democrats will control all the committees that can investigate the other half of sort of the scandal that is the trump presidency. that's the rampant corruption. the rampant corruption at the agencies. the stories you make time for but a lot of us don't. at every agency there's been an ethical scandal. it gets scant media coverage and has no oversight in congress. that all changes tomorrow. >> the other thing is the control the house has over all fiscal matters. everything has to originate in the house. the president cannot have a new tax bill without nancy pelosi's approval, which is unlikely. can't change the entitlement questions about social security, medicare, medicaid. can't do any of the stuff mitch mcconnell was talking about a few weeks ago. now is under control of nancy pelosi. it's powerful stuff. >> which leads me to believe donald trump will be cutting some deals. he's at his heart and his core transactional. we've seen he doesn't have a problem making those initial entrees to nancy and chuck. now that nancy has the gavel, the incentive to do that,

particularly if he's concerned about legacy and wanting to get at least one big thing done before the 2020 election. >> it's going to be an interesting test. i feel like we're at a sort of fork in the road. it's not our decision, it's going to be republicans' decision. either this is republicanism with a trump twist on it or this is trumpism, which is bell for fighting and not for governing. what we have seen thus far with him in power and with republicans in control of both the house and the senate and having no interest in checking him in any way, is that since he's been there, he's used the power he has as president to consolidate power in his own office, in himself singularly, he's disempowered the cabinet, all staffers, all expert advice he might get from anybody. disempowered the congress. they say what they want to do and he does his own thing. he's consolidated power around himself. he'll for the first time be checked by power that has real

power. does he crumble in the face of that? does he see that as a new way to pick fights? >> i think it's more deal-orientation versus crumbling. the one thing about crumbling, that's failure. that's not a space he wants to occupy. >> he doesn't enjoy confrontation. he's about to get some. >> that's right. >> it's so true what you said. it's sharply put. the republicans have a problem with health care. they don't have a message. they get hurt on it this time. the house -- i think the possibly people would say, we won the house, democrats, because of their position on health care. he's got to get beyond this pre-existing condition thing. we had a problem -- a joke ago. and i think he can also do something on infrastructure. we got word from the house ways and means committee, they're going to do something. there's a lot of play here for him to get out of trouble and maybe get an immigration bill. that's the hardest one. >> it just became wednesday here on the east coast.

it is coming up on 12:03 a.m. for our friends out on the west coast. the night is young. here's the story. if you just came in on our conversation, this is what we're talking about. control of the house of representatives and all that that means will be under the democratic party now. here is our estimate that when all the smoke clears, what the house will look like, dems versus gop. the senate is another story. and it's been quite -- kind of a quiet tidal wave tonight as we've watched major members of the senate on the democratic side fall, in addition to seats they wanted badly. but here is the current count. note the gray, as we've been saying all night. 51 confirmed locked in gop. anything over 50 plus vp mike pence gives you the working majority, especially the way they've been voting. the dems stand at 43. >> we've been watching a couple

of these senate seats unfold and seeing -- watching the vote come in. it's interesting to watch montana, jon tester, one of those senators running in a state that was double digits for trump. montana was 20 points for trump and tester is running there. also in arizona, looking like we have a tight race there in terms of the senate. right now the republicans are at the majority they've got right now in the senate. the question is whether or not they are going to build on that. it's not unheard of for parties to add seats in the senate, even as they lose in the house and midterm. ronald reagan went through that himself when he was at an unpopular point in his presidency at one of his midterms. the remaining senate races that aren't yet called, arizona, florida, maine, nevada, these are going to be very important in terms of how much leeway mcconnell has to move in the senate and what happens in terms of all the all-important confirmation fights. >> here was the heartbreaker for so many democrats tonight. this is beto o'rourke speaking live in texas. >> el paso has produced some

