hi there. i'm kristen sze. welcome to our show called "getting answers." we're getting answers for you in real time. we'll talk to the newly representative barbara lee. first, to talk about the election, an expert in elections and political norms and regulations. bruce cane joins us. thank you for spending time with us. >> glad to be here. >> let's start here. former vice president biden and senator harris are expected to speak o to the nation. we've heard she'll go first at 5:00. they've not called pennsylvania

for the democratic party. so what do you expect him to say? >> i'd be surprised if he's going to get out in front of the networks. that hasn't been his pattern to date. given how close the edges are, i think it would be wise to wait for others to declare victory. he has publicly, what is true, which is everything is trending in the right direction. unless they have really solid information about the remaining ballots, it's probably to just stick with that line. >> all right. do you have any insight into why the call hasn't come yet? help our viewers understand where the uncertainty is, right? is this just extra, extra precaution or is this something that pennsylvania might be still in doubt. >> there's always a question. until you lock at the ballots, you can't know for certain what

those ballots say. the official count isn't in yet and yes, once you know that there are a certain number of ballots that come from an area that up to this point has voted overwhelmingly democratic. until you've actually counted them and ver fight it, then you want to get out in front of it. it's an extremely narrow margin when you start declaring there will be victory, you have to realize there will be recounts and lawsuits. so all you can say at this moment in time it looks like we've got the victory but beyond that, you can't say anything. >> all right. well, speaking of lawsuits, i want to focus on the latest one in pennsylvania. as expected, today filed over the ballots that came in during the three-day extension ordered by the pennsylvania state supreme court, so the trump campaign filing went straight to the u.s. supreme court. is that unusual? don't these suits usually have

to start in the lower courts? >> yes, they do. and i think it would be a huge mistake, not that the supreme court is asking me, but i think it would be a huge mistake for them to jump in. not only they've already weighed in on this issue, and a lot of voters were relying on the opinion they gave before, which, you know, basically said it's up to the states. the time where they turned it down was in wisconsin, federal. they believe the state should be deciding these things. i'd be surprised if the supreme court would take on such a controversial issue without allowing the state courts to view it first. >> how about this particular supreme court with the makeup of the justices? are there experiences in the supreme court that would also create some pause or suspiciouses, if you will, in

this partisan environment? >> it doesn't take much to cause suspicion. it's fair to say that several of them, i think roberts and amy coney barrett and possibly also kavanagh were all involved in the 2000 contest in various way, so yeah, that's reason to be very worried, because they've been through this. hourve however, it was a different case that involved federal issues. you've had different precincts using different rules to determine whether or not a paper ballot was a simple ballot or was it a ballot volt. we fixed a lot of those problems. so it's not clear what the constitutional issue -- in order for the federal government to get involved, there has to be something like a 14th or fifth amendment to challenge. it's not obvious what that is right now. >> the things that the president has talked about doing or has

already done, help our viewers understand what's actually inside and what's outside the norm -- or the law. lawsuits and recounts are not at all uncommon in tight races. >> that's right. there's a lot of things that the president says that are not factually true. we've known that for four years, there's nothing new there. the question is do they actually have any hard evidence that there's some violation that there really is fraud. if they have it, can they prove it? you know, that's really the key thing. he is within his rights not to concede. he is within his rights to sue. he is within his rights to ask for a recount. he can do all those things. what are not within his rights are to cause people to have violent protests to try to intimidate the people who are doing the counting to in any

way, shape, or form to try to create chaos in the country. that's not what -- within his job, ok. so but he can do all these legal things. remember that donald trump has sued his way into millions, right, that he does this all the time. he's following his mo, but most of the constitutional lawyers who study this very closely as yet do not see a claim which is valid. >> and you know, in any presidential race, i think what the losing candidate says after they've lost is really important. people have been circulating john mccain's concession speech in which he was very gracious and said he would support president obama and gracious towards president clinton. what does that do in terms of bringing the nation and a divided electorate together? >> it would be a very positive

step. wyoming you. the that would be the best thing for donald trump to do. on the other hand, if you ask bruce, would you take all your money in your walt and bet that he's going to do it, i'd say no. and neither would you. so the reason he might not be completely problematic on this is that he may want to worry about his legacy a little bit or he may be worried that intag nicing things, which could make his situation, which is already dire, 400 million dollars of debt, potential lawsuits all over the place and maybe if he wants people to go easy on him he'll try to be a little gracious and concede and pass the stimulus package. but again, i would not bet all the money in my wallet and i bet most of your viewers wouldn't, either, that he's going to do that because that's not just his

genetic code. >> i'm losing better, anyway, so i better stay away from that. i want to look at the bigger pictures. what does a close race suggest about the two political parties right now and how americans see them? >> well, i think the best thing we could say is oi there's some serious divisions in it. along gender, race, geographic,, occupational lines, etc., and some of these things are going to take a long time for us to work out, particularly the whole role of manufacturing in the midwest and what's going to happen with automation. these are serious problems. we're in a very transitional period. we've had a lot of change. globalization, the rise of

