welcome back. democracy plaza at rockefeller center, it's 12:30 in the east. there's the national vote based on property jexs now. trump leading 48 to 47%. that's the pop electoral vote. the race to 270 which is what we're witnessing right now. trump sitting at 244, clinton at 209 with a number of states here still too close to call. that will turn this election before we all walk out of here. we're going to go to howie jackson right now. among the many things we're watching as this seems to be tilting toward donald trump, the markets around the world are reacting. she has more on that.

overseas markets and something happening on the s&p 500. it was halted -- >> so there's two kinds of futures. the dow futures a lot because there's a big dow board question look at -- >> we saw a drop. >> they're down indicating at this point a 4% drop. so if the dow were to open right now, it would open 760 points lower than when it closed. really your investments are in a broader set of investments that are more like the s&p 500. now this doesn't happen very much, but don't generally allow it in trading. the futures to go below 5%. it hit the 5% floor and there was some confusion about why it was not going below that. there was some word out that they were halted for the rest of the night. we've now got clarification, they're not halted, but they are not going to be allowed to go below 5%. >> dropped as much as they're going to be permitted to drop. >> why this is a problem, on any given morning, i can tell you at any point how it is going to

tomorrow morning, i won't be able to. we know that the nikkei in japan is down more than 6%. we know that asian markets will be down. european markets, we won't be able to trade these s&p futures. now it becomes a guessing game as to how badly hit this market will be in the morning. >> all of this driven by the presidential race. >> yes, it's uncertainty. i will remind people, when you're thinking -- >> i have to interrupt you. back to lester here. >> we're going make right now halle as we go outside. nbc news projects that hillary clinton will win the state of nevada. six electoral votes. that's an important one for her. they're all important as chuck todd points out as her path to victory is narrow. there's the vote total and that's where it leads us right now in the race to 270. clinton now at 215. donald trump with 244 in the race to 270. chuck.

a bizarre one. it is winning pennsylvania, which right now i believe she's down about 2,000 votes. we go to pennsylvania. she has to also win michigan. which of course she's down and she's got to win both of those cds in maine and nebraska. that's the only way that the point, unless a surprise shows up at this point in wisconsin. see in arizona, there's really no pennsylvania just to show you how close it is. look, trump has taken nearly a 3,000 vote lead. there are a few areas where there's no vote at all that has come in. there's extraneous vote. i told you, we are not going to call this until all the vote is in. and even then, we'll probably even up with apparent winner, but boy does clinton need to turn this around. there's a handful of precincts

so, let me look at this county, it's lebanon county. i'll show you what it was in 2012 so you have an idea, a red county that went big for romney. so, it's likely, you know, she might do a little bit better here. this is a county right next to a state capital county which she has been doing slightly better in, but i can tell you with those two county, maybe that leans trump. pennsylvania, total coin flip. obviously if pennsylvania goes, >> all right. we to want get over to the clinton headquarters right now. kristen welker is standing by. we've seen long faces, tears there. they just got like lay shot in the arm with that news that nevada goes to hillary clinton. kristen. >> they did, lester. there was cheering here at the javitz center when the crowd learned that secretary clinton learned nevada. overall, the smood somber. you can sense it. it's fairly quiet here. this is anything but a victory

starting to leave early. they are in tears. a lot of red faces here, lester, as they watch these results come in. one supporter describing it as stunned, disbelief, another person telling me, grief is starting to set in. of course this race is not over yet, but perhaps one of the more telling signs is that the clinton campaign has gone dark. the last time i heard from them about 45 minutes ago, when officials were insisting there is still a path and of course that path went through michigan. pennsylvania is her fire wall. we have been saying this for days. that is why you've seen secretary clinton make so many stops to pennsylvania. she added events in michigan really trying to energize the obama coalition. african american voters, women minority voters and of course she held that big rally in philadelphia. that unity rally last night with the obamas to try to energize that part of her base. so there's a lot of surprise here. they thought she was on the path to making history.

female president. so all of that sinking in as they realize right now donald trump does have the lead as you're talking about right now. she still has a narrow path, but that has path continues to get a increasingly slim, this crowd here very somber tonight, les per. >> this is a remarkably close race, you want to look at new hampshire. chuck's doing that right now. minute ago it was -- a 15-vote difference. >> it went up to landslide now, but it was actually at 15 about a minute ago. look, there's stale lot to come in. this is another one. we're just going to wait. literally -- >> report, four electoral votes. >> dicksville notch might actually swing at the end of the day. but you want to go there. let's go to the what-if map here and just so everybody can see why all this matters here. give it a minute here. i've got it's business.

that gets her -- let's move this down here. and if you assume these four going that way, and that's a big assumption. as you could see, she can't lose anything, that gets her to 268 and she needs that district -- she needs the district in here which is not counted on this board and she needs that main district. that's her only viable path to 270 unless a bunch of absentee votes or a lot more in milwaukee than we expected. bu i mean, it is that narrow for her. she's got the more narrow path. trump could end up winning pennsylvania. he could do it just with a combination of arizona and michigan. >> i want to get the thoughts of the panel as we look at this and that bright red in the middle of the country and the south. and is there -- to what extent is there a racial component in this in terms of who is voting for donald trump and who is voting for clinton? >> this is a big split in this country.

split. >> this will be a conversation going forward. >> she's losing texas by eight points. the fact of the matter is the latino vote showed up. should have been a big win for her. you don't put texas to single digits without the latino vote activates. you don't make arizona, which we're sitting here waiting on arizona. but it wasn't enough. i mean, this is -- we all bought into it because barack obama did win twice with this new recreate it, but i think there was an assumption that the latino vote is growing so much, it just made some of these states that they were just going to all keep moving towards the democrats, and look at the rust belt. >> well, peggy noonan wrote the best piece and the protected and unprotected. and i think what's going on, it's always important to have a conversation about where we are in race, the truth is we elected the first african american president not once, but twice.

