>> senate uncertainty. >> the people have spoken. >> the 2022 midterms finally come to a close as democrats win an outright majority in the senate. >> today's announcement is a reflection of my values. >> kyrsten sinema announces she has left the democratic party and registered as an independent. top republicans criticize former president donald trump for calling for the termination of the constitution. >> she is safe. she is on a plane. she is on her way home. >> brittney griner is released

from russian detention. >> this is "washington week." corporate funding is provided by -- >> consumer cellular helps people communicate and connect. to learn more, visit our website. >> additional funding is provided bythe yuen foundation. robert and susan rosenbaum. the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

yamiche: good evening and welcome to washington. raphael warnock the herschel walker -- beat herschel walker in the georgia runoff election. >> my mother grew up in the 1950's. taking someone else's cotton and someone else's tobacco. but tonight she helped pick her youngest son to be a united states senator. yamiche: his victory was also supposed to mean senate democrats would have a 51-49 majority. but today, senator kyrsten sinema announced she has left the democratic party and registered as an independent. she is known to be close to many senate republicans.

but she does not plan to caucus with the gop. president biden announced his administration had successfully negotiated the release of star basketball player brittney griner. she was part of a prisoner swap agreement for a russian arms dealer. joining me tonight to discuss this and more as the politics reporter for the new york times. and here in studio, the white house correspondent for pbs. in the senior legal afirs reporter for politico. and the washington post you know i'm going to start with you. there is so much going on. it was a roller coaster week for democrats. what more do we know about where this leaves them? what is behind kristin cinema's decision? >> the victory of warnock was significant. it finally broke the stalemate.

committees can now subpoena whoever they want. you will see more democrats sitting on those committees to move things faster. to approve judicial nominations. it is a little bit more procedural. mocrats are really feeling good. this is a big victory. all of these incumbents waiting for the first time in almost 100 years. and then you get this news. it is not going to change the dynamic. she said she has not going to caucus with the democrats. she does have an independent streak. they will continue to keep

working with her. republican see this as a moment or maybe they will be able to have inherent to the democratic caucus. maybe continue to work with her in a bipartisan manner. there will be influence there. yamiche: she will continue not going to those meetings. the white house was asked about this multiple times. the majority is not going to change. they are confident they can continue to win. they did not say if they were given a heads-up or if they were aware of this coming. but they really defended her and said she has voted with the president 93% of the time. they don't foresee that changing.

it is my understanding that democrats are looking forward to using the new suoena power to investigate corporate abuses. is this going to change the function of way things happen? >> they will be able to investigate it more thoroughly. get people to come forward and testified. i think senate democrats are looking at this as the house is going to be in republican control area everything that house democrats have been investigating while they have been i majority, it is something that senate democrats can take up area don't think you will see them leaning as much on investigating trump. but they can if they want to. yamiche: you covered this georgia senate race.

you also told our producers that you were up close and personal with a walker campaign. and watched it collapse. what is your biggest take away from this race? >> georgia has really emerged as a microcosm of so many of the trends we are seeing in all it takes right now. the influence of moderate voters. the way voters across the country rejected trump's candidates. that plays into a larger argument that is the issue of candidate quality. i think a lot of republicans saw herschel walker as a shoe in because he is such a big name as a football star. but he is not necessarily a politician. he was extremely untested and had a lot of baggage.

in the final days of the race, i did spend a lot of time with the campaign. they felt that the writing was on the wall. they made it number of key missteps. the biggest was the issue of saturday voting. there was explosive turnout while in those areas that were largely republican. there was just a little bit of a dampening of enthusiasm for walker. that trend really started to materialize. yamiche: i have been hearing from some of my sources that the decision makes warnock's victory even more consequential.

what is your sense on the ground of how hurt decision changes the outlook of democrats and what they are thinking? >> if you are a georgia democrat, you're really thankful for the $50 million use and to raphael warnock elected. this is really consequential. beyond that, i spent a lot of time with senator warnock into with him at length about what he wanted to accomplish in this next congress if he was elected. he prioritized voting rights. continuing to lower health care costs. continuing to create jobs across the deep south. i wonder now what this could mean for his legislative agenda. all of those things require pretty heavy majorities in congress.

yamiche: trump-endorsed six senate republican candidates. only one of them won. what is the benefit of sticking with trump and the challenges that come with that. he was not even invited this time around to go campaign for walker. >> i think this issue of candidate quality is more than an abstract issue. it is tied to trump. he backed these candidates. his people he endorsed did manage to get elected. those were mostly house candidates that were in safe districts.

i think what happened in georgia is contributed to the sense that trump is losing more and more traction in the republican party. it is no longer a whisperbout if he should be leading the party moving forward. you have people in the establishment who are more willing to speak up a little bit, even though they remain fearful of a backlash from trump voters. yamiche: what we know about whether or not republicans affected this decision. >> mitch mccnell has long tried to lobby her. and joe manchin. the other very moderate, independent democratic senator from west virginia. she votes with them the majority of the time.

