donald trump will be be 47th president of the united states. welcome to cnn special live coverage. if you're just waking up with us, you missed a lot. it is no longer cnn election night in america it is now cnn day in america. donald trump has crossed the 270 vote threshold in the electoral college and he did it thanks to

wisconsin. looking at the map, the very red map, it is clear the blue wall did not hold. donald trump broke through , not just in wisconsin, the badger state, he broke through in pennsylvania, states joe biden won in 2020 , and he seems likely to breakthrough in michigan as well the groups that we saw pushed joe biden over the finish line four years ago, places like philadelphia, milwaukee and detroit did not show up for kamala harris in the numbers that she needed in major cities. we saw huge gains for donald trump, not just in the battleground states. donald trump clearly connected with voters on the economy, on immigration , as the sun rises it is possible he might enter the oval office was something that every president wants, a congress entirely controlled by their own party. he has the senate already and at this time republicans are hopeful about keeping the house. let's get right to fill

mattingly at the magic wall. we have been looking at the battleground states all night, really the story is not about the battlegrounds at this moment, it is this national movement we have seen . >> it is the scale how much donald trump did better than he did in 2020 and in 2016. this is the map where it stands currently, you can see the blue wall states they are currently red, the sun belt states in the southeast are red and the southwest are read as well. dig deeper to get a sense of how donald trump is doing across the country, every county highlighted here is a county that donald trump is doing better in 2020 by three percentage points or more. there are a bunch in north carolina and in georgia, not just the blue wall, there is a handful throughout the three states. across the country from the northeast we have seen states that normally would not be close to being late calls like new jersey or illinois and

they have continued to push throughout the night. the western boat is still coming in and we will have to see how that settles particular california. across the country, and places that we do not consider battlegrounds, donald trump is over performing. he is over performing in texas, over performing in illinois, over performing dramatically to the extent that florida was remembered as a. but also in the northeast as well. it is not just a seven battleground story come it is not just over performance in the blue wall him it is over performance across the board. >> it is part of the reason why donald trump did not just cross the 270 threshold right now he is 5 million votes ahead in the popular vote. california has a lot more votes to be calculated and that number may shrink him up but he may have the popular vote victory as well. it is not just the embattled ground phenomenon, point out chicago so we can see the difference of chicago from now to four years ago. >> why are we going to illinois

in 2024 this late in the game? we usually call it quickly. let's take a look at chicago. here is why we are doing this, we have seen so many threads tied to this in multiple states particularly blue states. the margin here in chicago, 61.8 to 37%, he said that is a big margin, about 12% of the vote is outstanding it look at that top line number for kamala harris, look at where joe biden's topline number was in 2020. >> 20 points better. >> we will see where it lands, we have been talking about this throughout, we talked about in milwaukee, we talked about it in philadelphia and we also talked about it in newark new jersey, baltimore, maryland, prince george's county, maryland, blue states that stayed blue tonight where in urban parts of those states with majority african american populations that traditionally vote 80% plus for democrats, donald trump chipped away those

margins and in some cases like it for chicago chipped away substantially. >> let's go to, jumped it better in the blue areas, in the traditional red areas where he has done well in the past, as well or even better. >> he is over performing in counties nationwide. let's look at some of the counties he is over performing here. if you talk to people on the biden campaign, the key back in 2020 was not just running up huge vote in the atlanta suburbs, or in the collar counties outside of philadelphia, it is holding donald trump's margins down in this area right here. what donald trump was able to do , not just matches 20/60 margins and do better than 2020, in places like missouri county am aware he had been a couple days ago, about a week ago, in 2020 he won this county by 14 points, they talk about running up the margins he bumped it up by three points. when you bump

up your stronghold counties by two, three, or talk points come at the same time the harris campaign is unable to run up there margin in a place like philadelphia that happened in 2020, currently harris is at 28 , or 78 we will see where that comes in. bucks county, one of the collar counties and the swinging-ist, biden won it, trump is winning. >> the states we have not protected academic in this is that they will not be decisive in deciding the president but we have not protected a winner in difatta and that tells some of the story that we have been talking about over the course of the wee hours of the morning. >> you are youthful individual, but you know the game in difatta the game in difatta is right here. >> for me it is craps. >> clark county is 75% of the states voting population. for democrats this is their firewall. this is what they set up both in early votes and mail and election day, union workers, the read machine, for

those who remember the late harry reid and what he put in place, clark county, democrats had to have a 7-10 point cushion in this democratic county to offset what ever the republicans doing in the rural counties. this margin is a yikes for democrats. it has been trending in this direction over the last couple of cycles. in 2020 joe biden won sheer just shy of 10, a closer clinton, back in 2012 15, 16 points clark has been trending particularly because of the hispanic population and donald trump has inroads in that as harry can tell you at length it is dramatic when you look at the exits. that margin and clark is a huge siren for the state of nevada and what happens going forward. >> phil mattingly excellent segway. in the meantime you talked about harry , let's get over to harriet and talk about

the exit polls and the numbers that explained that map. >> i want to drill down in wisconsin , it is the state that putt donald trump over the top in the electoral college. i want to look at black voters. donald trump getting 20% of the vote with black voters in the badger state. four years ago he was south of 10% . he is doing more than twice better than he did four years ago. it is not just among black voters. how about voters under the age of 30, traditionally a democratic vote , look here, it is a tie. it is a tie among voters under the age of 30 in wisconsin . i never thought i would see the day, closely related. how about first-time voters in the badger state, what are we seeing? look at this, donald trump leading , leading among first-time voters, leading by 17 points. joe biden won this group rather easily back in 2020 . the bottom line is this , wisconsin

is something that we have seen throughout the entire nation, it is representing the nation as a whole in 2016 with the story of donald trump and white working-class voters , this, 2024 is about going into democratic strongholds and taking votes away and putting up historic numbers among those groups. >> thank you very much. let's bring in our panel of experts, mark preston and professor. let's start with you professor, grover cleveland this morning has company. donald trump is now just the second president ever to be voted out of office, kicked out . when we vote presidents out, generally speaking if you look at the last several, jimmy carter, george h. w. bush , they are never heard from again at a political level. now, donald trump , not just heard from again, but going back to the white house. the historical perspective it is a stunning. >> it is shocking. it is an interesting moment because he

wakes up and says i want to be grover cleveland tomorrow ? except somebody like donald trump . i think one of the things that is important to keep in mind is that trump essentially was a pariah in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election. a lot of republicans had the pandemic heavy on their mind and they felt like he mishandled it and they felt like he cost them a lot. they also had january 6th on their mind. they're looking at this man and saying we don't want anything to do with him. elon musk now on stage with him celebrating and set in 2022 donald trump should fade off into obscurity he should live a nice life. what we know is that is not donald trump . one of the things that has emerged about donald trump that is radically different from any other president we have seen except grover cleveland, in fact, he has taken a very active interest in how the party moves forward . in fact, we have seen him, even in moments where republican said he is not in favor, he is not

en vogue , we saw he had a lot to say and his popularity only started to rise the more we saw him engage in these things that we or republicans my call prosecutions or persecutions . as that started to change , it meant that the nature of donald trump's candidacy and his potential of change, that is how we ultimately end up with donald trump back as a nominee, back in charge and back as president of united states. >> mark . >> there will be a lot of talk over the coming hours and a lot of, certainly democrats, there will be a lot of grief and disbelief and you will hear a lot of talk about realignment and talk about the party realignment. i think it is much bigger . i think what we saw happen in the past few hours is going to have great consequences. not only in the near term but the far time.

>> if you look at the near-term prosecutions, the january 6 defendants will be pardoned let's go beyond that, we are talking republicans controlling every lever of government in washington, d.c. from the supreme court , potentially through the house, certainly in the senate and now at the white house. if you just go even bigger than that, what is the democratic party going to do? who is the democratic leader? right now, the only person i can see who can be the democratic party in the near-term who has the power will be chuck schumer in the u.s. senate , but he certainly will not be the nominee for the democrats in 2028. let's assume that primary has already started, if it has not started before. the very last thing and i think this is why donald trump won the election, the war, the cultural war that we saw on woke culture and the backlash we have seen against that , i think we will see a quote unquote realignment on what the definition of woke is.

>> after 2012 the republicans to the famed autopsy, how is it mitt romney lost to brock obama. i am curious to see if the democrats do something like that official or otherwise, if there is that introspection. you talk about what the democratic coalition was and maybe is now. >> i don't know exactly what it is right now. i think there were a lot of folks who thought you could make up for the losses in rural areas by winning suburban voters, specifically white women in the suburbs, didn't happen. didn't work. the bottom line is this , this is a country in which the vast majority of voters do not hold a college degree but it is still a country that is getting more diverse. and you mentioned the 2012 republican autopsy, a lot of republicans thought that we have to move and become more liberal on immigration. did not need to. >> did the opposite.

>> did the exact opposite. i think what we will see over the months to come democrats tried to figure out what is going on. i will tell you one name that i think looks awfully good and that is the governor of pennsylvania, josh shapiro who obviously was a real contender to be the democratic vp nominee this time around , he did not get it. i think there will be a lot of talk swirling around him. i don't think him being on the ticket would help kamala harris out too much in pennsylvania. the bottom line is , his stock is up and i think there will be moved to the center among democrats based upon what i have seen. >> professor, i am curious as we are waking up, or some who have been up all night, is this a chump thing , a harris thing or biden thing or option d none of the above? >> i think it is d, none of the above. i think this is the 2016 mess with all of these issues the democratic party saw laid

out very quickly in 2016 after hillary clinton's loss. rather than address those issues they moved and migrated. what happened was the pandemic. the pandemic came upon us and joe biden happened to be the person for the pandemic. i think they mistook that moment for a referendum on what the democrats had to offer , rather than being introspective. i will tell you one of the person who i think will be incredibly important, actually two other people. the first person is bernie sanders. one of the things that bernie sanders has been saying, at least since 2014 , has been about how the democratic party, if it wants to keep the coalitions needs to talk about bread and butter issues, it needs to talk about politics. a lot of people attacked him for that saying cultural politics don't matter, that's not what he was saying. he is saying we need to focus on these things. the other person is stacey abrams. we have not heard a lot from stacey abrams in this election cycle. her organizations, particular fair fight, the new georgia their project were

instrumental in pulling together coalitions that ended up winning joe biden georgia in 2020 , but also michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin area >> not this time though. we will have a lot more chance to talk about that over the course of the morning and not to mention the weeks and months ahead. the future of the president united states, donald trump has the keys to the white house again. we have brand-new reaction from russia as the world is really about to change. more cnn special live coverage of election day in america.

welcome back to cnn special live coverage of election day in america. donald trump, once again elected to the white house. leaders around the world congratulating him on his historic come back. there is one leader who apparently has no plans to congratulate him, russia's vladimir putin, according to the kremlin. cnn's nick robinson joins us with more. good morning. what are we learning ? >> reporter: this is coming from dimitri pesca, vladimir putin spokesperson at the kremlin. he said this when

asked the question about why hasn't vladimir putin congratulated president donald trump and he said this, let's not forget we are talking about an unfriendly country that is both directly and indirectly involved in a war against our state that is the russian position. he was pressed by the journalist on his daily press briefing phone call , is this going to put you in a bad or worse position with the united states? it is very clear the implication and the question that president trump likes to get congratulations early. we heard from the british earlier today. we have heard from many european leaders congratulating president donald trump and his answer was this he said , the relationship is really bad, how can it get any worse than it is already this is a reference that something else that peskov talked about in that phone call with journalists saying that

the united states is in a position to end the war in ukraine where russia considers itself to be essentially in a war confronted by the united states involving the united states with the kremlin's position on this gives us a hint about what donald trump has spoken about previously about ending the war in ukraine in a matter of a day . russia's position on this is clearly going to be tough , as peskov went on to say in his phone conversation that this issue over ukraine is not going to be ended quickly. that is clearly going to be a tough road ahead for president-elect donald trump . >> indeed it is it we are seeing a different reaction from the ukrainian president at this hour. nic robinson for us in london. >> as nic was talking about, leaders around the world , allies and enemies bracing for

a second trump presidency in the shift in style and substance of foreign policy. our panel is back, alex thompson , in terms of the way foreign-policy is conducted, we saw joe biden on the world stage often in a way that seemed tounderscorethe ways in which the western alliance, nato alliance was perhaps fracturing or fading a little bit , that last appearance that he had with western leaders, there was some footage where he appeared to wander off , but there were questions about the future for a lot of other leaders that were meeting there. huge questions about the way the west will continue to interact there. the contrast between how biden campaigned around nato , lead with a nato forward foreign-policy , could not contest more with how donald trump conducted foreign-policy in his latest term and with what we may expect in the second.