warfare and there is probably a hot war under way that a lot of us here missed. people don't like being described as living in flyover nation. it's derogatory. and these sort of lines and if there are walls in the country, they were really between the elites and, you know, main street -- >> it's a culture war. >> and not over the old things. the old culture war used to be fought over guns and abortion and social issue. gets played out on the kind of immediate area watch. the kind of newspapers you read. where you get your information. i met the some of the stars of "duck dynasty" at the republican convention in cleveland. and some of the brightest businessmen you'll ever meet, but they speak about sort of the prejudice that they feel when they walk around the streets in new york city. and they're big media figures, but this culture war, this

that this planned brexit, but the one similarity is that people felt so disconnected from their leaders that they were willing to burn down -- steve smith said this, not one political party, but two. i mean, donald trump is not a republican. he's not a classic republican. and the only people despairing more tonight than hillary clinton supporters are sort of the never trump republicans who've been, you know, men and women without a country for many months. >> your former boss didn't vote for him. >> he didn't vote, right? t didn't have a single living president. >> reporter: john mccain. >> one former living nominee, bob dole who publicly supported him. >> i have the advantage of spending a lot of time in the midwest and also the mountain west, we have a lot of pals in montana and south dakota, i just got back from there. and i didn't hear anybody out there -- they weren't crazy about donald trump, but they really did not want hillary clinton to come back into the

white house again. and they talked about it quite openly to me. i really thought this whole election to get back to the original point about whether it's racial or not, it's been triable warfare, i'm going to take the white working class vote, i'm going to get the hispanic vote, the african american vote, and it's been partmentalized in a way and both played that game. let's fracture the country and hope tha parts than the other guy does. and that's not in fact anything that's going to help us get through what we're going to get through. whoever wins tonight, we've got a long, tough road ahead of us. >> savannah, you brought show and tell here. >> i carry around my word clouds and the first time. this is the word cloud for how people they thought about donald trump. afraid, terrified, racest racist, bigt, now take a look at hillary clinton's page.

no, but trust me, it's going to be worth it. look at -- people have the singular notion about her that she was a liar and that she was not trust worthy. we talk about the racial element, let's not miss the gender element here. it's the first female presidential candidate on the major party ticket. white males coming out in droves and that it seems when this history book is written on this, this is going to be a factor that really, really matters. women who didn't support her either. so i think you're going to have a lot of reckoning in terms what have it means for race relations, but also for gender relations. >> and young women. i remember sitting down at the "today" show early summer or late spring with andrea mitchell talking about young women, but absolutely no attraction to her candidacy. felt absolutely no, not compelled to assist her in breaking this barrier. in fact, there were more

sanders. it's obviously going to take someone different if and when she doesn't break this barrier tonight. >> republicans have been in the charge of the congress for the last two years. they won the house and the senate, and what did white working class america get from them? zip. >> right. >> nothing. nothing happened. they sat there and they ordered one investigation after another. they tried to repeal obamacare at one time after another. they didn't do anything proactive for the white working class. donald trump, not just against the democrats, he of the congress. and that we all miss the impact of that because it kept unfolding and unfolding and we kept thinking, it'll catch up to him at some point and always recover. no matter how vulnerable he was, outrageous he was. they were interested in getting at what they see as their enemy. >> but some of this -- >> it is interesting some of this. and i remember something tom friedman said on "meet the

quoting the show. >> it's your show, pal. >> he said there's this sense that the fact that washington was stuck, couldn't really get anything done was another reason that trump is this an tech dote for it. even if he burns it down, i think there are voters who think -- >> maybe that's the point. >> that's the point. it'll be rebuilt differently and ultimately, that's what it is. trump got a big assist here too, and i think that we forget and i've had some consult are right. the nra. donald trump didn't get a lot of help from major republican institutions -- >> but the nra -- >> he did, and they came through big. this is a big night for the nra because i think they are trump owes him. owes them number one. >> they bought a lot of time. >> and just bought a supreme court seat. that's a big deal. >> look in the upper right hand corner of your screen. those faces say it all about where they feel the direction of

we're not anywhere right now. the race to 270, trump 244, clinton 215. we will be back with more of our coverage. decision night in america on nbc. a on nbc. i'm hall of famer jerry west and my life is basketball. but that doesn't stop my afib from leaving me at a higher risk of stroke. that'd be devastating. i took warfarin for over 15 years a latest generation blood thinner. then i made the switch. xarelto? significantly lowers the risk of stroke in people with afib not caused by a heart valve problem. it has similar effectiveness to warfarin. warfarin interferes with vitamin k and at least six blood clotting factors. xarelto? is selective targeting one critical factor of your body's natural clotting function. for people with afib currently well managed on warfarin,

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welcome back in yellow on that map, those are the states that have not yet been called and those are the states that are making this a very long night as we approach the 1:00 hour here very shortly on the east coast. right now donald trump holds a lead, he's 26 electoral votes from being voted in as the next president of the united states. welcome back to nbc election headquarters. join now again by james.

>> not turning out the way i know you want. walk us through what has happened from the democratic view. >> well, i mean, everything that you would think you needed to do, we had a great convention, great debate, we had a great effort, and trump came through and had a naturalistic message and a lot -- people responded to. and the democrats by the way got all their vote out. everything that -- you cannot blame the democrats for not but -- >> did you have a candidate -- did you have a candidate that was far more deeply flawed than you knew? >> you know, i think what she believed in is preparation and hard work and that you could shake a -- make some changes. she didn't have that direct message that really had appealed to people. and also she had been in politics all of her life. people knew her as being in politics and that happens to be

right now. >> there's a pretty important question that presidential candidates have to answer. why do you want to be president? i'd be honest with you, it was something that bugged the clinton campaign, what's the answer? what is it? and i remember asking her what her big idea was and she goes that we're stronger together. that wasn't an idea. that was a sentiment. i get it. do you think she ever figured out a good answer? >> i think that her nature is is that she believes that the country has multiple problems to attack. and it's just not one simple thing to do. when trump came in, he had a simple thing, he had a very simple thing he was going to do and the power of a message, you know, overcame the power of a turnout operation. and i think -- by the way, other people on the democratic side voiced the same concern that you did, but, and that is a technical campaign, but it didn't have that sort of strong emotional message.

>> let me get down to florida and bring in jose diaz, anchor at telemundo been jose, the story of this election win or lose for hillary clinton will be latino vote. we saw it come out certainly in a strong way in nevada. what's the read on florida, which of course went to donald trump tonight. >> well, lester, good evening, i think that what james was talking about about the fact that the people who came out to te out to vote on mass. in other words, the hispanic community for example came out strong for hillary clinton on a national level. if we look at what happened in south florida specifically with the cuban american vote, which donald trump carried tonight, it's because in that group, even those that have supported president obama's decision to open relations with the cuban regime, see the last moves that

unilateral. there was nothing in return from the cuban government to give the united states the reason to open up relations further. i think in the cuban american vote, that's what's caused the support for donald trump, but throughout the country, we have seen record numbers of latinos voting. just in the state of florida, lester. you know, 38% of the latinos that voted in early voting had never voted before. and yet, clearly wasn't in florida and may not be enough in other states. >> jose diaz, good to see you, thanks very much. we will take a break. we continue to watch and wait for the dramatic conclusion of decision 2016 on this decision night in america. we'll be right back. america. we'll be right back. ? we asked people to write down the things they love to do most on these balloons.

