patty: controlling the congress. u.s. republicans were hoping to secure and easy majority in the house but democrats defied expectations performing better during tuesday's midterms so what will this mean for president biden's agenda and u.s. politics. this is "inside story." ♪ patty: hello and welcome to this second specialty addition of "inside story from washington dc. it was one of the most hotly

contested and expensive elections and expensive elections in modern history with control of both sides of the congress on the line. millions of americans went out to cast their ballots. the big discussion points, the economy, immigration, abortion rights and democracy itself. republicans expected a wave of victory sweeping across the country but the democrats had other plans taking the keys senate race and flipping it in pennsylvania and ending many ownerships. but control of the house may go to the republicans. we will have more with our guests on all of this in a moment but first this special report from roslyn jordan. ♪ reporter: it was billed as the great wave of 2022. republicans winning control of congress to become president joe biden's biggest political obstacle. but democrats have won several important races.

mark kelly of arizona was reelected to the senate. he will be joined by pennsylvania's john fetterman who overcame both a stroke and stiff competition from the celebrity doctor oz. >> i am proud of what we ran on. health care is a fundamental human right. it saved my life and it should all be there for you. patty: the midterms came after months of republicans accusing democrats of plotting to steal the vote. despite fears of potential disruptions at polling stations, a thing significant was reported. the president spent tuesday evening congratulating democrats who won their races and he urged people still waiting to vote in western states to stay in line. emma kratz'-- democrats hopes died in florida were republicans now: -- now control all of the top states. >> we will never surrender to the woke mob.

florida is where woke goes to die. while our country flounders due to failed leadership in washington, florida is on the right track. reporter: former president donald trump promised he would take credit for any republican victories and he did just that. >> i wonder what biden would do right now. reporter: but one of the candidates that trump-endorsed did not thank him in his victory speech. >> what we need to do over the next six years for the full length of this senate term, whoever is in the majority and whatever the president looks like we have a simple job to do. it is to go to work every day and fight for the people of ohio. >> let's get america back on track. reporter: kevin mccarthy has all -- has long dreamed of taking the gavel from nancy pelosi but voters may not be ready for that.

roslyn jordan, al jazeera. patty: let's now bring in our guests. we have christine chan, the executive director of the asian-pacific islander american vote. she served on the executive committee of the leadership conference on civil and human rights. adam goodman is a republican strategist and edward r. murrow senior fellow at tough's university fletcher. and ameshia cross is a democratic strategist and political commentator. a warm welcome to the program. i want to start with this -- if the house -- if the republicans take the house, the democrats are celebrating. why ? obama in his midterm lost 63 seats. bush lost 30. we don't know as we sit here but it looks like it is not going to be the red wave.

adam, you said there would be a red not just a wave but a tsunami. adam: i was right except it was not nationally. i was right for florida. it was all that in florida. you cited the stats upfront and you are right. the average is a 36 seat turnover. patty: since the civil war. adam: we are in a different ball game right now. the reason is that we have vote by mail. it has made a midterm a presidential level event. usually we say -- we will have some time off. not many people will show up. that usually advantages the party that does not control the white house. patty: let me explain for our viewers. voting in america has not always been easy. you often have to wait in line for hours and it takes a

commitment. mail-in ballots change everything. adam: it brought younger voters in. i have been in the business nearly 40 years and we would write that off for the midterms. voters under 30 don't generally turnup but they did an big but by mail. and the casual voters. the voters that are not all that civic lee engaged. they said, all i have to do is drop something in mail. it is a good comment on america that everyone wants to be a part of the game. and i don't mean "game" in a pejorative way. they want to be involved. and now the midterm that used to be a past over between presidential campaigns is now a major league event in america and we saw that last night. patty: what do you make of this, there turnover ? i was struck by the kids from college waiting in line for hours. ameshia: it was exciting.

fraternities and sororities specifically from the divine 9 -- patty: hbcus. ameshia: in addition to a lot of advocacy groups led by belen neils and gen z -- by millennials and gen z. everyone tweets and is on tiktok. tiktok does not vote. you have to vote. i want to step back to something that was just said. it made it sound like mail-in ballots were moot. ameshia: it was harder to get to a polling place .