>> foreign-policy did not swayed that many votes but it could be the clearest contrast between the two choices in terms of how they will govern. kamala harris did signal she was going to be tougher in immigration and tougher on terrorist. with regards to foreign policy they will be completely different. joe biden and kamala harris were going to try to defend the post-world war ii order which focused on nato , it used to be communism versus democracy now it is authoritarianism versus democracy. donald trump has made clear he does not care about those ideologies. i think it is, buckle up. >> what you said earlier is interesting this may not be the first party for voters but when they voted on policy they voted for trump. >> if you think of a single reason why donald trump has over performed with younger voters relative to past elections for the republicans, i think the divide i see in the

polls around foreign-policy and the role of america is no longer a left, right divide it is younger, older divide. if you're under the age of 40 you do not remember a time where america protecting its power in the world let anything good. donald trump and jd vance when they get up and they talk about warmongers and they sound like they are code people from 2004 , we had a complete inversion on the way we talk about america in the world, the use of the military, et cetera, it is totally a generational divide and the parties have completely flipped. >> one small thing to add to that, i was stuck at the madison square garden rally , the republican crowd cheering for people criticizing the patriot act and resizing the iraq war. the rnc had been held at madison square garden 20 years before. >> i think it is interesting to see within an hour of this network calling the race, reread a quote from vladimir putin where his team has slid a stack of chips in the pot, all right, donald trump, what are you going to do? are you going

to double down on as being an enemy state or follow what you said on the campaign trail and try to solve this in a week ? it is interesting to see if this is a big boys game. >> it will be interesting to see how netanyahu reacts. >> you are reading my mind. that is where i was going. >> i mean just in addition to that but i think the hostages coming home is probably very much farther down on his list. now he knows he has to do whatever he wants. he was hoping for a trump win because i think he knew that trump was going to let him do, he's also going to stay out of jail, he was going to let him do as he pleases in the middle east. despite trump saying he will get us out of work, that is an area where we could find ourselves very much more entangled given that is becoming a broader conflict in the region. >> we saw some the things

earlier today like russia calling , or bomb threats, i don't want to say the state of russia, bomb threats coming in, in georgia , that the secretary state said came from russia. the war in gaza played a more looming war, i think, particularly in a state like michigan. you saw in dearborn certain precincts. there are precincts in dearborn , michigan were kamala harris finished third. you have trump, jill stein and then kamala harris finishing third in those precincts. i am interested , i don't know if purge is the right word, i think republicans are going to go through a purge if donald trump were to loss they would have this kind of reckoning. i think democrats are going to have this reckoning. i'm interested to see how a part of our coalition of american voters, those individuals who are or were pro-palestinian are going to analyze this race and what

donald trump, benjamin netanyahu and the impact that is going to have on the war in gaza. i go back to kushner saying gaza gaza would be good beachfront property. i'm interested to see how individuals who set out or chose jill stein to punish the public a party are going to reconcile that with what happens with beating netanyahu. i, for one believe we will have more chaos if you're going to add pray, if you put someone like marco rubio, i don't know if i actually said i'm praying for marco rubio out loud, if you put someone like marco rubio and power that has some sense of decency and common sense, although i do not agree with this policy, so we have a level of stability. my concern with donald trump is a lack of stability in the global standing.

>> the big question for me in terms of foreign policy is china. for a couple reasons. i'm looking at their technological advancements and hypersonic missiles, we are a bit behind with that technology in the united states. it is a very superior form of rocket use we need to catch up. i'm worried about that. i worry about their expansion the south chinese. the chinese government has been strategic , they have put out these zero interest rate loans , the united states was once a country that would help nations develop. i'm worried about the competition. for me, what is the strategy from the trump administration outside of tariffs to equal the playing field with china. i believe they are making important advancements that we need to pay attention to. >> in terms of our conversation we are hearing from the nato secretary-general who said that donald trump's leadership will quote, again be key to keeping our alliance strong. it was a congratulatory tweet that was sent before we actually called

things and they said quote, i look forward to working with him again to advance peace through strength through nato. geoff, how do you think donald trump will approach nato? >> he is playing 3-d chests, he is in a situation now where two leaders he was close with with north korea and vladimir putin they now have troops on the line. chaos is a good idea until it is not. chaos creates churn, you mistake activity for progress. we have to have a sober mind show up. history shows that building consensus is the winning strategy globally . it does not feel that way, somebody wants to watch 10 seconds by , it feels good to see chaos but it does not play out well. just in, new reporting from inside the harris campaign coming in, what they are saying after their loss.

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welcome back to our special live coverage, now election day in america. we have a new production projection in the senate race. >> cnn can now project that will be the next senator from montana. tim sheehy defeating jon tester the democratic incumbent. this is a pickup for republicans as they now seek to expand their new majority in the u.s. senate flipping control of the u.s. senate in this election. tester was considered the most vulnerable incumbent, you can see 52.8% to 45.4%, sheehy was recruited by montana's is a center. what does this mean for the balance of power? we know republicans are going to be controlling u.s. senate right now they're holding 52 seats with three pickups this being one of them

there are six seats that are outstanding. a lot of the still in the blue wall states that we have been watching overnight. >> jessica dean, thank you. 52. i think the operative word is at least, i guess that's two words, at least 52 senate seats for the republicans. i am at the magic wall with phil, there are five senate races that hang in the balance. >> the overlap with the battleground states for the presidential race which has already been called is fascinating and it always has been. you have the blue wall states, arizona, nevada some are closer than others, i think what everyone is paying attention to, probably all five, potentially the leader of the senate. this is 95% reporting, mike rogers, former congressman, that is as close -- i should not say in michigan we have had closer. to tens of a percentage point , first

let's start with this, look at what donald trump is doing here, outrunning the senate counterparts. how many cycles did we watch the candidates on the senator and house level to do what they could to stay away from donald trump and then ran out in front of him ? that is not happening anymore. you are seeing that in the senate strategy. let's take a look at the critical counties we have been going through for kamala harris and donald trump and where does this slack? they are still 14% outstanding if you're down by 10,000 votes and you are a democrat and there is not much boat outstanding that there is a pathway here. 62-32, what is the presidential outlook? narrowly outrunning. this is what i was most fascinated to look into, what about oakland county, you can see where that stands harris underperforming the 2020 result. where is , right there. i am surprised by that to be

candid with you going into this cycle. right now i think the biggest question is where is the outstanding vote? we know there is a vote in wayne, let's go into kalamazoo, still 21% here, presidential back in 2020 this was a county joe biden won by 18 points, where is kamala harris right now? 11. underperformance, you flip that over to the senate , is it enough given the scale of trump's lead right now in this article blue allstate ? that is one of the big questions as the democrats try to figure out if this is a 55-45 type deal or -- >> this matters, the margins will matter in the senate so they are watching this closely, the senate races that have yet to be called there watching them closely. and we will continue to watch them throughout the morning. cnn's eva mckend has been

embedded with the harris campaign and she has reporting on how they are feeling as we of course, wait to hear from the vice president. eva, what can you tell us? >> reporter: a harris ally telling me to get the campaign space and time to assess their strengths and weaknesses. when you were speaking to them , they went into election night feeling confident. they had multiple pathways to 270, they did not have to just rely on the blue wall. this is a stunning defeat for the campaign. the vice president, confident and running and offering the country a new generation of leadership, restoring reproductive rights , warning against the threat , in her view, second term presidency would bring and ultimately that argument did not win the day. this is a team, i have been with them for several months, i worked very hard to make their case, to

broaden their coalition beyond the democratic base , that perhaps is a part of the strategy that will get the most scrutiny . the degree to which they embrace republicans, that is being criticized in some democratic corners . all of this is what they have to process in the hours ahead as we await the vice president to address the nation and concede defeat to former president donald trump. >> indeed, we wait. eva mckend this morning. thank you. concerns about the economy powered donald trump to the white house again. how are the markets reacting to his historic victory? cnn's special live coverage continues in minutes.

welcome back to cnn special live coverage , election day in america. we have a few hours before the opening bell on wall street, but the markets are reacting to donald trump's historic election, his election back to office. cnn's matt egan is here along with our

panel. when i see the markets are reacting, they seem happy. >> markets are going straight up, dow futures up something like 1200 points. more than 2% sharply higher. first of all, i think investors are happy that someone won. there was a real risk that this fight was going to drag out for weeks or longer. that would not have been good for business , investors hate uncertainty, something playing out in the supreme court would have been a nightmare. i also think that there is relief that the winner is donald trump. he presented himself as the more pro-business candidate. he has promised to cut taxes , fully extend the 2017 tax cuts and that will help corporate profits. he is also promised to cut red tape and that is good news for investors. he is also promising to use tariffs more than he did in his first term. that is not something that most of the economist that i talked to or ceos like because that can be inflationary. for now there is a sigh of relief on wall street.

>> i think you're right wall street was uncertain . there is irony in the being excited but the market going up long-term . markets do really well with democrats. >> they did better under present bided that under president trump . >> though that to the side for investors. that brings up a good point , one of the things that donald trump ran on more than anything are tariffs. i am curious to see what happens. that is a major policy and a major policy shift if trump can get those through . >> if he does get them through it is going to cost us as consumers a lot more because we are so used to cheap goods coming in from china and elsewhere. let me give matt a shout out . he wrote a story a couple days ago that was so spot on and it talked about how here in new york and in washington, d.c. everyone talked about how inflation was coming down and that is going to help the democrats, guess

what, prices will stay where they are, they are not falling , by the way, a person's dollar is still not going as far as it was during donald trump years. another reason why donald trump won. >> he might be right is not about who won but the economy in particular but the inflation. obviously the rate of inflation has come down so much but americans are fed up because they're paying so much more than they were in 2019, car insurance, groceries, everything has gotten so much more expensive. that does bring us to the ironies, inflation may have gotten trump elected again and a lot of the mainstream economist, a lot of experts who know how this works they are worried he could make inflation worse if he actually does what he has promised to do which is go all out with tariffs. maybe some of that was campaign rhetoric, maybe he will not do that, maybe those are threats, but if you put tariffs on all $3 trillion of

u.s. imports that will make prices go higher. >> standby. much more to come. this is cnn election day in america. we are going to speak with a very prominent donald trump supporter someone who work hard to get him elected to the white house spirit stay with us. special coverage continues.