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based on property jexs we have made tonight. donald trump leaning 244 to 215 in the race to 270, but still a lot of states outstanding. let's walk you through some of them and look at the margins right now. i think we're going to look first at new hampshire. well, let's see what we got. all right. looks like we're going to go with michigan. 55,000 vote difference. >> hillary clinton, one piece of good news, a lot of ann arbor is

>> michigan not out of reach if for her. there's a path there for her. >> let's skip ahead to wisconsin before we go to the break. there we go. wisconsin -- >> again, i'd say we would have called this if we knew the size of the absentee vote in milwaukee is. but it's trending trump. >> new hampshire, 536 vote difference. >> the notch. >> but the point is, this is in about one area. this is a handful everywhere. >> we are going to take a break. decision night in america as i like to call it decision morning in america right after this. ric. decision night in america continues. i'm chanel jones and nbc washington bureau, it's almost 1:00 in the morning on the east

clinton to win the state of nevada, picking up six electoral votes, but in the race to 270, she trails donald trump by 29 l electoral votes. the state of pennsylvania at this hour, still too close to call. wisconsin, another state still in play, and that's where we find kelly o'donnell, the hometown of paul ryan who won again tonight, what can you tell >> reporter: watched as the security detail headed out the door after a night of surprises. he of course won his own seat and ron johnson the incumbent republican senator was really a dark horse to win second term in the united states senate. and he did. and now many republican supporters who are still stragglers here are very excited about the prospects for a republican victory in wisconsin. it has not been called yet, the last time republicans carried

election, ronald reagan was up for reelection. if republicans in this state has success tonight, you can bank on the fact that governor walker, reince priebus, the chairman of the rnc and the house speaker have credit because they brought together resources and ground game and strategy and outside groups tried to save that senate seat for ron johnson. and with that comes the boost perhaps to other republicans, perhaps to donald trump. primary. you may remember that. so this is a race people are still watching closely. and if donald trump is successful here, it is a part of that sort of great lakes industrial midwest block that he was trying to tap into. surprising for a republican at this time, but we're watching to see what's happening now. i can tell you, we're watching, but they're tearing down this room behind me, chanel, it's just about midnight central time. and the flags are going down and they're packing up all the

happy party for speaker paul ryan tonight. chanel. >> i'm surprised, i thought for sure they would still be sticking around. i thought there'd be more excitement. we should probably mention obama carried it in 2008 with 56% of the vote and then in 2012, obama carried wisconsin for 53% of the vote. so if it goes donald trump's way, there will be a lot of conversation in wisconsin about what happened. >> reporter: absolutely. and in strongholds for democrats like around mon capital, those are places where from the operatives we've been talking to, the vote has not been fully tallied and the strong parts for the state, that vote has come in. so this could be a nail biter. it is expected to go into the night. we expect that on big election nights. the fact that they're packing up the room, i guess they feel good about it here and the support verse decided to go home. we will watch for this. speaker ryan did not respond to

get his attention, he declined to comment on trump's strength tonight or the state of the race. we expect in the coming days speaker ryan will have some comments about the next president he'll be working with from capitol hill. chanel. >> nbc's kelly o'donnell. hopefully they keep the lights on so you can do live reporting for us. >> reporter: thank you, chanel. >> joining us now, jennifer lawless from american university. what do you make of this? >> the night did not go as anybody planned. it's not o to 270 is looking incredibly difficult, if not impossible for hillary clinton. >> let's talk about the gender factor for a moment, sexism when so many women didn't vote for her. 54% of the women vote. >> she did. she did get 90% of democratic women though. she got close to 90% of democratic men. so really, what it comes down to are those independents. and she did do better than donald trump among undependent

independent men. >> i think this is interesting too, he got 89% of republican women. >> yes. and 90% of republican men. >> what does that say? >> partisanship really trumps anything. and it didn't matter the sexist comments didn't matter, the billy bush tapes didn't matter at the end of the day, the republicans went home. >> this is something we'll talk about in the days and months ahead. jennifer lawless, thank you. we want to look live at hillary clinton's supporters at her watch party you can only imagine, look at these women. anguish on their faces in which has been a very tough night for the clinton campaign. obviously they're there, a lot of tears tonight. we will see you again in about 30 minutes. for now back to lester holt in our new york studios for continuing coverage of decision

welcome back. our decision night in america has carried over into wednesday morning here in the east coast. and let's walk you to where we are, alaska right now. we can s call. we're looking at a slew of states that are too close, including new hampshire right now. with 82 votes currently separating the two of them. pennsylvania, right now it is too close to call, but trump has moved out slightfully front to michigan right now. too close to call. 58,000 vote difference. minnesota, too close to call. you see the difference there.

difference. too close to call. and the same story for wisconsin, and also arizona. and these are the states that keep us all in suspense right now as we bring the camera down on the rink. watch the states pop up in red and blue and look at that race to 270, trump at 244, clinton at 215 with what everyone agrees is an extraordinarily narrow path. essentially needs to run >> she does. and right now she's behind in pennsylvania and i've run out of vote to see how she catches him in pennsylvania. wisconsin, unless there's absentee, there's game set and match. we talked about michigan earlier. i think there's enough for her to win michigan. may not matter. pennsylvania and wisconsin puts him over the top. there's no word about 269, no worrying about omaha, no

or alaska at this point. >> eugene robinson is back with us. you were here -- couple hours ago. >> couple hours ago. i leave far couple hours and the world changes. you know. >> reporter: that was back on tuesday. we're on wednesday. >> yeah, yeah. >> look, collectively, we here at this desk have covered and participated in a whole lot of political stories. i thought in 2008 with the election was president obama, i said well that's it. i've neveran political story as big as that. but this is -- i was wrong. i mean this is -- this is a nuclear bomb of a political story. it's going to be, it's going to be interesting. it seems like chuck is the number's expert, hillary clinton's going to win the popular vote. because a whole lot of votes to come out of california yet.

popular vote, but losing the electoral vote more substantially if she does lose wisconsin, if she does lose pennsylvania and michigan is still on the ballot. >> think about where we are right now. he is on the cusp of winning the election, based on a system that up until yesterday he was saying is rigged. >> yeah. >> think about that for a moment. >> yeah. i don't think it's rigged anymore. >> the democracy's working, votes are getting counted and the one that gets the most wins. >> there's going to be democrats that complain about the wikileaks and they're going to complain about comey. >> sure. >> and they some impact, there's no doubt, but on the other hand, trump's basic message never changed. >> you have to realize the democratic party has the least amount of power that you could imagine in this democracy. the republicans have like 30

we're going to lose the federal courts, the senate, the house, the presidency. i mean, it is a utter disaster if you're a democrat in terms of having any political power in the country right now. >> sure, but also the question that comes is what does it mean to be in the republican party? >> the republican party is now led by someone who's not even a republican. >> well that's my -- i guess that's my point. okay, democrats are out of power, republicans are in, but define republican. >> yet even though it's led by someone who's not a republican is absolutely right has all this power, and if trump does win, indeed, is going to have to govn govern, but he will have been elected bay segment of the population. latino voters came out, african american voters came out, robust numbers, but they voted for the other candidate. and it was not a rainbow

