let me just set the scene here brian inside the java center. a number of people have left in tears. there is stunned disbelief as the results as they come in. earlier in the evening they were looking for any sign that there was a potential just silence as they listen to the music playing and await to hear what happens next, brian. >> kristen welker at clinton headquarters. james carville has joined us -- i'm sorry? maine, we have a projection, maine, it is being projected by nbc news, will be won by hillary clinton. when all the votes are cast, three out of the four electoral votes. >> so that means, we are not projecting the separate congressional district that -- >> no. >> donald trump gets one. >> ah, okay. got it. >> so you'll note, his total has

grown by one. >> what a fascinating and confusing and -- >> so to be clear, maine, one of the electoral votes in maine goes to trump. the remaining electoral votes in maine go to hillary clinton. >> we're working on a new graphic that says she gets most of them. exactly. i was saying that james carville has been kind enough to join us out in the studio. what are you hearing, james, on what has to be a confusing night for you as well? >> if you don't want to be second-guessed or criticize said, don't be in politics. there was a huge argument leading up to the campaign that she needed a more economic message. and people on the other hand said if we close with temperament and have this massive tv effort that will get us across the finish line. that wing of the campaign is gonna get heavily criticized, to say the least. and the books and the articles

and the obits, to go through things. if you would have told me that the democrats would lose texas by eight, win the popular vote and lose the election, i would have said, never. but that apparently is going to be what happens tonight. but where the second-guessing is going to come in is that they kind of resisted the thing that there were multiple problems the country was facing. she thought she could attack them on a lot of different fronts. and trump's message was simple and to the point. and that is going to be where a lot of the second-guessing, that's going to be talked about a lot on television. >> here we go. here's the chairman of the campaign, john podesta. >> thank you! [ cheers and applause ] >> well, folks, i know you've been here a long time, and it's

been a long night, and it's been a long campaign. but i can say, we can wait a little longer, can't we? they're still counting votes, and every vote should count. several states are too close to call. so we're not going to have anything more to say tonight. so, listen, listen to me, everybody should head home. you should get some sleep. we'll have more to say tomorrow. i want you to know, i want every person in this hall to know and i want every person across the country who supported hillary to know that your voices and your enthusiasm means so much to her and to tim and to all of us. we are so proud of you.

[ applause ] and we are so proud of her! she's done an amazing job, and she is not done yet! so thank you for being with her. she has always been with you. i have to say this tonight, goodnight, we will be back and we will have more to say. let's get those votes counted and let's bring this home. thank you so much for all that you have done, you are in all of our hearts, thank you! >> a tough job for a guy whose life has been laid bare by a massive computer hack, who has had the difficult job of being chairman of this campaign, and there is how so many hillary clinton supporters are reacting in that room. >> it's an interesting decision

by the campaign, to come out and say, go home, we're not going to say anything else tonight. i mean, it's true that there are five races that are either too close or too early to call. michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin, minnesota, and alaska. but they're not that far off from getting called. pennsylvania has 97% in. michigan's 87, wisconsin's 90, minnesota's 89. what they're telling us is, there's not going to be a speech tonight. we're going to hit pause on this. you can expect the trump campaign will not do the same thing. this is the clinton campaign saying we will have no response, we will have no word for you. we want the cameras off us now. >> and the normal ritual is that the phone call is made. it's too early for that given the numbers are not in. but the phone call is made by the loser to the winner. and then there's an announcement that the concession has been made, and the winner comes out and speaks. so that sequence will not happen tonight. >> can kerry wait until the next

day? >> he did. >> because of ohio. >> we're just getting later counts now, and it's harder to get the decision. >> it's just like a lot of things, there are going to be a lost of second-guessing. i didn't know that john podesta was that good of a speaker. that was a tough assignment he had there. that was not easy. i didn't envy him and i think a lot of john personally. my heart went out to him. >> i think he looked good in the wikileaks. every time i read one of these exchanges, he seemed like the grown-up, he seemed good to me. >> well, i think kasie hunt raised such an interesting much tonight. the chains of e-mail showing hillary clinton's position on an issue is the result of nine rounds of questioning internally. donald trump during this campaign took a whack at concussion policy, that we're getting soft on head injuries, just as an aside.

