stuart: it was a real privilege to sit here and watch history, a real privilege indeed. thanks very much to all of you being along for the ride. lou dobbs. it is yours. lou: thanks very much, stuart. appreciate it. good evening, everybody. it is election day in america and just an hour from now, results will begin to come in. we'll have the first signs of how this historic political night will unfold. at 7:00 p.m. eastern, six states close their polls. georgia, indiana, kentucky, south carolina, the battleground state of virginia and of course vermont. half an hour after that, 7:30 three more states close. the battleground states of north carolina, ohio, and west guinea. it is historic night. donald trump will be watching

the results at the hilton hotel in midtown, manhattan. hillary clinton holding her event at the jacob javits center, also in midtown, manhattan. that's right, this contest between clinton and trump, between two new yorkers. the winner will become america's 45th president. they will inherit an anxious electorate, distrustful of washington and desirous of someone who will, as donald trump put it, drain the swamp. we'll have the best political coverage for you as the polls close and results begin pouring in. we have of course an a-list lineup of guests tonight. former reagan white house political director ed rollins, pulitzer prize-winning columnist, michael goodwin. also with us tonight, five co-hosts, kimberly guilfoyle, radio talk show host laura ingraham, evangelical leaders, tony perkins and pastor robert jeffers join us. the top story, americans

enduring long lines at polling stations all across the country today. trump and clinton locked in a tight balt. the focus turns to key battleground states. trump, tweeting this a short time ago. don't let up. keep getting out to vote. the election is far from over. we're doing well but there is much time left. go, florida. trump cast his vote this morning at a manhattan polling place on the upper east side with his wife melania. the democratic nominee voted in chappaqua, new york, along with her husband, the former president bill clinton. joining me former reagan white house political director, republican strategist, great america pac strategist, ed rollins and pulitzer prize-winning columnist for the "new york post," michael goodwin. both are fox news contributors and let's start with the turnout here. it looks extraordinary across most of the country. what do you make of it, michael? >> look the reports of long

lines are everywhere, unfortunately so are reports of problems with ballots not registering the vote that people pushed for, long lines. people not on the rolls being able to vote. a lot of new voters. so i think there are probably, as you say a great turnout everywhere which is terrific. quickly, lou, walking through the streets of manhattan this evening it is electric. both of these candidates are in here tonight. the city feels like something bigger than the new year's eve. kind of feeling on the streets of new york. it's a great american spectacle. let's hope that the right person wins. lou: okay. of course that being the issue of the day, ed, your thoughts? >> my thoughts are that the, i think trump has done a great job the last three or four weeks getting back into this race. she always had the organizational skill which they built right on obama who ran two

brilliant organizational campaigns of the he wasn't able to get all that put together. he was more dependent on the rnc. didn't have money, resources, didn't have media but had a strong messaging tapping into the american electorate. when you see big lines and voters turnout in places that you hear, obviously the votes are not finished yet, you know democrats are working very hard. you know their structure was in full gear and they, you know, going in with a three or four-point lead as milliary was, in most polls, organization if it works can get you two points. lou: ground game. >> ground game. if you begin with that sort of that premise, you have to pull back to do to be a winner is a real challenge. we'll know very shortly on those, if he doesn't win florida, which is very contested state, north carolina, which is very contested state, obviously new hampshire which is very contested state and ohio he has done well in, if you lose any of

those you're in real hard battle to win. lou: that has been effectively the strategy throughout is to win everything that mitt romney won in 2012 plus florida, pennsylvania and ohio. polling strongly in all three states going into this election. your thoughts about the strategy and the fact that this is the first time, to my knowledge, that any candidate has attempted to do as much as he has with, basically a hanger strategy. that is jetting in, as he did in new hampshire, culminating in michigan last night, a state that he wasn't even supposed to be competitive in which is now a toss-up state that has been extraordinariry strategy and paid off immensely. >> it is interesting because he has run without support and endorsement of many other republicans in the ballot in many states. the rnc itself has been on his side but i'm not sure how much

power they really brought to the game, how much fund-raising they brought other than what he did. lou: the rnc did said they moved 7600 organizers into the field, knocked on 20 million doors, if you will, 20 million contacts. they put together quite an effort. they left out one part in that report, and that is there was not always a push upward for the party's nominee. >> right, right. when you think about it, so trump in that picture he is really running as an independent, just about as close to an independent as we ever had at this stage of the game. if he is to win tonight, it would be a remarkable achievement that would send shudders throughout both party. >> i think he changed the way we run campaigns in america. didn't have all the resources, didn't use all the resource, didn't use consultants, outspent three, four to one in advertising still competitive race. lou: he took a licking from

every quarter of national liberal media. it is truly unprecedented. >> right. lou: that the national media create this is wall of blue if you will around hillary clinton, and imper just wall, we might add, while the republican nominee is basically only available, if you will for target and practice and pummeling. >> if he wins to today, would be the biggest upset in my lifetime. equally as important he put a spotlight on the corruption in washington, d.c., and i think that is very important contribution win, lose or draw, and i hope he wins. at the end of the day needs to be fixed. people across the country supported him need to be listened to, to a certain extent his campaign made a great contribution here. lou: let's turn to florida because it is a critical state and blaze ingoglia, the head of the gop telling me, that

effectively they have got to build their vote this evening, catch up a deficit with the democrats. came out better in early voting than 2012. do you have a sense of that? what can we expect to later turnout? >> later turnout is traditionally our vote. republicans vote on election day. don't do early voting. most are working people. they come after work. and numbers at night are much better than day time. my fence, long ways before we close the polls. get out there and vote. take nothing for granted. we've seen democrat organization at play all day. we need to get our own vote out there. lou: looking at senate.

likelihood republicans emerge from the evening with still control of the senate or whether the democrats might wrest control of the senate? >> if early reports are true, that there are a very tight races in a lot of blue states, where a lot of races are, that should be good for republicans. no question democrats pick up a couple of seats at least, if republicans can take harry reid's seat, that would cut into the net gain but i think if the race is tight across the country, and in all of these key battleground states that would suggest to me that the republicans should be able to hold a very narrow lead in the senate. >> four or five weeks ago they were gone. you i think they are back to dead-even. i think they come out with one vote edge. lou: ed rollins, thank you very much. michael goodwin. we'll talk with you later in the evening.

leak like it very much may be a long evening. thank you both. >> good. lou: donald trump said he is proud throughout his campaign he has never been beholden to special interests. >> if i don't win, i will consider it a tremendous waste of time, energy, and money. i'm going to be, i will have spent over $100 million on my own campaign, meaning i don't have to take tremendous -- i don't have to take the money from all the fat cats and that will tell you what to do. i think that is a big asset. doesn't get talked about much. lou: well it will get talked about here tonight. will donald trump's message resonate across the country? what will be the result? mercedes schlapp, guy benson among my guests. they join me next. we're less than an hour away from six, are you ready? six state polls closing including the battleground state of virginia. candidates are both holding their victory events if you will in midtown manhattan tonight. we will be with them throughout. stay with us.

a lot more ahead on this election night in america. ♪ wow, x1 has netflix?

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now less than an hour away. we're also following of course the all-important balance of power in congress. right now, republicans control the senate by a margin of 54-46. republicans are defending 24 of the34 seats open tonight for challenge and republicans are facing some very tight races. among them, kelly ayote in new hampshire, pat toomey in pennsylvania, ron johnson in wisconsin and over in the house of representatives, republicans there are with a strong margin of 246-186. that margin over democrats all of course up for re-election tonight. only however, about 16 of those seats are considered to be competitive and potentially losses for the republicans. we'll see. joining me tonight, former spokesperson for president george w. bush and republican strategist, mercedes schlapp. also with me, townhall.com

political editor guy benson. both are fox news contributors and great to have you here. >> good evening. lou: this is a heck of an evening. mercedes, let me turn to you, first on this election. florida critical of course to donald trump's chances. it is the fulcrum upon which everything else rests in his strategy. we know that it, it's an immense turnout there. your thoughts on the evening? >> well, florida makes me worried. i think what we're seeing outpouring of latino vote coming out and, we saw with the recall voting, for example, that was 500,000 latinos came out in the state of florida. i know that for the most part you will see cuban-americans sticking with donald trump, a critical constituency for donald trump in however. however, you have puerto ricans, venezuelans, colombians i think break for hillary clinton. we're seeing high turnout for democrats. we'll look at broward county,

