ah the 2020 to mid term elections in the us have come and gone, but the ballot county it still has a ways to go. it may be weeks until we have the final results so far. the balance of power on capital hill is tilting slightly in favor of the republicans, no big victory, but no dreaded defeat for the democrats either to night trying to bring american democracy into focus. what's it look like from this side of the atlantic and the election picture painted by the news media? enough realism, or too much of the abstract. i'm broke off in berlin. this is the day. ah, yes. fred, bionic magnet, i am again glad to report that today's election went very smoothly. this alexis

cruz id when reporting stayed on real world solutions that are that hard work and people are we can win if we do go into this next session of congress with a slim majority on either side. it will continue to be contentious. i never expected that we're gonna turn these red counties loop. what we did when we needed to do, just like a major it could take a while for some cities to report their unofficially. we will be in the majority and nancy pelosi will be in the minority. at this point, we're not sure exactly is going to be in control of congress to our viewers watching on p b. s. in the united states. and to all of you around the world, welcome, we begin, the dave still waiting for mid term election results in the united states. it's exactly what we were doing 24 hours ago with one big difference. us lawmakers are no longer expecting

a republican wave of victory in congress and democrats no longer dreading major defeat either but uncertainty. it remains high, the balance of power in the u. s. congress, and what that will mean for the future of the biden presidency. these remain unanswered to night, and when i go through some of the key races with results that we have right now it, it was a big win for the republicans in florida. rising republican star rhonda santas easily defeated his democratic challenger charlie chris to stay on as governor. the winds cements his status as a potential candidate for the white house in 2024. the race between a democrat raphi, a warnock and republican herschel walker for george's seat in the you said it, it will now go to a run off election in december. warnock is the pastor at the church where martin luther king once preached. walker is a former american football player with a high profile, but scant if any political experience democrat katie hobbs. she is leading

republican kerry lake and the race for arizona. governor lake is a former television news anchor and the chosen candidate of former president donald trump. she claims that the 2020 presidential election to know was rick and john federation and the democrats have emerged as the winners in the key senate battle ground state of pennsylvania veterans victory flips the republican held seat in the u. s. senate fedor, men who you may remember suffered a stroke during the campaign, has portrayed himself as a champion of the working class. he beat dr. name at odds. a wealthy heart surgeon turned tv personnel. that was the race that almost everyone in the country was talking about democrat john frederick dealing the republicans a decisive blow in the battle for control of the u. s. senate, the tattooed candidate wearing his trademark hoodie, credited his every county every vote to campaign strategy with helping him to

victory. i want you to listen to what he had to say. every county, every now, every county, every move and that's exactly what happened. we jammed them. oh oh, we hit the line. i never expected that we're going to turn these red counties blue, but we did what we needed to do and tonight. that's why i'll be the next us senator. from here. with me here. the big cable now is our chief international editor, richard walker. the world of course, following these mid term elections more than ever before, richard, and rightly so on this day after the election, kind of talk us through what we know where we are. yeah, well i mean, i think we had the,

the word relief referred to in the bike administration and i think, you know, looking at it from european capitals. i think a lot of officials in european governments are also going to be pretty relieved by what it, what seems to have happened. you know, there was a genuine fear and this kind of based on experience with mid term elections, which all from bring around a pretty big set for, for a party that's in the white house. the biden may have gotten away with, you know, only losing control of the house by relatively narrow margin and potentially even keeping control of the senate. i think this will be seen as, as, as a significant positive european governments who really mean biden for them, has been a huge boon compared to the complete kind of disorientation that was, that was created during the trump is where europeans sort of thought, what kind of relationship, do we have with united states any more,

but of course it's not over yet as we've been hearing. you know, the fact that, you know, it could be the run off in georgia, it early in december, that is decisive here. so that the story is not over yet, but quite a bit of relief. biden has been a boon for europe, particularly in the crisis the war in ukraine with us funding us weapons. we know that republicans have signal some have signal that they have control of congress, that there may be no more blank checks for. yeah. yeah, i mean the, and this has been a concern also, obviously for the credit, but also in europe. interesting in the republicans quite divided, you have the kind of the trump wing, some of the populace, the isolation, this tendency is pretty strong. the steel trump had his, his kind of slightly unusual relationship with vladimir putin. and yet the messages was coming were coming out from some of the sort of trump p style. candidates that

