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i have been the majority leader, i have been the minority leader. the majority is a lot better. and i think based on the fact that we haven't got all the results and we already know we will be in the majority. we are hopeful that might actually throw some. i want to give particular credit to steve daines. i had that job at the rnc a few years back.

i have never seen a better performance. he focused on getting quality candidates, making sure they actually got the nomination. and as i said to some criticism, candidate quality is absolutely essential. also am proud of the job senate leadership has done and its related groups did. overall they were able to raise $425 million. they made decisions to invest in i think all the right places. i will run it down for you. we basically got 29 million in maryland. 42 million in michigan. 60 million in montana.

3.3 million in nebraska. 12.8 million in nevada. 100 33 million in ohio. 82 .7 million in pennsylvania. 30 million in wisconsin. and 3 million in west virginia. clearly, what they were doing there is focusing on the places where we had the best chance to win, and i think the results pretty much prove they made a lot of wise decisions. with that id happy share what you want to talk about. >> senate republicans will have 54, maybe 56 seats before this is done.

you have been an advocate of maintaining the filibuster. the former president now the president-elect and what will you do outside of the leadership to advocate if forces try to get rid of it? >> i am glad you raised that. you should've covered that before. one of the most gratifying results of the senate becoming republican. the filibuster will stand. there won't be any new states admitted to give a partisan advantage to the other side. and we will quit beating up the supreme court every time they make a decision we don't like. i think this shifting to a republican senate majority helps control the guardrails. to keep people who want to change the rules in order to achieve something they think is

worthwhile, is not successful. i think the filibuster is very secure. >> leader mcconnell, practically speaking, what is having a 52 or 53 seat majority being for getting trump sit then the -- trump's agenda through the senate compared to a 51 seat? do you explore other things and what might those things be? >> we hear optimistic reports of what may have happened in the house. obviously, if you were going to legitimately work around the filibuster, it would be through reconciliation. we would be more successful if we flip the house. the speaker put out a statement. >> in march, you blamed

president-elect trump and his inner circle on the delay for ukraine aid is he the best person to deter our adversary? >> i am here at this moment to talk about the election. i will largely confine it to that. >> what do you expect your role to be next year when you are not in leadership? you talked about foreign policy. jd vance as the vice president. he has got diverging views from you. what will your role be the next two years? >> i will not speculate on what anybody else may be doing. i thought your question was what i was going to be doing. i am going to concentrate on defense and foreign policy. this is the most dangerous time since right before world war ii. our adversaries, the north koreans, chinese, russians, iran

and iran's proxies are all talking to each other. they have one thing in common. they hate us. they want to diminish our role in the world. it may seem old-fashioned to some, but i am still a reagan republican, who thinks that america's role in the world is absolutely indispensable. even if you are concerned about cost, it would be interesting to know that at the height of world war ii 37% of our gross domestic product was being spent on the war. 37% and we lost over 400,000 americans. the reagan buildup without a shopping cart was about 6% of gdp. we are currently spending 2.7.

we need to ramp up defense spending in order to prevent a direct conflict with our adversaries. it is a lot cheaper to prevent war than it is to have one. that is the focus i am going to have for the next couple years. >> do you plan to chair the appropriations -- >> i haven't made a decision. i'm hoping as former leader, you guys won't care what i think anyway, and i don't think it will have anything to do with committee assignments. >> what will democrats do with the lame-duck week coming up here? >> we have to finish up the week. that always involves a conversation between senator

schumer and myself as to how we wrap it up but those conversations have not started yet. >> week before this selection your biography was released. it includes a lot of sharp kurdish citizens of president trump. do you stand by those criticisms? >> i am not here to do a book review this morning. >> next week your colleagues will choose the next majority leader. what should they take away from last night when they vote for the next leader? >> what can i take from last night? >> what should your colleagues take from last night when they choose the next leader? >> candidate quality is essential. absolutely essential. i think we have the best candidates everywhere. yesterday. >> you've been the majority leader, in this situation with narrow majorities in the house and senate, how challenging will

it be to keep the republican party together if you end up with more control? >> you are a bit of a student of history. since senators became popularly elected in 1914, my party has never had more than 55. democrats had massive majorities during the 30's. during lbj. during barack obama. obviously, the higher we get, the better. but this is not 60 votes, which is what they had at the beginning of president obama. i think we did pretty well with narrow majorities during the previous administration. three new supreme court justices.

comprehensive 30-your overdue tax reform. it is harder but we were successful before with a narrow majority and i think we will be again. >> looking at the results from last night, what do you take away from the mood of the country, where it is headed and how it lands according to your expectations? >> if you are looking for a simple answer, i think it was a referendum on the current administration in part. people were just not happy with this administration. the democratic nominee obviously was a part of it. >> in your role as former leader, moving forward what is your level of engagement directly with the new trump

administration? given your criticisms of the former president. >> i will do everything i can to help the new administration be successful. >> would you be in support of elon musk or rfk jr. having positions in the cabinet of president trump? >> say that again? >> rfk jr. and elon musk having positions in the presidential cabinet considering that you on musk has been reported [indiscernible] with putin? >> one of the things about advancing age, live as long as i do, you will have a hard time hearing a question like that. why don't you come up here? [laughter] >> would you be in support of

elon musk and rfk jr. having cabinet positions considering that elon musk has been reported to be in contact? >> yeah, i'm not going to get into that subject. anything else related to what happened yesterday? >> i'm wondering president trump and senate republicans sometimes butted heads in the first administration. do you think the relationship will be smoother this time? what advice do you have to president trump to dealing with the new majority and congress in general? >> i had a lot of dealings with him during the previous administration. i think we did a lot for the american people. >> are you expecting clashes with president trump over nominees in case he goes more toward the economic populist route? >> it is way too early to tell who the nominees are going to

be. i think the senate will treat them fairly. carl? >> democrats have a lot of judges in the channel they could try to push through these last few weeks. what do you think republicans should do if that would happen? >> wen yu get the majority, you decide what to bring up, and if that is what the majority will do, each one will be voted on. >> were publicans have control of the senate and partisan to the, how do you expect priorities like -- >> expect what? >> appropriations and other lame-duck priorities? >> well, i think getting our

worked on which no matter who has been a majority, we have not done that well for quite a while. deciding how to spend a discretionary money that we have, which is not a very big part of what we spend every year anymore, is really important. i would hope we would put a greater priority than the current senate has on doing the basic work of government which is deciding how much to spend and getting it done as close to regular order as possible. >> i was hoping you could compare the 2017 tax cuts and job cuts as stanchion -- extension republicans are pursuing out of the bush tax cut?

what is the republican position? >> i can speak for most senate republicans. we thought it was a huge success. it produced more revenue than last. -- than less. i am sure virtually all of us would like to see most of that extended. ok. i think we're through. [laughter] good luck to you all. i enjoyed talking to you. it was a hell of a good day. thanks a lot. [indistinct reporter question]

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