donald trump waking up this morning president-elect. arriving on his doorstep, the morning newspapers each emblazoned with the news of his historic comeback. the "new york times", trump stuns back , stunning return to power after dark and defiant campaign. the "washington post" with a two word headline, trump triumphs. the new york post, they are doing what they do, don deal. donald trump wins the 2024 presidential election defying the odds again. our panel is here where we have been reflecting on this moment in american history which is really one that i think a lot

of americans clearly were waiting for this day with a lot of anxiety with a lot of hope and alex thompson clearly a reckoning for the harris campaign and also for americans who wanted to see her get elected in what remains a very divided country now facing four more years of donald trump. >> the next two or three weeks will be a circular firing squad in the democratic party. there are a lot of fingers being pointed did i would say in the last three or four hours, people i talked to most of the fingers appointed at joe biden and the decision to run again, early after the midterms in 2022 in which democrats over performed. the decision at 80 that he could serve another six years, essentially that's what he was running for , and basically bet the farm on the fact that he was going to stay completely healthy and would be able to be consistent coherent

messenger , which we all clearly saw he was no more capable of doing. i think that decision and , kamala harris, some people said she had missed steps, she had 100 and some days to introduce herself to the american people. she had her chance and at the end of the day, she was dealt a bad hand. >> this race was bigger than a single decision that is what is going to drive me crazy about the postmortems that different reporters are going to write about. i am waiting on the fact that she did not choose josh shapiro. josh shapiro was not going to change the outcome of the race, period. what we saw the fundamentals of this race were different than everything i thought prior to the election. the fundamentals of this race, the headwinds they were running against, i believe it bided made the decision two years ago those headwinds would

still be there we are talking about inflation, immigration, crime. all those things, the war in gaza, russia and ukraine , all of these things were still going to be in place. i think with the democratic party looks at this, it is more of them instead of what decision could we do differently versus some type of pedagogy shift or ideological shift, or how do we rebuild our coalition . also -- >> are you saying this was inevitable ? >> i think after we look at these, i have been here with you for four hours and i'm getting to that. it took me a while. i am still working through this. the inevitability of this actually looks as if it was there. i think the only bet that could have done differently and i don't know how you do it because it's reproductive rights , we were talking about white women, this is the second time the second time that democrats bet the house on white women , suburban white women. this is the second

time they were left at the altar. >> when i take a look at the exit polls, if you look at the national exit polls, white suburban women went for trump by four points. white women overall slightly go for trump , but the story is the education gap. if you have a bachelor's degree or not, white women with a bachelors degree break for kamala harris by 20 points, white women without a bachelors degree break for trump by 25. it is a different universe. i really think the democrats felt, you saw it in the ads, the woman with the sparkly trump hat goes into the voting booth and winks at the other woman and it was like i'm secretly voting for harris. everywoman that they thought was doing that there were two women who are not telling the book club why they did not want to go canvas for kamala harris and that was because they were voting for trump. as it was in exit polls and in the results. >> for me as i was cast before

joe biden made the decision to run or not. it started when they decided to ignore the border. ignores the wrong word, they unwound, i think the day they got sworn in they had executive orders -- >> executive order undid it. >> that was a huge step in the wrong direction. and into really truly authentically dissect inflation that cast the die and the margin of victory shows that. i do think , there will be this whole soul-searching of dissecting these brackets and figure out who do they want to be ? do they want to be a party that goes farther left or party that finds more center ground . >> having been through this a couple of times, in 2004 after john kerry lost we had this big soul-searching moment and howard dean became the chair the party and i worked for him. one of the most brilliant things he did was put in place the 50 state strategy. his theory was it is a sign of respect to show up and ask people for their votes. we have to show up everywhere and do

that and we have to do that year-round in all different communities. i would say, many of us were frustrated and questioning how much we should be looking at getting the republican white woman vote versus why are we doing more to talk to lac and brown voters and young voters where they are. i think the campaign , again, 170 days, they did a lot of things right. as a party we need to take a bigger look at , the 50 state strategy went away after howard dean, we need to bring that back and we need to be having conversations and be in communities year-round him all the time . the second thing that will come out in the days to come, as we did after 2016 , the research showed that cultural fears were a big driver of trump voters. people who are afraid, white voters in

particular come of the way the world is changing and their place in it. i think we will see more of those conversations. >> if i could say quickly, i agree with karen in terms of placing the focus more on black and brown voters and less on republicans. i can digitally understand why the appeal would be, i guess, somewhat smart and tactical for biden, i think many republicans say biden is a old-school democrat, i don't mind voting for him, for some it is a bridge too far for the vice president. if you would have double down on black and brown voters that may have made a difference in some places. >> standby everyone, special coverage continues right now. donald trump triumphs. the former president convinces america that he deserves a

second chance to run the country. welcome to our special live coverage. it is cnn election day in america. and it is a red sun shining across the united states. the math has spoken. you, the american voter, have spoken, and the story is etched in the numbers, not just in the battleground states, but honestly, everywhere. donald trump is quite simply, running up the scoreboard. he overperformed what he did in 2020, in some places overperformed what he did in 2016. he is on track if the trajectory has not changed, to win the popular vote. the blue wall democrats were betting could put kamala harris into the white house, it crumbled. the patchwork of voters to put biden in the white house four years ago, black voters, hispanic voters, women, that too seemed to shatter or was just not enough. there are important races still to settle across the country and every vote still being counted will determine if donald

trump takes power with the republican- controlled congress united behind him. but right now, as things stand, he has the white house, he has the senate, the house still hangs in the balance. let's get straight to phil mattingly at magic wall. the presidency decided at this point. trying to understand the why now. and it's not just the battleground states, it's part of that democratic coalition, as we said, that simply seemed to slip away. donald trump taking advantage, particularly among latino voters. >> yeah, we've been talking a lot about the critical suburban battlegrounds, democrats failed to run a big vote in. their urban areas, they also failed to run a big vote in. donald trump's rural areas. let's talk about the demographics. we start in pennsylvania. it's one of those battleground states. but there's a lot of talk over the course of the past couple of weeks, particularly about hispanic voters in the state. there's one slice of the state where the hispanic population is actually between 15 and 25%. that slice of the state, particularly after the madison square garden event, in the comments about puerto ricans, was one where democrats

said, maybe this is an opening here. this is about 23% of the population in berks county, is hispanic. donald trump won this by more than 12 points. in other words, he did four points better than he did back in 2020. now, this is lehigh county, the home of allentown, the place that joe biden was able to run up the margin a little bit on. as you can see, 7. 5 points. harris underperforming there. for democrats in a microlevel of talking about just one of the battleground state, they're saying, maybe we had an opportunity there. turns out, not at all. didn't make any inroads. in fact, lost ground. i want to go to florida. we don't talk about it as much anymore, and understandably so. and when it comes to the hispanic vote, you don't talk about it as much anymore, because it has moved so dramatically and so separately from what we've seen of the hispanic vote out west, particularly because of the cuban american vote in miami. this was the biggest siren for me early on in the night. osceola county, if you want to

know, this county demographically is 56% latino. a significant portion, and a lot of new -- an influx of population over the course of the last year or so, puerto rican. so was there going to be some type of dramatic change. this isn't the cuban america vote, south florida. osceola, why am i pointing to this? in 2020, joe biden won osceola county by 25 points. in 2024, donald trump flipped this county and won it rather comfortably. and so you're saying, all right, it's florida. florida was a bloodbath, to be honest for democrats. maybe that's a little bit different. my good friend harry enten picked this part up, up to right here. texas border, this is webb county, donald trump did very well in texas. winning this by two points in 2020. democrats won this by 23

points. >> that's a 25- point swing. >> i know we've got to toss, but literally up and down this area, 95% hispanic population in all of these counties. donald trump flipped them and flipped them majorly. >> huge swings there. an important part of that democratic coalition clearly gone or largely gone now. phil, thank you so much. let's go over to harry enten. phil was just talking about you, harry. let's dive in deeper to some of that hispanic vote in the exit polls. what did you see? >> let's take a look at pennsylvania first. what do we see in pennsylvania among latino voters. look at this. kamala harris won latinos in pennsylvania, but just by 15 points. if you go back four years ago, among latinos in pennsylvania, joe biden's margin was, get this, john, 42 points. we are talking the fact that -- excuse me, that donald trump was able to slice that margin by more than half. by more than half in pennsylvania! how about florida, which you were talking about with our dear friend, phil over there. how about here? donald trump winning among latinos in florida by 18 points. you might say, you know,

latinos in florida, cubans. as you two were pointing out, it wasn't just cubans, but keep in mind, four years ago, joe biden carried latinos in the great state of florida. so donald trump flipped it. how about texas? how about texas? look here. again, another win for donald trump among latinos in texas four years ago. you know who carried latinos in the great state of texas? >> i bet it wasn't donald trump. >> it wasn't donald trump, it was joe biden. we are seeing this movement across the map. it's not just among latinos who are from, say, puerto rico, or cubans. it's across the map. it's across different parts of the latino electorate. donald trump simply put, doing better than he did four years ago. and you're making that comparison to four years ago. remember, eight years ago, latinos were one of the biggest trouble spots for donald trump against hillary clinton. miami- dade, he lost that by, what, 30 points, eight years ago. tonight, or last night, he carried miami-dade. we're just seeing this explosion of latino support

for donald trump and the bottom line is, we've been talking about realignment, realignment, realignment among hispanics, definitely realignment. >> this is what realignment looks like. the definition of political realignment. harry enten, thanks very much. kasie, over to you. >> donald trump set to return to the white house with the support of a republican- controlled senate. control of the house is uncertain at this hour. joining this hour, senator marco rubio, who has been donald trump's most outspoken supporters and was in attendance last night at the campaign's watch party turned victory celebration. he's also the ranking member of the senate intelligence committee. senator, good morning. it's nice to have you with us. >> good morning. >> let me just start with your reaction here. this was a sweeping victory for donald trump, for republicans. what's your reaction and how do you explain what we saw last night? you, yourself, had said you expected a closer race than

this one. >> well, everybody did, right? i mean, that's what we were being told by pollsters. and we'll eventually learn our lesson here. but what i'm most impressed by, it's not just the size of the victory, but the way donald trump won this election. he won it by fundamentally remaking the republican party. but i open also revealing to people that for voters in the united states of america, their primary identity is not their ethnicity, it's not their race, it's what they do for a living, who's who they are in their daily lives. i just saw a moment ago, you had a segment on the hispanic vote in all of these different places. every expert in the world was saying, there's no way that donald trump can even be competitive, because bad bunny is not supporting him and jennifer lopez and george lopez and whoever come out against him. these people are workers. these people are fathers and mothers and they have children and they own small businesses and they're employees of a company that are sending jobs overseas. they have to be appealed to as americans. because that's what they are. when these migrants come and criminals in their own home country comes here and say they're a criminal, they're

not criminals because they're migrants, they're criminals because they're criminals. and they're going to these hispanic neighborhoods. that's what we heard in pennsylvania. you aw osceola county put up, they're skrrnd about the cost of living, the cost of groceries. and donald trump appealed to americans as americans. irrespective of your background or customs or what music you listen to or how your last name is pronounced. i hope this is a realization that when you come to this country and put your roots down here and raise your children here, you become an american. everything from our economy to our safety to our national security matters as much to you as they do to anybody else in this country. >> sir, do you think this is a permanent realignment for these voters or do you think that this is unique to donald trump? >> no, i don't believe anything's permanent anymore, because american politics moves so quickly, so rapidly. i saw again a moment ago, we

were talking about miami- dade county. miami- dade county flipped from 2016, in about eight years, this dramatic turn. nothing is permanent. i think as long as -- let me put it to you this way. from now on, anyone who's running, at least for the foreseeable future, and says, i'm going to put the priorities of americans first. i'm going to ensure that our laws are enforced when it comes to immigration, not anti-immigration, but antichaos. we'll try to keep america out of wars. we're entering into an area of pragmatic foreign policy where the world is rapidly changing, adversaries are uniting in north korea, iran, it will require us to be pragmatic and wise. i think that message is going to transcend traditional, you know, ideological and partisan lines. and but, you know, six years from now, it may be the democrat who is saying that. i don't think any of us can sit back and say that this is permanent. this is not a partisan realignment, it is an

