>> i think you're >> really on to something. i think it would be a mistakes to have democrats decide. is this kamala's false or biden's fault? it is the education curriculum fault. you had moms voting for a guy they did not like in donald trump because they don't like what's in the school books that come home and the fact there is an entire left wing world view invaded from the left.

it doesn't square with with them and they want to educate their kids the way they were educated and i think the cultural revolution that democrats have just allowed to happen in their institutions that you feenlly just saw middle class people, who even weren't thrilled with republicans. republicans can over read this, too, but they just rebelled. that's what it was. you saw him win with moms, married women and increase margins with suburban women and it's deeper than kamala or joe. >> i think when you're doing well and you can afford groceries and all these things, those things become second nature to you. but when you can't afford those things, everything becomes much more extreme and much more magnified. >> among undecided voters, one thing that is coming up in focus groups is hearing from people saying what do you think republicans or donald trump? what do you think of democrats and kamala harris? it was basically coming down to, again, undecided voters. people who voted for trump or biden, both, they thought

donald trump was a little crazy. republicans were a little crazy. but thought democrats and harris were preaching and they felt better about going with the crazy that they knew in their construction of it than with going with democrats who made them feel bad. >> kamala also sounded like she's running for the faculty senate. i don't think she had much experience sort of pursuing that voter. joe biden did, for instance. in pennsylvania, during the senate race, we were relieved when biden left the ticket because biden didn't know how to speak to those voters. he was unpopular and and the administration was unpopular but she couldn't. >> you said they made the mistake of over reading? >> this was a huge victory for republicans and a huge opportunity for us with the coalition and then it's with those before and that shouldn't, we shouldn't -- they agree with us on everything. we'll have to pay close attention to this. it will require a lot of

discipline for us in congress and discipline is notor forte in congress. and then those are meaningful things and then it is we're going to have to do a couple of things and democrats and using the government to solve everyone's problem, but do need to prove we can railroad a little bit but then we'll reach out to people that didn't do this enthusiastically. there are people who voted for republicans because they felt like they had to. that is an important audience for us. >> governing is hard is going to be the mantra for day in and day out. straight ahead on cnn this morning, trump's legal battles or lack thereof? the president-elect facing sentencing in new york in less than 3 weeks. plus, the gop trifecta. why republicans are growing more confident by the hour they will win control of the house, too. and howard dean is here!

the former dnc chairman and presidential candidate will tell us why he thinks election night went so terribly wrong for democrats. . >> we're going to south dakota and oregon and washington and michigan and then we're going to washington d.c. to take back the white house! yeah!

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national media-based campaign. what lessons do you think there are to pull out there? >> that was a lesson learned in my campaign which i take no credit for. my campaign is inspirational to the young people and this is a time when all these kinds of things, these innovations were invented. the podcasts. we were having a podcast and outraising dick cheney who was

running a $25,000 lunch in california while i was having a ham sandwich in front of my computer because these kids, we didn't even have computers and had to put logitech on top of the frame and i just did what they told me to do. but they were right! that's how you organized. we did not do that and trump did. i will give trump some credit. his field was very, very good. and i thought harris' was pretty good, too. the problem is trump was building on a generation of efforts that had been previously made in all those states to move them to the right with school board elections, with city council elections, with state legislative elections. do you know how many state and legislative branches they took over the last time we had a presidential election? until you start taking over state legislatures, we won't win presidential races. it's just too hard. >> sir, how much blame does president biden deserve for trump's victory? and is the second term part of biden's legacy? >> i don't think so.

the honest truth about biden is whether you like him or not, he's been the most active and most successful president since lyndon johnson on the domestic front. he remade america and trump is not going to be able to undo all that stuff. ironically, i knew this was going to happen and said so before the election, trump, i mean biden invested millions, billions of dollars in places and states he anyhow he wasn't going to win. ohio, chip plants, battery plants, kansas, all these places and, of course, all the republicans who voted against the program ran out and took credit for them anyway which is what you do in politics. biden has transformed the country in a very good way and won't get credit for that for a long time. particularly because of the way he went out. i think he deserves a lot more credit than he's going to get historically. >> all right, howard dean, very interesting conversation. thanks for coming on. i appreciate it. >> thank you. >> all right, still coming up here on cnn this morning, while democrats grapple with with their losses, joe biden preparing to address the nation in just a few hours. plus, now that trump is set to return to washington, his

allies already vying for roles in his new administration.