certain social media, all the innovations that's coming out of technology. it's understandable that we really don't know what we're doing in this period, but the last thing we need is to pour gasoline on the fire. we don't need to do that and unfortunately, that is his m.o. chaos, more chaos and obviously an tag niegz people. we're going to have a struggle. no matter what, unless the democrats really get lucky in georgia and win those two senate seats, the odds are you're going to have to deal with a republican senate. even if you get those two senate seats, all those people are going to be very worried holding on to these seats. however much we may like the green new deal or some of the ideals, the california ideals that we embrace, the rest of the country may not be ready for it. the democrats learned in 2008,

2010, that if you get too far ahead of the american public, you could lose control of the congress and nancy pelosi's out of a job and you're dealing with a hostile republican caucus. my sense is that biden was there in 2010 when baker, etc., caused a lot of problems. i'd be surprised if he's going to do something that dangerous. i think he's -- politically dangerous, not what -- the merits of the policy. i'm just talking about the politics. i think what he's going to try to do is focus on covid, doing a good job on covid, doing something about getting relief to people who are suffering from not having a job as a result of covid and i think probably he's going to find some common ground issues to work on first. that's what i get. >> common ground. that's something we all hope to find. bruce cane, thank you so much for your insight. appreciate its. good talking to you. all right, folks. coming up we'll talk to barbara

lee on what she thinks happens next and the significance of kamala harris, whatever her next step is and we'll take a look at the republican side about

taking a break on the air but the conversation continues on facebook live break clort. >> welcome back. we're joined by barbara lee. first we want to share our conversation with lonnie chen today. he's a stanford hoover institution fellow and has served on an advisor to the national republican senatorial committee. we'll talk about what happens next. >> if you were advising president trump, we know that joe biden is going to address the nation tonight. if you're advising the president on how to handle the next 24 to

48 hours, what would you say? >> well, if i were advising him, i would stay the results are pretty clear with where we're headed in this election is pretty clear. joe biden will be elected the next president of the united states and, you know, it's difficult. it's not clear to me that he really would take the advice of even those around him who are urging him to restrain himself from wanting to do what he wants to do, which is to be more expressive about ways in which he believes he's been wronged. but the peaceful transition of power is core to our democracy. that is very important. and i'd urge him to respect the results of the voters and we'll see. >> all right. well, what would you say to republican lawmakers right now? do you think they have the obligation to echo the message that you just echoed. they're in a tough spot, right? the president says what he says on twitter and his surrogates say what they want to say on

some of the networks. some lawmakers have come out and said we're all in, fraud, illegal ballots. i've seen very few are starting to speak up. what would you say? >> i would hope that they would echo the message i just delivered, which was first of all, we do believe that every legally cast vote should be counted. if there is legal recourse, the president should exercise that recourse where he feels he has it. in a few cases that will be recount that is required by the state law. beyond that, to make she's accusations or to make claims that aren't substantiated, that's a problem. if they have evidence and want to present it in court, they're free to do so. the legal system permits them to too that. but to make accusations that undermine people's trust and faith in the democratic system this year that i think has worked pretty darn well, that's

something they shouldn't do. >> of course, the senate is still up in the air. leaning republican but the democrats could get the 50, plus the one from kamala harris if he becomes the vice president. do you see a different republican party emerging after this? >> you know, here's where i fall on that. there are some elements of trump's agenda, so things like focussing on working class americans, looking at trade policy critically, looking at the role of china critically. i think a lot of that stuff, people will continue to pick up on. what i hope will be gone will be some of the more kproesive influences of trump's rhetoric and the way in which he's talked about the political system and the way he's talked about his opponents, that part i hope doesn't remain. bud he's got a platform. social media, etc. to think him to completely go

away i think will be too much. >> all right. next. newly re-elected state representative barbara lieu

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on auto, home and renters insurance. become a member today. get an insurance quote at usaa.com/quote usaa. what you're made of we're made for as former vice president biden and senator harris get ready to speak to the nation tonight on the cusp of securing the white house, democratic lawmakers are reacting. joining us is barbara lee of oakland. thank you for joining us. >> happy to be with you. thank you for inviting me. >> i know as a democrat and a representative from oakland, senator harris's home town, as a woman of color i know this moment must be huge for you in so many ways, right? >> i am so excited and grateful. just on a personal level, you know kamala well and she's prepared. i got involved with politics

through the election or the campaign of the first african-american woman who was elected to congress, shirley chisholm. that was 52 years ago. now we have this african-american woman, this african-indian woman now hopefully soon as the votes are counted, as our vice president. the country will benefit. this is about regaining the vote of our country and i know she and our president could be -- mr. biden, president-elect mr. biden, as soon as the votes are counted. make sure they crush this virus, because we cannot tolerate another month of this. too many people are dying. too many people are getting sick and we have to have leadership in the white house to address the pandemic. i know they'll do that as i'm freud and excited and can't wait for all of the votes to be