american realignment and donald trump just happens to be the candidate over the last ten years that's truly not just revealed it, but captured it and communicated nit a very unique way. but it's incumbent upon those of us who are in office now to turn that into policy and ultimately continue it as a movement. otherwise, someone will learn from it and they'll adopt it. >> interesting. sir, as we look forward here, are you interested in a role in the next trump administration? >> look, i always am interested in serving this country. i'm doing it now in the united states senate. that's where i plan to be next week. and beyond that, i'm not trying to play coy, it's just, literally, just a few hours removed from this election. nobody actually going in knew exactly -- we felt good ain't, but nobody knew what was going to happen. i haven't had any set conversations with anybody in the trump administration. either way, i plan to work with them, whether it's in the senate, which is an important place to be, or in some other capacity. those conversations happen, we'll have them. but i certainly haven't talked to anybody about it. i know, again, i hear

people talk about it and mention, that's just speculation right now. he's got a lot of talented people to pick from. but that's a bridge i haven't even started to cross yet, because i don't even know if that bridge is there. but i know i'll be in the senate, and that we're focused on. >> speaking of the senate, who would you like to see as the next senate republican leader? >> well, we've got great people running. that's the truth. i like them all. obviously, rick scott is my home state senator. i think he would be a great majority leader. i know he's going to be running. we'll see how it all plays out. ultimately, i think whoever our next leader is, has to be somebody who understands what happened here, what voters are telling us. they're not sending us up there. this is not a college football game where we celebrate because our team won. they're not sending us up there to celebrate, they're sending us up there to work and to rye to turn the message of this campaign into public policy, for the benefit of all americans. and that means, you know, begin to secure our border, begin to rebuild our economy in a way where working people, hard-working everyday people can

afford life, get ahead, do basic things that we used to take for granted. if you work hard, you should have a job that pays you enough to own a home and start a family and retire with dignity. we want to get back to an economy that makes that possible. and a world that's increasingly dangerous. we wake up every single day to bad news after bad news. we've got to start taking this pretty seriously, when you've got north korean troops embedded alongside russians in the middle of europe, when you've got the chinese now habitually and routinely harassing not just taiwan and philippines, and of course, iran, that continues its ambitions, including trying to kill donald trump, i think we've got a very dangerous world that's going territory immediate attention. >> so you mentioned, obviously, that there are going to be -- there's going to be a new team in place coming in for the trump administration. if you are part of the senate, you'll have a say, of course, in confirming donald trump's nominees. he's obviously campaigned with elon musk extensively, and robert f. kennedy jr.

has recently expressed interest in a cabinet- level post. do you think the senate would confirm him to a cabinet- level post? >> well, i think the senate is going to give great deference to a president that just won a stunning, what i think is an electoral college landslide when all aid and done and given a mandate. and i think they deserve the opportunity to surround themselves with people that will help them execute their policies. we have to understand the job of anybody that president- elect puts in place, the job of those people is not to be on a check or donald trump or to control him, it is to help carry out what the american people sent them there to do. and sent them there to do in a pretty overwhelming fashion, by modern standards. i think that that's important. obviously, you have to be qualified in all of these sorts of things, but beyond that, we have to ensure that he has a team around him, that helps them execute his public policy, not undermine or stand in the way of it. that's the same thing

that joe biden and every president has wanted to be surrounded by, people who will do a job, but ultimately help carry out the policies that the people who elected that president sent them there to do. >> speaking of those policies, sir, would you be supportive of mass deportations if that's what incoming president donald trump were to do? >> well, first of all, the first mass deportation and the one that's most important is criminals. if you're a convicted murderer or a killer or some very dangerous individual that has a criminal record in another country or have committed crimes here, you need to be removed from the country. i don't care where you came from. you're here illegally on top of the fact that you're here to commit crimes, you must be eliminated and removed immediately from the united states of america. that's whiteout a doubt. beyond that, i think we have to have immigration laws and they have to be enforced. that's the law of the country. the laws of our country today is if you have been here unlawfully, you are to be detained through removal. you can decide who to prioritize and who you want to move to

the front of the line, but that has to be the law of the country. if you don't enforce that, what you're basically telling people all over the world is come to america. you're not supposed to be here, but we'll let you in. and then you're going to get to stay. look, we admit every year over a million people get green cards. they get u.s. residency. over a million people a year. no other nation in the world is as generous as that. and everyone will admit there are things we need to do to modernize our immigration system. right now, we simply can't do it because we have millions of people a year who are entering the country illegally. and some of them are very dangerous criminals. from all over the world, not just latin america, from all over the world. many of whom, we have no idea who they are. and they come here and commit serious crimes and are a threat to the country. but i support enforcing the immigration laws of the united states, because if we don't, we don't have immigration laws. >> in the event that someone's crime is simply breaking the immigration law, you've made this distinction between people who commit

crimes and those who come in illegally, but don't have another crime on their record. in the event that they have children who are u.s. citizens, how, in your view, should the system treat those people? there have been some suggestions, by trump supporters, that those children be deported with their parents. what do you think is the right way to deal with that? >> well, again, we talked about a list of prioritization. i'm not going to be making pronouncements here about what the trump administration and how they're going to prioritize it. i can guarantee it, their fwhurnl priority will be first and foremost people who are here illegally and unlawfully and who have committed or are committing serious crimes and are a threat to the country. if you're a convicted murderer in el solve alvador or venezuela and got into unlawfully, you need to be removed. i don't care how many children you have in the united states, you have to go. you're a threat to the country. that's where you prioritize and work your way down from that. but the most important thing, if you do not begin to enforce your immigration laws.

if you do not send the message that there are people in this country unlawfully and they're going to be removed, more people are going to come. it's all entirely incentive-based. the reason why so many people have come, is because rightfully, they believe, if they come in, they will be admitted, they will be released, and they will be told come back for a hearing and that's not going to happen anytime in the near future. and they're going to get to stay. and that's acted as a magnet, as an incentive for people to come, and frankly, for people to be trafficked here. haas that's the piece that everyone is forgetting. they are paying some criminal organization to traffic their loved ones or themselves into this country. it's a very dangerous situation and it's not sustainable. it's not sustainable. no country in the world would allow it. we shouldn't either. >> sir, very briefly before i let you go, i would like to ask you in your capacity as the ranking member on the intelligence committee, there have been reports out in the "wall street journal" and confirmed by "the new york times" about a russian effort apparently to put flammable devices on to

airplanes. the reason as to why they may be doing this is unclear, but i'm interested to know what you can tell us about this apparent plot, the potential danger here, and how you think the u.s. should be responding based on what you know in your capacity on the intelligence committee? >> well, i won't comment on even articles that are based on things that are supposed to be classified or intelligence, but let me just say generally, and i think this has been reported publicly, and that is that we know that the russians and vladimir putin have undertaken sabotage operations in europe try to punish countries that are assisting ukraine. and we know that that's an ongoing threat. and i think that is in some ways, and i know the campaign has passed, but in some ways, this comes down to the fact that they simply do not respect or do not fear what the reaction would be from the biden administration. so these -- this is a very threat, a very serious problem.

if there's anything that's explosive on an aircraft, be it cargo or passenger, it's a very serious thing. and something that needs to be dealt with very firmly. but let me just point you back to the fact that we know that the russians have been involved in attempted sabotage operations throughout europe as a way of inflicting costs on nations in europe that are assisting ukraine. and i think that's an area we need to focus on and that the trump administration would make a priority in my opinion. >> all right. senator marco rubio for us this morning. senator, very grateful for your time this morning, thank you. >> thank you. >> john berman, back to you. >> thank you, kasie, thank you very much. i'm back with mark preston. marco rubio said a lot of things there, but one of the things he used was the m- word, and that would be mandate. >> yeah. >> what do you think about that. >> the professor and i have been talking about this all morning. that is an extremely dangerous word to use. he will have a honeymoon, no doubt about that.

and he will be able to get some things through. and the fact of the matter is, he has the united states senate. he may have the u.s. house of representatives. so not only will he have a honeymoon from the american people, but he'll have at least the levers of government to try get some things done. however, when you use the word mandate, that means that everything you want to get done is going to get through. and the way the founders set up our government, there's no way, unless he was able to get more than 60 votes in the senate, he's not even close to 60 right now, even though they did well in the senate. >> certainly not everything he wants to get through, but insofar as he has been given support by the american people to do something, professor, what would you say it is? >> so, i want to caution us again, even though it's clear that republicans are not going to be cautious on this, i think they are going to look at this as a mandate. but i think part of what we have been saying is that you cannot look at it as a mandate, because it was a referendum on how the democrats had essentially not lived up to the promise of change that the american

people said that they explicitly wanted. so what does that mean? it means that if donald trump puts into effect and puts into policy, puts into law with the three branches of government, policies that are unpopular with the american people, the american people in turn will punish him for that. and we've seen this happen in the past. we've seen midterm elections, where americans have come out and said very strongly, we do not like this. we do not like the decisions. one of the things that donald trump has somehow managed to escape, but not necessarily, but one of those really unpopular policies was the overturning of roe v. wade, right? the dobbs decision. we actually saw in this election that several states passed referendums protecting and enshrining abortion rights in law, including in states that went for trump. so there are people -- it's very clear that the american people discern and can make decisions about, i can support trump on this, but on this, i'm going to punish him if he breaks from

that. and i think the other thing that's really important here, too, is that americans are going to look at the economy. if they still feel the burn that they are feeling right now from two years, they will send a message to donald trump and to congress, letting him know that this is unacceptable. >> all right. stand my, both of you. a lot more to discuss. donald trump made a direct appeal to plaque men and in some counties and some places, it worked. we'll look at where and why. this is cnn's special live coverage, election day in america.

all right. welcome back to our special live coverage. it is cnn election day in america. sort of like election day after in america. donald trump has been elected president again. phil mattingly is with us at the magic wall, talking about what he did to get there and with whom, phil? >> yeah, i think throughout the course of the last several hours, which may also be days, it gets a little lost at this point in time. we've been trying to kind of go through the specific slices that donald trump was able to not just match his margins, but do a lot better than. why he had this pathway to win more significantly than he ever has before, and have a pathway back. we talked constantly about the blue wall. we have not talked a lot about the sun belt. there are a couple of things about the sun belt that

early in the night were warning signs, when i was talking to democrats down there, about what may be coming. and i want to start right here in this area. these are not counties that we talk about very often, but over the demographic layer in terms of african- american population, the darker the county, the higher the level of black population in these areas. this is eastern north carolina, these are smaller counties. now, take a look, when i pull out here, where donald trump overperformed in the state of north carolina. you'll see a couple of them are in here. but throughout the course of this area, again, bertie county, not a huge county. a place that kamala harris won by 15 points. back in 2020, joe biden won it by 21 points. this is the case around -- throughout eastern north carolina. joe biden won this one, hertford county by 34 points, what happened, jumped performing again throughout north carolina and in the eastern part of the state, more rural areas, high level of african- american vote, majority counties, harris was

underperforming by three, four, five points. we saw something very similar play out here. state of georgia, joe biden flipped it in 2020. '24, donald trump rather handily compared to 2020 put it back in the republican county. we talk about dekalb county, the suburbs outside of the atlanta metro area. what i think was most interesting is wanted right in here. what do i mean by that? this is several southeastern states that kind of compromised this, but known as the black belt. these are smaller counties, more rural counties, black farmers. the darker the county that you see here, the higher the level of black voters in that county. where did donald trump overperform in georgia? >> a lot of those counties. >> up and down these counties. these are not huge counties, but these are the types of counties that democrats sought, including bill clinton went on a 2. 0 bubbas for bill area going out in more rural areas. black farmers were part of that. and in this area, they didn't need to just match margins from 2020, they needed to run them

