hoyer and jim clyburn on the victory party. she was positively euphoric. steny hoyer, who i like a lot, looked at he was at a funeral. i mean, not that he wasn't happy, really happy about democrats picking up a bunch of seats, he had been in districts and worked hard, but you know, i am not sure he enjoyed her taking a victory lap like that. we will have to kind of weight and see. announcer 1: we will return next tuesday, november 15. there is still a number of races in the balance. we know the democrats have won control of the house. there are still some senate races outstanding we continue 2018 coverage taking your phone calls and comments. for democrats.

republicans use (202)-748-8001. for independents and others, use (202)-748-8002. in 20 in its, we will show you president trump's news conference from earlier today, midday today. we will continue with your phone calls and comments after that. quite a bit of news right after the president's news conference today was the firing of attorney general jeff sessions. in his letter, and a look at the attorney general supporting the department of justice earlier today, followed by the man who will take over, matt whitaker. let's listen in. [applause]

>> thank you all. [applause] man there shaking the hand of jeff sessions is matthew whitaker. he is the chief of staff currently. he is actually now the acting attorney general. he took over as of this afternoon. quick reaction to that news from members of the house and senate. --f flake from arizona "earlier this year we passed the special counsel independence and integrity act out of the senate judiciary committee. the bill would guard robert investigation. leader mcconnell should bring that to the senate floor as soon as possible." susan collins tweeting that it is imperative they not impede the mueller investigation.

i am concerned rod rosenstein is no longer overseeing. from adam schiff, "president trump just removed a jeff sessions grade he wants an attorney general to serve his interests, not the public. everybody must be protected." from the ranking member dianne feinstein, with her statement, part of which says, "rod rosenstein has been capably overseeing robert mueller's work and should continue." from nbc's frank thorp, pete williams says "senator sessions is considering running for his old senate seat in 2020." your thoughts on this 2018 election. . -- democrats 202-748-8000. republicans 202-748-8001. all others 202-628-0184.

marina del ray, this is steve. caller: hi. i was kind of underwhelmed by democratic performance yesterday. did -- i that trump clever in hevery was able to pick and choose the places he needed to go from a senate side to ensure victories for guys like donnelly -- to thinkonnelly and i florida is his second home from home like texas was for bush. i think he had a lot to do with desantis and scott winning. historically if you look at what happened, if you compare to what happened in the first midterm cycle for obama versus for trump, he came out of it unscathed.

i have a feeling they can come to some kind of common ground on things like infrastructure and other issues. it is better for the country democrats have control of the house. i hope this it is in a three ring circus. it is government by investigation and inquiry and -- because that is not working for the country. the democrats need to understand that and trump needs to understand that. on ang with the democrats honest level will be better for the country and ultimately better for him if he seeks reelection in 2020. expectationsyear going in? caller: i kind of bought in to the notion of the blue wave which became a blue ripple. i thought there would be 40 to

45 range. i definitely thought heller would lose area i think -- lose. i think nevada is an extension of california and arizona is going in the same direction. maybe i was anticipating the demographics playing more of a role in the outcome. i thought the demographics in general yesterday had as much to do with the democratic performance as this hatred for trump, which i think is -- i don't think the voters really care about that. democrats are smart on health care, but i think the demographics of the country helped them yesterday. more ifld help them they were not into identity politics. host: let's take a look at the balance of power in the u.s. house, where things stand, keeping in mind there are a number of races undecided. 218elections yesterday,

needed for majority. the balance is 222 for the democrats and 196 for the republicans. not sure we can take a look. we will take a look at a couple of the races. a couple from georgia. karen handel, who is part way through this first term of hers, she is in the sixth district of georgia, very close there. , karen handel with just under 50%. this is north atlanta, rob woodall, 52% and caroline bordeaux, the democrat, is 49.8%. a couple more to look at. in the new york 22nd district, the incumbent is losing at this hour with what we are reporting, 50.3%. texas in this at

border district, 49.2%. he is just edging out gina ortiz jones with 48.7%. 100% of the districts reporting. lots more calls remaining good let's go to those. in springfield, illinois it is pat. caller: gina ortiz -- host: make sure you mute your television set. go ahead. caller: i turned it off now. host: turn it caller: down. i turned it off. host: go ahead. evening, thank you for taking my call. appreciate it. i want to comment on the conduct of the candidate, especially the democrats, how they behaved themselves before the election. people coming in in hearings and

disrupting everything, how they went to people's houses, threatened and senators at a restaurant and ted cruz -- that is no way to go after election for any american citizen. that is americans don't like the defense vigorous against any candidate. as far as the election went. it will help for the future for the republicans when they run. host: you think some of that behavior had an impact on the democratic success in the house and the loss of seats in the senate? caller: i think the president,

what does he have, a 49%, and i think he has done a good job. it was awful. i don't see how that one gentleman from cnn, cnn should ban him for life. the girl picks up the microphone from different reporters answering and grabs it out of her hand, almost knocked her over. he said please behave yourself .s an give extra time to talk people don't like that. host: thank you for that. she's talking about jim acosta from cnn. we will show that to you in 10 minutes. yvonne is in schenectady, new york, democrats line.