miami-dade county, hillsborough county inr that picks the winning presidential candidate. obama won biers is percentage points in 2012 over romney, seven percentage points. we'll see if he approximatelies out many voters in that county. lou: guy? >> we'll perhaps learn important things early on in this night because in the 7:00 hour, polls will close in virginia and georgia. those may not seem like important states but if trump will have a good night he will have to surprise people and overperform in virginia. if it he is surprising competitive in virginia, minority turnout of african-americans, young people might be a problem for him across the country. conversely if hillary clinton is running strong in place like georgia that could be early indication things are going well for her there. later in the 7:00 hour at 7:30 eastern time, polls close in north carolina and ohio and we might start to get a real sense where the presidential race and

senate landscape is shaping up, within the first hour of results coming in because there are so many early votes banked already. lou: getting in those two battle ground states we know turnout again is high. indeed it is high across the country. >> it is. lou: to see the electorate, this energized and moving to the polls in, what appear to be startling numbers, in many states, i mean this suggests, what to you? >> well, it could go either way. i think you have that organic movement for donald trump. i think you're going to find a lot of unaffiliated voters coming out in battleground states which do benefit donald trump. the question is where does the minority vote go? will they came out as they did in numbers for president obama in 2008 and 2012. if black vote comes out in north carolina advantage for hillary clinton. not the case thus far in early voting.

what we're seeing going back to the latino vote that is critical in not only florida, virginia, colorado, arizona and nevada. lou: really the country. >> i was going to say, your question was about turnout and i saw some data crunchers looks like we're on pace to definitely blowout 2012 numbers. that is indication of immense early turnout. exit polls, both candidates are deeply unpopular, majority unpopular, larger than life with donald trump, look at debate ratings. very first debate on fox news channel, it was record-setting across the board. makes sentence to me even though candidates are not super liked to put it charitiably, people are interested in this election. it has crossed beyond just political media. it has been in pop culture media. it has been everywhere, everyone is talking about it. i'm not surprised by a big turnout. lou: i don't know that i am either. what i am surprised about the degree to which donald trump

hasn't received credit seems to me is his for introducing all of the issues that have dominated the agenda of this election. i mean, to an issue he is the one who has pressed it and pushed forward on it. and, he has come up against it seems to me a wall, when we talk about the national liberal media, not giving him credit for that. not giving credit for running a very clean campaign, the cleanest, i personally think in memory. >> his campaign, donald trump's campaign is the campaign of the american worker. i think that has been a message for so many of those blue-collar workers in particular who felt they have been left behind in the obama economy. are able to have a voice in this process. they're coming out to vote for the first time which i think is incredibly encouraging and where republican party has opportunity to embrace these first-time voters into the party. that is really due, you got to give the credit to donald trump. because i think for a long time the republican party has not

been, has not focused on issues important to workers. lou: precisely the point on his running against the stashment. neither party in point of fact addressed it before this year, before this campaign, has addressed the fact that our middle class has been shrinking for a quarter century, not rising, growing and prospering. >> and hillary clinton is the embodiment of the establishment, in an establishment year, anti-establishment year i should say. so that is one of the great advantages that trump has. he is raging against that machine that most americans are also raging against. people think the country is on the wrong track. historically very difficult for the party in power to hang on to the white house three son connective -- lou: just on average it says the country is on the wrong track. >> that's exactly right. lou: president obama's approval rating. it is rising. >> they like the guy and don't like hillary clinton and don't like donald trump this is the election whether they go with status quo, sticking what we've seen with obama sluggish economy

and more of divided government. lou: new normal. >> new normal. stick with the status quo and willing to take a risk to go with change in donald trump. that is what we have to see. >> that is the thing. this is the fundamentals if you will, if you take out names hillary clinton and donald trump, the fundamentals favor trump and republican this is year, generally. but if you look at a lot of data and turnout and the ad spending and all that, that all favors hillary clinton. for political nerds like us it will be really interesting to see which of these dynamics wins out. is it data or sort of political winds. >> that's right. lou: we're also as we talk glowingly about turnout, we're hearing about all sorts of problems at the polling booths, whether it be electronic voting, whether be ballots not ready. some pretty serious issues and accusations pure out straight out voter fraud. >> not the first time we've seen that happen in the election process. i go back to 2000 with the hanging chads. lou: right.

>> is it going to be this race that will be so close that we need to be watching every single vote? or is it going to be this landslide that democrats predict adlong tile ago. i don't think it will be a landslide. i think a lot closer than people think. definitely trump will outperform romney. whether he can beat hillary clinton, that is big question. lou: that is of course the big question. >> that is the question. lou: when we talk about hanging chads -- >> you remember the hanging chads? terrible. lou: only dimly, only dimly. to think about this election hanging in the balance, we have 20 states that don't have paper trails for recount in the electronic voting, it is really extraordinary the degree to which we are vulnerable here. when many people go to the polls tonight, later this evening, it is act of faith can't be validated by paper trail. >> i think a good thing both parties have poll watchers at the locations.

i did see one report out of philadelphia where there were gop poll watchers who were sort of shuffled away, lawyers gotten involved. accusations in north carolina, there weren't you enough ballots in african-american precincts. you get this type of noise on election day -- lou: because it counts, it matters. >> it matters. people like us we have talked ourselves out. it is time, we'll finally numbers to get to, actual results. we're kind of filling time and keeping an eye out. lou: do you think those people are carrying out voter fraud because we're exhausting our imagination on -- >> that is not what i'm saying. i'm saying i do believe it is good thing in age of social media and tapping a screen for donald trump and skip switching over to hillary clinton and you film it on the phone and evidence and get lawyers involved almost immediately. more opportunities for people to catch the stuff and report it than ever before. lou: appears our politicians haven't given up their reptilian past. >> never, never.

lou: terrible, terrible things. mercedes, great to see you. thanks for being with us. we'll talk to you through the evening. guy, thank you, appreciate it. on wall street today, stocks climbing on election day. a little enthusiasm among investors. the dow rising 73 points. the s&p up eight. the nasdaq up 27 points on the day. volume on the big board picking up. 3.9 billion shares. that passes for heavy trading these days on wall street. a remind are listen to my reports three times a day coast to coast on the salem radio network. follow me on twitter @ lou dobbs, like me on facebook and follow me on instagram at "lou dobbs tonight." trump supporters reporting that ballots switching to hillary clinton? no, say it isn't so. in the swing state of pennsylvania. trump issued the warning last night. >> we're in a rigged system, folks, we're in a rigged system. you got to go, got to vote, make sure the voight gets registered

in there. real change also means restoring honesty to our government. lou: coming up next "the five"'s kimberly guilfoyle on the possible legal fallout of any contested election. we're less than an hour from six, count them, six state polls closing, including the battleground state of virginia. trump and clinton are in new york tonight. they're eagerly awaiting the outcome of this historic election night. stay with us. we'll bring that result to you through the evening. new exit polls ahead. a lot more. stay with us. ♪ it begins from the second we're born. because, healthier doesn't happen all by itself. it needs to be earned every day. using wellness to keep away illness. and believing a single life can be made better by millions of others. as a health services and innovation company optum powers modern healthcare by connecting every part of it. so while the world keeps searching for healthier

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lou: this is the big night tonight. exit polls are giving us insight into what some voters are thinking. fox business's cheryl casone has been analyzing the exit pole data. that is highly-prized and much, much analyzed. great to have you with us and

what can you tell us so far? >> good evening, lou. 26,000 americans participating in the exit polls. we're getting very intriguing numbers right now. i want to give you a couple things first. i want to start out when it comes to issue of honesty. this is one of the biggest issues going in particularly affecting hillary clinton because of the email scandal. we've seen polling numbers last few days pick up against her. what we're seeing in fox news exit poll on national level, is hillary clinton honest and trustworthy? that was the question given to voters. 37% saying yes. 60% saying no. so going into today, and at end of the day for several states that is affecting hillary clinton. now the same question asked by donald trump. the republican candidate for president. is donald trump honest and trustworthy. well, he actually went a little bit higher in the untrustworthy category, 64%, 32% saying yes. both candidates, lou, as you can see right here having issues

when it comes to dishonesty and being trustworthy as candidate. want to move over to what we're seeing as far as demographics, breakdown of who is going out voting today on percentage basis. we're still seeing 70% number here for white voters but want to point you down to the hispanic number there. those who mark themselves as latino or hispanic voter. 11%, that is rise we're seeing over the 2012 election between barack obama and mitt romney. 12% black voters, 4% label themselves as asian. we're seeing a little bit of decrease in the black voter turnout from 2012 and increase in the hispanic vote from four years ago. this could be interesting as we watch some of the southern border states, think nevada, texas, arizona as well. want to move on to another specific question that was asked of voters as they were leaving the poll. candidate quality, the top quality, do they care about me? whether it is donald trump or