up significantly or in some of the more red counties, hold the majorities down. where there were black voters in more rural areas, of milwaukee, of philadelphia, of detroit, but in more rural areas as well, it is very clear that there was an underperformance in those two sun belt states. >> it's really interesting, in both blue counties and red counties. in some red counties, he did better than he needed to and blue counties as well. let's go over to harry enten at the magic wall and dig a little deeper. >> we can dig into north carolina and black voters particularly. it's not just on the county level. there are some black voters who might live in some of the urban areas there. let's take a look at north carolina at black voters. i want you to take note of that trump 12%. four years ago what percentage donald trump got in north carolina among black voters? just 7%. nearly a doubling of his support among black voters. let's look specifically at

black men. black men, this to me says it all in my humble opinion. what do we see among black men? maybe we'll get it, maybe we won't get it, there we go, black men. look at this, donald trump getting 21% among black men. four years ago, he was south of 10%. he was in the single digits. black women basically stayed the same from four years ago, but black men moved in big numbers to donald trump in north carolina, something that, of course, the donald trump campaign believed that they could do throughout the country. definitely seen in north carolina and finally, black independents. democrats basically held. they held their support among independents, black independents, but look at this. donald trump, 28% among black independents. four years ago, donald trump got just 15%. again, this doubling. this is what we're seeing. democrats were still winning among black voters, still winning among black men and black independents,

but donald trump was able to shrink the margin, just like he did with latino voters nationwide. donald trump going into communities of color and winning large chunks of support that simply put, john berman, we really never see. >> inroads into some of these communities, where republicans have not had success before. exactly right. >> let's go over to kasie and our panel. >> we have some new faces, ron brownstein, kate bedingfield, have gotten back up after a very long night. >> can i have a sec? >> let me start with you. we were talking about it. at both conventions, this is something you've been focused on for quite some time, the inroads here with black men. how do you explain it? how do you understand it? and what does it mean going forward? >> look. there are a lot of people, kasie, who have been working on making inroads with black voters for a long time. i started in republican politics as a freshman student. i re- engaged a

college republican chapter at an hbcu and folks thought i was out of my mind. >> you were. >> mitt romney couldn't pull it off, here's donald trump getting 21% in north carolina. i think i saw ian bremmer post, nationally, it was around 21%. in 2020, he got 12%. you're taught an eight- point increase. when republicans lost the race to barack obama with mitt romney, we produced the growth and opportunity project. and in that autopsy report, we talked about the need for the republican party to outreach target and engage with communities of color. we are finally seeing it. i think black men look at the democratic party and they often feel that their concerns are going unheard and the republican party is saying, we are going to be the party that's going to put men back to work. they recognize that a lot of men are falling behind. a lot of men aren't going to college, they aren't getting college degrees. what happens to those men who have to survive the gop saying, we are the party with the answers?

>> bakari? >> the gop didn't actually say anything. that's the irony in this whole thing. kamala harris actually put out an opportunity agenda and policy points specifically more black men, talking to black men about black men. >> two weeks ago. two weeks ago. i just want to throw that out. >> you can point to me about the policy that donald trump or the republican party has put out geared towards black men and i'll listen, but it doesn't exist. my only point is, kind of to your point, i will give you credit for being partially correct this morning. >> partially? okay, go ahead. >> this is my charity. >> black men have said for a long time they've been ignored by both parties, so it gave a unique opportunity. and there are a lot of things about a donald trump presidency that we saw woo black men, not a lot, but some. you're talking about six, seven, eight points here or there, which was enough particularly in states like north carolina and georgia, but it's this ma chismo or strength that donald trump exuded. it's not policy. the irony in this whole race. the great irony in this

whole race is that he ran a race with no policy, he ran a race with no plan. she articulated plans and policies -- >> but the quality of your campaign, then? >> you won! >> if he has no plan and no policy -- >> because it wasn't -- >> what does that say about what the democratic party just foisted upon all of your -- >> no, what it says -- thank you for joining us this morning. what it says is that the fundamentals -- >> if trump is so terrible, what is -- i was just asking. you were deeply involved nit. you tell me. >> i'm gonna finish my sentence. >> all right. >> what i was getting at is that the fundamentals of the race that we saw, we saw inflation, we saw crime, we saw this being a referendum on joe biden. the question was, who was going to be the incumbent in this race? and for a long period of time, the harris campaign thought they could make donald trump the incumbent. they couldn't! they failed. this was a -- this was a fundamental rebuke of the last four years in those issues. but when we're talking about black men, and you can't -- there is not a policy proposition or a policy point

that donald trump put forth. what he did was, though, was say, i hear you, i speak for you, et cetera. it was vibed on a higher level. >> so is not putting forth the idea that we want to provide opportunities for working class men to survive and provide for their families, is that not a policy proposition? the recognition that -- >> no, that's a thought. >> so the recognition, for example, that trades, a lot of men, particularly men who don't have college degrees rely on those types of skills, that's almost nonexistent today, republicans say, hey, we're champions of this, we want this to return back to working class people. we're going to focus and harness -- >> i just don't think -- i hear you, i'm going to let everybody else chat, but i don't think you're going to win the battle on donald trump being a robust policy geek in this race. >> hold on a second. ron brownstein is our like -- has an encyclopedia of all of this in his head. ron, how do you understand it? >> first of all, this feels to me a little as if jimmy carter had stepped down and

walter mondale had run against ronald reagan in 1980. similar dpgs. the exit polls point us towards focus on the decline against black men. the actual results on the ground are broader. they're kind of like everywhere. they're a headline, a head snapping. philadelphia, detroit, las vegas, big declines in margins for the democrats. but also, the kind of death by a thousand cuts, not only in blue collar places like racine and macomb county outside of detroit and scranton, lackawanna, kenosha, bucks, but also in the white- collar places where the resistance to trump has been the greatest, it was just a little nick, everywhere. montgomery county outside of philadelphia wasn't quite as good. delaware wasn't quite as good. oakland county wasn't quite as good. yes, dane county was 75%.

waukesha, she kind of held. but across the board, chester, it wasn't quite enough. so you think, what is systemic that transcends racial lines? joe biden -- well, first of all, we'll come back to gender. the gender gap -- she did not win women. that's the same thing. she did not win women by as much as joe biden did or hillary clinton did. and what transcends it -- no, women, all women in general. and white women, you know, at least in the exit polls, she won them by more, she did better. she did better on college white women. but what transcends it is joe biden's disapproval of 60% almost everywhere. and two- thirds of voters in all of the swing states say the economy was fair or poor. and you know, as in 2022, she ran a little better than democrats do among those discontented voters, but not enough to overcome the fact of how many them there were. but to your appoint, what we saw in 2022, and what i thought we were going to see last night, in michigan, pennsylvania, and

wisconsin, 75 to 80% of voter who said they were pro- choice voted for the democratic gubernatorial candidates in '22. last night, it was only about two-thirds of voters who said they were pro- choice voted for harris, including -- trump won more than a quarter of women, who said they were pro-choice. that says to me there's a systemic movement here of discontent about the economy, lack of trust in democrats to manage it, and a turn toward trump to do exactly that. >> look, i think that's right. and i think it's also important to level- set that globally, this outcome is what we've seen for every head of state that has stood for re- election since the pandemic. there has been across the board an anti- incumbent sentiment that i think does transcend some of the margins that, you know, trump was able to expand on with different racial groups in this country. so, that's not to say that i don't think the democrats need to have a soul- searching moment, both on messaging, agenda, how they are connecting with people across the country. i also think that they need to

have a soul searching moment on campaign tactics. that's the other piece here. you look at what legacy media and the influence legacy media had in this race. you look at traditional field. i will eat some crow pip sat here with david urban yesterday. he said, traditional field program doesn't matter. i said, i think you're going to regret that. he was right. and i think you can look at the last few presidential elections and even make that argument. so, i'm not saying that the democrats don't have work to do here. and i think senator rubio made a really interesting point about this being an american realignment as opposed to a purely political realignment. there's opportunity for democrats to harness this change. but i don't think we should lose sight of the fact that this has been the global sentiment since 2020. and bakari made the point earlier, there was not one tactical decision that led to this outcome. >> that's my larger point. there's not one decision that kamala harris could have made. >> if you're slipping in montgomery county, in pennsylvania, and macomb county in detroit. and clark county in las

vegas, it is way beyond tactics. >> literally everywhere. >> i mean, in the reality, it's just a huge market correction. i think that biden ran to end the chaos and calm everything down. and the reality is, it seemed more out of control and more divided at the end of his term than it did when he started. so i think when they won, they thought they had a broad progressive mandate. they went too far, and now we have this market correction. and that's why you're seeing such an even pullback. it's not just one group of people. everybody sensed that they went too far and it hurt us on the economy, it went too far on the culture, whatever. on the tactical issue, i could not agree more. trump and his people got it dead right. for years in the republican party, we went on this volume- based ground game, how many calls did you make today? how many doors did you knock on? and it was more than about quantity than it was quality. and they told me early on,

we're throwing out the old playbook. we're going for quality and we're picking the right targets this time. the kinds of people who can help trump change the composition of the electorate. and a lot of people, a lot of old- school republicans, a lot of old party people are like, oh, i haven't heard from anybody, they're not doing anything. well, guess what, donald trump, susie wiles and the rest of these people had it dead right. they threw out the old way, tried a new way, everybody made phone fun of it and pooh- poohed it and here we are this morning. >> you have to give caress to susanne wiles and kris last vida, because they worked with what they had. i mean, you had a campaign -- you had a messenger that couldn't really stay on message. and it appeared as if he was falling apart, as the race went on. you had moments in this race like msg, but they actually kept -- you know, we were saying how disciplined trump was prior to biden getting out the race. and when biden got out the

race, he lost his edge a little bit. and he was 78 years old and wasn't the same candidate. but they ran a race that they did what they knew how to do. and they said, we're just going to gin up rural voters. that's what we know how to do. if we can go around the country and 2 to 3% with rural voters, we'll beat kamala harris and beat everything you can do in urban network. >> and they did. but they also did that in urban centers. basically, going in, you felt there was a pincer movement from trump. that he was going to, in fact, improve over 2020 in those small town areas. and he did. and you felt that he had a shot at improving in the urban centers, because of -- primarily because of discontent over the economy. and he did. but what was there in the middle was the opportunity to do better in oakland and montgomery and delaware and waukesha and dane. and that didn't happen. either she did only as well, and in most cases, she lost a

little ground. it was -- like i said, it was systemic. it was like across the board. and i just have this image in my head, if jimmy carter had stepped down and ronald reagan had run against walter mondale in 1980, you can't escape -- >> we remember that race like it was yesterday. >> when you have an outgoing president who is popular, like eisenhower in 1960, obama in 2016, or clinton in 2000, they cannot guarantee their successor wins. when you have an outgoing president who is unpopular, truman in '52, johnson in '68, bush in '08, it pretty much guarantees the opposite. and it feels like that gravity was just too much to overcome with any personal contrast with trump, you know, harris didn't do that bad in the exit poll on who you trust on the economy. minus 4. but two- thirds of the voters said the economy was in bad shape. and two- thirds said that in all of the swing states.

and trump won a big percentage. he won 80% of people who disapproved of president biden, and that was 55 plus. >> remember when i said he was an encyclopedia. >> he's too smart to be on this panel. >> we'll push pause here. coming up, donald trump's supporters say they're celebrating tonight's results. it's an understatement. we'll go live to trump tower, up next. you're watching cnn's special live coverage.