really great teams over the years. and i am very lucky that i got to be part of one that came out of this community. for the last 22 months has been traveling every single county of texas, being there to listen, too, and show up for every single one of us. i am as inspired, i'm as hopeful as i have ever been in my life. and tonight's loss does nothing to diminish the way that i feel about texas or this country. getting to be with and see all of you tonight reminds me why we set out to do this in the first place. we're not about being against

anybody. not about being against another political party. we're not going to define ourselves by who or what we are against or afraid of or scared of. [ applause ] we are great people, ambitious, defined by our aspirations, the hard work we are willing to commit in order to achieve them. every single one of us, republicans, democrats, independents, from the biggest of cities, the smallest of towns, the people of texas want to do and will do the great work of this country. [ applause ] i just now had the opportunity

to talk to senator cruz and to congratulate him on his victory and wish him well going forward. what i said and what i pledge on behalf of all of us, at this time of division, the country's been as polarized as i can remember it in my life, all this bitterness that defines so much of the national conversation today, if there's anything that we can do to help him in his position of public trust to ensure that texas helps to lead this country in a way that brings us back together around the big things that we want to achieve, whether that's making sure we face any threats of raid against this country. whether that means we're there for every single one of us who needs a helping hand so that we can live to our full potential, the ability to see a doctor and go to the hospital, receive the

medication that you need to be alive. i want to work with him, i want to work with anyone to make sure we can lead on that. you amazing -- you amazing public school educators who work so hard and do so much for so many of us, i'll work with him, i'll work with anyone any time, anywhere to make sure, in the same way you've been there for us, that now we can be there for you. not as democrats, not as republicans, but as texans, as americans. i want to make sure -- [ applause ] -- especially that this community, that raised me, made me who i am, for amy and i are so lucky and fortunate enough to be raising our kids, who are here with us tonight, that we -- we offer our experience, our

perspective and our courage and our confidence on the issues that we know best as one half of the largest binational community anywhere in the americas, to form something powerful, magical and nothing to be afraid of or walled off or to apologize for. i want to make sure that this proud community offers all it has to give to this country and to our future and to ensuring that our greatest days are still ahead. and that the policy that we craft and the laws that we write and the way in which we treat each other comes not out of fear, but comes out of confidence and strength, and this kind heart that i've always known el paso to have. i am so -- [ applause ] i don't know any way to say this

other than, el paso, i love you so much. i am so proud of you and this city and this community and what you mean to the rest of this country. and what you have achieved tonight, along with so many other amazing people all across this state. the kindness and generosity you have shown to me and to amy, to our family, to our campaign, is amazing. it's why my faith in this state and this people as a country is in no way diminished at this moment. i know that we will continue to work to come together, to make sure that we live up to the promise and the potential of this country. i know it because i've met you everywhere that you are. i've livened to you everywhere

that you live. i want to thank tonight my family, beginning with amy, who has borne the toughest burden. raising our kids, supporting me, loving me, giving me strength and encouragement at every step of the way, making sure that we can finish this just as strong as we started it. i want to thank our kiddos. i want to thank my mom and my sisters and our family, all of whom are here tonight. for being such great examples to me. i love you guys. i want to thank this amazing campaign of people, not a dime from a single pac.

all people, all the time in every single part of texas. all of you, showing the country how you do this! i'm so proud of you guys! [ applause ] and david and jody and chris and cynthia and everyone who works on this campaign, every volunteer, every ambassador, everyone who knocked on doors, everyone who made phone calls, everyone who allowed themselves to hope and to believe and to be inspired by one another and to turn that into action and into votes. and to do something that no one, no one thought was possible. to build a campaign like this one solely comprised of people. people from all walks of life.