hillary clinton, do they care about my life? are they important to me? 15% said the candidate cared about me. 38% said they do believe their candidate, they voted for, could bring change and 22% saying that the right experience was very important and 21% saying judgment was important to them. these are issues, lou, that we're looking at about why they voted for who they voted for on national basis. next hour we break down some key states as polls begin to close, particularly virginia, north carolina, florida, back to you. lou: thank you. we'll start getting some of those closing at top of the hour. cheryl, thanks so much. we appreciate it. joining me the co-host of "the five," kimberly guilfoyle. >> great job by cheryl casone. lou: always. i think it is interesting to see the quality, the care about me, those numbers are not overwhelming, not to the degree

i would have expected. your thoughts? >> yeah, it is interesting when you see some exit polls. i noticed on a lot of these, says, okay, email scandal bothered a lot of people, over something like 60%, bothers them a lot or bothered them some. you look at other numbers like, trump, with women, said yes it bothered them but does it result in you choosing another candidate? there almost isn't a follow-up question. something could bother you or disturb you, but doesn't mean you still don't go out and vote or support that person. a few mixed messages on some of this. lou: does it surprise you apparently in these exit polls voters are saying more of them, think of trump as dishonest rather than hillary clinton who is under federal investigation still? >> yeah. i think that is. pretty surprising because that is not what we were seeing in the polling throughout this election period. people thinking that she was corrupt. that she was dishonest. that they bothered them in terms of whether or not she was trustworthy. this to me i think is very

perplexing number to say 32% honest for trump and then clinton 37%. but no, 60% trustworthy. that is portends the tale. lou: that is, that is truly some difficult to explain. as we move toward the poll closings we'll get a sense how powerful motivation that was or incentive within the vote. the corruption issue, does not seem to take quite the hold on voters according to the exit polls we would have assumed given relentless attack by trump on hillary clinton, and the fact that she is under federal investigation? >> is it surprising though? the fact of the matter remains we were reporting it and talking about it here at fox news but it

was largely ignored by the liberal mainstream media who did not put the stories out. devote ad very small percentage according to research polls and pew research of their evening broadcasts or of their coverage. you saw cnn in collusion essentially with the dnc providing debate questions for the town hall, et cetera. so and also just some of the things we saw with just back and forth about questions that should be asked to trump that should be proffered to him. so that i think is disturb tooing part of this which is the media bias which was essentially functioning as super-pac on behalf of hillary clinton. lou: a super pack, if you will, a wall, a blue wall around hillary as you correctly point out, stopping, blunting any attack on the part of her integrity or questions about her trustworthiness. it is -- >> unless you were watching fox or going online to get information for yourself, to educate and inform yourself about all issues, about the positions of the candidates and

about the content of wikileaks, of these emails and what was basically proven in terms of the direct collusion with some of the networks and also the dnc and campaign. lou: we'll see how this plays out but you know, you bring up wikileaks. all of t emails they delivered but, julian assange never delivered what he promised two months ago, which is the knockout blow, the one piece of evidence that would get, as he put it, hillary clinton put in jail. in fact now, he is saying that, establishment would never let donald trump win. it sound almost as if something has been bartered away here. >> right. that wouldn't surprise you, would it? the information, the knockout blow, never came. he was put off-line several times. efforts to thwart, hacking essentially into their server, taken off-line, flooded with

cyber attacks to prevent information coming out there. is lot to uncover and discover regarding this whole process. i'm sure we hear about it in the aftermath of election. i still think there will be information coming out against regardless outcome of election. lou: kimberly, great to have you here. >> great to be here, lou. lou: kimberly guilfoyle. trump telling fox that he is confident he will win self of the key states. >> i think we'll win iowa, ohio and new hampshire. we'll win a lot of states. who knows what happens ultimately but we're going to win. i think one that is interesting is michigan because it is not a state that has gone republican for many decades. lou: michigan and a whole bunch of other states will be very interesting tonight. states that could turn red. former reagan advisor kt mcfarland, former governor mike huckabee, former ambassador john bolt ton join me.

we have the answers now and we're less than 30 minutes away from the first poll closings, and first battleground state of virginia. just unand hour, two other major swing state polls closing, ohio and north carolina. stick with us for the results. we're coming right back. ♪ d car, truck, suv. that's smart. truecar can help. it's great for finding a new car, but you already knew that. it's also great for finding the perfect used car. you'll see what a fair price is, and you can connect with a truecar certified dealer. so, no matter what you're looking for... there it is. this is how buying a used car should be. this is truecar. ♪

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kt mcfarland, former arkansas governor, former republican presidential candidate, mike huckabee and former u.s. ambassador to the united nations, american enterprise institute senior fellow, john bolton, all three fox news contributors. give us a sense how you're feeling about this? we know it is going to be close. we know there are a lot of states here in play? >> what makes me really optimistic about the future of the country, and i can't predict what is going to happen tonight, but i think the the biggest problem, biggest national security threat to the united states is the fact that 40% of the american people never participated in elections. they may have had opinions but never showed up for the polls, never registered. the good news about this election, with all the mud and all other issues that we've had, people are engaged. everybody has an opinion. and what i watching to see tonight how many more people who are voting for the first time ever. that gives me great confidence about the future of the country. lou: how but, governor? >> i think if america wants a president who is wholly-owned

subsidiary of people who are not necessarily friend to the united states like saudi arabia, morocco, the u.a.e., qatar and many other middle-eastern nations, hillary is the right choice. they funded hundreds of millions of dollars to her through the clinton foundation. i guarranty you they didn't do that because they had charitable feeling. they have expectation of something in return. that ain't good for the u.s. that is not good option for the united states. lou: to me, one of the great conflicts in all of this in terms of the attacks of one candidate on another, are the democrats going after trump because of quote, unquote, russian connections, while she is directly responsible as, for moving 20% of u.s. uranium assets to the russians and clinton foundation receiving 145 million. in a lost quarters, i'm not suggesting this is what happens, that looks like a payoff to me. >> if i were vladmir putin sitting in my ornate office in

the kremlin, faced to the choice between two candidates i would vote early and often for hillary clinton. he has seen her. he took her measure of secretary of state four for years. he knows she has the same world view as barack obama. he knows she is weak when it comes to trying to use american influence. i much rather deal with her than somebody might actually say vladimir, go take a flying leap. lou: we have a senate hanging in the balance as well. less so the house. looks like republicans are in pretty good shape there. but your sense there is anyway to flip the senate for the democrats in this race? >> no, i don't think so. but one thing that will happen, if she does win, she is not going to be able to govern. she has so much baggage. she is so corrupt. and that i think it haunts her from day one of her presidency. that is why another reason to vote for trump. >> more baggage i have said than delta air lines. she comes with so much. i tell you the other thing. if you look at senate races,

senators who are in trouble, our candidates in trouble not the ones who wan with trump, they ran from trump, offending many voters they desperately needed. i hope maybe there will be people in the gop that get a little sniff of some caffeinated coffee over this, understand you nominate somebody with record votes, you circle the wagons around him and don't shoot guns and arrows into him. you stand with him and shoot arrows and guns at other side. lou: like the democrats do? >> like they do. they line up, they do. harry reid can say dumbest thing at podium out of politicians mouth, people a lot smarter like schumer, graciously smiling. you know inside they are dying. lou: that is the nicest thing i heard you say about senator schummer. john? >> this is very important point. we have senate elections right on knife's edge involving key national security people. my super-pac has been involved

with three, richard burr in north carolina, chairman of the intelligence committee, facing a democratic opponent who was executive director of the state chapter of the aclu, said one of our principle threats is american intelligence agencies. in new hampshire kelly ayote, a rising star on national security issues facing a democratic positive who not only doesn't know anything about national security, doesn't want to learn. in nevada, joe heck, iraq veteran seeking move from house to senate, very tough race against former democrat state attorney general who knows even less about national security. all of them, in very close races. this is going to have enormous impact on the debate. lou: and all three in battleground states, and republican nominee who is being undercut by a speaker of the house. i mean, to your point, governor, i mean this is, this is sort of a tough shred. >> this is the thing. donald trump has ignited and married up with grassroots national movement that isn't going to go away.