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welcome back to cnn's special live coverage. after a criminal conviction, two assassination attempts, two impeachments, and a race that pollsters said would be close, but wasn't really quite as close, donald trump is triumphant this morning. cnn's polo sandoval is at trump tower. polo, what are you seeing there so far this morning? >> reporter: hey, john, good morning. even before sunrise, we've seen a very, very small presence of trump supporters at the foot of trump tower here in new york city. i heard one describing this as the making. anyway you look at this, there is no ignore, the unprecedented and

historic nature of this moment. so we are likely to see, perhaps, even more people, both supporters and opponents of donald trump, come here to midtown manhattan to really have their voices heard outside of trump tower, very similar to what we've seen when donald trump returns to new york city for his criminal proceedings. so that's certainly something to look forward to, in terms of the presence outside of trump tower. security wise, at least on the surface, it is business as usual, though there is no mistake that behind the scenes, there's likely some planning that's happening in terms of the nypd, secret service presence, as donald trump essentially transitions from candidate to projected winner of the presidency. so certainly, some potential changes that we are expecting there. but for now, again, a very small presence of really a handful of trump supporters outside the trump tower. that is expected to change as more people wake up this morning to the news that donald trump is the projected winner. >> the difference now, donald trump now a florida resident, not a full- time

resident of trump tower behind polo there in manhattan. polo, thank you very much. let's go over to phil mattingly at the magic wall. polo was in new d there is actually a story to be told about what happened in new york, though it was a state, as always, or at least, as is always in recent memory that democrats did win. >> broadly, new york is one of several northeastern states that donald trump overperformed what he had done in 2020 or 2016. didn't mean he was going to win the state. if you look at this margin right here, donald trump, kamala harris winning by about 11. 5 points. 94% reporting. let's start with what happened in 2020. yeah, a pretty significant shift. a pretty significant gain from the former president. where did he gain? this is the most fascinating of this from me. which county? this is 62 counties in the state of new york. i counted them myself. 36 of them represent places where donald trump is overperforming his 2020 results by 3% or better. not overperformed by a vote,

not by 1%, by 3% or better. that includes, kosk, nassau county. this was a county that 2020, joe biden won it by 9. 5 points. donald trump flipped it into his favor, leading it with 95% reporting by almost five points. again, didn't flip the state. said he might be able to. didn't. but not unlike new jersey, not unlike massachusetts, did much better than he had before, and what that or tends going forward is going to be an interesting question for democrats. >> very interesting. phil mattingly, thank you very much for that. so the senate has turned red. the white house still up for grabs, but seems to be trending in a certain direction. we're going to have much more on the fight for congress ahead. this is cnn's special live coverage.

all right. welcome back to cnn's special live coverage, election day now in america. i'm here with jessica dean, because while we know donald trump is going back to the white house, some parts of congress decided, not all. >> that's right. so there are pieces to fill in. and i think as people are waking up, to get the full picture, we'll do a broad overview.

let's start first with the u.s. senate and the balance of power. here's what we do know. republicans are going to take the senate. they have done that. they have 52. that includes three pickups. that's where they've flipped those democratic seats. democrats with 42, that includes one independent. there are six seats remaining. a lot of those are within battleground states. so we're going to continue to monitor those. but we do know for sure, republicans will control the house. -- i'm sorry, the senate. let's now look at the house. the question there is, who will be in control? this is where democrats hope maybe they can hold the line, john. maybe this is where they can be a check on president trump. and of course, republicans would very much like to maintain their majority, because that would mean they would have all the levers of government. so the magic number in the house, 218. right now, republicans at 204 with five pickups. democrats at 182 with two pickups. so we have 49 seats remaining, and those are kind of spread out all across the country. a lot of those are in california, which take a while

to count. we are keeping our eyes on those. but the big question remains, who will control the house. >> those five pickups for republicans, they make it hard for democrats. we'll watch that throughout the day, maybe days. a headline for the ages, donald trump wins! we have much more. this is cnn's special live coverage.

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it is 8:00 a.m. in the east. good morning to what is a changed america and what will be a changed america. donald trump is the president- elect of the united states. we are now on hour 16 of cnn's special live coverage, what is now election day in america. the front pages in print and online having their say. "the new york times," trump storms back. "the washington post," trump triumphs. "usa today," trump reclaims the white house. and donald trump's favorite hometown paper, the "new york post," don deal.

so donald trump declared victory overnight in what was a sizable or what appears to be a sizable electoral college victory. he does also hold an edge right now in the popular vote. the american democrats had hoped to show up to back kamala harris, especially in the so-called blue wall states, did not. and the america that did show up was concerned about the economy and immigration and it was an american electorate that was ready and willing to overlook donald trump's flaws to take a chance on the former president. let's go straight to the magic wall. cnn's phil mattingly is over there to kind of walk us through, for people just waking up now, first of all, i resent you. second of all, walk us through how we got to this point. >> it felt like you were counting the hours. we know how this played out over the course of where

and is that going to tell us there's a big surge, in types of democratic shifts. the answer turned out to be "no." let's keep tracking through the night. two hours and 40 minutes later, donald trump took his first lead in north carolina. remember, the vote that was coming in, and being counted very quickly was in those southeastern sun belt states that were two of the seven that we were all focused on. then around 10:05 p.m. , donald trump took the lead in pennsylvania. one of the three blue wall states. for a time, all three were in kamala harris' category. then all of a sudden, pennsylvania went that way. trump, as pennsylvania -- sorry, as arizona, and wisconsin, were reporting, trump then took the lead in arizona, wisconsin, around 11:00 p.m. last night. michigan started moving towards trump's direction, taking the lead at 11:30 p.m. last

night. north carolina becomes the first of the seven battlegrounds to be called for the former president. that was a defense. he won that state. it's the only one of the seven battlegrounds that he had won in 2020. then georgia was called. that was when joe biden flipped back in 2020. then pennsylvania was called. at this point, i think everybody kind of knew, the writing was on the wall. there wasn't a lot of places outstanding and pathways for kamala harris and her campaign to be able to get to 270 electoral votes. at 5:30 a.m. this morning, john berman, you called that cnn was projecting that donald trump would win the presidency, would return to the white house and become the 47th, after being the 45th president of the united states, and the reality, when you dig into the data, as we've been doing over the course of the last 16 hours, the blue wall, not unlike 2016, completely shattered for democrats. the sun belt states in the southeastern parts wasn't actually that close when you compare it to 2020. and we're still waiting for more vote to be coming in from arizona and nevada, as

well. but both of those places, donald trump has a lead right now. >> all seven of the battleground state, donald trump either won or is leading in. when you walk through that timeline, which is really instructive, it was pretty clear pretty early which way this thing was trending and those trends only really grew bigger as we go to the dawn hours. >> i think what's surprising is, there was not a direct connection between north carolina and what we saw here early and what was happening in pennsylvania. different states, different demographic makeups. in fact, mecklenburg county, the largest county in north carolina, with 10% of the vote here, charlotte pushing out. this is where democrats wanted to run up major an major vote. democrats in 2020, these were the types of things that connected the seven battlegrounds or at least the five that we call, we know kind of where they've landed right now. kamala harris doing well, where she needed to do well, but not doing better than joe biden did in 2020. and certainly not really running up the margins there, at the same exact time that donald trump was running

up his margins. let's take a look over in nash county. this is a county that joe biden narrowly, narrowly won back in 2020. what's nash win? that was the sign as we were looking through the data last night. nash going back to trump was critical. move over here to franklin. i want to go down to johnston county. johnston is a big republican vote driver, back in 2020, donald trump did a little bit better. but in all of these places, johnson is coming out of wake, is coming out of where raleigh, the research triangle, critical place, second largest county in the state. the hope from democrats is that they would, yes, blow out the vote in these strongholds, but then start pushing in to johnson county. they didn't. he was holding his margins and the same thing in wisconsin, in those wild counties, washington, waukesha, where there was a little slippage, but no sense whatsoever that democrats were able to push out and run up the vote as they were losing

vote in critical urban counties across the map. >> by and large, kamala harris did not meet the marks that democrats wanted and by and large donald trump exceeded the marks that republicans wanted, almost everywhere. phil mattingly, thank you very much. let's go over to harry enten now, to take a look at the exit polls here. and one of the issues that, i think, was very prevalent in the closing weeks of the campaign were some of the things that donald trump was saying. the extreme or racist things at his rallies. john kelly saying that he was a fascist. what did voters think about all of this? >> the fundamental argument of the kamala harris campaign was that donald trump was too extreme. don't take a chance on me. and donald trump's argument was, what the heck do you have to lose my taking a chance on me? so who is too extreme? look, more voters said only trump was too extreme than theirselves. 46% to 37%. but note that 46% was south of a majority. so the key groups in here were that both harris and trump are extreme and that neither of those two candidates are too extreme at 5%. i would like to know who those

5% are, but they did exist. one out of every 20 voters. how did that 8% of voters who said that both of the two candidates were too extreme look at this margin. donald trump is putting up. it was a blow out. a 40- point win for donald trump among those who said both kamala harris and donald trump were too extreme. and it's a similar picture among that 5% of the electorate who said that neither candidate was too extreme. look at this. a 64% to 28 margin, just south of a 40- point edge for donald trump. look, more voters thought that donald trump was too extreme than kamala harris, but south of a majority said that only donald trump was too extreme, and among those key groups who said that both were too extreme or neither were too extreme, donald trump ran up the score. and that was the story this election, john berman. kamala harris simply put, tried to make a case and the voters did not buy it. >> that is not what they believed was important. harry enten, thank you very much. we are hearing from trump allies this morning. they are crediting what they call a disciplined trump campaign for helping

steer pretty undisciplined candidate back to the white house. let's get to cnn's yna treene who covers the trump campaign down in florida this morning. alayna, what are you hearing? >> you're exactly right, don. i've been talking to some of donald trump's allies and advisers, who are waking up from the brief nap they took after leaving that election party this morning. they're saying as they're going through all of this and re-examining his win that they really are crediting susie wiles and chris los vida in particular, both of donald trump's campaign managers for running a disciplined campaign. there is no question that the people that donald trump surrounded himself this time around were far more disciplined than in his previous campaigns, both in 2016 and in 2020. and also people that donald trump actually listened to. we know that donald trump, of course, had a proclivity of getting in his own way. but for the most part, we know that susie wiles and chris losavida have done a lot

to control other parts of it, of making sure that the entire republican party had a coordinated message. also, combining forcing with the rnc and merging their political operations. they are saying that they believe that that is a huge reason why donald trump was successful. now, of course, i will say, if it didn't go donald trump's way, you probably would hear the same thing from these same people saying, well, it's their fault that this didn't happen. but they do argue that for someone like donald trump, who is off message a lot, who went off message a lot throughout the course of the campaigns, particularly, in the final weeks, they think that pnd the scenes, to have some of that stability really did help him here. one thing i want to point out is wiles in particular. she was hired in 2021. and she has remained at the top of donald trump's political operation since then. and that is a huge deal, because as we know, it is very hard in trump world, very rare in trump world to maintain a position of power for that long. and she continues to have a very good rapport with donald

trump. a lot of people are looking now to see potentially what type of role she could take in donald trump's second administration. people say if she wants to be chief of staff, that role will probably be hers, because of what she has done over the course of the last several years now leading up to this moment. one other thing while we're talking about, you know, what a potential second trump administration -- or not potential at this point -- what a second trump administration will look like, we are already hearing that the jockeying has commenced. ly say, we hadn't seen much of that before, even though people were, you know, throwing their names into the hat, trying to get an audience with donald trump's closest advisers about it. donald trump is very superstitious. he did not want to have any formal discussions about what his cabinet would look like or what any administrative roles would look like or make any promises to anyone. but now, that is changing, of course. he is in -- he's going to be in an official transition mode, with just a couple of months now until inauguration. so we're hearing a lot of people, you know, at least i'm being told, is as our