you know, even they might pull a plug on funding altogether. and kevin mccarthy usually will be the leader of the house. he was the one using that expression, no blank checks. he's sort of tried to moderate that a little bit since then. but i think what will be of some concern for the trend is, is that it now basically is funding for support for ukraine will now increasingly get tied up in us politics. these divisions, the republican party frictions of see between the republicans and the democrat. you know, the fact that even in the best of times, we saw what happened on the a bomb administration with the republican controlled congress. you know, trying to block, raising the debt ceiling. so that, you know, you have government shut down, you know, if support, you crank it, tied up in all of this kind of political drama. that's going to be worry if you, you know, we've talked about this numerous times in the past couple of years. there has been this question from washington. can concerning nato, for example,

the question has been post is germany is still a reliable partner. now let's turn the tables here. looking at the selection. if berlin looks at the u. s. and s itself is the united states, still a reliable partner in terms of democracy? rule of law. what's the answer? yeah, well, i mean, i think there'll be some comfort taken from, from this not being from that perspective, a worst case scenario. but, but really, i mean that, that kind of shock to the system has already happened. you know, it had through the, from the storming of the capital was really the pinnacle of it. you know, sort of beginning to realize, wow, let the united states is politically unstable. and a very senior german official who i was talking to recently, you know, did raise the, you know, what happens if the wrong guy wins into years? yeah. now this person was thinking about trump, trump looks of it, we could coming out of this. but as we've been hearing, rhonda census,

the governor of florida comes out of this looking very strong. so i think one takeaways definitely going to be from this, a lot of european governments really going to start taking a closer look at rhonda scientists and thinking about ok, what happens if he becomes president next time? what does that mean for a relationship with them? very good point. richard walker is always richard. it's good to have your analysis . thank you. ah, how do the u. s. midterm elections look from this side of the atlantic? what is the picture of american democracy as seen from here in berlin? joining me here at the table is not very a member of the german parliament with the social democrats party. that's the s p d. it's also deputy chairman of the german u. s. parliamentary friendship group is to have it. it's good to have you bags get to see you again after, after this long pandemic. what do you see when you look towards the u. s. at the moment of weight? we see all the problems, but tonight we're just feel relieved that things didn't go really bad. so what

better than yesterday, what would, what would have been from, from berlin's perspective, what would have been a worst case scenario? starting with the worst case scenario that we can deal with. but the worst case would have been that election denies, basically people that one that are willing to blow up the democracy. the democrats system of the united states would get into very important offices where they can do it actually. and the american voter were not in favor of this idea. so mostly not that feels a little better than yesterday. do you think most german lawmakers would say the best case scenario would have been a sweeping democratic victory for congress? probably at this time, the democratic party, we feel a little closer to the democratic party for several reason, just because of the trump experience, of course are. but if you look at republican governor of georgia, so he resisted the call for for election now. so no, it's a question of value,

it's not a question of left and right in the question of republican democratic, it's a question of what the stand for the republic. right. yeah. yeah. and i know you spent also a lot of time in the us, you know, a lot of congressmen, congress women. how did they explain to you this incredible polarization, the politics in america most would describe it as a process. it has been going on for a long, long time now, not only since the election of donald trump, but before that has a lot to do with, with money, with the 2 party system. of course it has to do with a frustration about the government, general the government in washington. you remember that and washington is broken, the tea party movement back in the day. it's a lot of things i just cumulated now to this personal of the republican party. and of course mr. trump was the most important symbol to it. and we will see whether

it's just him or more to that movement. i believe there's more to trump, isn't that just mr. trump? so we will have to deal with it in the future. we've heard this week from several commentators here in germany that the, the, the actual, the polarization or the break in the breaking down of politics. and america began in 2000 with al gore, not becoming president. and we've heard this week at time and time again, almost lamenting. if gore had become president, the world would be very different climate change would be a lot further. is there, is it that type of wishing that things could have been different among german law makers? when you're talking about the u. s. no, we're not wishing for governments and other countries and not in the united states as well. but, but the united states, the most important country in the world are most important outside europe. and it's,

it's broad as democracy. so we're thankful for that forever, but we're really just afraid, seriously afraid of the democracy in the united states. so it's not too much a matter of whether a democratic candidate wins or republican will probably, i'm a social democrat so you can think of it to which i find more sympathy for. but you know, the important, the important issues that institutional values of, of our thought as we say, the rule of law. yeah. both law so, so this is, this is what it's taking this. what makes us feel uncomfortable and this is not related to party politics. a considerable number of republicans who were elected yesterday due to congress with our election deniers. i mean, you even have some who say that joe biden is not the legitimate u. s. president. how do you as a member of parliament? how do you imagine working together with them when you go over to watch and you go