now , we see that expansion. a lot of inner-city voters are using them for their convenience. they did that during the pandemic. it shifted upwards because they did not want to be in long lines and risk getting covid. patty: what does this mean for the presidential election ? for as long as i have been covering politics, as long as i have been covering politics, it was the working class voter working -- voting for the democrats. it is like someone put the demographics in a blender and has been spinning it around for eight years. what is going on ? christine: the demographics have been changing. you look at the census. you see the increase from asian american and pacific islanders and latino communities. they are growing in states that were not in play before it. you look at georgia, nevada,

nevada, arizona and pennsylvania. knowing back to the early vote for the asian american -- going back to the early vote for the asian american vote come in 2020 a large percentage voted by mail. and even for 2022, we know 26% increased their participation from 2018 by early voting. that has increased our participation. it is also for immigrant voters. it is also for immigrant voters being able to sit at home with their family getting translation assistance to go over the ballot and not feel pressure to be under a time clock. patty: i think one of the issues our audience cares most about -- it was fascinating to me that it was such a focus worldwide because people kept saying, the president kept saying, this is about the future of democracy. will democracy survive in america ?

briefly to each of you, what does this result or the result we think will be and the massive turnout -- what does that say to you about -- is democracy ok ? ameshia: i think we can say that a lot of americans rejected autocratic lead. a lot of americans rejected what donald trump rejected and the candidates he put forth. in large part because they were open election deniers even after court after court said there was no election fraud. and the vestiges of january 6 -- that american terrorism event is still reflected in our society and we are seeing the outgrowth of a lot of domestic terrorism and anti-semitism. there are a lot of people in this country that are uncomfortable with this. they think a lot of candidates that were too close to this

behavior, there was a large rejection of that. adam: i think the biggest issue and america is intolerance across all aisles. you know how we model ourselves when we are kids by what we see from our parents and older people ? i think when you see political leaders, not just leaders but politicians on both sides of the aisle who are not behaving the way we thought or think they should behave. and bringing serious issues with the -- to the fore and try to get something done. the intolerance begins with people in the process. if there is anything we take away from this, there is some hope and this will sound odd to. the reason there will be a close margin in the house of representatives, and let's assume the projections as we are seeing will allow the republicans to take it by an

eyelash. there is an opportunity in the lame-duck session, the time between this election and the next congress in january where a lot of things that usually do not get done, will get done because the smaller you have a majority, the more likely it is and with both parties in play, you will be incented to get things done. an opportunity for america to take a step forward. patty: i want to challenge you on that because this "both sides argument" i don't know if we are there still. cite the democrat you think is inciting violence. adam: it is less about inciting violence. it is inciting one way of looking at the world. patty: a little off balance though. ameshia: there were some republicans that in cited violence. nancy pelosi's husband was

literally attacked. adam: and that is horrible and a terrible sign of the times. but we are all nervous to have question -- have conversations like this. open conversations. that has to be changed in america but if the political leaders in this country are not going to take that as a cue, if they are not doing it, it is asking a lot for the american people to do that. ameshia: it is hard for me to accept this measuring is equal because we literally had people that instigated violence and spoke out or quoted things that donald trump said in the process of instigating violence including a terror plot, kidnapping and murder plot for a sitting u.s. governor in gretchen whitmer and up to and including what we just saw with nancy pelosi's husband. the threats that alexandria oh

because io card has -- alexandria has gotten. i think we have to be very strategic when we have this conversation and real because there is no equivalent there. adam: and that is a problem. i hear what you are saying. the problem you are saying is that it comes from one side and i categorically reject that. i think what happened january 6 is horrific and we should pray and we should pray it never happens again. it is a society starting to tear apart. but when you point the finger of blame at one part of society and say, that is the reason why -- ameshia: i'm pointing the finger at the people that did it. adam: we will call it the insurrection which was horrible but we have to have a more tolerant conversation. there are things about the right and the left that we like and don't like and we can discuss that and share that without

challenging with the shortcuts. that means you subscribe to the insurrection. that means you subscribe to the threat you are talking about with governor whitmer in michigan. it was wrong. and the attack on nancy pelosi's husband. it was terrible. but if you're going to say the reason for that is that 50% of america over there, the conversation in america stops. there is no end lightened conversation. and that is what i am hoping with this divided congress and it sounds counterintuitive, that this will be an opportunity for us to have that conversation because everyone has skin in the game. this will be an opportunity for all of us to talk through the serious issues of the day that we tend to shortcut and cheapen. and one more thing. one thing that comes out of the election, people want to get things done. there is a real message. can we get things done ? every -- both sides have skin in

that. let's show that we can do that with a divided house. if we do that we are on the road to recovery. patty: what i think i hear you saying is that if we start to have the old school republicans and old-school democrats come together and reset the debate that maybe the crazies, the extremists -- adam: i grew up around a lot of those people, wonderful people. it was an honor and privilege to serve and they acted with honor but we don't see that today. a return to that would make a difference. patty: does democracy survive to live another day ? christine: i think it did because of the growth of new voters entering this election, the growth of all of the different demographics participating in that but i think you are also going to see a larger number of independent voters. there is not enough information about what truly are you