coming together, damming the differences and deciding what unites us is far stronger than the color of our skin, how many generations we can count ourselves an american, whether we just got here yesterday, who we love, who we pray to, whether we pray at all, who we voted for last time. none of that small stuff matters now. it is the greatness to which we aspire and the work we're willing to put into it to achieve it by which we will be known going forward. and this campaign holds a very special place in the history of this country every day going forward. and you have made that possible. >> sorry about the f-bomb. we have no control over what's in the concession speeches of candidates around the country. a quick call, we had a race

decided in iowa. here we go. there's our projection animation. this is iowa governor, kim reynolds, the incumbent, returning. steve kornacki tells us we've had two flips. >> two more races. illinois's 14th district. romney won this district. trump won this district. holtgren failed to win. underwood, we are projecting her the winner. this will be a democratic pick up in a district donald trump won. we also said it looked like this would happen. we now say officially it has happened. bordeaux has unseated woodall in the seventh district. this was a late arrival. they thought georgia 6 would be where the action is. seven turns out to flip.

one more quickly emerging is a story watching the house closely. in is the first district of south carolina. mark sanford, remember, unseated in republican primary, ousted by katie arrington. not a lot of vote left. arrington has fallen behind by close to 4,000 votes there. >> wow, there are surprises in these house races. everyone had been combing every house race to see where these were these pickups. i had my eye on that underwood race, first-time candidate, incredibly charismatic, very good at getting press, articulating her own message down to earth. she worked her butt off. i was watching her race. i still didn't expect her to win that. >> what's important that, races like that, the ones where they're not trying to get all the attention. they're working under the radar. doing their business. going door to door. like they're running for city council. those races sneak up on you oftentimes. that's one of the advantages we

had going into 2010 with state legislative races, for example, where you get those pickups where no one is paying attention. you got the candidate who fits the district, saying the right thing. we saw it in virginia earlier this year with the special election there where the transgender individual who everybody was running against, hey, she did the job. she announced, i'm going to fix the roads and the street and she won. >> and you picked up 63 seats. >> 63 seats. >> no matter what else you do in your life, that will be the thing as chairman -- >> 63 seats. >> they'll never give you credit for it, but we will. >> the fact they did not give you credit for it. let's bring in the democratic national chairman tom perez. we've been talking, tom -- thanks for coming on. we were talking about, what will the democrats do with their new power controlling the house of representatives. you have power over the purse strings of the federal budget, control tax party, your party does, control all entitlement spending, fix or leave alone

essential security, medicare, medica medicaid, mess with obamacare or change the reforms in it. is it probing, investigating or legislating or what mix? >> it's going to be all of the above because we're going to fight to protect people with pre-existing conditions. we have been doing that since obamacare. we're going to continue to do it. we'll fight to protect social security, medicare and medicaid. i believe we can work through a bipartisan infrastructure bill that will put people to work in good jobs, that pay a middle class wage. and can help repair our roads and bridges and our pipes and all that. and those are -- those are real jobs that have real meaning. we have to address the challenges confronting dreamers. we're going to do it. you know, the appropriations process, you correctly point out, that's a really important period of time for us to say, for instance, to the commerce department, you shall not ask questions about immigration

status on the census. there's a -- there's a lawsuit about the citizenship issue. we know the commerce secretary was -- he had steve bannon and others on speed dial when he was doing that. the reasons they arctticulated r doing that, i know that having led the civil rights division, were absolutely bogus and not based in any sort of fact. so, there is a lot of power there. and we're going to use it responsibly to make people's lives better, to focus on the issues that matter most to people. that's what we're going to do. >> we've been trying to figure out donald trump like a lot of people are always trying to figure him out, but his pattern hasn't been that productive or that -- he hasn't pushed himself as a negotiator. do you have any hunch about him now that he's taken a punch in the house of representatives of his willingness to get down on the table and spend a weekend negotiating with nancy pelosi, the new speaker, on immigration even, on health care, on infrastructure, as you mentioned?