colleague, kristen holmes, that a lot of people are starting to reach out in earnest to those around donald trump to see what positions they may be able to put themselves up for. >> no doubt about that. i'm sure we're several hours into the jockeying already. alayna treene for us in florida. thank you so much, great work on all of your coverage. let's go to kasie and her panel. >> an understatementen deed on people reaching out to see what's in store for them. our panel will join us to react to this. liz cheney tweeting her reaction to donald trump's win just moments ago. here's what she says. quote, our nation's democratic system functioned last night and we have a new president-elect. all americans are bound, whether we like the outcome or not, to accept the results of our elections. we now have a special responsibility as citizens of the greatest nation on earth to do everything we can to support and defend our constitution, preserve the rule of law, and ensure that our institutions hold over these coming four years. citizens across this

country, our courts, members of the press, and those serving in our federal state and local governments must now be the guardrails of democracy. so, of course, liz cheney had devoted herself to preventing donald trump from ever entering the white house again, but the never- trump movement inside the republican party, honestly, not borne out here today. >> a bang- up job. i mean, i -- this never- trump whole complex that grew over thethe last several years, nothing has ever failed as hard in politics as this. the lincoln project, all of these people that built millions upon millions upon millions of dollars from democratic donors. and all the eggs that was put in this basket. the split was amazing. trump got like 94% of republicans. i don't think they accomplished anything, except, probably, build a bunch of beach houses. that's about what they did. republicans being lectured to,

condescended to, browbeaten by all of these folks over the last -- look, at some juncture, it's okay if we have different opinions about the election. you don't have to beat people to death over it. and the more you do that, the more it drives people away. total failure. >> but we've got to -- i think it's important to level-set. the statement that liz cheney is making, in the trump era, is an important one. you can argue that politically, the never- trump effort failed -- >> let me pause you for one second. there is a difference between donald trump and the lincoln project and what happened with liz cheney, which is a break that occurred after january 6th. >> yes. and scott, you can't pretend that donald trump has not spent a lot of his time and energy trying to convince the american people that the electoral system in this country is rigged. and that's before you even get to january 6th. so i'm going to give you the political ramification. i'll let you have that argument. it is incredibly important for people to say, our systems will hold, our institutions will hold, our elections are free and fair, even if we don't

like the outcome, we have to abide by them. >> agree. >> and you cannot pretend, in the donald trump era -- >> i'm not pretending anything. >> -- that's not an important thing to say. >> i was ppy to say these things before we knew the outcome of the election. on the issue of democracy, 73% of the people said they thought that democracy was threatened. and they split evenly between the two campaigns. 49 to 49. and so -- >> that's probably because donald trump spent a lot of time telling a lot of people not to trust our emocracy, no? >> which goes to -- i hear you and republicans making the argument that trump won on this kind of like fundamentally unifying message. i would sincerely hope that he uses this in a moment remind people, reassure people, that our elections are free and fair in this country. he wields an enormous amount of power. he has a loyal following. i'm not saying i believe that he will, unfortunately. but he wields an enormous a lot of influence. and he should use it for good. >> but i don't think he will, is the

problem. >> i doubt he will. >> i'm sorry, i didn't even hear you over there. go ahead. >> sorry, karen? >> no, unfortunately, just as his previous term, i don't think that he will. i think we already have the evidence that he won't. and i think he -- i mean, look, he just ran a very divisive campaign. and he ran it in an environment where, you know, i think one of the things we will be looking at, just as after 2016, we were looking at the resources that were saying that it was about, you know, cultural anxiety and people feeling anxious about their place in a changing world. we've got to look at what the gender divide really means in this country. and that's not by exit polls. i'm not talking about the surface. but there is something else that is happening in this country that donald trump, i think, because he's very good at this, he tapped into it with men. in the, "i hear you, i see you.

" i think some of it is part of the aftermath of the me too movement, where there were a lot of men who felt like there just wasn't a place for them. like they maybe weren't harvey winestein, but they felt like, so what is appropriate? and i think they did kind of feel left out. i think there are two levels of this. donald trump is going to continue to be very divisive. i think liz cheney's comment is incredibly important, because the rule of law is matter. and part of what she's saying is the somebody, we the people, are going to have to keep him in check. and i think there are other currents going on in the country that certainly democrats would ignore at our peril. >> so, you know, like i said, when you see movement in as many places as we saw, it's something structural. people are saying they're unhappy with the way things are going in the country, economically, the border, crime. they want trump to fix it. they were also saying, many -- i

mean, whether you're talking about focus groups or reporters out talking to people, there were a significant number of voters who would say, when hearing the most extreme things trump is talking about, we got through the first term and none of these things happened. so, 11% of voters said trump was too extreme voted for him. that is the bet they are making. so we're going to find out. is robert f. kennedy jr. going to be in control of public health and challenging vaccine mandates in the states? donald trump said in an interview with "time" magazine that he believes that he has the right to fire a u.s. attorney who will not start an investigation of someone he wants to be investigated, whether there's any evidence or not. has mass deportation. all of these things, did he mean them, and if he does them, will the voters say that i'm annoyed that gas and groceries are so much stay onboard? we may or may not find out. fl that's my point and that's what i was attempting to piggyback on what kate was talking about. because, what do they say? past is

prologue, right? and this man 78 years old. and i know is one of the way this election went the way that it did is because people on this referendum on joe biden were more fond of the trump years on election day than they were of their current situation, right? that's kind of the larger picture. but we have a colloquialism. it's fafo, i'll let people google that, all right? and you're going to find out in the first six months of what that chaos was. you know, for us on tv, it was like drinking out of a fire hose. it was foreign policy via tweet. it was, what is the news story of the day? it was, they had so many different press secretaries and so many different cabinet secretaries, and they were just running through and churning through. and we forgot what that chaos was. >> the number of steps i got on capitol hill every day, trying to cover the trump administration was -- thousands. >> we beat january 6th to a pulp, rightfully so. >> but it wasn't just men

who voted for the former president. ron went over all of the exit results. women -- >> he did incredibly well with a lot of women, a lot of people of color. people say, oh, you know, he ran on this dark, bleak message. but for a lot of people, the country is dark and bleak. we're in new york. i went to target yesterday with my wife. and every darned thing, lotion, everything that you could think of wlokd up, behind doors. someone has to come unlock the key to grab a darned thing of deoderant. that's normal in america. when people say, crime is not a problem, these things are locked up because of theft. so donald trump's case about the issues in this country are very accurate for a whole lot of regular people out there. that's why he got the support he received. >> scott, let me ask you a question, we started this conversation with liz cheney talking about, okay, this is what's important for people to focus on in this second trump administration. ron raised the question, okay, is donald trump going to do some of these things that he said that he did that could potentially alienate some of those voters, right, who

they voted for him anyway, even though they think he's too extreme because they're upset about this. this shows that there's an opportunity for democrats in the future and that republicans will have to work to hold on to this. they'll have to govern in a way that if you want to continue that mandate, right? if you want to keep that mandate together in the next election. does donald trump care about like what republicans are going to want to rye to keep that in power going forward, considering that this is going to be his last administration? is he going to be thinking about that as he governs the country? >> i think he's only going to care about what the people who just elected him asked him to do. this is a mandate. i mean, the economic program, the immigration program, the foreign policy program. i mean, everything he laid out, you know, nobody's forgotten what donald trump did as president. and certainly everybody heard loud and clear what he was running on in this election. and he won a resounding victory. so, my -- you know, rudimentary and humble

political device would be, just do what you said you were going to do and you'll have a very successful second perm. >> we got what we deserve. >> of course, this is one of the questions we're contemplating here. rfk jr. in the trump cabinet? now a very real possibility after last night's result pch a . a kennedy family member joins us next. live cnn special coverage continues just ahead.

robert f. kennedy jr. and he's going to help make america healthy again. >> that was the newly elected donald trump a few hours ago at mar-a-lago. he's been saying for weeks now that he would let robert kennedy jr. , quote, go wild on health. rfk jr. has pushed numerous falsehoods around public, claiming vaccines cause autism, and spread the baseless claim that chemicals in water can lead to sexual dysphoria. again, not true. joining me now is carey kennedy, robert kennedy jr. 's sister, also a very active democrat who worked hard to get kamala harris elected president. thank you so much for

being with us this morning. as you wake up, donald trump elected to the white house once again. just broadly speaking, what's your reaction that? >> well, you know wing this is time for democrats to, uh, to take seriously the mandate that's been handed to donald trump. 71 million americans came out and voted for him. how do we reach out to people? what was wrong with her policies and what was wrong with her messaging? and how do we reach out to people who were not with us in this campaign? i think both are the questions that we have to ask ourselves. and then, i think, it's the job of all of us, as americans, to find ways to heal the divisions within our country. to reach out to families members, which we have

had divisions with. to reach out within our own communities and re- establish those bonds of love and community and a quest for justice and peace and building a stronger democracy, which is so important to our country. >> you said, reach out to family. i know it's only, what, 8:27 on the east coast. have you spoken to your brother since donald trump was elected to white house again? >> i have not spoken to this, at this very moment. but i certainly will reach out to him later today. >> what do you plan to say? >> i plan to say congratulations and good luck. you know, but i disagree with bobby on a wide range of issues, some of which you just mentioned. you know, he said that hiv

does not cause aids. i'm concerned about childhood vaccines and assuring that the united states bottom domestically and internationally continues to make all of those vaccines available to people and to our children and to our world. and many, many other issues. but that said, i also, i love bobby. he's a member of my family, and i like him. i love being with him. so i believe that we can have divisions over very fundamental important issues for our country and still find ways of loving each other internally. >> but that said -- >> but i think there's more at stake here than you know, than my brother. and i think, as liz cheney pointed out, it's going to be up to all of us as americans who love our country to assure that

our institutions are kept safe. and bolstered during this time. and that the courts are bolstered and that thethe of democracy is bolstered. both domestically and internationally. >> i know you said -- i know you said -- >> and i think that we have to be very, very careful. >> i'm so sorry to interrupt, the delays on the connection here. i know you said you loved your brother and you like your brother. you like spending time with him. do you trust your brother to be in charge of health care in the united states, given what you said about your concerns over the future of childhood vaccines? >> no. i don't. and that's clear. and that's on the record. and he knows that. and that's very clear. but i think, you know, we live in a democracy, the people have spoken and now it's our

-- we have two obligations. number one, to think through thoroughly why did people not hear the democratic message? and how do we reach out to people who were not with us in this campaign and who we needed. and how do we bring them over the next three years to bring them into the fold and work together and to revision where we're headed. what's our policies and what are also our messaging. that's part of it. and the other part is to protect our democracy in the meantime. you know, we have now a president-elect, who's said that on day one, he's going to use the government to go after his enemies. that he's already amassing a list of both individuals and non- governmental organizations that he's going to hand to the irs on day one.