>> and it's not just a rust belt phen phenomenon, but it seems to be, you know, the more diverse cosmopolitan plugged in urban areas of the country versus the smaller towns, the rural areas that are not connected to the global economy that have not felt have done particularly well from globalization. >> can sky you this though, can we sort the first african american president and he's going to be replaced by somebody who questioned that president's legitimacy -- >> exactly. >> for more than half this man's term. >> exactly. >> what does that say? what is the message that rural america's sending? >> the message is, you know, i think the message is embedded in take our country back. you know. and i've always kind of wondered, take it back from whw whom? and maybe that's the answer.

voted for him because he touched a nerve. and he also came out of the celebrity culture. we've been living in a time when you're known for being known in many ways. he was better known when he entered this race than anybody else. but the fact is that rural america and people who are feeling that the country's going in the wrong direction have selected a man to lead the country who engaged in outright vulgarities, misogyny, the stuff that he had to say about people in this country, the handicap for example, how he mocked him in the panel. when he was in new hampshire, socially conservative state, with low employment and went on the stage and uttered the worse vulgarity that you can possibly say in public and took -- and they cheered him on. 25,000 people. that's who he is. and, you know, they tried to change him half way through the campaign, he wouldn't change because he said look, i know i'm putting o an show here. so he continues that way as the president of the united states

stands in this country as well? once they get beyond the rush of having elected a guy who's going to take on the establishment. then when they realize, this is who he is at his core, and everybody who's been around him knows that's who he is. >> now there's a clumsy 30,000 feet theory of presidential elections. and see if you agree with me on this, chuck. if you just look at temperament and look for example president bush, the first one is followed by someone totally different than bill clinton with all his scandals is followed by someone totally different than him, mr. clean, so that's advertised, george w. bush. george w. bush, considered something of a hothead, you know, cowboy type, then replaced by the cool, intellectual -- >> cerebral -- >> this is the rahm emanuel theory of presidential politics. >> if you looked up or tried to

barack obama, in every way, you would come up with a picture of donald trump. >> you would. >> who are the people, i'm curious, and i can't wait for our exit poll guys to figure out, the people who approve of the job barack obama's doing and voted trump. >> yeah. >> they're clearly -- look, i've been saying it in the state of iowa for sure. and there are a whole bunch of obama trump voters. obama 12 and went obama turned mitt romney into the boss that wanted to fire you and send your job overspeeps romney was sort of an old republican argument, you know, the businessman argument. and barack obama exploited that. >> after the things that tom said and after the fact that he didn't know and didn't care to know and kind of relished the fact that he didn't know anything about anything nap he knew more about isis an than the generals he got the information

policy. the things that he said -- >> let's bring mark to the conversation. he's over there with halle jackson, halle. >> reporter: hey, we're over in the area where we're getting all of our video and images in from battleground states including campaign headquarters. peter al zander is reporting a sense of real euphoria inside trump tower right now. mark, you came over here from i think peninsula, right? you were spending time with clinton folks. >> yeah. >> what's the mood? >> manhattan is -- big giant country and manhattan is the far change. hillary clinton chose to spend her pre-election event time. it's four blocks up the road from here. about three blocks from trump tower. they are basically now three blocks apart. i'm told she's in the hotel with president clinton, chelsea clinton, robby mook, huma abedin -- >> closest advisors, closest aids. >> and you can only imagine, you think about eight years ago when they lost the iowa caucuses, there was a similar meeting.

how to deal with loss. this is a much more complicated, bigger situation. the javitz center, earlier in the evening, mood couldn't have been more jubilant. it's the biggest election eve event i've ever, eve night event i've ever seen. like a theme park. and as the results come in. people had left. some in tears. there's a game of chicken now of what's going to happen. is anyone going to speak tonight? we've seen in the past, what do it's well after midnight, and no one has spoken. i can play with the electoral college map and get her to a majority, this is not done. even if no state that's been projected flips, but the mood over at the peninsula, i didn't talk to any of them, i should be clear, but it's grim over there. i saw more junior aids coming and going. it's a tough situation for the christians. they've got to figure out what to do. i don't think trump wants to speak first, but i think he

>> we were on the air talking with michigan governor, jennifer grantholm who was euphoric, frankly, almost giddy. do you think they got too overconfident? >> i saw her over at the center, and she did another jig. i think that tape is going to be iconic if hillary clinton loses this race. because she was the epitome of, i won't say overconfidence, but extreme confidence that they were going to this is a -- unlike any race we've ever had. hillary clinton if she has to give a concession speech, it's impossible for know imagine how you write that speech. her view of donald trump was apocket liptic, not just bad on policy. >> lester, toss it back to you, thanks, mark. >> all right. halle, thanks. we will take a break. little after 1:00 a.m. eastern time. we continue to watch those states, too close to call. both candidates still short of

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back to decision night in america. rockefeller center towering above democracy plaza where we continue to watch the race to 270. presidential historian to get some flavor and perspective on the night. doris, it was widely said that at least on paper, hillary clinton was the most qualified candidate for president. donald trump may be the least qualified candidate. is there a historical comparison with someone potentially coming into the white house with so little species? no experience in government or military? >> very rarely had somebody who didn't have either the political

experience. wendel will i can who was a businessman and a very good guy, but he didn't actually win the presidency. i think in the old days, the parties were the ones that would choose their candidates. sop they would naturally choose somebody who was one of their own, governor, mayor, congressman, the powers have lost their powers to the primaries. and what we've seen in this race is the power of this very thing we're on right now of television. it established a direct link between donald trump and the establish, even the republican party wasn't for him at a certain period of time. and the power that celebrity is really going to have to be understood. the debates were powerful because he was on them. didn't matter that he said things that people disagreed with. he just kept winning. i remember we'd be on "meet the press" on sunday with chuck, and we'd say he's finished. then he'd win a primary. the normal institutions that would not produce a man like trump that would produce one of