but, again, because everything is through the prism of followers, people would see that and say, he says what he thinks and there's no filter. they didn't focus group concussion policy before he issued that snap -- >> but had we seen the sausage-making behind some of his policy speeches where he appeared to be announcing policies we'd never heard of -- >> wasn't it something like eight of ten things on the puerto rican debt crisis? >> yeah. >> the campaign will be observed that it was a collaborative effort, she believed in getting a lot of different opinions and there's going to be some -- obviously going to be some second-guessing and some criticism. something like this happens, you know this is going to happen. >> but it was an unusual way to make policy. do get to solicit various views -- >> well, there was bound to be a sad people filing out of one of the headquarters pictured tonight. it just happens to be the

clinton campaign, and our modern day security apparatus, forcing crowds to walk around barriers for no apparent reason. steve has a look now at the board at pennsylvania. >> actually what we have here, you heard the clinton campaign saying, we're not conceding, they say there's too much that's still outstanding. exactly what they're looking at here, what our decision desk, other decision desks are looking at, why the clinton campaign would make that declaration. to set the stakes here, we told you there are three basically must-win states for hillary clinton if she's going to pull this election out. they are pennsylvania, michigan, and wisconsin. she trails in all three. our decision desk has not called a single one of these states. let me explain why. in pennsylvania right now, donald trump's lead is 75,000 votes. there are approximately 65 precincts in the state of pennsylvania that have yet to report their results tonight. every one of those is in philadelphia or the philadelphia suburbs or allegheny county where pittsburgh is.

so there is going to be an uptick in vote for hillary clinton. my estimate is that would gain her about 20,000 votes. that would not be enough when you face a 75,000 gap. why is our decision desk still not calling pennsylvania then? because there's a large number of provisional ballots that were disproportionately cast in philadelphia, that may take days to count. estimate here is that it could be upwards of 3% of the statewide total, cast provisionally. so there could still be counting in pennsylvania. that's a lot to overcome. potentially, though, there's a large pool -- somewhat large pool of votes out there. michigan is pretty straightforward. but wisconsin is the other one i want to focus on. again, must-win for hillary clinton. what's the gap? 85,000 votes. what is the reason our decision desk is not calling wisconsin? it has to do with mill aukee county. big democratic county.

what this is, absentee vote. we think maybe a quarter of the vote in milwaukee county is going to be absentee. but we do not know the size of that absentee ballot of the total universe of absentee ballots. we're waiting for a read on that. clinton has a mountain to climb in wisconsin, but our decision desk does not have a good sense of the absentee ballot situation in milwaukee county, so we are not calling wisconsin either. at this moment, our decision desk has not called wisconsin, has not called michigan. you can see clinton trails there by about 80,000 votes and has not called pennsylvania. clearly looks like a steep, steep climb for her. she'd need all three. that's what it's come to. >> steve, thank you. it is a joy to watch you work with numbers and explain all of this. we're the recipients of it. it also strikes me, we haven't explained our decision desk, but this is important. we'll get to that after we show you this decision.

lisa murkowski, the incumbent, that's a net hold in alaska. and here's what that means. the larger graphic, the senate at this hour, democrats plus one, republican control of the senate. this is what we've been talking about all night. if trump goes on to victory and the white house, if this holds as we believe it will, as our early, early evening projection of the house, republican control holdings as we think it will, all three branches. and so as chris matthews and others have been talking about tonight, those people who were motivated to cast their vote for the supreme court, among other issues, and here's another projection. alaska, we are projecting when all the votes are counted, will go to donald trump. three electoral votes. you think three electoral votes, small peanuts, don't matter,

look at what they do to your total, when they push you up to 248, versus 218. a word about our national map, here's the reds and the blues. and notice that land mass out in the pacific with the aleutian islands trailing. alaska has gone to donald trump. hawaii has gone to hillary clinton. 218-248. can we take the shot of the decision desk? this is important. i know we've had an erosion of trust in our institutions and i'm just asking you to believe me, our decision desk in this building is, they take place in their own world. they are not around any outside media. they don't have the pressure of knowing what other news organizations are making calls that we're ahead or behind in certain races. this is as close as we can get to our director of elections and surveys and the decision process

going on in that room. because it is really serious business. >> it looks like a failed moon shot room, doesn't it? nasa. >> they've got really hard work to do in terms of these last states. different news organizations taking different approaches to the very close races with the small amount of different kinds of votes that remain outstanding. obviously there's a lot of pressure as we get closer and closer to 270. they are insulated from the pressure literally in the sense that they are not, they are not participating in discussions about what they are doing. they're not paying attention to what other news organizations are doing. they're doing things on their own terms, about you they know exactly how close somebody is to winning this thing, and their work gets harder and harder as the night goes on. so you can see, as we are watching them, they're drinking coffee. but you can also see them at this point, it's really crunch time for them. it doesn't peter out. it crescendos right until the