i think he is going to win but whatever happens, that grassroots movement is there, it's permanent and it is going to make sure, eventually, it gets the person it wants in the white house. lou: and, at this point, as we move forward, what is your sense of what is going to happen in the so-called romney strategy here? all of the 2012 states that romney won, trump needs to in addition to that, win pennsylvania, ohio, or florida or their equivalent. the equivalency is hard to find. >> i don't think the metrics are the same. i keep hearing all analysts say look what romney did? romney was totally different candidate appealing to very different constituency. romney appealed to the wall street crowd. trump does not. trump really appeals to the working class. romney most certainly did not. lou: hillary clinton sort of used up all of the wall street oxygen, what is the other thing that goes with oxygen?

oh, yes, money. >> most of it went her way from wall street. if people think the system is truly rigged by financial interests, media interests, government interests they can't support hillary clinton because she is married to all institutions that crushed their lives and have made this system so totally due plicates. hillary clinton used government for enrichment and protection. if she gets in office will use it to crush her enemies. she will make, i believe she will make richard nixon's enemies list look like invitation to sunday school party. it would be disasterous for future of the country. i say that not to be funny. because i believe it is true. >> i worked for richard nixon. she ain't no richard nixon. she is 100 times worse than richard nixon. >> exactly right. lou: we all bring with us a little history. john, you get closing thought here. >> this is the most tragic outcome if trump loses tonight, especially if he loses narrowly

because he didn't get adequate republican support. if he loses and we lose the senate, hillary clinton will get whatever she wants in terms of supreme court nominees and lower court nominees. if democrats get 50 votes in the senate and vice president, the filibuster is finished. she fills the scalia vacancy immediately. who knows what happens next. all of that which we might have avoided if we only stuck together as a part together. lou: if that were to be the case, would you you hold paul ryan accountable? >> i would hold everybody accountable who said that -- lou: talking about specifically the man who took the point at he betraying the party's nominee? >> i'm not sure he took the point. i think there were a lot of contestants for that role? lou: would he have the most prominent role? >> i think most -- lou: i think ambassador is being ambassadorial. >> think i comment was mistake. lou: john, thank you very much. that line of rhetoric.

we will leave you gazing at the bright sunset. thanks so much. >> thank you. lou: governor, thank you. >> thank you. lou: up next can the mainstream liberal media recover from the way they covered this election? something tells me maybe. "mediabuzz" host howie kurtz is here about how they covered and or covered up the election. we're minutes away from the polls closing in kentucky, indiana, georgia, south carolina, virginia and vermont. results coming in momentarily. trump and clinton holding election parties in new york city. historic night in america and state of new york did pretty good too. both candidates hailing from here, the empire state. we're coming right back. stay with us. we'll have the latest for you. ♪

lou: fox news chief political correspondent carl cameron now, he has been following trump campaign throughout from the very beginning. outside of the hilton hotel where the trump campaign will be watching the election. donald trump included. good evening, carl. >> hi, lou. we're inside. this is where it will all happen. donald trump hoping to take the lecturn in a few hours and declare victory. it's telling however his campaign manager, kellyanne conway not too long ago suggested that the trump campaign did not benefit from full resources and infrastructure of republican national committee. suggesting if he wins but only narrowly it would be a shame or lose it would be a shame, folks like mitt romney and john kasich and others, leaders of the republican party, didn't get behind him and somehow let him down in a break of loyalty and break of the their pledge. that sort of thing. that is not the kind of thing a winning campaign would be saying tonight. raises questions whether they

may be seeing out there in their key targeted battleground states, including michigan, pennsylvania, north carolina, and particularly florida. florida has had a big turnout in the southern part of the state, miami-dade county in particular. the trump campaign is looking for big turnout to win this along interstate four, the i-4 corridor as it is called, goes from daytona to tampa on gulf coast. there is big concentration of republican voters, if he does well there pull off a win in florida, east coast opportunity to start putting together possible victory. it will come down whether or not he could get lots of, lots of white voters out, particularly uncollege educated working class white voters to overcome what hillary clinton appears to be a pretty big turnout of black and latino voters. lou: both black and late tone know voters coming out appears, hispanic outperforming 2012

numbers which of course was less than 2008 when president obama first won office. carl, when you talk about the, the recriminations that you're hearing there, it's also very hard to dispute the fact that there has been very little coverage on the part of the national liberal media of the recalcitrance of the republican establishment in supporting donald trump in these recriminations as you put it, if i can style them as such, you began hearing when? >> just within the last couple hours. the, consequence of it for folks like paul ryan and the jeb bushes, and the john kasichs of the republican party, haven't been reported on perhaps because donald trump was actually not talking about them himself. if one presumes that he may start doing that, given his

staff is starting to message that. in your interview with mr. bolton there he seemed to have similar take on it, that for those republicans who didn't get behind the republican nominee, there is going to be a price to pay. now, the establishment will make an argument this is wake-up call for the republican party to get its act together across the board. lou: carl, throughout the evening we'll have a lot to discuss. we appreciate it. thanks for bringing us up-to-date. carl cameron, inside the hilton in midtown, manhattan. thanks so much. jennifer griffin is with the clinton campaign in new york and, good evening, jennifer? >> good evening, lou. it is interesting you and carl were talking about how the media had not covered the republicans who had not supported donald trump. but the:can campaign has. you saw it in a lost advertising in swing states like ohio, reaching out, using in fact traditionally republican themes

in those ads, particularly using air force officers who had in charge of nuclear missiles, those who had been in the charge of the situation room on 9/11, who were come out, traditionally republicans coming out to support hillary clinton. they tried to make a play for those republicans. it will be interesting to see when this is all over, whether they made inroads they hoped to into that community. what we're hearing so far from clinton aides and clinton officials they are seeing weaker than expected turnout in cuyahoga county, ohio. ohio is not looking good for them tonight, but what they are seeing, seeing latino voters come out in record numbers in places like north carolina. the vote there, 86% among latino voters. also among asian-american voters. so they are expecting that in florida, nevada, north carolina, that the latino vote will be the story tomorrow. back to you, lou. lou: thank you very much, jennifer griffin from clinton campaign party headquarters i

guess it would be styled. joining me now, media buzz on fox news channel, howie kurtz. great to have you here. >> hi, lou. lou: this has truly been i believe you may have had the best beat throughout this entire campaign to cover the national media, the national liberal media i would style it again. this is a campaign that has, it seems, weave seen the national media, built a wall between clinton and her attackers, and also at same time, lift her up in many respects. it has been decidedly, in the mind i would say of most peculiar campaign way in which it is covered. >> seen elements of excessive coziness between clinton campaign and journalists and -- lou: coziness to call up the chairman of the democratic national committee, email them, asking for questions? >> no, i would call that cheating. lou: that is what they did. >> i criticized donna brazile.

lou: when we say coziness trivializes what i think are really major ruptures in the cannons ofeth kicks of anyone who pretends to be journalist. >> no argument. i was not tarring everybody with the same brush. lou: i'm not tarring everybody. just those who did it. >> that is fairway to go about it. at same time when you look at coverage of donald trump, i've spoken about volume and imbalance of the negativity and sometimes outright hostility, yet, here we are, we'll find out next couple hours, lou, donald trump has a shot at winning the presidency. lou: absolutely. >> depending how things go. lou: despite all of that. >> despite the fact that three months ago the consensus among prognosticators that trump would head for landslide loss of barry goldwater proportions. two weeks ago, so much consensus that hillary clinton had this locked up. and yet he's still standing, win or lose, i think that he has been underestimated from the day he came down.

lou: no question, but in particular, whether underestimated or not, he has been unfairly treated by a media that is in -- we don't have to say they were biased. they have been in league with the democratic national committee, whether it be cnn, whether it be -- go down the list. donna brazile, the interim head of the dnc who replaced the fired head of the dnc because they were corrupt and worked against in collusion with the client and campaign imean, this goes on and on. it's not cozy. it's corrupt, is it not? >> there certainly are instances of unethical behavior, and that's a classic example giving the questions to one candidate in advance and repeated instances of this. at the same time, i would say, look, some of the reporting on donald trump was legitimate because he didn't come out of politics, and so there was a

lot of digging into business background. some of the problems donald trump had were caused because of his pension of controversy. on balance, if you put it on the scale, you have ten stories for clinton for every one of trump. lou: unfair treatment of any candidate in history in my lifetime. how about in your lifetime? >> i've never seen not just major mete media journalists and outlets tilt in the way i have against donald trump, i have never seen media journalists and critics defend this by saying donald trump is a different and potentially dangerous character, we have to have different standards against him. in my book, that is not journalism. we can disagree on the particulars, you have to be fair to both candidates. >> clear we've seen things change as a result of this campaign. national liberal media will never be the same. that is not going to change.