>> somewhat of a mystery now. we know what he's stood for on many things. he has sometimes changed positions in the middle of one answer on, you know, use of nuclear weapons. among many, many others. so would he enter office a bit of an enigma. >> and maybe that's what people were to do. to project we don't really know so question imagine he'll be wh opinions on both side rather than a known quantity and may disagree with. maybe right. we may not know who we're getting. a lot of things about the dialogue that was part of this race that i think makes lots of people unhappy and makes us wonder where democracy has gone, then we got to always remember churchill, democracy is the worst form of government. we've got to believe somehow that people have chosen him and we've got to hope ohio thaep his

that they have made. >> and again, talk about who you put around you. the strength of a team. how much that makes the mark of a president. >> it's huge. i mean, it's not only a question of putting people around you who are your rivals as lincoln was able to do, it's much more important to have people around you who have strengths that bolster your weaknesses, but that means having a self-reflection to know what your own weaknesses are. it means knowing that you want people around you who can trust in your and that's what we needed to know about donald trump. we didn't need to know whether he was a great businessman. i wish we had more reporting on what kind of team. were there people to challenge him? did he have people around him who were willing to really go after him when he was wrong? was he able to acknowledge when he made mistakes. these are the things we needed to know about a leader and unfortunately the way our race turned out, we were spending so much time on what was said on who was ahead and what the

qualities that we really need to know about and we're going to find out in reality rather than the race itself. >> doris, good to have you on, thank you so much for your perspective tonight. and i want to broaden up that notion let you guys weigh into this idea that donald trump, if elected president, would not have any previous political or military experience and do we know how he would govern? do we have any clue, at certain positions he's taken over the course of the campaign, there are very few that he hasn't actually reversed himself on. i think it's a real question. and i think it'll be interesting to see how the weight of the office, if he ultimately prevails, we're not there yet but inching closer and closer to that call. whether the weight of that changes him. in a way. how could it not? this is a huge responsibility to

office and stand -- >> i'm not so sure. >> i don't know. i mean people -- i don't know. we haven't seen it. >> look how he turned his back on the political process that got him to where he is. he celebrates himself 24/7 as a promoter here in new york when he his h haze real estate empire going. selling all over the world and wherever he could. he loves being in the limelight. he loves making decisions. everybody's been around him said the attention span is about that long. w about someone that's going to represent millions of americans and people have put their faith in him -- >> he got there by being somebody contrary. >> i hear you. i totally get it. >> i must say, i must say, he got there on his terms. when he started out, no one gave him any kind of a chance. he stayed true to who he thought he should be and what the country wanted. and it appears tonight that it could very well work for him. i don't think he's going to

pennsylvania avenue. >> huge promises to people and people believed him and they're counting on him. >> he comes in with the notion -- the weirdest thing, james, you're right, he doesn't win the popular vote once california rolls in, and that's fine. guess what, he is going to feel like he got a mandate. we are going to treat him like he got a mandate for one reason, he blew all of our predictions and models and you name it, out of the water. he >> understand. he won an election. that is the most validating thing, we live in a democracy. he's going to have congressional majorities in both houses, and a lot of people are going owe their election to him. and you've got to understand what is going to happen here. there are real, real consequences. >> i think he's going to want to be the boss number one. and even if you take the sort of

for his audience. still, what his north star? and is it suspicion of immigration? is it -- >> donald trump? >> blow up the system. i mean, that's how he got there. and as james says, you know, he got elected urn the prose of a democracy, people chose him to be their leader because they are so upset with where it's going right now. >> i have to be the traffic cop here and get us to a break. we w c there's nothing more important than your health. or the freedom to choose whatth. doctor you want to see. so if you're on medicare, consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like any standardized medicare supplement plan, you'll be able to stay with the doctor or specialist you trust... or look for someone new -- as long as they accept medicare patients. and you're not stuck in a network... because there aren't any.

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welcome back to our continuing coverage of this historic election. we to want take you right now to the donald trump headquarters here in midtown manhattan. peter alexander is with a crowd that is growing restless and with expectations of things going their way. >> reporter: yeah lester, good evening. i just spoke to the source who is with donald trump ie describes the scene as euphoric, filled with hugs and high fives. there's new investigation that nbc news can report. this from my colleague kelly o'donnell who spoke to a top aid to speaker paul ryan and we have now heard that the speaker earlier tonight reached out by phone, speaking to donald trump in what was described as a good conversation. congratulating donald trump and also speaking to his good friend, the potential vice president mike pence as well.

the campaign headquarters is how strongly they felt over the course of the night that they would do well, but how this result is even striking and surprising some of them. they thought they'd do well in florida. they thought they'd have a shot in pennsylvania, but they thought wisconsin would be too tough. they have a chance to win all three of them. >> peter alexander, i think that's an interesting note to hear what peter said that -- that is surprise even to the trump camp. we're going to talk more about that in a minute. we're going to take another after this. decision night in america continues. >> i'm chanel jones live in the nbc news washington bureau. voting in the historic 2016 election has now ended with

alaska. the vote there is not yet in and presidential race at this hour is still not decided, but donald trump seems to have a clear path to victory. and what has been a dramatic, upending the polls that had tilted toward hillary clinton. donald trump is now leading in three states that were assumed to be clinton strongholds. look at this, wisconsin, the state of michigan, and the state of pennsylvania. clinton was also hoping to flip the state of arizona, but is that's where we find mr. swars, i don't need to ask you how the mood is there. >> reporter: it should have been jubilant here. this is a scene of a very tremendous victory. a lot of the people in this room, a lot of people working out this office have been working for four years to remove the sheriff of maricopa county here in arizona from office, tonight they did that with a lot of grass root organizing.

tonight. i want to take you through a little bit of what they've been doing over the last few years. it's very important, very, very fascinating. this is one of about 13 or 14 different latino organizations that have been doing a lot of the canvassing out in these areas a lot of voter registration drives. they've been targeting maricopa county, that's what this map is right here. it shows maricopa county and they were able to register 150,000 n county. and then we are starting to see those returns coming in. clearly sheriff joe arpaio seems to be losing to his challenger. so, the people here are saying that that seems to be their work coming to fruition, but when it comes to the presidential debate, or the presidential election here, let me just pull this up. this is the maricopa county

precincts reporting right now, and trump ahead 49%, clinton trailing behind 45%. that's with 84% reporting here. this is from the maricopa county's website. so those are some of the latest results that we're seeing. clearly not enough to bridge that gap so far, but those results are still coming in here in arizona, chanel. >> this is fantastic. very revealing. looking at all of that work behind you. looks like >> a lot have gone home to talk about talk to their family. it was a sobering team to realize that trump looked like he was pulling ahead of clinton. and, you know, after talking to a lot of them, the reason why became very evident. a lot of these people joined this particular campaign, a lot of them called it the airp owe

is because family members had been deported, family members had been targeted by the sheriff's department. so they wanted to get involved to see if they could undo some of that. they did so on the local level, but now watching the polls they fear that they did not do that on the national level. >> thank you. right over your shoulder there, it says vote for your future. i don't have any words on that one, thank you. joining me is jennifer lawless from american it seems evaporated. everybody disappeared. >> yeah, i think the hillary clinton campaign and supporters and surrogates are ending the night a lot differently than they began the day. we saw pictures of women taking their daughters to vote wearing pantsuits, wearing white to celebrate the likelihood of electing the first female president. seems like that's not going to happen. >> we have time left, if we can, let's look live at hillary clinton's party there.