end. >> nicole wallace, james carville with us in the studio. we were watching jon podesta, the chairman, the equivalent of being sent out to pinch-hit in the ninth inning of game seven in the rain. >> it's admittedly an extremely narrow path hillary clinton has to the presidency. but no one should read anything into what john podesta just did. in 2004, mark rosco who was the campaign chairman, a figure of equal stature to john podesta on this campaign went into a ballroom at the reagan center and sent all the bush supporters home. all that he was acknowledging tonight is that there wouldn't be a result worth waiting around any longer for. they looked sad because they didn't get the result they wanted to. but that act was simply an acknowledgement that they are not going to know in any sort of timely manner to justify those people waiting around. is she probably going to come up short?

i would guess she is. but what he did tonight was humane for people who have been sitting around since 4:00 or 5:00. >> what happens in the hilton ballroom? >> i imagine they stay up for this. when it's going the other way, i think you stay up a little longer. i think where the clinton campaign is, is perhaps looking at their options into pennsylvania. i've heard some reports that they're asking questions about how that vote came in, if there were any irregularities. >> you ask every question that you can ask. you talk to every lawyer you have. you talk to every kind of mean,h to ask that somebody's run a campaign this long and this hard -- >> for one more night. >> -- that some avenue, however remote or narrow you think it is, that we'll take a look at it and do that. i think nicole's point is right. you tell people to go home. it's not unprecedented in 2004. and i can't imagine the

disappointment, the shock of secretary clinton, president clinton, the people in that room. a lot of people. losing one of these things is really, really, really hard. and losing one that you think you're gonna win is unimaginably hard. >> it's not unprecedented to wait until the next morning. john kerry held off on acknowledging or conceding defeat. but it's just so wild at 2:16 a.m., we're talking about whether hillary clinton will accept what looks like a result that might not go her way. when we all thought, we've been talking since that dramatic debate moment, when i incorrectly called a lights-out moment in american politics, when donald trump said he may not accept the result if he doesn't believe in it or like what he sees. >> it's almost remarkable that at 2:16 in the morning, we've got six big states, with lots of electoral votes that are all

still close to call. the number of states that came in within a couple of points, within a point and a half, all over the country, whether or not, whatever that says about the determination of the final results, it's very, very very close in a lot of these states, including all of the ones that are still outstanding. >> that's a chunk of the electorate. >> in human terms, the conditions, all of them that are any good, including the clintons, race to the last second with the last extra ounce of their energy. they're dead, they're exhausted beyond belief. it takes a month for some of these people to recover. >> yeah. >> and so at the very moment the results come in, you know what it's like to be really tired. you're emotions are shot. >> i've heard about it. >> and you have to come out and say, i lost, or even i won. we went through this with president carter. i thought the reason nobody liked it, and he conceded early, because i thought, and i don't know him that well. i like him, i respect him. but i think he did it because he didn't think he could hold it together later that night. i think he was so beat. and you're supposed to do it,

you know, you have to do it. but i guess we'll have a concession tomorrow, but maybe not. maybe this is going to go on. >> maybe not. i think if you're gonna do it, you want to be sure that you can. but you do owe it to your supporters, your donors, everybody else to exhaust every possibility before you do that. >> i just don't think anyone thought it would be her. based on all the polls that showed her with a ahead three to five points that it would be her exhausting -- >> no, they didn't. and people were optimistic. you looked at the early vote, what was coming in. i was getting texts all day, in broward it was this, johnson county, iowa's the biggest turn-out they've ever had. philadelphia turned out upon didn't count on the other side. i don't know what the total vote is going to be, but it looks like it was 127 million in 2012,

and it feels like this is going to be 140 million maybe. i mean, it's going to be a staggering number. >> isn't it strange, big turn-out today, long lines in fishtown in philly, hours after closing time. still these millenials standing in line, and i heard that about the conservatives in the burbs too. people got into this election finally. >> you get the turn-out numbers ultimately in the end. sometimes it feels like it doesn't match the anecdotal information. one of the things that i think will be interesting, particularly in democratic politics, see what this does to the strategizing around early vote. democrats love early voting. >> they were banking it. >> they banked the vote and that's a big part of how barack obama put together his two wins, working that early vote to try to make sure they could lock in people when they made their decision and get it done and get them off the table, so you can focus on the people who hadn't made it to the polls yet. in this case, you had a struck by lightning circumstance. in you believe in the comey