>> i would say its reputation is never going to be the same. lou: i don't think it can do what it once pretended it did, which is to fairly cover political candidates, i don't think there will be a discussion again. how you cannot look at "new york times," the "washington post," the abc, cbs, nbc, run them off, as you wish, it's just atrocious what they did, it's unforgivable. absolutely unforgivable. >> i hope there are lessons to be learned by journalist who have concept of fairness, this has been a sorry season for the media. lou: it has been, and you've covered it brilliantly. >> thank you. lou: and terrifically and steadfastly. thank you so much. howie kurtz. >> good to see you. lou: appreciate it. we're going to be taking a look throughout the evening at what has happened with the national liberal media. we're going to also be bringing in these results. they're going to be popping up here in about 35, 40 seconds. and as we do, we'll be going through and analyzing each of the results to see how they correlate to the exit polls.

always a dicey business if you will, because sometimes we get the correct answer from those who fill out those exit polls and red respond to those questi, and sometimes we get, i gue, the word is handled, and we'll see how that all works out. it is now 7:00 on the east coast. those polls, some of them, closing in just a half dozen states now, and we have race calls to make for you. fox news now projecting hillary clinton has won the state of vermont. and it's 3 electoral votes. fox news is also projecting donald trump has won the state of kentucky. picking up 8 electoral votes there. trump has also won the state of indiana, where running mate governor mike pence has worked tirelessly to bring his state into the trump fold. 11 electoral votes, and in

virginia, we can tell you that hillary clinton now has a lead over trump, although, it remains too early to project a winner there. it is also too early, according to our decision desk to say who will win the state of georgia. now that's something of a surprise at this early stage because there have been some polls, giving a comfortable lead to donald trump, so we'll have much more to say about that, but as of right now, it is much too early to say who will win the state of south carolina. again, hillary clinton winning vermont. donald trump winning both kentucky and indiana, and folks, the evening is now officially under way. and joining me, attorney eboni williams, washington times staff writer charlie hurt, both fox news contributors. what do you think so far? we've got three calls two, for trump, one for clinton and here we go! >> sure, i'm sure donald trump

and his supporters were happy to see indiana go his way. important for him. absolutely. i'm surprised to see georgia being tight. i think that will go trump's way when all the votes are counted. i think it's an exciting evening, lou. american people are saying despite all the negative commentary around this election. lou: what negative commentary? [laughter] >> where diget that from? you know what? this will be the highest populated voter turnout wve seen. that's great for america. >> you know, this turnout is remarkable. we're seeing it in battleground states, in a lot of quarters as eboni just said, charlie. what do you make of first these results and turn to turnout? >> in terms of turnout, you would think this kind of monster turnout would be a huge benefit for donald trump because he is this intruder. you know, he's the change agent, and you would think that would be helpful. the numbers in georgia have to be troubling to him because this is one of those early places, if he's going to have a problem anywhere, if he has a

problem there, he could have problems elsewhere, but i did see, and i don't know if this will hold up, some of the early -- lou: we should say the reason for that is the demographic makeup of the state which has been like so many states, particularly in the southeastern part of the country, transitioning demographically, and it actually is an analog for a lot of other states that he has to win. >> absolutely. and no matter what, georgia is still a very reliable republican state. but some of the early exits showed that hillary clinton was getting around 25% of hispanic vote. and if that's true and donald trump is able to get 15, 20, 25% of the hispanic vote, that is absolutely extraordinary, considering what the media has told us for a year and a half that he will not get a single hispanic voter; that somehow he hates hispanics and hates

immigrants. of course, it's all about illegal immigration, that's the issue he brought up. it is very important not only to voters in general but hispanic voters. that will be a sweet thing if he does better among hispanics than what we've been told. lou: what we're looking at early in terms of the african-american vote, he's registering. he's also, which is unheard of, we're going to see to what degree that holds up through the evening, but it is far better. we don't have a clear picture on the evangelical vote, so that is problematic. your thoughts on the rest of these states in particular? >> certainly. being a daughter myself of the southeast, knowing the demographics, they're changing and that's important. we saw in 2012, the gop put out the diagnostic report acknowledging the need to be effective, competitive there, and look, mr. trump is looking like some of that is taking,

resonating. we'll see in the end what that looks like in totality, but it will be important because if indeed the gop can play to those broadening demographics, that is a very encouraging sign for the party moving forward, and a good sign for america, i'm of the belief when all parties come to the table and compete, compete for the votes of the american people, that is good for communities. so i'm actually happy and encouraged to see that competition at play. lou: one of the things that we're looking at here in the broader exit polls is a 4% of the voting -- of the vote looks to be asian, we haven't even heard asians discussed in this entire, well, if you will, this circular analysis of the pundits and savants that have been left over here, and it's interesting to see them so pronounced. >> yeah, and the democratic party is built on these

little -- you know, they survived by dividing people by race, by dividing by gender, by dividing people, and the demographics, they've mastered the demographics to the nth agree, and obviously very successful in terms of running a party. but the think about donald trump was, people say issues weren't discussed in in this election, that is not true. lou: i couldn't agree with you more. >> he won the primary, and the reason he is fighting and within reach of winning tonight is because he ran a campaign about issues, and whether it was immigration, illegal immigration, rather, or the economy and national security, it was about issues, and that's what drew people to him. wasn't because, oh, i'm filling this color coded box the way the democrats do. if this is something that gets blown up in this election, america will be better. >> america will be. i want to say, this charlie, i

think you are describing identity politics. >> yes. >> you can get a bad rap. politics and reality in the sense, americans vote for people that put their agenda the the table, and so when donald trump does talk about an urban renewal plan that talks about bringing jobs and education and opportunities to black communities, i don't think that's a bad thing at all, actually. >> agreed. but at the heart of it, that's not racial politics, that's like how do we make everybody better. >> right, and whatever we call it, it's attractive and appealing to people. lou: to charlie's point, i do think there is this issue of slice and dice and box everybody, instead of broadly appeal to americans. there's no question that the differentiation in programmatic proposals which is a lot of the democratic party, and -- is an unfortunate way which the arc of american politics has been bent. for there to be success, i

think everyone has to move forward, and i love the fact donald trump throughout this campaign has talked about restoring prosperity to all americans. >> for everyone. lou: he didn't differentiate, and when he didn't differentiate, he was at his most eloquent. >> i will agree with that, certainly communities have certain needs, that is not a dirty thing to acknowledge. we can collectively -- >> the pejorative goes out what needs systemic, which are those needs are to be obviated by the policies directly in which policies, there's not even follow-up in the government to determine which policies have worked. i have no problem with, you know, with whatever program it is that makes america better. >> sure. lou: i have a real problem with spending trillions of dollars, not necessarily whether it be foreign or domestic, without knowing what in the devil the result of it is! >> called a bad investment, lou, i hate my tax dollars -- i

don't mind them going to -- lou: we'll spend money, we'll do, this tell me what is the result. does success matter in government policy? >> nope. lou: at this point in the history of this country, government policy can be anything the politician says without accountability. >> and the biggest loser in that fight would have been hillary clinton in this election. lou: well, you know, it's hard to attach her name to any one of these programs, frankly. she's left very few fingerprints through 30 years of experience in my humble estimation, there it is. >> incredible. lou: i find it fascinating following your counsel and analysis and i appreciate you both for being here. >> thank you so much, lou. lou: thank you, eboni, charlie, good to see you. results by the moment. the tally right now.

two states for trump, one for hillary clinton. how this night is shaking out so far and what she expects? moments away from two other major swing state polls closing. yes, take a guess, the big ones, ohio and north carolina. central to the trump strategy and, of course, that of hillary clinton as well. trump and clinton here in new york city, eagerly watching the incoming data on the historic results on this election night. stay with us, a lot more straight ahead. we are coming back forthwith. stay with us. i'd like to send 50 pizzas to france. oh hey! i'm just keeping the seat warm. but not for the president. for you!

