise taxes as they head into their next election cycle.
TAPPER: Right.
KING: Good luck.
TAPPER: Right.
KING: And so, how does he -- look, we'll watch this. He decided to do what he did tonight. I don't disagree with anything that was said. He made a conscious decision, I think, to be defiant and to be bold and to be ambitious. The challenge that is going to come is what happens, you know, six months from now and a year from now as he actually tries to govern, can he accomplish these things? And then what happens if he can't? Does he become a pragmatist? Does he make compromises? Does he explain that or does he continue to say, I want it all?
HUNT: And this really underscores the choice that is facing the Democratic Party going forward. I mean, they had a great night tonight across the board. All types of their candidates did really well.
But it doesn't mean that this tension between the guy who goes on that stage defiant, quotes Eugene V. Debs right out of the gate, which let's be real, he's a rookie candidate, right? He's a young guy. He's new to this. He made decision that that's what he's going to say out of the gate, right? A moment like this one that he had tonight. This is the biggest moment that he has had yet on the national stage. And it is absolutely a choice to lead with that. And the Democrats are going to have to decide what version they want.
TAPPER: So, here is Governor Gavin Newsom, another successful Democrat this evening. Let's listen in.
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): Good evening, everybody. And let me underscore it has been a good evening for everybody, not just the Democratic Party. But what a night for the Democratic Party. A party that is in its ascendancy. A party that's on its toes, no longer on its heels, from coast to coast, sea to shining sea. But it was not just a victory tonight for the Democratic Party. It was as a victory for the United States of America, for the people of this country and the principles that our founding fathers lived and died for.
And so, we're proud. We're proud here in California to be part of this narrative this evening. We're proud of the work that the people of the State of California did tonight to send a powerful message to a historic president.
Donald Trump is a historic president. He is the most historically unpopular president in modern history. In every critical category, Donald Trump is underwater. He promised to make us healthier. He promised to make us wealthier. We're sicker and poorer. And he fundamentally understands that.
Why else, why else would he call Greg Abbott saying he's entitled to five seats? Why else is he trying to rig the midterm elections before one single vote is even cast? He understands his position at this moment in the United States of America.
[23:55:02]
One thing he never counted on, though, was the State of California. Instead of agonizing over the state of our nation, we organized in an unprecedented way. In a 90-day sprint, people from all over the United States of America contributed their voices and their support for this initiative. We stood tall, and we stood firm in response to Donald Trump's recklessness. And tonight, after poking the bear, this bear roared with an unprecedented turnout in a special election with an extraordinary result.
None of us, however, are naive. This is a pattern. This is a practice. Donald Trump's efforts to rig the midterm election continue to this day, and I'll reinforce that in just a moment.
You're seeing him take an action all across this country, not just in Texas. You saw what they were successful able to do in Missouri, what they did in North Carolina, what they're trying to do in Indiana, and inevitably in Florida. They are not screwing around.
In June of this year, we saw 4,000 National Guard federalized in the State of California. We saw 700 active-duty Marines not sent overseas, but sent to the second largest city in the United States of America to militarize our streets. We said in June this was a preview of things to come. What more evidence do you need than what happened in Washington, D.C.? What's happening up in Portland, cities like Chicago?
When we kicked off this campaign, just 90 or so days ago in Little Tokyo, in Southern California, in L.A. at the Democracy Center, Donald Trump sent Greg Bovino. He sent his private police force. That increasingly appears to have taken an oath of office to Donald Trump, not to the Constitution of the United States. He sent them to our kickoff rally to chill free expression, to chill free speech, to intimidate people from participating.
Just today in Los Angeles, Donald Trump called up the Border Patrol, sent them to Dodger Stadium and threw a fastball at free speech right at the head, free expression, to suppress the vote in America's second largest city. Just did that today. People in tactical gears sent out to intimidate a community that is already on edge.
But you see, as we speak, people are still in line. People are waiting up three hours to cast their vote, to send a message to Donald Trump. No crowns, no thrones, no kings. That's what this victory represents. It's a victory for the people of the State of California and the United States of America.
And this is a victory that's punctuated with a sober reminder that it's not just the actions that Donald Trump has taken to federalize our guard, to begin the process of militarizing American cities, to intimidate free expression and speech by utilizing ICE and Border Patrol in American cities, but he also announced today, right when polls were opening, that this election was rigged, that this election was rigged.
Of course, those are familiar words. It's exactly what Donald Trump said after January 6th, that day of love where he tried to light democracy on fire, he tried to wreck this country, and he called in to the secretary of state in Georgia, calling up for 11, 12,000 votes, just like he called Greg Abbott saying he's entitled to those five seats. He said this election was rigged, and he's moving to look for criminal prosecution and investigations at the Department of Justice. He is not screwing around.
So, tonight, I'm proud, but I'm very mindful and sober of the moment we are living in. Donald Trump does not believe in fair and free elections. Period and full stop. This is not complicated and it's self-evident to anyone paying attention.
[23:59:55]
You start to stack up all of these actions that continue to this moment and will continue in moments to come.