effect, millions and millions and millions of people, a third -- almost a third of the electorate voted in the nine-day period between jim comey saying, hillary clinton might have hemorrhagic fever and nine days later when he said, oh, actually, he doesn't. in that time, would the difference have been enough to make a difference? >> what will be studied in political science ad nauseum, is the effect or lack of a effect of a field organization on turn-out. it is acknowledged and it is true that the clinton campaign had as fine an operation as you could possibly have. >> a sterling ground game. >> and it was. it was a sterling ground -- and tlu trump had none. he didn't even put one together. >> but don't stop there. he didn't really have any of the traditional jobs on a campaign either, the traditional headquarters. >> he didn't have tv ads. i was watching all during the ball game during the world

series. hillary's ads were really good. the little kids watching the bad language, i thought, this was dynamite stuff. the imitation of the daisy actress -- >> they had arguably the most successful convention in modern political history. >> yes. >> according to nate silver, they won the debates by more than any candidate had ever won the three debates. and yet 100 million people, 90 million people watching the debates. if you took the execution of things that we as commentators or political consultants or the markers that we said that you had to do, i mean, they hit their markers. field organization, contacts, you name it. >> and the parallel to that is the republican primary, the hundred million dollars that mike murphy spent, trying to do the jeb bush super pac effort. you look at the organizational effort of so many of those establishment candidates who went up against donald trump, who didn't lose because they ran

terrible campaigns or because they didn't get their act together. they did. it just didn't matter. >> a depressing convention. >> the trump convention. >> remember the first night -- >> peter alexander is at trump headquarters with some news about donald trump. >> we can now report that donald trump is here at the hilton in mid town. just about a block away from trump tower. he's just arrived and we've heard in a tweet from the head of communications sean spicer, quote, donald trump about to take the stage at the hilton in new york. the crowd here has been frustrated, frankly frustrated with the media for not calling this race at this point. it's not unusual for us to be heckled by trump supporters, but we didn't think it would happen here on this night, turning to the reporters and yelling "call it" and some ob sensities as well. but the news is that donald trump has arrived at the campaign night election headquarters in mid town manhattan and we are told he

will be taking the stage shortly. >> interesting. >> peter alexander, thank you. it is a very short distance between those two locations. coming to work today, i saw these filled with sand new york city department of sanitation dump trucks that now ring the entrance to trump tower, given our modern day security concerns. >> when a bollard is not enough. and this portion of mid town manhattan is under lockdown, depending on the block. >> nicole, you were just talking about the precedent in 2004, when on the bush side of the campaign, you had the campaign big wig come out, tell everybody to come home, we're not going to get a result tonight, then we got the concession from kerry the next day. in terms of what trump is about to do here, if sean spicer from the rnc is right and trump is about to take the stage, when by all media accounts, and certainly by ours, he's not hit 270, if he is going to give a speech tonight, what's the right context? what's the right way to do that? >> it isn't the right thing to

do, but he isn't a normal guy. mike mccurry and i were the back channels on the two campaigns. he was sort of back channeling with the kerrys and the edwards on that night and i was talking to the president and vice president and karl rove and what mick mccurry said, he thought he was going to be president all day. and he understands now that he thought -- >> kerry -- >> but the edwards haven't come around. so give them until the morning. there were some people in the president's circle who wanted him to claim his victory. the president said, no, no, no, i trust mike mccurry, let's sleep on it. he said to me, better call in the morning. i was 26, but he did just that, he stood down. the next morning, i remember bush called from the oval office at about 6:30, dan bartlett called and the call didn't come in quite as early but by 10:00,

john kerry kept his word and called and conceded. but it would not have happened that smoothly, i don't think. we understood it would have agitated efforts on the kerry-edwards side if bush had gone out and done just this, claimed his victory. but it's very, i wouldn't expect trump to do anything different. >> do you think that trump is going to take the stage to claim victory? >> i don't know what else he'd be there to do. >> what's he going to say? why would he do anything by precedent? why all of a sudden now he's just going to start -- >> everybody keeps telling me he's not going to do any of the things he campaigned on, that he's going to be a normal republican now. i don't see it that way. i'm trying to adjust my way of thinking to this new normalizing of donald trump that we're supposed to be doing. >> i've never tried to normalize donald trump. i've been forth coming. we've had a national conversation about my 15 months of therapy and i didn't vote for him. but i am just dismayed and sort of stunned that he continues to