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-- virginia, georgia, south carolina. but fox news has called three races, hillary clinton has won the state of vermont. no surprise there. donald trump has won the state of kentucky. fox news projecting these from just about the outset. trump also winning indiana. again, no surprise there. turning to the senate races, fox news now projecting that vermont's patrick leahy, the longest serving democrat in the senate will win, also projecting that republican senator tim scott of south carolina is beating, has beat, democratic challenger thomas dixon, and fox also projecting senator rand paul of kentucky, who dropped his own bid for the republican presidential nomination in february will win re-election to the senate. in georgia, republican senator johnny isaacson of georgia ahead of democratic challenger

jim marksdale but must garner 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff, and it is a little early to see where he is going to end up. finally we don't yet know whether indiana democrat evan bayh who retired six years ago will win back his old seat. he would have to defeat todd young. young is running ahead in the early-vote totals. so to go through this and get a sense where the senate is going. eboni williams, charlie hurt with me. eboni, the senate, 34 seats, most of the vast majority of them, defended by the republicans. and do you see the opportunity here? do you see that change in the balance of power that the democrats obviously want? >> look, absolutely the democrats could win it tonight but i think absent something

strong, they just need so many seats, that's what this comes down to. they would have to do overwhelming performance in order for that to happen. certainly this is the episode of riding the coattails of the top of the ticket. i'm not sure how strong the coattails are. mrs. clinton, we don't know, it's too early to tell. that would be what this comes down to. lou: charlie? >> with the turnout being so high, it makes it quite volatile, but i agree with eboni that the number of people that are going in there to vote against somebody doesn't necessarily -- i don't think hillary clinton had great coattails at all. lou: that's an interesting point because so much has been made of donald trump's coattails, and we see some evidence of it at the margin, without question, in some of the downtick races, but that fissure between the leadership of the senate and the house

and, of course, for a while, at least, the rnc has made it difficult to see how that's going to play out here and who may be at risk as a result. >> that is a risk they evaluated. republicans made a decision to separate themselves from the nominee, and it could backfire on them tonight. we certainly could see that. also, if mrs. clinton is to win tonight, what will this senate look like in terms of holding her accountable? i think that's a very, very important moving forward, as well with the house seats. that would be an opportunity for the gop to say this is the ability to have opportunity and push forward with the agenda and reestablish themselves, if that's the outcome. >> there is going to be soul-searching in the republican party, did they not do enough? should they have done more? the senate candidates and party officials to support. we saw today where george w. bush declined to vote for president. that's kind of a -- sort of an amazing thing.

i get you don't want to support and campaign for him, he's kind of retired from all that. my goodness, you don't vote for anybody for president? that is stunning to me. lou: particularly, in the case of george w. bush, let's be straightforward here. he was repugnant to millions of republicans who are the ones who held their nose and voted for him and voted for him for re-election in 2004. >> yeah. lou: it's difficult to see those kinds of -- >> senator lindsey graham voting for the third-party candidate. i agree with you. lou: lindsey graham has become a bit of a -- you know, i mean, independent, if not eccentric soul. working closer with the obama administration in foreign policy than working with the republican party? >> one thing i think is interesting going through the states that have been called. you had rand paul and marco rubio, both of whom at one

point looked like they were not running for re-election, obviously. and that would have made both of those seats would not have been a guarantee for republicans, and both of them, obviously, looks like rand paul, that race has been called, and rubio, looks like the polls --. lou: he's running behind patrick murphy. very early numbers. hillary clinton has just -- well, she's sitting where she is at 5:37, still behind donald trump. it's going to be quite a night. >> we're learning about our country tonight. i feel like i'm getting a real education what voters are telling us and i look forward to taking that in all of us collectively working together to implement the will of the people and it's a really, really nice opportunity. lou: and that is the point, irrespective of all that has

been discussed in the agenda, the debate at every level in our political system. the people are speaking and that's the wonderous part of this evening. >> whatever happens, the voice, the message that donald trump gave to millions of americans, that's not going away. that message is still there. if republicans are smart, they'll pay attention to it. lou: as a matter of fact, that voice may rise considerably depending on the results here tonight. >> that's right. lou: eboni williams, charlie hurt, thank you so much. >> thanks, lou. lou: up next, republican campaign strategist tony sayegh and lee carter join me. we're moments away from two major swing state poll closings, ohio and the great state of north carolina. i did say that right, eboni? >> you sure did. lou: more results coming up next. stay with us. the pursuit of healthier. it begins from the second we're born.

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. lou: welcome back. we're getting more results, more data from the critical battleground state of florida. trump is running ahead, he has about 16% of the vote in at this point, and he is now actually he's slipped back a bit, and marco rubio leading democratic challenger patrick murphy in the great state of florida. and as you can see in the presidential race, it's tighter than a tick as someone famous once said and looks like we're going to see a little more separation in the senate race. joining me laura ingraham, the editor in chief of light zet, host of one of the most popular radio programs, the laura ingraham show, also fox news contributor, great american. >> good to see you, skwlu this is quite a night. quite a contest. so many issues moved to the

floor by donald trump. it's a real test of those issues and currency? >> what i think we're hearing from people and it's all premature, of course, but we hear, well, if only so and so had been the nominee, if only -- lou: they don't say that in front of me. >> you'll bat them down, too. we're going to hear a lot of that, perhaps. when someone can't win a state which he was a sitting governor, or a popular youthful senator, i'm talking about rubio and bush, the idea they were going to take on the clinton machine and somehow cut through all of that, and energize the people? look, donald trump, regardless of whatever happens tonight, we don't know. a lot of the exit polls, i'm not a fan of the exit polls, i think they've been skewed in the past. lou: you just went from love them to not a fan of them. >> what we should understand is trump has been a political astringent.

he's wiped away the face of the republican party, and you kind of see where everything is now. you see the face of the party which is much more populist, it's populist, it's much more, it's skeptical of bigness, big government, big business, big consultants, big media and they're back to basics of what works in the free market and what works in small business, and they're very skepticalf the big institutions, and trump really -- he exposed that, and wikileaks and so forth did as well. but the bushes not campaigning with trump. won't it be nice for the republicans to have a former popular republican president actually support the nominee? what an idea. that would be a great idea. lou: the only nominee supporting donald trump, senator bob dole, the former majority leader. >> right, world war ii hero. lou: and a real hero.

>> amazing man all around. lou: that shows so much character, and character is in such deficit. >> we don't know where the numbers are going to go in florida. let's say they hold. lou: i can barely stay up with the minute. >> they're close. think about if marco rubio and jeb bush had taken their hispanic, latino roots and understand jeb bush is fluent in spanish and went down and campaigned with trump in little havana and said we don't agree with everything, he loss of this country, you're going to have more money in your pocket if this man is president. the democrats fight tooth and nail for the nominee. she could do anything, and has done everything, and mrs. clinton is the greatest. great aspirational language. lou: one major democratic figure -- >> never. lou: mrs. clinton. >> has bad judgment. unethical. lou: she's not accomplished much. >> but lou, the republicans are in the circular firing squad

and they're on their moral high horse to losses. that's what they do. and so trump is up against, and he's done really well and doing well, up against big media. the big gop establishment. of course, the obamas, the clintons, the bushes, academia, hollywood, think about that and think what he's doing. he is neck-and-neck. lou: did you mention wall street? >> excuse me, wall street, all the big banks, neck-and-neck with florida in a state like florida. that's amazing, tells you a lot about the country. lou: separated by about 20,000 votes, early, early -- >> we haven't had the panhandle in yet. lou: and the fact of the matter is, as close as this race is and that he has to win it. >> yep. lou: has to win florida. >> florida is critical. he doesn't have to win it but really, really hard if he doesn't. lou: the matter of probabilities, possibility is another. i was looking at probability. that would not be a pleasant state to lose at all.