republicans will try to bend her eye. even if she does stick with democrats, we are still talking about a house majority that is republican and will not pass the vast majority of these democratic priorities. yamiche: it could stop at the house. that brings me to 2024. democrats are already facing an uphill battle. could arizona be easier to pick up for republicans? >> it could. that is what democrats were just thinking about.

a lot of people have been saying that she made that decision to become an independent for electoral reasons. she knows she cannot get elected as a democrat. if they were to hypothetically run for a senate race, she would lose by 40 points. democrats would not elect her. he has not been quiet about primarying her. that could make it way more difficult and make it easier to elect a republican to the senate. yamiche: all eyes were on

georgia. could that be a blueprint for democrats? >> i believe georgia is a purple state. that came at a cost of several hundred million dollars. georgia is a purple state for democrats. i think the victory provides a blueprint to these moderate voters. in these cerin areas.

they went out really strong with a message that was pro-warnock. underlining a lot of his bipartisan accomplishments. lots of money on the airwaves. trying to get voters back out to rebuild this democratic coalition that is still taking shape in georgia. yamiche: we have to remind people how much it took to win georgia. before we turn to all of the legal challenges. brey griner is home. she is someone who i know so many people were hoping would come home.

>> the white house was very careful as they announced that brittney griner would be returning home. to show they were aware of the optics. they were trying. ultimately the russians were not allowing him to come home. they said when they ultimately decided to bring her home and enter io negotiations with another country, they were very aware of all the consequences that could come with that. despite all the consequences and different things and ramifications.

the family agreed with that. yamiche: that is a story we will continue to follow. thank you for joining us. this has been a tough week for donald trump. his real estate company was found guilty of tax fraud. that evening, a democratic chair of the generally six committees that the committee is considering criminal referrals. trump called for the u.s. constitution to be suspended. many in the gop roundly criticized him. >> anybody who aspires to serve in public office should make it clear that they will support and defend the constitution of the united states.

>> that was mike pence. it is you're part of the show to break this all down. what sticks out to you about all these legal challenges? >> there are things going on around trump that if they went home with any other president, just one part of the story would be enormous. but these things don't get as much attention. i think the biggest threat he faces is the stream of former advisers and officials who are going in front of grand in washington and atlanta to testify about the mar-a-lago document issue as well as the broader question of the 2020 election. each appearance does not get a lot of attention but it is a big deal for a former white house counsel to go in front of the federal grand jury and testify against his former boss.

we know exactly what is said. his company was convicted of criminal tax fraud in new york. yamiche: what is the practical impact of that? the significance of that? >> i think it could be significant in a couple different ways. you might have a contract that says a company was behaved like that. if they get convicted of a felony, that could be a problem. it is also possible that they

could lose some contracts. they are trying to put the trump organization into a form of receivership. for them to be convicted of criminal tax fraud helps the effort to get that kind of oversight which could unravel the trump empire. yamiche: then there is the january 6 committee. >> bennie thompson said it was likely that would not make criminal referrals at the time. the fact that they are coming out and saying that this is going to happen means that they could have found something during their investigation of the last couple of months. we don't know anymore about who they targeted or the number of critical referrals they will be making.

this committee is coming to an end. the committee is preparing to release its final report. we cannot turn off o brains just yet. they will likely possibly do a public presentation. it is unfairly people people tune into that. yamiche: what are you hearing from the white house about all of these legal problems? >> the white house has viewed their streak as being a really good streak. the past month has not been very good. they are really trying to show

that the attorney general is totally dependent. we know that president biden views what happened on january 6 as a total attack on the constitution. they will continue to speak out abouit. even if they don't engage in the investigation. yamiche: tell me what your reporting is saying about how this can be integrated. >> they want to say they want to get all that material that the house has developed and take a close look at it. i do know if they think there will be bombshells in there that lead directly to criminal charges.

if you are thinking of building a criminal case against a former president o the u.s., you want to pressure test it. you need to look at all the different testimony given. and make sure there is not something you are overlooking. this is really building into next year. one watchword we heard again and again at the justice department was they want to move quickly. there will not be delayed. they will bring in this one additional layer. this will not be like the previous investigation where we hire 18 prosecutors. yamiche: the doj also subpoenaed

his campaign's communications. what is the significance of that with all this other stuff going on? >> what was fascinating with that subpoena is they listed 19 different individuals. lawyers who had worked with the president. they are asking for all of their communications and emails and any other records of interaction. whether there was a conspiracy of some sort to interfere with election results. this shows the speed they are moving. there could be a decision point by february of next year. there is a sense that it is

better to have an sooner rather than later. before we get into the 2024 presidential race. yamiche: these are all things we will keep watching. thank you t our panelists for joining us and sharing your reporting. tomorrowhow rising prices are changing the way many americans celebrate the holidays. good night from washington. >> corporate funding for "washington week" is presided by consumer cellular. additional funding is provided bythe yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. robert and susan rosenbaum. the corporation for cub -- public broadcasting. and by contributions to your you

-- pbs station by viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the nation captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. sit ncicap.org]

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