>> well, we're certainly going to try. you heard leader pelosi tonight say, we're going to extend that hand because the american people want solutions. and we will offer solutions on infrastructure. we will offer solutions. we've already offered a solution on the dream act. one day he said he was for it and then his base didn't allow him to do it. he has to stand up to his base and say, you know, we are a nation of immigrants and we are a nation of -- we can do both. he's been unwilling to stand up to his far right base. we're going to keep trying and keep fighting for health care, keep fighting to protect social security, medicare, medicaid and make sure the education secretary supports public education and the manager of epa understands climate science. that oversight is absolutely critical. there has -- there has been no guardrails in this congress.

the republicans have just capitulated at every turn to this president. we need guardrails. we need checks and balances. >> tom perez, chairman of the democratic national committee. you have the house of representatives. congratulations. we're going to take a break in our coverage and continue with live returns including the entire state of california coming in now when we come back. alexa, play weekend mix.

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snud . 12:24 eastern time. split control of the government. the house to democrats, senate remains under republican control. the hardest working man is steve kornacki. every spare moment i look at him and he's in a different congressional district. what's the story as you look over your nation of 50 states there. >> well, it's still unfolding. i mean, i'll give you three real close ones we have right now. first of all, the arizona senate

race. this is martha mcsally and kirst kyrsten sinema. 60% of the vote comes from one county in arizona, maricopa county. this is why it's so close. hillary clinton lost this state by three points in 2016. she lost this county by three points. sinema has managed to far with 84% to reverse that. that's why it's basic kaally deadlocked statewide. the wisconsin governor's race, a 6,000-vote margin separating walker from everers, democratic challenger. we updated this about a half hour ago. still, nothing more has come in from brown county, the biggest piece of real estate left on the board where walker can pick up some votes. also last time -- they're down

to their final precincts in madison, dane county. every new precinct that reports is giving assistance to evereve. razor-thin race -- here it is. georgia's sixth district. i showed you this a little while ago. it was down to 800 votes. it shrunk. it's down to 169 votes. >> wow. >> at this moment, there -- excuse me. there is one precinct in this entire district that is uncounted. it is in cobb county. so, karen handel has been winning in cobb county. there's one precinct left in this district. you can see happenedle has bend leading. that district will probably go up. there's a recount provision that will probably be triggered. georgia six looks like -- they had the special election in

2017, tonight's election and now looks like a recount. we'll never get georgia six out of the news. >> can i ask you about a couple governor's races in the northeast. i'm interested in this what we're seeing as a gop bubble. do you have anything on the connecticut governor's race or the maine governor's race? >> the gap here has been closed to 25,000, lamont still 25,000 behind here. you can see in connecticut now more than three-quarters of the vote has been counted for. still, though, you can see the city of hartford, no votes in yet from the city of hartford. you expect a boost there for ned lamont. he is running from behind and there are some other republican areas still to come as well. let's see if we can go up to maine and get this loaded in. yes, there you go. janet mills in the early going in main, again, maine, this is not a county-based system. what you're seeing are individual municipalities here. mills, though, being helped by portland, the city of portland, the population center there.

the vote disproportionately being counted from portland. we'll keep an eye on that as well as more vote comes in. one more thing i want to tell you about -- a development here. i meant to hit the senate side. nevada. we want to know who was going to win the senate race, heller or rosen. you say the polls closed a couple hours ago. here's what they do in nevada. if anybody in on line -- i sound like a new yorker. i'm from massachusetts, we say in line. if anybody is in line at the close of polls, the polls stay open until everybody's voted. no votes are counted or released anywhere. so, we're still waiting for the first release of votes from nevada now a couple of hours after the polls closed. apparently there's new reports that dean heller even spoke to his supporters, wasn't declaring victory but coming down to say something because everybody is waiting in nevada. >> i have to ask you to go to the senate race that remains outstanding in florida because

of a similar news report. obviously, we have this as too close to call in florida between rick scott, the incumbent governor, and bill nelson, the incumbent senator. we've been watching that closely all night. two things to draw people's attention to. as far as i understand it, if the -- if the distance between the two candidates is within a half a percentage point, there will be a recall in florida. so, that may be potentially a live issue here. then i also, steve, want to tell you this new reporting we just got from florida, who says a nelson staffer made this announcement at his event, confirmed to me by another nelson staffer. quote, this is obviously not the result senator nelson's campaign has worked hard for. the senator will be making a full statement tomorrow to thank all those who rallied for his cause. not quite sounding like a concession, but how does that map onto what you're seeing in terms of the florida data? >> yeah. this is -- there's always the possibility, especially volusia,