standing for ? what solutions are you bringing up ? a lot of the tactics used during the campaigns have been bud's sling and misinformation which is a whole mother -- have been mud slinging and misinformation which is a whole other conversation. people are asking us if we have more information about the candidates. they don't have that basic information because it is not being translated or the parties are not effectively reaching out to this new base of voters. patty: i am so enjoying this conversation. what i am hearing from you is not the numbers approach that we, it from but that maybe this resets the ugliness. i think that is not anything i expected to hear from you. i do want to talk because this is an international channel there is concern that if the republicans take the house and

something i heard from both a republican and democrat is that it is harder for kevin mccarthy to rule if he only gets five because then marjorie taylor greene and jim jordan cannot hold hostage everything -- can hold hostage everything. unless your predictions are right and we return to a new normal of what it used to be, it could get very ugly. one of the biggest questions the world has is kevin mccarthy going to be the next speaker of the house ? he talked about cutting aid to ukraine. ameshia: i believe aid will be reduced and not touch. we heard from him and others on the right who talked about reducing aid or eradicating aid to ukraine.

a certain group of people in america want that. they believe the money could be better utilized in america. and the isolationist posture of many americans is not something that came from trumpism. they have been like that for a while. i don't think they will be able to make that decision. and that is what i'm thankful for. adam: i agree with you. i actually think that americans -- republicans supported ukraine but they will ask for some accountability for the money. and you are right because there are other priorities in america and it is a difficult sell. we do support the people of ukraine but on the other hand we have so much that we need to take care of in this country and with inflation raging as it is, it is a more nuanced decision and i think a republican house will be on the hotplate early on. patty: republicans are really

angry at donald trump right now. he said, i could shoot someone on 5th avenue and get away with it. add insurrection to impeachment and i'm still the leader of the party. ben schapiro tweeted out that donald trump is a major drag on the republicans from his pics to his antics. he picked bad candidates and proceeded to -- a word i cannot say on television -- and then republicans lost and did not sufficiently bend the knee. to each of you, is trumpism dead ? we did have 150 election deniers win their election. ameshia: it is alive and well. he took the playbook and is running it better. i think there are going to be

several people who will learn from that. we know how that was for ron desantis in florida with a playbook. i think what we are going to see is someone who is about -- he is losing control fast and that is a difficult thing for donald trump because he wants to be the kingmaker. if anything this election cycle has proven he is not an there is another heir apparent. and the republican party has wanted to move behind -- beyond him since january 6. patty: here is that thing, adam, i do not see the base at abandoning him. adam: and that israel too -- and that is real too. the base is rocksolid behind trump.

he did not have a good night. and there is something else from florida -- you talk about the governor. he is doing something that is in no one's playbook. it is not in the former presidents playbook and i don't see any other parallel with any other republican in the country. he is going at governing florida and talking out on issues and we have seen the things about education, taking on disney. none of these are in any playbook or came from an advisor or a pollster. it came from him. he is a very highly educated i think principled leader who said, i'm going to get the job done and i will not sweat the criticisms that usually comes along with that and his message and achievements are so fresh, it is one of the things i think americans are looking for. this is the kind of a leadership that we could get behind. and for that reason i think the former president have his hands full with someone that feels

like he has hit the ground and he is running. patty: we were talking about this might be a kumbaya moment. ron desantis has very extreme positions. he has the don't say gay bill which means educators cannot mention the fact that there might be someone who is not straight. he has gone after disney because he said they went after the don't say gay bill which is a very antirepublican thing, not known for going after corporations. he has gone after transgender students. and he took a busload of migrants from texas, a state he is not the governor of, and flew them to martha's vineyard to prove a point which will likely get them a visa because it means he engaged in human trafficking. to get back to the republican party and the congress, how do you do that if that guy, this

guy is the standardbearer ? adam: donald trump ? patty: ron desantis. adam: the achievements -- 10 seconds of that. massive increases in education and protecting the environment. criminal justice reform out-of-the-box. he is one of the most popular governors before this happened. and there is a sense of opportunity and freedom that people feel in florida. if you want a number, 19 point win over charlie crist who was a former governor in florida. there is something people are liking. the engagement with disney -- that is a sign of where the republican party is trying to move. trying to move away from being the party of big business. to the point you are making earlier about the outreach into latinos and asian americans, that is a reason -- patty: he had a huge night. adam: he is onto that faster and

better than any republican leader. patty: this was such a great discussion. our -- my thanks to all of our guests. thank you for watching. you can see the program again any time by visiting our website and for further discussion go to our facebook page. you can also join the conversation on twitter. our handle is at a.j./story. for me, patty keohane and for ówówóoc■j?ñ?m d.c. and doha,o;ow

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