over all the time you, how do you sit down and talk to them? i find common ground if they are representative of that country of their state of their voting district of the constituency. that's what they are. but then it's $11.00 value less we share, right? so it is a problem. it is a problem not only for the united states self, but also for us and for the relationship, but you know, there are other countries around in the world where you don't share all the, do you really believe? is there any that these election denies? do they really represent a majority of the people in the districts where they come from, or are they through the primary system through gerrymandering, a voting district, or are they the result of extreme politics that's gotten through the system? well, i'm, i would say the after the trump election, we all know about the deficits of the, of the voting system. and i would say to this point, so we're representing more people are the democratic value. obviously, there are a lot of cases where it's not the case, right? so both gerrymandering, all the other issues you, you mentioned. but at this point,

this is what we have in the united states, right? we have to accept that it's unfair, it's not representation is, is an issue. but we, who are we outside the united states to judge that it is a business i'm united states and, you know, you know, the history of germany. so other people have also issues. so i wish the best for united states for the people of united states, but also of course, for the well global order, because we need the country joe biden, versus donald trump in 2024. many say that that is where we are headed. what goes through your mind is the german law maker the prospect that in 2024 you could have again, donald trump is u. s. president. long way to go. so we will see now who's going to be candidate for the republican party as i understood the re election results in the state of florida. there might be an issue no the next month, but maybe tomorrow i'm going to be candidate for the republicans. and we see what

the debate goes and with the democratic party as well. so it's too old to say that, but what we do know is no matter who is going to represent what party trump is in this frustration with a representation. and democracy generally will be an issue in the united states. so we should be just calling out for those people that try to make the, the life of the people better in the united states and hope for the best for democratic values. you know, this is the country as i said, broad democracy to our country. so there is there still a lot of trust left that they will, they will do it. it's good to hear is not very is always we appreciate your time, appreciate you coming in to see you get. thank you. thank you. ah, i am damn estate entered. an a be seen is live. we want to get right to our top story . americans are casting their final votes on this election day in one of the most consequential mid terms in decades. that's being counted in the crucial mid term

elections in the united states. so me just after 8 pm there were. busy you are, this is the hour when the 1st flood of results is expected. what should we be preparing for? but i just want to step back again and just look at this map. but that's not a red wave. that's nothing like a red wave. the republican party needs to do a really deep lift respects to look in the mirror right now, because this is, this is an absolute disaster for the republican party. and we need to turn back so that the 3 big losers. again, donald sales begin with the letter t, right and election deniers. and that is how we in the news media, the mainstream media, if you will, reported the u. s. midterms on tuesday to night. we want to ask, did journalists get the story right? and to discuss that, i'm happy to welcome to night fight your own guards are gone. she's deputy opinion editor and newsweek. she is also the author of the book,

bad news. how woke media is undermining democracy. it is a sobering assessment of what happened with journalism in the us went from a blue collar trade to a profession of the elite. but it's, it's good to have you with us. so let me just start by asking you how have the news media reported the story of the mid term elections in america? i thank you so much for having me. it's great to be here with you. so yeah, i mean, you know, we got this wrong. i got this wrong, a lot of us were looking at the polling and we were listening to voters and talking to voters. and one got the sense that there was going to be a huge red wave that voters were very upset about the economy. and that the democrats had failed to coalesce around a singular message on the economy and how they were going to make things better for voters. you had a lot of voters talking about crime and 2000000 illegal immigrants crossing the

border. you know that the breakdown of the rule of law and there was really this sense that they were going to really rebuke the president's party, which is very normal by the way for midterm election. and i just didn't happen on here. the senate is leaning towards the democrats. the house is maybe a little bit leaning towards the republicans. they might take the majority of in a very small way, you know, after the elections in 20182020 in the u. s. we talked with a lot of pollsters such as you gov as well as gallop, and they admitted that the reliability of poli nell has to be put into question because the traditional method of interviewing people on the telephone. sometimes it's become almost impossible. as a result, we hear we've been very hesitant to rely on polling numbers, leading up to the mid term elections, of the u. s. that was not the case among us networks and cable news for example. why do you think that was? why rely on data that is, you know, in suspect that's a really great question and you know,

we got to fill the time somehow right there. but i mean, seriously, i do think that, you know, we have in this country we don't, it looks like a political divide, but it's not, it's really a class divide. we have 2 parties that by and large cater to be a leader of either side and then we have mass mass amounts of working class and middle class americans who really rarely get to have their say. and our media as a right in my book is so deeply committed now to the voices of the leads that rather than going out and actually talking to voters, it media characters pundits, journalists just like politicians would rather sit there and look at numbers and then prognosticate about them. so i think it's that sort of disconnect between the media, which is really part of the lease today. and then you know, the masses of americans who don't get to have their say, let me ask you about this, this term lease. i mean, journalists are, we are like it or not, we're,