the incumbent as a vice president of this.

administration. that's just a huge hill to climb, which is not to say that it's short because people just want a change. and, you know, so at the end of the day, if you're you're voting for change, the number of people who voted for john drumke in new jersey. didn't call new jersey for will harris until 4:00 in the morning wednesday. >> it is incredible the kind of coalition trump put together,

taking it away from democrats, particularly -- democrats have to figure that out the next three years. the one i think in politics is if you spend enough time in the desert, you figure out where the water is. democrats are in the desert. they have got to attack hard, attack somewhere, and the way to do that is a process the next four years of putting candidates through the primary process, which harris didn't do, didn't earn it through spring training, which is what democrats have got to do. you ask me, how will they get out of that? it will be leadership, somebody who fights their way through the next four years, earns a throne of the primary process, tougher, smarter. >> mark, the scene, thing

michael j. fox, mark sheen -- drink the sand in the desert trying to convince him leadership is all you need in the white house. that is playing in my head as i'm listening to you today. mark, thank you. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> after congratulating donald trump on his electoral victory, president biden will address the nation from the rose garden later this morning. the man he once warned was the next potential threat to our democracy. some democrats are blaming biden, angrily accusing him of starving harris a valuable once on the campaign trail by refusing to drop out earlier when it was obvious his stamina and mental acuity would be a constant obstacle in the campaign against trump. >> is it worth the risk? i don't think anybody's more qualified to be president or win this race than me. >> part of the case against donald trump is he is only out

for himself, his personal interest ahead of national interest. how do you respond to critics who say that, by staying in the race, you're doing the same thing? >> oh, come on. i don't think those critics know what they're talking about. >> they're just wrong? >> they're just wrong. >> critics are just wrong, he said then. was the original sin for democrats that biden decided to run for reelection? >> a lot of democrats will say that. the fact is he ran for reelection, we are in the situation you're in, would have, could have, should have, doesn't change the fact that we elected donald trump, democratic party is in shambles, take a look at ourselves and forward. >> joe biden was going to go down, it seems, the only democrat to defeat donald trump. if he had dropped out earlier, there would have been a messy

primary. i think you can look at the harris folks who say that she didn't have enough time to run, but others say, this was the best scenario for her. more time would not necessarily have been admitted, harris. look, joe biden's legacy will be defined by the fact that donald trump won. she would looks like over the scale of time, but as i said earlier, given what this looks like for democrats, it does seem to me that you can place blame, in a lot of ways, say, all these different things -- all of them at the same time -- bigger things than any of it, and you will find some biden supporters say, he ran ahead of kamala harris in a lot of counties. >> everywhere? >> yeah. it is a different election,

functioned -- a lot of the blame -- >> mary point cannot be made enough.easy to say, would have been a primary, would have been -- no one in modern history knows a president that faced a primary within his party and went on to win. lord knows that the vice president would go on to win. look what happened to jimmy carter, it happened to -- who is another one? i just don't buy that she would have. >> she got the best campaign she could get. hiding for six weeks from interview. completely scripted can pain, compliant media projected exactly what she wanted. it wasn't the messenger, it was the product. democratic governance lost challenge for republicans is make sure our government can win. >> lbj, george h. w. bush.

>> there you go. a bit of a lighter note. the magic wall, you may have seen it, was shining again in the election night -- >> you can always change colors. you've got blue, blue again, a little bit a red there. it a little bit of blue, and of course, if you want to make something out of green, we have got a little face here, whiskers, we can make a cat. now, let's take this up to the ocean. it is going to be surrounded by water. that is very, very dangerous. i can make it bounce here. >> you have got to love it. the whole "saturday night live" sketch went viral again online. we want to take a minute to

salute our actual magical magicians, phil mattingly, the legendary john king, who manned the wall throughout the election night, breaking down the race like only cnn can. >> you asked, anyplace is the biden presidency is over performing for joe biden, 2020? harris, over performing, 2020. holy smokes. let's go and see if there is anything there. literally, nothing? >> nothing. >> sean, you are a useful individual. you know the game in nevada. >> the game is right here. >> for me, it is crafts. different story. >> got to love them. thanks to our panel for being here is morning. thanks to all of you. don't go anywhere. "cnn news central" starts now.