defy every convention in politics. >> you've been talking about it all night, this future dow. the fact that world markets are going crazy, he has the responsibility, probably if he wins, to deal with that. that's a reality he has to deal with. i think he may come out tonight and just say, i'm not as crazy as i look. >> i don't know how he feels about that responsibility. he may look at the that number, with the dow futures down 800 and think, good. >> how can he say that? markets go up, markets go down. once people see what a tremendous guy i am, the oddball kinds of things -- >> his closing argument had a picture of janet yellen and lloyd blankfein and george soros talking about the global elites who are working against you, as if there's a conspiracy of global elites, which is the clintons and some powerful jewish people that is out to take your country away and i'm going to give it back. i don't think a guy like that wors about the markets being down on account of him. i think he takes it as a badge

of honor. >> what do we think they'll do with interest rates in december? you can utterly forget about the people who think that climate is a real serious issue. >> it's a hoax invented by the chinese. >> chris matthews, i'm sitting here rewinding the last couple days, because there's going to be as james correctly points out, the kind of obituary of all obituaries written about this. trying to reconstruct the signs that were out there, and the people who said something on your show, some people came up to this line, saying, i predict -- andrew sullivan. i remember andrew sullivan being very declarative on thursday night or friday night's broadcast. i aggressively questioned mark hal perin who was seeing various paths to victory for donald trump. where are you getting these

paths? and here we are. here we are. >> i heard it from a friend of mine, ed jesser, up in dorchester. he always tells me what's going on and he's been saying this for days, that trump's going to win. i think it's very close to the titanic, this kind of situation, where even god himself cannot sink this ship. everybody agreed that he was going to lose because he made all those mistakes. had no ad campaign on television. he had no ground game. he said things that were dericive to a court of the population, he did it over and over again. people weren't going to vote for him and they did. and i think it's the one word we kidded about the other night. atyitude. there's an atyitude against the establishment right now that's so strong because they do not

want to say i agree with the direction of this country. >> we should have close said captioning for that. atyitude. but in philadelphia, it needs no further explanation. it's atyitude. steve kornacki, while we wait for donald trump in the ballroom of the new york hilton, steve kornacki is doing a deep dive again on michigan. steve? >> well, we continue to get the vote in. remember, we have not called pennsylvania, mifchigan, wisconsin. hillary clinton is trailing in all of them. she needs to win all of them to pull out the election. the gap here in michigan right now, it's 60,000 votes. that is steep. however, look at this, wayne county here, this is detroit. and some suburbs. about 670,000 votes have been cast in wayne county. you can expect, probably about 150,000 more votes to be cast there, however, absentees are going to be a big part of this. so clinton could still make up big ground there.

also votes from ann arbor. so there's still a scenario in michigan. but we're talking about three states where he faces steep hills to climb, to have any chance right now. but her gap in pennsylvania right now is about 75,000 votes. you just saw it in michigan. her gap's about 60,000 votes. and her gap out here in wisconsin, is 75,000 votes. now, there is not much left in any of these states. so the odds of her pulling off all three of those are exceedingly slim. but the difference between hillary clinton being president-elect and donald trump being president-elect, look at this, could be just about 200,000 votes in wisconsin, michigan, and pennsylvania. >> steve, can i walk through a scenario with you here for a second. just real quick. looking at these outstanding states right now, it seems to me like just looking at -- just looking at basic, raw truths about who's ahead and the count we have thus far, we have hillary clinton ahead right now, in the count that we've got thus far. in minnesota and new hampshire. we have donald trump pretty

clearly ahead in wisconsin and arizona. fair enough? >> yes. >> in terms of what we're looking at right now? >> yes. >> if donald trump wins wisconsin and arizona, that puts him at 269, not 270. >> however, i should tell you, what you can't see on this map in the state of nebraska, it's like maine. they break it down by congressional district. we are not actually displaying the congressional districts. so donald trump in fact has not yet won or been declared the winner in the entire state of nebraska. there's a district around omaha that has not yet been called. romney won it in '12. last count trump was leading in this district. so that would be the extra electoral vote for donald trump at that point. it's ironic. we talked for weeks, maybe, donald trump needs an inside straight, a royal flush, all of these poker terms for that one in a million hand. that's the position hillary clinton's in right now. sweep them. pennsylvania, michigan,

wisconsin. and i showed you the gaps in them up them. >> they're deer tracks. >> and a deft choice, promising running back. >> and you can't have the faithless electors from washington state either by the way. >> we just got this collection of photocopies of selected front pages tomorrow. and while newspapers for the print edition have to get something on the front page and declare a lid on that day's news, race for the presidency hangs on tally in a handful of states is about the kindest way to put what we have witnessed tonight, which could also be called a prairie fire. that is the most benign way to state the story we have been chronicling tonight.