there were so many people who thought they were going to see the first woman president tonight. >> right, and the javitz center has a glass ceiling. there was symbolism, and it doesn't look like it's going to be shattered. >> she said, when she was conceding to barack obama in 2008, she said although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling, thanks to you it's got about 18 million cracks in it. and the light is shining through like never before, filli u with hope that a path will be a little easier next time. that next time is tonight. >> it was. she won the nomination this time which she did not win in 2008. but it seems like she fell short and not occupying the oval office. >> you've had a long day, thank you for talking this evening. tonight and the only poll that counts, election day. the vote verse spoken. en giving donald trump a clear edge in the race for the presidency. giving republicans control of the house and the senate, also

holt in the new york studios for continuing coverage of decision night in america. welcome back. it is 1:30 in the morning on the east coast and we are still watching the race to 270. donald trump hanging on to a 244 to 215 lead over hillary clinton. there you see the map laid out. we are stale states in gray to help give us an answer. here's where we're at already this evening though. the states you're looking at donald trump has already won according to our projections. and then we'll put up there on the side of rock center, hillary clinton's face. you can see the states that she has won tonight. all right. we want to go to the white house right now. and that's where ron allen is standing by. i'm told you had a bit of a

>> reporter: we have, lester. there are several hundred people out here who have gathered -- this was supposed to be an anti-trump rally. talking to students, there are some people who are supporting trump, some supporting hillary clinton. the people up there in the tree that you see, twhaebl they are trump supporters. they are happy and the people who are downcast are clinton supporters. they are disappointed, they are stunned. they are surprised by what's happening, but they have not given up hope. over there, you see the white house. and we believe the president and we do not expect to hear from the president tonight. the guidance was that we'll probably hear from him once the dust is settled and there is an outcome and perhaps that's going to happen tomorrow. you have to wonder what is president obama thinking and feeling tonight given the effort that he put into trying to get hillary clinton into the white house? and given the fact that it may be donald trump the man who led the birther movement who questioned his legitimacy who may follow him into the white house. president obama was in michigan. he was in florida.

ridiculing donald trump. and months ago, he said, the president did that donald trump will not become president of the united states. well, we'll see what happens as the vote count continues to play out tonight. but again, out here tonight, a lot of energy, a lot of people who are trying to take in what has happened. this has been just a stunning night. there are several hundred people out here. and it's all peaceful. the secret service are watching this. there's already the set-up that's set up for the inaugurational ceremony that happens in a couple of months. we're here, peaceful vigil. a lot of young people gathered waiting to see how all this plays out. >> ron allen, quite a crowd there for this time of the morning. before i go to the panel, chuck, just for those who are flipping back and forth. you may be listening to this and thinking we're talking about a fore gone conclusion. there is still a path to victory

i don't see -- there's two things that, two problems she's got is pennsylvania and wisconsin here. both of them look like they're trending trump. i think we're -- we're pretty close to wisconsin. he's got about a 50, what does he have -- that's wisconsin. let's look at pennsylvania. 58,000 vote lead and there's no philadel there's no big sections left. she can still win michigan, but that may not matter. pennsylvania plus wisconsin, done deal. >> we think we know where this is going. >> yeah. again, barring some -- i say this because i'll never forget what happened in 2004 and the missing, 50,000 -- >> you keep talking about buckets of those. we all have ptsd.

somebody and a clerk. be up 50, you know, if we were 5,000. >> reporter: more than a bucket. >> 5,000 votes, 4,000 vote dirns, you would say that, 58,000 votes is, you know, that's the story here. it's the rural areas of the big blue wall. >> you may have noticed at the end of the table here we've added richard engel, rich, you're spending time overseas, you know what the folks say ou the american political process. what are you hearing and reading tonight? >> let's cut to the chase, assuming, and that's what we're talking about, that he does win. people i'm speaking to think it's catastrophic. it's catastrophic for the united states. it's catastrophic for our position in the world. it emboldens our enemies and makes our allies terrified that we're not going to be their allies anymore. most people think that this type of scenario happens. that if you imagine the united

stop. we become totally focussed on our own domestic politics that he's going to provoke a constitutional crisis. he's going to get into a fight with the supreme court. there'll be attempts to impeach him and that for six months to a year or longer, naval gazing, we will not lead the world and other powers. russia, china are just around us. >> he called our generals stupid. he has advocated. >> reporter: tonigh >> they again. >> general -- i've been talking to generals far long time, they've been reading the constitution to see -- >> what do you mean? >> to see what they were obligated to do if they are ordered to round up and deport millions of americans and put them on buss or trains. do they have to do that? the president is the commander in chief. that's the stage that we're talking about. it's do they have to follow what they would believe would be an immoral and illegal order?

transformative event with america's role, not just domestically, but internationally. >> let me throw that this at you, the national intelligence, the white house, everyone has agreed that the russians have taken an active role in this election. because it's a political thing, it sometimes gets overlooked, but that's -- if you take this election out of the equation and russia did it with any american process, it's a frightening picture. >> well, if you look at the world, two great superpowers. and with the collapse of the soviet union, we're now left with the united states being the only remaining superpower. well, that has it's advantages and disadvantages. the advantage is, and also it's disadvantage, that no other state can do as much harm to you as you can do to yourself. right? and it seems to be that that is what the united states is doing right now. and russia as the last

regain it's position in the world was to help undermine the political system. and we've spoken to -- i've been to russia, spoken to hack tlers, intelligence communities, they had no doubt that russia was deeply involved in helping to undermine hillary clinton. they also expect that he's been -- that russia has been stockpiling information on trump. clearly trump has done a lot of business there. he's easier target. we know and we've talked about all the russia now would want to unleash all of the material that. >> reporter: we don't know that to be true. >> that's speculative, not my speculation, speculation of people who've been examining this including cyber experts investigating russia's role that they have material on trump. that they would be -- it would behoove them to unleash it in order to hobble him. in order to hobble us. in order to hobble the only remaining superpower. >> all russia cares about is us