counted. >> looks like this democratic ticket is headed for a win. it will be a close one electorally, possibly, but not in terms of the popular vote. i know the democrats had hoped for a vote that would reflect a total repud i guess of the president. it's fair to say the vote fell short of that. what do you say to americans who worry how they would fare under this administration? >> let me tell you. i served during the economic downturn when president obama became president and vice president biden was vice president. and they led in a way that was very bold in terms of our recovery program, in terms of the recovery act and i saw them working and i know vice president biden has said and kamala harris has said over and over again, work for the american people, for the country, regardless of whether they're democrats, republicans,

ipd pepts, members of the green party, whoever. they're going to bring this country together. that's one of the important factors that here we have soon to be president and vice president who want to up fie the country and not continue with the divisive rhetoric and policies and the lack of leadership we've had over the past four years. >> where do you think the campaign and the democrats could have done better? for example, white women and latino men? >> weave got to wait and go the analysis. we can't say right now because we saw that most of the polling datas and the pollsters were not accurate in their conclusions. so i think it's really much too early to drill down until after the election, after all the votes are counted and cast -- well, counted now and making sure that we have a very

methodical analysis of what happened. we know that the polls were wrong. we know that something happened there. we can't make any conclusions, draw any conclusions right now? >> right. but any attempt to build bridges, you think would have to be predicated on what? >> to build bridges, we have to first come forward and try to unify this country and stop creating division. that's the first thing. we have a president who constantly tries to use wedge issues, talks about people in ways that are disrespectful. we have to have someone who understands different points of view and vice president biden and senator hairs understand that. they've made a commitment to bring the country together and we've got to help. we can't be out there doing just opposite in terms of di vicive kind of politics and rhetoric. we have to help bring the country together. we're all going to work toe make

sure that we crush this virus and help with our economic and health recovery, which is so important right now. >> how optimistic do you feel about a biden administration, should that happen, it's ability to govern? the departments did lose a few seats in the house and, you know, you're a long shot for 50/50 in the senate. you might get there. chances are looking better today than a couple of days ago. . what can the biden administration do to enact your most pressing goals adds a party. >> we've got to remember, the republicans and donald trump, they turned out a lot of voters, but we turned out a lot of voters, also. think joe biden, the biden-harris ticket has more votes than any presidential ticket ever in history. this was a large turnout. of course, trump voters turned it out. and s so we're going to have to look at how we can come together on

every issue. i would hope that senator mcconnell would understand that this covid-19 pandemic is hitting his constituents, hopefully with a different temperament with a joe biden in the white house, mitch mcconnell may rational and say yes, we've got to address the health and financial impact and work with us to address homelessness, to address the wildfires we have burning, for housing. we've got to move forward on our george floyd justice in policing act. we've got to look at our climate, and i think that president biden will have that type of steadiness and again i've worked it with him and i've seen how he negotiates. and i have the to have hope that we can get the republicans to come around and support the american people and all of the chems that we're faced with.

>> all right. should senator haste become vice president-elect harris, you're discussed as a top potential choice to replace her in the senate. a poll has you as one of the four names that has over 50% support right now from californians. how would you feel about stepping into that position? >> listen. i am watching these votes come in for biden and harris. believe me, that's what i've been focussing on for the last, i don't know how many months i've been campaigning hard in arizona and all over the place. i've been focused, quite frankly, on this election, and that's where we are and that's where i am, counting and waiting. >> i'm hearing ask me again maybe in a month or two when the dust settles. right now you're focused -- >> i can't wait until we have a biden-harris election.

>> congratulations on your re-election and thanks for

and thank you so much for joining us today on this interactive show "getting answers" a big voting update in arizona just in. about 12,000 votes have just been recorded. nearly 6,000 went to biden and just over 6,000 went to president trump. biden still holds a lead of nearly 40,000 votes. biden also gained a few hundred votes in pennsylvania during this half-hour where he's already leading and the rest of the ballots being counted are in democratic areas. no major updates. biden holds the lead in georgia

as well. president trump is protecting his lead tonight, as we come on the air, america waits. former vice president joe biden on the cusp of the presidency. slowly growing his lead over president trump in pennsylvania. if bide enwins pennsylvania, he wins the white house. will joe biden and senator kamala harris address the nation tonight? what our team is learning, mary bruce standing by joe biden also winning in georgia, not one by a democrat since bill clinton in 1992. that state bracing for a recount and what could mean for control of the senate. where this race stands in nevada and arizona tonight. theres movement there, too. while inside the white house, president trump's next move, vowing to pursue this process through every aspect of the law.