>> no. lou: your sense of the senate. are we going to see the republicans hold it? >> i think there's a couple of seats in jeopardy, pat toomey in pennsylvania never helped trump, and trump had a great blue collar appeal in pennsylvania, see where that all plays out. regardless whether he's close or wins, that message of economic renewal for the middle class focusing on the hard-working, patriotic middle class workers, that was popular in pennsylvania. how are you a senator, running for re-election, and he's a vulgarian. i don't understand this. if republicans want to win, they better decide, we need x number of votes, do we go door-to-door? bring people to the polls? at rallies? sign up with e-mails. this is the stuff you do when you want to win. that's for the trump people, the senators, all of it. i think a party is not a party unless it represents the will o had a lot of republicans who

are the high and mighty republicans like kasich, jeb bush, rubio saying i'm going vote for trump but didn't want to mention his name. toomey, ayotte, mccain, lindsey graham voted for mcbluffin -- i keep saying that, mcmullin. lou: it's satisfactory. >> you know what i mean. lou: he collapsed in the state of utah. >> that's a shock. lou: that was a mitt romney? >> a hot poker in the eye of trump because everybody has to put their personal feelings aside. this is about america. this is about the court. hillary clinton was unchecked power, being able to pick all the judges, all the prosecutors, all the agency heads. lou: do you think where we're headed here, if trump does win tonight, if he loses, the reality is this party has to take a good, strong, hard look at itself, they're making it

much too difficult for themselves. >> what they're doing is already -- votes aren't even counted and you hear the bushies, the bushies are saying only if we do amnesty -- my gosh! your push for immigration amnesty is what brought us donald trump. lou: excuse me for just a moment. polls have closed in three more states representing another 38 electoral votes. fox news projecting donald trump will win the state of west virginia and its 5 electoral votes and wins it by a wide margin. fox news also reporting hillary clinton has a lead now in north carolina, although it is much too early to declare a winner in the key battleground state. precincts in the important durham and columbus counties extended voting time past 7:30. clinton's campaign had called on officials to extend those voting hours after delays had

been reported. it's also too early to declare a winner in the bellwether state of ohio. trump had led clinton in preelection polls for the past three weeks. so there we are, a lot going on, and at the same time, much too early to call. your reaction? . >> well, north carolina is a state that's changed a lot. with immigration and its people think when it's north carolina, south carolina, the same states, they couldn't be more different as a political makeup. hillary clinton was predicted to win chapel hill, raleigh-durham. much more liberal enclave and the more rural western parts of the state are going to go to donald trump. that wasn't a surprise. see where this turns out. i am heartened by this, the fact these are this close.

these are close states that we saw of course, mitt romney take some of the states, these are close states with a candidate that did not have the backing of the former presidents of the united states. republican presidents except for dole just ran for the presidency, didn't have their support. that's amazing. lou: the only nominee to support trump, by the way, we should point out that deficit governor romney in 2012 did come back to win the state of north carolina. don't make any assumptions what we're showing you in terms of results, because as they say, it's early days. it may not feel that way, early days. >> one thing that's interesting, lou, in thinking of organization of campaigns, and this is something they think you and i talked about before. when you have the big rallies, what the clintons are really good at and been good at it, the obamas too, someone comes

into a rally, you get e-mail address. when you come into the door at the rally, would you like to volunteer? what can we do? we're at the rally, no one is getting our name. we want to help, knock on doors. there wasn't enough of that. >> the ground game is good for 1-2%. >> willing participants. they're willing people, you have to sign them up and get them lined up. lou: laura ingraham, great to see you. new voter polls showing what voters are thinking. cheryl casone analyzing exit poll information, good evening again, cheryl, what have you got? >> actually, i was interested to hurrtalk about north carolina and the issue of immigration, we are getting data now with that, i want to start with the issue of the economy. one of the things we've seen, of course, in 2012 and 2016, the economy is the number one issue. but your view of the nation's economy and had is a national poll that we're looking at

here, 35% positive. 62% negative. that's an improvement from what we saw in 2012 when it came to the national economy, 77% of americans said the national economy was in bad shape. americans peel better about the issue of the national economy. now let's look at these states. we talked about georgia, the polls closing 34 minutes ago -- not georgia, virginia. take a look at virginia and the e-mail issue with hillary clinton did that affect those voters in the state of virginia? 61% said it did bother them. 37% saying it did not bother them. so that is virginia. i'm going to get to georgia in the next hour. north carolina and immigration, lou, you were talking about that. chomping at the bits to jump into the show. take a look at this. in north carolina immigrants to the united states, do they help the country, hurt the country? take a look at this.

65% said they help the country. remember, north carolina has more of electorate when it comes to the voting bloc that college educated, graduate educated. those are business owners, 29% saying it hurts the country. tonight move onto the state of ohio. you were also talking, lou, with laura about the state of ohio. take a look when it comes to the job situation in ohio, manufacturing, activity, loss of jobs in ohio and the car sector. 38% saying job situation is better. 27 saying it's worth. 35% say it's the same. why do you think it's interesting? if you look at john kasich, lou, by the way, we're finding out he's going to be giving a major speech about the gop two days from now, whether or not donald trump win or loses, john kasich is giving a major speech in ohio, you can bet that's the issue of jobs in the state of ohio, and also i want to say one of the top google searches today was immigration. two major searches, abortion

and immigration, the top searches on google today, immigration, lou. lou: cheryl casone, thank you so much. keep us up to date on the exit polls. joining me pollster communications expert lee carter and tony sayegh, republican campaign strategist, fox news contributor. great to see you guys on an important and exciting night. we're looking at. look at this. this race in florida is going back and forth, again, as i keep repeatig and apologize for repeating it, but it is so early, but to see the contest that's under way there. we had a sense going into, this it's going break one way or the other. that hasn't happened, are you surprised how close and how volatile it is? >> i'm not surprised that florida is this close at this point. we don't have the panhandle back in, which is traditionally going to be the place where most republicans -- lou: we're going to take care of that shortly. >> that's right.

and i think everybody saying with miami dade reporting so strong with the hispanic vote it was going to be a landslide, we're not seeing. that too close to call. all the polls all along, today, yesterday was a couple points, .2 ahead for trump, day before ahead for hill army. this isn't surpriseing. >> blaise ingoglia has been saying all day long, he believes that the republicans will overcome an early deficit created by early voting which is typical in florida, will overcome it and hopes of course, win for the trump campaign. >> that's right, lou, and the republican deficit this time versus 2012 in early voting was significantly less and barack obama only won the state in 2012 by .9%. clearly, we have built-in advantages. duval county is overperforming, jacksonville. hillsborough overperforming for republicans and though the

broward turnout is higher, it's underperforming for democrats by 4 to 6 points. you are seeing that in the fluctuation of numbers when periodically precincts report, hillary is up by a point. more precincts reporting, trump is up by close to two. this is what we're going to see for a while. florida had a ground game for republicans. there is a huge misnomer because the trump campaign didn't have the same class of campaign as hillary clinton there wasn't organization. republican party of florida had it, the rnc had it. clearly they were ready for the battle. lou: the rnc pointing out today that the ground game dwarfs what mitt romney had in 2012, something like 860 community organizers -- not community, organizers out for romney.

this year, 7600 organizers in the field for the republican national committee. admittedly those are working primarily downticket and not necessarily all for trump, but he has to be a beneficiary at least of the margin of the worst of that? >> absolutely, and i think that when we talk about the ground game. the ground game is so important, what people need to understand about the ground game is it's not -- it's a traditional way that people get out to the polls, other operational technique, early voting, lot of things we haven't seen before. the ground game is absolutely critical, the message is really, really important. trump did have a message that resonated with voters, you got to hope that's enough to catapult. he did have a ground game with the rnc. hillary's ground game was extraordinary. lou: just like obama's was? >> yeah. >> and obama, he won narrowly in a lot of the critical states and what trump has that romney doesn't is significant enthusiasm and a broadened base

that i'm going to caution the viewers, not to read too much into exit polls, i'm not sure they'll pick up on the nuances that trump has been able to generate. closet trump voters, new trump voters, people that aren't as forthcoming in support of donald trump. if you're not going to do it in traditional poll, you're not going to do it in exit poll either. lou: that's a very good point you're making and important caution to all when they're looking at these numbers. a great deal of science has applied to come out with the exit polls and the analysis and the conclusions, but it's not a perfect science and it's, again, as i've been saying throughout, i'm repeating my repetitions now, it's early days. >> keep in mind, the exit polls, they're released about 5:00, they were finished about 3:00. we're not getting the afterwork voter. the voter going at 5:00 or 6:00. lou: which is important.