and have investigations opened up. not because they've done anything wrong, but because they disagreed with him. that he's going to use the military to go after the american people, that he's going to target nancy pelosi and adam schiff. and this is very, very dangerous for all of us, as americans. and we need to protect the press and we need to protect all of our institutions. >> kerry kennedy, asking a lot of the questions that i know democrats are asking this morning. and just before i let you go, i want to let you know that i know you lost your mother in the last few weeks, america lost an icon, our condolences. thank you very much for being with us this morning. kerry kennedy, appreciate your time. >> thank you. thank you. appreciate it. >> interesting. first of all, just on the pure politics of it, she's asking all the questions that democrats are asking this morning, for

sure, right? >> yeah. and let me just say this about the kennedys. we talk about the coalition that donald trump has put together to win, okay? the irony that bobby kennedy jr. , a member of, you know, arguably the most famous political family in our lifetime, the lifetime, in the democratic lifetime, i did work for senator kennedy when i first graduated college for one year, i was very good at opening mail and answering phones, but what i can tell you is they are a very, very close family and it's got to be eating them up inside right now to see bobby kennedy jr. out there, now going to take over the health care or we're led to believe, control of the health care industry, when his family has spent so much time trying to put together what they thought was the right approach to health care. i mean, the irony is amazing. >> i will say, her answer was very caring about that, though. she loves her brother, she likes her brother.

dun trust her brother at all to handle what the portfolio that donald trump might be giving him. >> right. and i think that's a reflection of the nature of people in families and people in close- knit families, but also people in families that have political disagreements. but i also think it's true, and i think she brought up a really important part about what does this look like in the actual administration? and i think that's something that we actually have to talk about. certainly, it's a question not just that democrats are asking this morning, but that most of america is asking this morning. what does a trump administration look like? what does, you know, robert f kennedy jr. as health czar, what does that actually mean for the government? and the first thing that i would point out is that trump, unlike 2016, actually has a transition team this time around. this transition team is more -- far more organized, far more disciplined, far more loyal, and they're far more partisan. i would be concerned about that. the second thing that i would be really concerned about is not all of the other promises that donald trump made on the campaign trail, but the

one specifically about getting rid of non- political civil servants within the government. and that is the one that we should really be paying attention to. because it is those civil servants and those non- political appointees who actually make the government run and function and prevent against corruption, greed, and scandal. so, we should be really asking these questions, but we should also be laying out what that actually looks like. >> it's a great point. over the next several hours, we'll be probably talking less about what just happened and more about what is about to happen. i think people waking up very much want to know. stand by for that. so when might we hear from vice president kamala harris after her loss to donald trump? we've got new reporting on that. stay with us.

welcome back to cnn's special live coverage. at some point today, we do expect to hear from vice president kamala harris. it would be her first set of remarks since losing to

donald trump. cnn's eva mckend has been embedded with the harris campaign. eva, what are we hearing at this hour from team harris? >> well, kasie, it will be a different kind of homecoming for the vice president if she is expected to return to howard university and address the nation and concede to defeat to former president donald trump. what i'm hearing from a harris ally is to give the harris campaign time to process this, to define what they describe as their own strengths and weaknesses at this time. but listen, the campaign went into election night feeling confident, saying that they didn't have to only rely on the blue wall, as their only path to victory. that they saw pathways in the other battleground states. evidently, that was not the case. the vice president ran on offering the country a new generation of leadership, restoring reproductive rights, and warning against the threat in her view that the

former president posed to this country, as it relates to democracy. those issues ultimately did not win the day. but it is perhaps the strategy, this country over party, so forcefully embracing republicans, like the liz cheneys, as part of the democratic coalition that will gain the most scrutiny. and that we're hearing from some corners of the democratic party, really pushed back on this morning. you have a georgia state representative, the first muslim american woman to serve in that body, say, why, instead, weren't palestinian american voices evaluated a to the democratic national convention over republican voices? why weren't there more elevation of progressive voices in the party? so these, of course, are all questions that democrats will have to answer in the post- game, now, in this analysis. but it's a very difficult time for the harris campaign. i was with them. they worked extremely hard to try to pull off sort of a remarkable feat

here with the vice president, only the nominee, for a few months. so, yes, we will hear from the vice president at some point today from howard university where she will address the country. >> it's a bit remarkable we're at 8:41 in the morning and we still don't have a sense yet of when we'll hear from her. eva mckend, thanks very much. as we do wait for kamala harris to speak. let's take a look at how hillary clinton addressed her supporters following her own defeat by donald trump eight years ago. >> we have seen that our nation is more deeply divided than we thought. but i still believe in america and i always will. and if you do, then we must accept this result and then look to the future. donald trump is going to be our president. we owe him an open mind and the chance to lead. >> so there was hillary clinton saying back in 2016 that donald trump was owed a

chance to lead. the country has obviously been through quite a bit in the eight years since that happened. and many democrats had warned about what another trump presidency would look like. and kamala harris, vice president harris, actually used the word fascist recently, when she was talking about donald trump. let's watch that. >> do you think donald trump is a fascist? >> yes, i do. yes, i do. he's going to sit there unstable, unhinged, plotting his revenge, plotting his retribution, creating an enemies list. >> so, what is the needle that kamala harris is going to thread this morning when we hear from her, considering there is this mandate to govern. the country has said, in terms wider than many of the polls showed that, you know, donald trump has a mandate. how does she, considering what she said about what his going to mean, how does she address the

country? >> there's no needle to thread. i mean, she is a stateswoman. first of all, let me just say this. i'm extremely proud of kamala harris. i'm proud of the way she served admirably as vice president. they ran a race with no gaffes, no embarrassments, in a short period of time, and she's an amazing woman. and if my daughter could grow up and be half the woman that kamala harris is, my daughter's life will be a success. let me throw that out there, first. she meant so much to so many people. the second thing is, this is a concession speech which is probably one of her last if not her last rrah. this is about a vision you wanted for the future, but you didn't win. in politics, you have winners and losers in democracy. that's the way this thing works. and the american public, 81 million people came out and said that donald trump is who they want for the next four years and only 66 million said they wanted you. that surprising? no. is that disappointing?

yes. she can talk about the fact what she wants this country to look like in the next four years and say, congratulations, donald trump is the next president-elect. >> but the point is, she just spent weeks and weeks and weeks conditioning your entire party and near half the country to believe that trump is a fascist. that he's going to be a dictator. that he's going to rip up the constitution. that he's going to cause bloodbaths and on and on and on. and now she has to wake up today and say, okay, and i'm now conceding to the power to the person that i strongly implied was going to be a modern hitler. do you believe that people she just conditioned with that kind of campaign are going to accept it? >> that's not the way this works. >> is it not -- >> it's not -- >> then she didn't actually believe it. >> first of all -- >> did she actually believe it? >> first of all -- >> it was her words. she just -- she just said she's a fascist. >> i don't want to re- litigate campaign talking points. when you're talking about fascism, we're talking

about what his chief of staff said. >> she said it. >> who else said it? >> the only question i have is, did she believe it or not? >> yes! >> so then she's going don seed to a fascist? >> yes, because that's how our elections work. what is the alternative? donald trump's -- go ahead, sorry. >> i was just going to say, scott, look, i can believe -- >> please continue down this path. >> i am, for the next 30 seconds. i believe donald trump is a fascist. i believe that democracy -- maybe ten seconds. i believe that democracy is at risk. but i also believe that american voter came out and chose that. and that is -- that's how this thing works! >> but you know what, from the perspective of a lot of republicans, they felt the country has been at risk under joe biden and kamala harris. and ryan brownstein talked about this, you know, and scott mentioned it in an earlier segment about people being afraid about the state of the country and democracy writ large. a lot of people on the right believe the same thing, because they have seen after

three and a half years constant, perpetual attacks against them, against their way of life, against what they believe allegedly, about who they are as people. because people on d.c. and new york and the left coast and a lot of progressives don't understand them. instead of attempting to make the effort to understand them, you guys have called them racists, bigots, uneducated, cling to their guns and bibles, et cetera. >> but at the same time, we spent four years of donald trump, of democrats and progressives being -- being the same told to us, about us. and this president, as a black woman, said i'm stupid. >> vermin. >> poisoning the blood of our people. which i have said before, that actually came from jim crow. so if we're going to go down that -- i mean, scott jennings, do you believe that i am poisoning white blood? come on! hold on. to what bakari was saying, this was an election. it's like any sport. he won. you say, we did our best. i thank my team. now it's up to him.

and i hope,, you know -- of course your going to wish the best for the new leader. >> good luck to the fascist. do you understand how crazy that sounds? >> it's putting our democracy ahead of partisan politics. >> let kate speak. >> yes, yes, because campaigns get heated and the loser comes out and concedes to the winner. and that is valuing our democracy more than any element of partisan politics. and that is actually what american democracy is based on. so, yes. that is what happens. and it's important that it does. >> it goes back to what we were saying before. does he do the more extreme things that he said he was going to do? you know, does he deport millions of citizen u.s. children? does he fire u.s. attorneys if they won't -- does he send investigators -- does he send the national guard into blue cities, as he said he would, to just patrol for crime? so, you know, a lot of what he wants to do does not require congress. it's too big of promises. tariffs and immigration are areas where the president

has enormous unilateral authority. so, what does he do? so how democrats react, i think, is not going to be as preordained as it was last time. and it will depend in great measure on how far he goes down the roads that he laid out. >> may i just humbly recommend to kamala harris that when she speaks today, she is honest with the people and her people specifically, that the country is not going to come to an end, the constitution is not going to come to an pend end. we'll have an election in two years. an election in four years. oprah warned us the other night that we'll never have another vote again. all of this was complete bologna. chalk it up to heated campaign rhetoric, but it is very important that people understand what she said and the way she ran her campaign is not the way this is going to be. this is a america. we had an election. i totally agree with you. but she needs to do that today. and i really hope she does. >> we'll find out in just a couple of hours. just in here, the house still up for grabs, but an

interesting new twist in the senate. that's coming up next.

all right. welcome back to cnn's special live coverage, election

day in america. and we do have a key race alert in the battle for the senate in the key battleground state of michigan. jurassic dean has that. >> yes, we do. let's look at this key race alert. all right. let's look at michigan. we're going to have a elissa slotkin now just ever so- slightly leading mike rogers. you'll remember, this is an open seat that the democrats are hoping to hang on to. elissa slotkin, former cia analyst, has been in the house of representatives, running against mike ogers, who formerly had been in the house of representatives, and had also worked in law enforcement. again, 96% of the vote in. we know that the republicans have taken control of the senate currently with 52 seat, including three pickups. now, this would not be a pickup for democrats. this would be them holding on to a seat, but at this point, democrats, of course, hoping for any good news that they could get in the senate.

the michigan race still outstanding, but the alert here is that elissa slotkin is leading so far slightly, again, with just 96% of the vote in. john, we'll continue to watch this race and other blue wall states still outstanding, as well. >> jessica, thank you very much for that. let's go to cnn's lauren fox who covers congress, covers the house and senate every day of your life. and i think jessica's framing there is exactly right at this point. there hasn't been much good news for democrats, like, at all. like, almost all of it bad news. elissa slotkin being able to hang on maybe to that senate seat in michigan would be a tiny sliver. tammy baldwin maybe being able to hang on in wisconsin, a tiny sliver of good news, but mostly tough for democrats. >> and yeah, john, in the senate, every single seat really matters. and that is because despite the fact that, yes, republicans now have taken control of the united states senate, each individual senator, including two republicans that we watch a lot, susan collins, lisa

murkowski, they can have an impact on what they think of incoming president donald trump's cabinet. and every single seat can matter when it comes to filling those vacancies. so very important in terms of what happens in the senate, whether democrats can try to keep some of the seats, keep some of their incumbents in those seats, like wisconsin and michigan. meanwhile, when you turn to the house of representatives, this is still very close. and republicans and democrats are watching seats across the country very closely right now from california to nebraska, to arizona, to colorado. because whether or not democrats have any check on donald trump's power, it's all going to come down to whether or not republicans keep the house or not. >> last check, there were five flips from democrat to republican, which will make it hard, hard for democrats to re- take control of the house. but we will see, as you said, still counting there.

lauren fox, great to see you this morning. thank you very much. this is cnn's special live coverage, election day now day after in america. much more right after this.