we're gatekeepers. even with the internet and with citizen journalists, we're still gatekeepers and that, that gives you a amount of power also, authority, great responsibility. so is it, it's not necessarily a negative thing, is it? i think if your job is to tell the great american story, you know, the 1st draft of history to sing on to politicians and people with immense amounts of power. what they should care about needs very bad to live in a way that not only has elevated you above your fellow americans. but what had happened as a result of that is journals have developed a lot of contempt for average americans. and i think that's very bad. yes. i sorry . yeah, no, i mean, i mean i, i, i take your point there. and i'm wondering to what about the, the role of journalists as educators, reporters. i noticed in the run up to the mid terms were saying,

non stop that us voters blamed the u. s. president on the they blame him for inflation. they blame him for the economy. but i very, i saw and very little attempt at reporting and educating people about the fact that the president may have actually very limited means of stopping inflation quickly. and that may actually live with central banks. for example, with the u. s. federal reserve, we didn't see those attempts to educate the voters. instead, what we saw was reporters just saying, voters. blame the president. why? why do you think we're reporters dropped the ball there? i'm honestly, i would never, ever prison to think that i should be educating a single mom, working 2 jobs and commuting an hour. either way, i would never dream of thinking. it's my job to educate a truck driver who sits in a truck for 14 hours

a day delivering every morsel of food that you know we and on the coast put in our mouths. i would never dream of educating a person who works on a rail road like that. that's just not my job. my job is to hear their concerns and let them back to the rest of the american people. and you know, my life is so much easier than working class americans. it is so much easier than that, that the struggles that black americans face with crime in, in just exploding in their neighborhoods and the working class struggling to achieve an american dream. that is no longer in reach. i just don't think that that is our job. i do thing most people in the progressive in liberal media do think it's their job to tell voters what to care about, but that's why they've lost credibility. what, what, what about the role of the journalist, particularly the united states, to help support an informed electorate? you mean you, what do you want smart voters going in to those polling stations and making

informed decisions, right. do you think that that responsibility has been sometimes forgotten in the, in the news media? commercialize news media. the you, us i hate to tell you, i have never met a person who is struggling to make it, who is not deeply informed about what they who best represents their interest. like that is not something for us to tell them they know that. and the idea that somehow there's a piece of information that they're missing that would make them vote for the party that we and the elite believe better represent their interest. i've just never bought into that. i just don't buy that. i think people know what's in their best interests and, and i think the problem with the media today is that we think we know what's in their best interest, but they know what's in their best interests. i've got one more minute job, but actually conversation. look to 2020, 2024. yeah. we don't get leaders every day. i mean it's almost a watch area. and what would you, what would you hope for the coverage are leading us to 2024 and the next

presidential election? i've got 30 seconds. i have to tell you, i think that the narrative that america has never been more polarized is a total myth. middle and working class americans have never been more united about the values of this great nation was founded on its people who make money off of trying to divide us and get power off of that. who are just making up this story about polarization. and i just wish we would stop and we would actually reflect where voters are at where americans are at. yeah, building to bridges there, but you will go on instead of the show, we appreciate your insights. come back and talk with us. i sure we're going to have for the reasons to talk in the future. thank you. thank you. well, the day is almost done, the conversation continues online. you'll find this on twitter either w news. you can follow me on twitter at brent golf t v. i remember whatever happens between now and then tomorrow is another day we'll see you then everybody

who's with with a renewable energies, an electron mobility dependent on the battery industry and may be produced sustainably. absolutely says here it. what about our own rule material mining?

and what are the alternative for electricity storage? made in germany. nick on a d. w. m to the conflict zone with tim sebastian. if you really want to know about the war who's murdering and torturing, who's giving me orders, which weapons are being used? much of it is out there on the internet and higgins british founder of the group coming out of the mining about who data and incriminating the brutal and powerful conflict on 60 minutes on d. w. oh, really did they come in? no, everything you enjoy eating at home with your families, was harvested by people more being exploited. if the ladies were free in the

green revolution of absolutely necessary europe revealed the future is being determined. now, our documentary series will show you how people, companies and countries are we thinking everything, making later changes you'll have reviewed this week on d, w. ah, ah, ah, ah, what happens when people leave their home countries to go work in another? that's the big question, will.