>> it is. lou: as you look at what is happening in terms of the turnout of hispanic voters in florida, you know, a great deal of attention and importance has been attached to that as well. how significant is it and which way it will break and can it be overcome? because ingoalia pointed out how significant that is but not the impact it might have on the result. >> for starters, viewers have to know that donald trump is getting essentially the same percent of hispanic voters as mitt romney. as much as there was the idea the floor was going to fall out from already low 2012 performance by the within candidate, that hasn't happened. number two, the hispanic vote is up 10%. if the african-american turnout is lower, all this does is make up for lost ground from the traditional obama coalition, it's not a net gain necessarily for hillary clinton, which is

why we have to be extraordinary careful as these numbers come in, lou. naik make no mistake, florida is as close to a must-win for donald trump as any other state. let's suppose he might not make it, there let's look how close it is in michigan and pennsylvania and others. this might get kicked up into the upper rust belt states, in a cluster of issues where donald trump has been building the campaign all along. lou: i don't think there is any doubt, i won't hesitate to tell you, be prepared for a long evening. we are, and you get the last thought here on this. >> i think it's too close to call. it's too early to caught. i think every vote has not been counted. we need to keep our eyes on florida, north carolina. i am really interested to see what's happening with pennsylvania and michigan, i think donald trump could have a surprise there. if he has a surprise, there we're seeing a total changing landscape of the electoral map going forward. lou: that's what makes this

evening so exciting when we have the privilege of reporting on election night to you. doesn't get much better than this. democracy in action, history in the making and it's a hoot. lee carter, we appreciate it. tony sayegh, thank you very much. >> thank you. lou: up next after freedom religious attacks could the evangelical vote be the key to a trump victory? we'll talk with tony perkins, evangelical leader pastor robert jeffress coming up next. the polls for florida and north carolina have just closed, we're looking at the results, too early to declare a winner but getting more interesting by the moment. florida, also, it's a close one. 53% of the precincts reporting, and as of right now, we're talking about 2.3% differentiation, but don't worry about it, it's just about 5 million votes. this is tight. up next, two more battleground state polls close

in 15 minutes. manufacturing states michigan and pennsylvania, did trump's job message resonate there with voters? we'll find out. stay with us, we're coming right back.

. lou: election night in america! we're going to have a new president-elect when all of this is said and done, and we're far from saying or doing

all that we need as you see there. florida, donald trump has opened up his lead again. it is very, very early. a little over half of the preci. too early to declare a winner in north carolina as well. but we have data and we love data. fox has called four raises so far, hillary clinton winning vermont, trump winning kentucky 8 electoral votes. trump winning indiana, 11 electoral votes. trump winning west virginia and 5 electoral votes. after that, it's too close to call. joining me tony perkins, the past the family research council. pastor robert jeffress, member of the faith advisory council for donald trump. pastor first baptist church in dallas. great to have you with us. tony, to you first, if i may, and tell me where the evangelical vote is and where

it's going to have its biggest influence? >> well, lou, it looks like the evangelical turnout based on the exit polling is going to be slightly higher than it was for mitt romney which tells me that evangelicals were coming home despite the opposition from some evangelicals. keep in mind that donald trump unlike mitt romney, mitt romney had indifference from evangelicals, donald trump had outright opposition from some. but as he made his way through the campaign consistently talking about the issues of religious liberty, of the supreme court, pro-life justices, picked mike pence as running mate, he won a lot of them over. it was like the members of friendship baptist number two being invited to home coming at friendship baptist number one. they came home for the home coming. lou: pastor, your sense of where it's most important. we're looking at north carolina and florida. how important is the evangelical vote there?

florida absolutely critical, i would say that north carolina is critical for him as well. >> well, i got to talk to mr. trump and melania today, he told me he's focused on florida and north carolina. lou: good. >> he asked me how i felt the evangelical vote was going to turn out for him. i said in the last debate, mr. trump, you made the strongest commitment to a conservative supreme court, and you also made the strongest defense of the pro-life position of any republican nominee in history, including mccain, romney, reagan or either of the bushes. that's why evangelicals are turning out. and like tony said, turning out more than romney. i think that's very encouraging. lou: and let's be clear, you have been very careful in his effort to energize, to animate evangelicals and tony perkins as well. tony, you came home. we've got a race to call here

for donald trump in south carolina even though the numbers are a little upside down there. he is being declared the winner because of the early numbers. he is declared the winner by fox news, we are projecting him as the winner in south carolina. so he's off to a pretty good start. tony, your thoughts right now on -- let me ask you the same question as robert jeffress. where do you think the evangelical vote can be most important, most effective for donald trump? >> well, i think some of the key swing states. i spent the last week, i've had our frc action had a bus in north carolina, we have gone to all 100 counties speaking primarily to evangelicals, social conservatives reminding them of what's at stake in this election. and lou, what it came down to,

there are issues, you and i have discussed this over the past couple of months that gave evangelicals pause. when you looked at platforms, you look at what robert said, have you never had a presidential republican nominee do what he did in that last debate describing late-term abortion, he was going to appoint pro-life justices, if he wins the white house, that could be the most important moment in presidential campaigns that he did that. lou: tony, thank you so much. pastor robert jeffress, thank you. appreciate it, gentlemen. and good luck through the evening. up next, monica crowley and matt schlapp join me as we seas the results tonight. you saw the numbers in south carolina move higher for donald trump and support the fox news projection, donald trump also winning the state of south carolina. watching the state of florida, of course, a tight race there and gets tighter, and now hillary clinton has moved into

the lead with just about 71% of the precincts reporting. we're watching it minute-by-minute, and two more battle state polls about to close. 8:00 p.m. eastern, michigan and pennsylvania. this is getting exciting, isn't it? trump's appeal to bring manufacturing jobs back win over enough voters in michigan? we'll find out next. stay with us. we'll be right back. it begins from the second we're born. because, healthier doesn't happen all by itself. it needs to be earned every day. using wellness to keep away illness. and believing a single life can be made better by millions of others. as a health services and innovation company optum powers modern healthcare by connecting every part of it. so while the world keeps searching for healthier we're here to make healthier happen.

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lou: two battleground states we are closely watching it's a tight race in florida. 29 electoral votes at stake and some say donald trump's victory in the balance. 15 electoral votes in north

carolina. joining me, monica crowley and matt schlapp. let me ask you first of all, we are watching a back and forth in florida and north carolina that is remarkable. what do you see? >> in terms of florida we are waiting on the panhandle. those polls close a little later. that is a traditional republican stronghold. so while mrs. clinton seems to be edging ahead in florida we'll wait for those numbers to come in. north carolina by a razor thread. here we are with these numbers. i think donald trump will enter out in north carolina. lou: matt? >> i spent 34 days in florida in a recount.

it's a complicated state to watch how the returns come in. even the secretary of state's website is not populating with numbers yet. the other station in 2000 started projecting too early. hough 2004 wasn't a good experience either. >> you talk about this race. republicans haven't won a battleground state for 1 years. it's been a long time. tonight we are talking about battleground states close and in the mix. i want to win these battleground states, and right now it's a cloud of dust. lou: donald trump has taken on the establishment of the republican party as well as the democratic.

he mass been attacked from every corner of our socioeconomic system and he's in a life and death * struggle. >> donald trump is someone who has never done this before. he he seasonally had no money relative to her. he had no campaign relative to her. and the fact that he's running even or even ahead again the clinton machine with $2 billion is astonishing. >> a lot of people still voting in the other time zones. nevada, colorado, if you haven't voted, go vote. it could be the most important vote of your lifetime. lou: that is utterly an extraordinary evening. we are going to be following throughout. the very close count that is in north carolina, and the critical pivotal state of florida. monica crowley, thanks so many

for being with us. matt schlapp, appreciate it. neil cavuto continues our special election coming tonight. please stay with us. neil: florida, they are expecting a barn burner and it looks like that's what's happening. if they were expecting a tight race back and forth, it appears to what we have gotten. indiana, kentucky, south carolina are the big wins for donald trump. right now vermont for hillary clinton.

west virginia for donald trump. and add it all up. republicans typically have an early edge because the first states to report are conservative in nature. the small sum for the electoral vote is just the nature of the beast. north carolina and ohio are too big to count yet. the popular vote with early reads rear getting from the early states shows about an even-steve' race and they are separated by about 3 points which was about the latest poll gap between hillary clinton and donald trump. way too soon to gauge what these states are telling us. we can teletell you will how tight the presidential race is no seats have changed hand in the united states senate yet. it's still early. the rule of thumb for the

democrats to take control of that body, if hillary clinton were to win, tim kaine would break that tie. now we can give you a read on what we have been able to do and see. it's kind of going like this. fox news can project donald trump will be picking up the state of tennessee. hillary clinton has picked up as expected the state of rhode island. we are going to be rifling through these. these are calls we feel comfortable making. sometimes when you see the breakdowns in mississippi, a republican state or it has been going for the republican. oklahoma, also in keeping with that. as we rifle through some of the other 17 state c