>> here's "boston globe." suspense to the finish. trump surpasses clinton. >> it's the fear of dewey beats truman. they're scared to death of a headline that's definitive. >> the newspaper chris matthews calling the philadelphia enquirer has trump ahead, which is probably the most plainly accurate headline of them all. >> we still have print newspapers. they have to put ink to paper at some point. they've gotta commit and this is how they are committing. meanwhile, we were looking at the lower right-hand part of your screen, dow jones futures down over 500. approaching 800 at one point tonight. this is looking ahead at what's going to happen when the markets open. the markets have been frankly for lack of a better term, freaking out every time it looks like donald trump might have a shot at the presidency. it will be a global market shock

tomorrow if he gets -- actually, if things are just the way they are now and they don't change at all. let alone if he does get even closer to this or goes over the top tonight. >> let's just offer one contrast to the slightly understated headline. >> yes, kasie hunt. >> what is going on at the clinton headquarters right now, backstage, which is kind of a celebrity reflection, if you will, of what's going on among hillary clinton supporters. i'm told lady gaga is in tears. cher is in tears. katy perry was supposed to sing the national anthem in this kind of surprise. she didn't. she had a stand-in instead. they had planned and you really can understand the degree to which they deeply believed that they were going to win this election. >> look at the infrastructure around tonight. look at that event, the staging, the venue, the talent backstage. all of it. >> the napkins. >> the napkins.

>> that's your hillary napkin -- >> it was a souvenir i saved because i thought this might be the president. >> i've still got my john kerry tchotchkes from 2004. >> i have a lot from governor romney's campaign too. >> i got romney-ryan stuff up the wazoo, i can hook you up. >> it cannot be overstated the magnitude of this political story. there's no -- we don't have the words -- >> there's nothing to compare this to. >> you knew, james, because a few moments ago, you alluded very kindly to what was missing in the clinton campaign. if this goes the way we think. it goes back to what you did so effectively in '92. it's the economy, stupid, and don't forget health care. you knew why the clintons were running, they had a plan, they were going to restore the economic growth of the country, and that was a message that people liked. >> you know, it is going to be second-guessed. a lot of friends over there. i know a lot of people that had

real problems with it. but they actually thought that the gop effort and the temperament would be sufficient to get you across the goal line. and by nature, she had a lot of different position papers. she thought things out. she is a very -- a person who believes deeply in preparation, hard work, collaboration. >> process. >> yeah, and there are smart policies you can do to help make people's lives better. be it infrastructure programs, or access to job training or education or things to deal with sexism or racism and other problems we have, that's what she really believes. that's who she really was. that's when you run for president, that's what it was. and trump -- and she doesn't, i

have no doubt that she doesn't think trump knows anything. he doesn't prepare for anything. he doesn't study anything. he has no idea of what's going on in the world, in the country. and i'm very confident confident that she's right. and this has gotta be -- i really feel for her tonight. >> you know, she won every debate by all standards. >> every debate. >> the best ad campaign, the best ground tame. th -- ground game. she did what you're supposed to do to win and trump came in around the corner -- we're going to study this for a while. >> try the civil war. it will be a ken burns film on this. >> first of all, i don't think we should overlook the human element here either. if hillary clinton does win this, this is potentially -- i mean it's a devastating end. you've been so close to them. i wonder what the president is saying to her now as she is kind of trying to process this and deal with it. >> and i'm thinking about president obama too. to have the first african

american president succeeded by a guy who was endorsed by the kkk is, you know, a guy who somebody who says i run the website for the alt-right which defines itself in white nationalist terms, for them to get that edgy on white racial animus and have that be the succession to the first black president, it's a big deal. >> a lot of african american people, latino people, muslim people, whatever, feel like, you know, the country just told me exactly what they thought of me. >> yep. >> and there's going to be -- or people like myself, who believe in a pluralistic nation, you know, there are people who really believe that our success lies in our pluralism, makes us a better country. it is a devastating, devastating -- my daughter came

down from college, and a lot of daddies are having a lot of hard conversations with a lot of daughters tonight. i promise you that. it was unbelievably difficult. >> well, look at the number of daughters in that room at the javits center tonight. clearly there to witness that event. i'm also rewinding the last couple days, jennifer granholm was on our broadcast. she was a passionate guest on bill maher this friday night. but on my broadcast, i want to say friday night, 11:00, we were short on time. but my last question to her was, if it was up to you, what would the closing message be in a bumper sticker slogan. and what she wanted to talk about was jobs. jennifer granholm, michigander by way of harvard law school, 47th governor of the state of michigan, and that was not in the official closing argument.