yvonne, schenectady, new york. caller: hi, how are you? host: fine, thank you. caller: well, my take on the -- hi, howl is that are you? host: don't listen to the tv. turned the tv down. listen to the phone. caller: turned the tv down. my whole ordeal on this whole thing, we as a country are supposed to be more togetherness. it doesn't matter what color, creed, or race, you know. and from the time that this man got in, there was nothing but diversity. you know? and at the end of the day, we have to band together as one. our fore the founders was based on unity, you know.

we could disagree, we could agree, but it is just upsetting how he just talk too much about nothing. he's not talking about what he's doing. evidently from my standpoint and viewpoint, he hasn't done anything, clearly. host: let's hear from john. he is in salem, new hampshire. democrats line. caller: hello, good evening. caller:host: you are on the air, go ahead. caller: i want to mention i was very happy with the results. i am not declared democrat. i come in as an independent, meaning i will vote the person normally, but given the atmosphere with trump, ok, i won't even call him my president, i felt that the democrats needed to take the house. it was key to keep the checks

and balances in place. he is running amok. look what happened today, ok, with sessions. that's just the preliminary for getting rid of robert mueller. there is something to hide. he looks guilty, making himself look guilty. thisly believe that this, democrat house was the best thing that could happen for the nation. i listened to some of the other people prior to me speaking, and i cannot leave that they are giving jim acosta hard time about his first amendment. he made it a point to prove to the country, not because -- he was reporting the news, and he was forcing the president to say, this is an invasion? defined what an invasion is. this is required for this president. he is bombastic and deserves that type of questioning and line of questioning. host: here is some news on jim

acosta. this is a tweet. the president of the white house correspondents association, he had been in reuters, says, white house press secretary says it is suspending jim acosta's white house credentials, called a hard pass, after today's press conference britt we will show you that momentarily coming up at 8:00 eastern. we will get a few more calls and we go to tennessee. this is jd. caller: yeah, i just really am so thankful that the midterms are finally passed us. thatso amazing to me america has to put up with the amount of money that is spent on these campaigns when every time you turn around, you're hearing what sounds like immature

children on the tv bashing the other candidate over and over and over again. knowsblic never really what the candidates are standing for because of all the negative ads, the lines that are told -- lies that are told. if the country doesn't, if we the people don't stand together and do something about campaign spending, it's just so out of hand. think of all the money that is bent, -- is spent, all the veterans that could be helped, all the starving children across america that could be helped. i just, it just to me is appalling. thank you. host: let's get one or two more here.

republican line. caller: oh, hi. i just wanted to say, i think sessions stepping down from that position will actually be a good thing for the country. he was in a position to be a backing for trump, the president, and by recusing himself, he took himself out of that role. i'm not saying he needed to do anything illegal or anything like that, but his role was to be more supportive. and i think it really hurt trump, and it created -- if we are talking about how expensive campaigns are today, this trump'sation into corruption and so forth has been a huge expense to the people who pay taxes. i just want to say a good book

for people -- can i plug a book? host: a book you want to plug? go ahead. caller: the russian hoax. it is written by greg gerrit. he wasn't a pro trump person to start off with. things -- he just writes down the truth. it is a good book for people to read who don't understand what is going on. host: you can check our website, "book tv". maryland. democrats line. and whenhe president they were running, they ran ugly nancysonages, pelosi, everyone knows they only disparage people who are effective. as for restaurant -- no one hates trump, but we do love the office. he has presented himself in a manner that is repulsive.

he was disparaging people's qualifications to be governor here, there, showing he doesn't have the qualifications to be the president of the united states. i just hope people will not get into a thing of stating that people hate him. no one hates him, but we love the office of the presidency, and we don't like the negative aura he has brought to that office. going forward, they are going to -- he is obsessed with his defense, so he will engage in fight. it will not be reconciliation because he only knows one way. he will bring it down on himself. thank you for c-span. we look forward to some fireworks. host: one more on the independent linim