>> we're a nuclear ship. we stop, steam comes out of the middle, russia, china, they do what they want. russia -- speaking of ships, just moves it's ship off the coast of syria and expected to start bounding morrow, tomorrow. eastern aleppo. >> he's talked about a plan in syria. >> i'm sorry. the chinese have got military stuff going on as well, lester, they're moving out of china across the south china seas and in pathway going there at that point. >> we make ourselves irrelevant, others will step in. >> yeah. >> what are they saying in turkey and what are they saying in israel and what are they saying in the middle east about what happened in that cold room of the world right now? >> i wasn't surprised by this outcome. i thought this was going to happen because it fits a trend. and you're seeing this trend in turkey, in the philippines, in egypt, with brexit, where you're

you're having right wing or fringe candidates emerging to the forefront. it's been a pattern. and where you have these populist leaders who are effectively doing what they want, appealing directly to the people, going through social media, going through the television, and okay, if this happens in the philippines, it's bad for that country. if it happens to the united states, it's terrible for everyone. so that's what they're seeing. this is part of the larger pattern of fringe candidates. >> this is an sit hearing. you're painting a frightening picture, richard, and i wish -- >> i wish i wasn't. >> the way that the office, will he understand the responsibility he has as. >> reporter: i'm not a psychiatrist. >> as europe's safety net. europe right now has got to be freaking out. >> well clearly, i mean he has spoken in very negative terms

and one thing republicans reelected to the senate like john mccain who are strong voices around the world on -- i mean some of his closest friends are the leaders of countries that rely on a clear voice from the united states of america. i mean, he will have a check in some of those senators and some of -- >> ironic. because there was so much talk about hillary clinton will win, we need republicans in the senate to be a check. it may fall to a john mccain, lindsey graham on a lot of these -- >> on foreign with the foreign policy view of the republican establishment. she understood and valued our commitments around the world. she understood and valued the importance of -- >> republican establishment? >> republicans still control the senate. >> i hear you, except donald trump -- the country has spoken. and the country -- the republican primary voters spoken. they rejected the republican establishment and now they

establishment as a whole, the american political establishment throwing us in in the media. so, i hear you, but what kind of -- again, i go back to, donald trump won this on his own. >> completely. >> to the point where people -- one newspaper in this country endorsed him. >> the national inquirer. >> i was counting las vegas review journal. >> i think you're going to hear more saying he didn't win it on his own. there'll be more voices emerging. >> russia? >> russia, assange, we're going to be tieing ourselves in knots. we're going to fight over the constitution. we're going to fight over the supreme court. was russia involved? and then proving that it was involved through hacking is a very complicated task. so, i just see us not sitting back and saying, okay, well, the american people have spoken, we're just going to hope for the best and maybe that once he walks into those the oval office he'll have an epiphany that he

>> of course he could. >> the first half of your statement is a correct one. he has power because the american people gave it to him. and he didn't go to them with a one set of values and then change to another. he stayed true to who he was, however much anyone may disagree with any of that. they bought into that. that's what they wanted. they thought that that's what washington needed. you see, they also thought it's what the world needed to see. >> they keep saying that when thar afterwards. >> i get that, but i'm telling you, that's the reality of where we are. that's the system that we have. people get to make a choice about who their leaders are and the lead verse to decide what kind of leaders they want to be. and it doesn't come from outside. it really comes from inside who they are and the kind of value that are imparted to those leaders by the people who put them in that office. look, i've got great reservations, we talk about this

about how much he understands how complex all of this is. he went through the primaries shooting from the hip, worked for him well politically. we've seen other people going to that office and be overwhelmed by it quite honestly because from the moment you step in, the problems come through, through the windows, 24/7, and you've got to have great staffs and sophisticated system for dealing with all does he care about it? i don't know. but in the meantime, he does have the power of the people behind him. >> let's get the read over at the clinton gathering right now. andrea mitchell is standing by. andrea, are you hearing anything from the inner circle, the clinton folks a to what their read and how this evening is going to play out -- whether we'll even have an answer tonight. >> reporter: they have got silent. there's anticipation here that

announcement. it's not supposed to be open all night. there are people waiting, many have left, but many, many more are here. this is a very large facility. larger than you could even see from our camera angles. that said, there is a number of calculations involved. hillary clinton won her senate race in 2000, the night that al gore arguably conceded too soon, leading to all of the backtracking and the recount. i was with her that night. ther a lot of second guessing about whether al gore should not have said what he said initially and then of course he took back, and then he was incredibly gracious of course when it was all over, but that sort of began the process. so my -- i think what's likely going on is, first of all, them trying to determine whether any of these states are within the automatic recount margin of error.

recount. if not and it's a done deal, they have to make a concession speech. and then what kind of concession speech? she has said the most cats gorically terrible people -- terrible things about donald trump. and the fact that she has said that he's unqualified, that he is a massage nis, that he is racist. all of these things she said about him, how does she now say the people have spoken, i will helpful and best for the country when she thinks he should not be president of the united states? that said, just last night, she told 33,000 people in philadelphia that donald trump was attacking democracy by saying that he wouldn't concede. so, if she's true to her. >> reporter: who is that in the background? >> that's a little hard to go in the background. it was a phone called that procede that speech as well.

other news organizations that have already moved some states. we haven't called yet. pennsylvania into trump. and, you know, again, we haven't done it simply because there is so much raw vote that you just extraneous and you're always nervous when it's this close and you want to to be careful when you're call ugh the presidency. but, you know, she needs a miracle. i think at this point to >> i think the ap may have pulled pennsylvania back. >> that one, that one got a lot of the right fired up. >> that would be the end of it. >> andrea has something else to add. >> reporter: yeah, we understand that campaign chairman john podesta has left the hotel and he did say to a reporter outside, we are going over to the javitz. i think you can expect that at the very least, john podesta is

i think it may be the clintons as well. now if there's some issue of pennsylvania, the outcome of pennsylvania and what the associated press reported which we have not, that might change that, but as of moments ago, john podesta was headed over this way. they have to say something publicly. and it's been a game of chicken if you will. we know donald trump would come out and say something. clearly no one wants to be the one to go first here. so i expect that we're going to clintons. you can only imagine how devastating this is. >> washington post does have pennsylvania. >> i've heard from a clinton person, they're talking about it, they claim there's some irregular lair distance and things like that. i assume -- >> who thought it would be the clinton campaign at 1:47 a.m. talking about a irregularities? it was never --

it's all over the election. >> one of the biggest controversies in this campaign is when -- i might not concede. and now it's almost 2:00 a.m. on the east coast and there's some hand wringing about how and when hillary clinton might concede. now she's on the business end of the arguments she made. >> it's such a stunning turn of events, and his overt message was to run against a rigged system, rigged media, democrat and republicans, against sort of the clinton machine. and then it's now the clinton campaign you're hearing from about irregularities in a state where he has an 80,000 vote lead. it's just something four hours ago i would have found stunning. >> 8,000 votes, this is not -- >> isn't that a reason for concern. if he managed to pull off this defeat, this almost unprecedented, unpredicted event and he comes out and gives a speech, we did it, even though

said we could do it, thanks to you. i would think he's going to feel incredibly emboldened to try and go as far as he can. >> do you think the result -- >> senate majority back as well. >> we were as much ballot. we the media as anything else, there was a great joy i think among some, stick a thumb in our eyes because of the perception -- >> i'm hearing it. >> it was -- but to your point, it was an applause line at every sing the event. our own correspondents were heckled by the republican nominee, women. >> i can tell you time after time, we've spoken about this, there were stories that you