but she was all about jobs. it's the economy. >> right. and there was a big discussion. >> that's the disconnect. >> i always felt like my role is to be supportive because no one wants the last guy to come in and be -- to sort of -- to know it all. but as the books come out and as things come out, we'll find out exactly how big that discussion was and how people lined up. boy, the second-guessing here is just -- it is going to be going on forever. >> we're hearing the room pipe up here at the mid town hilton. we have been advised that trump himself will take the stage. we don't know that for sure. but the room is reacting to something. we also don't know what donald trump will say, if this will be a victory speech or what. >> there is a report out there

that a call has been placed from clinton to trump. we do not have independent confirmation of that. but the big screen in this ballroom -- has clearly broadcast something that has gone over big league with the trump supporters. >> and as we get to this point in the night, i think it's also -- james as you were saying, it's hard to overstate the political import of this. i mean, there has never been anyone in national public life who has proposed banning members of a particular religion from this country. that's never happened in mainstream public life, let alone from an american president. what donald trump is offering in terms of policy is as radical a departure from normal american politics as anything that has ever happened in any of your

lifetimes. he has promised political vengeance for his enemies. he has promised to jail his opponent in this election. he has promised to restrict the press in unprecedented ways. he has proposed banning muslims from the united states even if you don't believe it, he has. he's not rescinded that pledge. he has pledged to rip us out of nato. he has said he will meet with vladimir putin. he doesn't care if president obama is still in office. he will do it before he's sworn in. he's promised to create a national deportation force to go door to door, business to business, and throw more than ten million people out of this country. if he does any one of those things that he's promised to do, our country is about to face some serious krcrises. buckle up, your country needs you at a time like this. if he does any of the things he's said he's going to do that are so outside political norms, the country is about to go through something that is going to be a radical shock, that's going to be a bigger shock than just electing him.

>> taking in these scenes in the ballroom at the new york hilton hotel. chris matthews? >> thanks for that. i'm trying to deal with what rachel's trying to deal with, is the future now. what looks to be the future. and i guess what gives me some sense of calm is that these guys are still restricted by our constitution and that the constitution is pretty damn good. and it does limit the ability of anybody to come in and change much. there's a leveling effect to anyone elected. they have to contend with the congress and the courts.

it's not easy to make big news. anyway, we have something coming here. >> yeah, i got to bust in with what you can read on our screen, the graphic. kristen welker covering the campaign. >> we've now confirmed that secretary clinton has conceded to donald trump. this concession took place in a phone call. we anticipate just moments ago. and as we are awaiting donald trump taking the stage here, that is the news at this hour. secretary clinton has conceded to donald trump. it is a stunning and shocking development, particularly for her supporters who waited hours here at the javits center, to hear from her. when it appeared as though the path was becoming too difficult, a number of them broke out into tears, started leaving early. grief started to set in. one of her supporters told me,

this is a political upset of huge, huge magnitude. of course she was holding the event here at the javits center, which has a glass ceiling, something she was hoping to break through tonight, to make history, to become the first woman president, but it was not to be. again, skrt clinton conceding to donald trump this evening. brian? >> the attention now shifts to the ballroom at the hilton and the vice presidential nominee, mike pence. reminder, a concession does not equal crossing the threshold of 270, but a concession is a concession probably in light of some unavoidable math. >> this is an historic night. [ cheers and applause ] the american people have spoken and the american people have elected their new champion.

america has elected a new president. and it's almost hard for me to express the honor that i and my family feel, that we will have the privilege to serve as your vice president of the united states of america. [ applause ] [ crowd chanting "usa" ]. >> i come to this moment deeply humbled. grateful to god for his amazing grace. grateful to my family, my wonderful wife karen, our son michael and his fiancee sarah, our daughter audrey far away,

and our daughter charlotte. i could not be here without them. and i'm deeply grateful to the american people for placing their confidence in this team and giving us this opportunity to serve. and i'm mostly grateful to our president-elect whose leadership and vision will make america great again. so let me say, it is my high honor and distinct privilege to introduce to you the president-elect of the united states of america, donald trump. ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ >> thank you. thank you very much, everybody. sorry to keep you waiting, complicated business. complicated. thank you very much. i've just received a call from secretary clinton. [ applause ] she congratulated us, it's about us, on our victory and i congratulated her and her family on a very, very hard-fought campaign. i mean, she fought very hard.

hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time. and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country. i mean that very sincerely. now it's time for america to bind the bounds of division, have to get together. to all republicans and democrats and independents across this nation, i say, it is time for us to come together as one united people. it's time. i pledge to every citizen of our land that i will be president for all americans, and this is so important to me. for those who have chosen not to

support me in the past, of which there were a few people, i'm reaching out to you, for your guidance and your help, so that we can work together and unify our great country. as i've said from the beginning, ours was not a campaign but rather an incredible and great movement, made up of millions of hard-working men and women, who love their country and want a better, brighter future for themselves and for their family. it's a movement comprised of americans from all races, religions, backgrounds, and beliefs, who want and expect our government to serve the people and serve the people it will.

working together, we will begin the urgent task of rebuilding our nation and renewing the american dream. i've spent my entire life in business, looking at the untapped potential in projects and in people all over the world. that is now what i want to do for our country. tremendous potential. i've gotten to know our country so well. tremendous potential. it's gonna be a beautiful thing. every single american will have the opportunity to realize his or her fullest potential. the forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. we are going to fix our inner

cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals. we're going to rebuild our infrastructure. which will become, by the way, second to none. and we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it. we will also finally take care of our great veterans. who have been so loyal and i've gotten to know so many over this 18-month journey. the time i've spent with them during this campaign has been among my greatest honors. our veterans are incredible people. we will embark upon a project of national growth and renewal. i will harness the creative talents of our people, and we will call upon the best and brightest to leverage their tremendous talent for the

benefit of all. it's gonna happen. we have a great, economic plan. we will double our growth and have the strongest economy anywhere in the world. at the same time, we will get along with all other nations willing to get along with us. we will have great relationships. we expect to have great, great relationships. no dream is too big, no challenge is too great. nothing we want for our future is beyond our reach. america will no longer settle for anything less than the best. we must reclaim our country's destiny and dream big and bold and daring. we have to do that. we're going to dream of things for our country and beautiful things and successful things once again. i want to tell the world

community that while we will always put america's interests first, we will deal fairly with everyone. with everyone. all people and all other nations. we will seek common ground, not hostility, partnership not conflict. and now i'd like to take this moment to thank some of the people who really helped me with this, what they are calling tonight, very, very historic victory. first, i want to thank my parents, who i know are looking down on me right now. great people. i've learned so much from them. they were wonderful in every regard. i had truly great parents. i also want to thank my sisters, marianne and elizabeth, who are here with us tonight.

and where are they? they're here someplace. they're very shy, actually. and my brother robert. my great friend. where is robert? where is robert? my brother robert. and they should all be on this stage, but that's okay. they're great. and also my late brother fred. great guy. fantastic guy. fantastic family. i was very lucky. great brothers, sisters, great, unbelievable parents. to melania and don and ivanka and eric, and tiffany, and barron, i love you and i thank you and especially for putting

up with all of those hours. this was tough. this was tough. this political stuff is nasty and it's tough. so i want to thank my family very much. really fantastic. thank you all. thank you all. and lara, unbelievable job. vanessa, thank you. thank you very much. what a great group. you've all given me such incredible support, and i will tell you that we have a large group of people, you know, they kept saying, we have a small staff. look at all the people we have. look at all these people. and kellyanne and chris and rudy and steve and david. we have got -- we have got tremendously talented people up here, and i want to tell you, it's been very, very special. i want to give a very special thanks to our former mayor, rudy

guiliani. unbelievable. unbelievable. he traveled with us and he went through meetings. hear that, rudy. never changes. where's rudy? where is he? rudy. governor chris christie, folks, was unbelievable. thank you, chris. the first man, the first senator, the first major, major politician, and let me tell you, he is highly respected in washington, because he's as smart as you get, senator jeff sessions. where's jeff? [ applause ] great man. another great man, very tough competitor, he was not easy.

he was not easy. who is that? is that the mayor that showed up? that rudy? oh, rudy got up here. another great man who has man w really a friend to me, but i'll tell you, i got to know him as a competitor because he was one of the folks that was negotiating to go against those democrats, dr. ben carson. where's been? where is ben? by the way, mike huckabee is here someplace, and he is fantastic. mike and his familiar bring sarah, thank you very much. general mike flynn. where is mike? and general kellogg. we have over