something that was provocative. >> no candidate had gone before. >> here's the first thing. that was the one unifying theme of this campaign, everyone hates the media, whether you're hillary supporter or trump supporter. kumbaya everybody. >> i have bernie bros going, see, this is why you should have given bernie more air time. >> how much of that propelling? he become a hero of the anti-media? >> it was part of his soup. some people might call it a toxic brew. i know a lot of them found it to be a magic recipe where you got his base riled up about enough things. you know we talked about foreign policy a minute ago, he won the south carolina republican primary after blaming 9/11 on george w. bush. i mean, the ideas are so outside the mainstream not of republican foreign policy, but america

he is that protest vote. that's it. i mean, look, this is about the access hollywood tape. that's right there. the fact that he's a business -- >> doesn't care. >> and claimed almost billion dollar lawsuit in one year. he never denied it, but i think what the people are saying is we don't care. we hear what you say about him. we don't want to hear it. we don't care. >> i don't think -- >> it's not that it hasn't true, d >> yes, it's true. a lot of the coverage particularly over the last several months against trump has been incredibly negative, so you could say, well, what are we talking about? why blame the media? there were negative stories, but there was that old adage, all publicity is good publicity. we gave him a lot of publicity. he talked about himself. if you believe that all publicity is good publicity and he clearly did, well, he got a

>> close friend of mine who is smart who said, you know, sometimes you have to remember, you all are trying to figure it out and you're trying to figure out he did this and this, sometimes the american public does swoon for reasons. his theory was hey, obama seemed like the in thing to do and being for trump seemed like the rebellious in thing to do, and you know, maybe the country doesn't know what it's done yet, but it rode a wave and it was -- and trump was kind of captured the do anything to capture an imagination, we've talked about it. it was always described as a grind. her campaign. >> if you can also say voters are rewarding authenticity. here you have donald trump -- >> unscripted. >> talked about himself more than any other thing, but you know in a way, i guess he gets points for candor, he's not one of the politicians that acts like i care about you.

>> he's an out of the closet narcissist. >> reminded me of it downstairs where she wrote that the elites took him literally, but not figuratively and supporters never took him literally. this guide on how he was perceived. the vote rs cut him a lot of slack. they didn't think the toxic kind of rablly tinged comments were literal. putting it all out there. we all had the our hairn we still do, but i think that he had -- he sort of main lined his message to the voters. totally bypassed the media. and they delivered the result. >> senate call? >> i do? i have a couple of them. we're going start in pennsylvania, i believe. senator pat toomey returns. this is a hold for republicans, big deal because we're watching pennsylvania so closely. so, read that tea leaf if you like. katy mcgintty went down to defeat. and in missouri, let's look,

beat an upstart democrat that a lot of folks were hoping would make a move in a deep red state. jason who arguably had the best television ad, a veteran, i think we all remember the ad in missouri where he was blindfolded and assembled an c rifle to say hey, i've got the same thing you care about in this state. he goes down to defeat. here we go. we called early, early on and illinois pick up for dps and that was many hours ago, and yes, it looks like senators are we have this close race in new hampshire. chuck, you're the one who did the math so well, vote margin, it's there for us. >> put it there for you. >> please don't make me do math. >> we're not. >> new hampshire senate, maggie, the governor, kelly ayotte, one of the most hotly contested races. one of the most expensive ones, 1,000 vote margin. >> and by the way, presidential race and essentially identical. so, hillary clinton has about i think about 2,000 vote lead in

whob saw it as it is. this part of the evening. we would be saying tonight is a slam dunk for the republicans, raise your hands, please. no one did. >> crawl under the table. nobody did. >> not even anyone. >> can i raise another issue. the u.s. supreme court. >> yeah. >> it's already one opening and who knows how many potentially more in the next four years. and this is -- the thought is this is what drove a lot of republican voters ultim that's the biggie. >> evangelicals. >> it'll be curious to see what the democrats do as a minority part and decide, do they play the filibuster, make the republicans have to do the nuclear option? you know, and the question is do they go tit for tat. now that the shoes are on the other foot, what do the democrats semi cooperate? or do they say, no, you know

going to hold up yours. we're going to make you change the rules of the senate to make it a 50% vote. conservatives would love that because they would allow them to get more conservative justices in on a 50 plus one vote. >> the supreme court's such an interesting question. the campaign drove the message. i don't think anyone here who's watched donald trump believes that he's an ideological person. he was so pro choice he wasn't against parable birth abortions three years ago. the idea put him over the edge. he's become pro life and evangelical voters accepted that, but the notion that it was the supreme court and culturally devicive issues that helped him -- >> ideology. >> power. >> but that doesn't -- you know the idea that he might adhere to something looser. >> you know, i just don't know what it is about anything he's done. >> yeah.

picks, what each side is usually looking for is ideological purity. and that was such a salient issue is fascinating. this is a guy, even in the general election. a lot of people were heartened to hear that. gained such an advantage. >> produce a list of people at one point. >> that give republicans comfort because there were some very conservative judges who were on that list. >> but no on the names. >> but that was fine. right? >> mitch mcconnell -- >> putting the right names on there, we're good. >> mitch mcconnell said that one piece of paper was enough for him. he then within days endorsed him. it wasn't any supreme court justice seat. justice scalia's seat and altered the balance. we've seen epic stream court fights, but in the last few years, they haven't been ones that would have altered that ideological balance.

another interesting twist. >> let's get out to the trump headquarters. katy tur, we note of course you were there when he announced 511 or maybe now 12 days ago. how, how off guard, how surprised are they right now that they're doing as well as they're doing? >> reporter: well, i can tell you, i had a very early conversation with a top campaign aid, gosh, maybe in early july of they see their chances as one in ten back then. one in ten chance of getting the republican nomination. let alone getting to the point that they're at right now. those chances grew as time went on. certainly from what i could see, the first rally, the big rally was in phoenix, arizona, where 5,000 people showed up. donald trump said 7,000, 10,000, 20,000, which wasn't true, but

mccain, called him not a war hero, criticized an american veteran who had been revered by so many, and then didn't drop in the polls, that's when a lot of republicans started to wonder what was going on. and it's also when the trump campaign was starting to feel like wait a minute, we might be tapping into something here. we might really have a chance. that's when the protest campaign, which is really how this started,ta something more, more real. something that would move forward and donald trump kept getting those large rallies in state after state by november, he had secret service protection, right after thanksgiving. and that was a real indication that he was -- he was a serious contender who was being taken very seriously. at least on one end of the political spectrum. republicans were still wanting to count him out. they believed that ultimately

republican voters would come around and choose somebody more serious. they talked about ted cruz's ground game. they talked about marco rubio's perceived depths on foreign policy. policy. donald trump won the nomination and now primed to potentially win the presidency. >> all right. we've got a katy, we have anotherro we go to side of rock center, and nbc news projects when all the votes are counted, maine. and the raw count vote. the electoral map there to 218