broward, that's why i'm making sure nothing has changed. there's been some confusion through the night, it looks like the entire county has come in, then turns out we have spotters in the field, turns out, oh, no, there are ten precincts left over here. we were seeing that in broward and volusia. i'll double-check that right now. you're right, in terms of that recount, right now 0.60 percentage point, scott leading. outside of that zone, but i think obviously whenever it gets that close, whenever the stakes are this high, not uncommon for campaigns to buy themselves a little time, like it sounds like nelson's folks might be trying to do here. >> wow. we've been joined in our studio by maria-teresa kumar. >> good to have you here. >> good to have you here. your full-time job is mobilizing latino votes. are you declaring a victory in

that effort tonight? >> i'm declaring a victory that as of -- before polls were closed, we had 3.3 million latinos cast early votes. twice the amount that happened in 2014. so, that's a big deal. one thing we were seeing is they were in pockets we expected. in virginia, georgia, north carolina, places where historically the latino vote doesn't move mountains, is moving mountains. we're a lot of firsts in this congress. 22 women, some who flipped congress as well. they flipped the seats. this will be the very first time we'll have roughly 100 women elected all at once in one single night. we'll see the youngest women go to congress, two muslim-american women go to congress. there's a lot to celebrate. the democrats for the first time with a fresh, young base that actually reflects the party they claim to represent. >> what do you make of what we saw in the early exit polls,

national exit polls from nbc? we're used to skipping over the top line of those because you ask people what's the most important about an election, they say economy. not today. health care, which is what democrats were banking on in swing states. number two, immigration, knocking the economy down to third. making immigration the most important issue for voters was a goal of the president. making immigration a most important issue for voters in a negative way. how does that map onto the latino turnout and the character of the latino vote you saw tonight? >> this was interesting. when you looked at young latino voters, health care was their number one issue. it wasn't just them, but if their parents all of a sudden do not have a safety net, they have to quit college and basically support them. that is very much what changes their dynamic. but immigration also rallied the latino vote because theyed heard the crying call of, we have been at the cross-hairs of this administration from the very beginning and he keeps going after the latinos. not just on immigration but this

idea of denaturalization task force, this idea that you can be serving in the military and we'll pull you out even though you demonstrated you should be participating. the latino community heard that loud and clear. again, the people registering in record numbers in texas were young latino voters. texas has the lowest voter participation -- lowest participation in all 50 states. they had participation increase by over 500% just among young people right before the polls closed. that's a big deal. >> it will be fascinating, given the impact of the texas senate race tonight will not be felt immediately in the senate because ted cruz will go back. but the impact on the electorate and how you run to win in texas will be changed forever. >> how pete sessions lost, that's a safety seat and the republicans should have taken that. the fact he lost is the most unreported story. >> speaking of unreported stories, ari melber has been doing reporting behind the

scenes, including talking to some of the democrats who are going to be in charge of key elements of the republican -- excuse me, of the congressional leadership in the house. and i've just received a note that says, you have spoken with congressman jerry nadler, the likely incoming chairman of the judiciary committee. everybody hears judiciary committee, they think watergate and impeachment hearings. he's made it clear that's not what he wants to talk about or as his central role. what did he tell you what his priorities would be? >> i spoke to jerry nadler, the top ranking democratic member, which means he's most likely to chair the committee. he put a marker down on the record when we spoke. he says if now donald trump tries to sabotage the mueller probe or firing key people or you using the pardon power, quote, all options are on the table. they didn't use the word impeachment. when someone running the

judiciary committee says, all options are on the table, there's a clear marker. i said, if things are done to slow the mueller probe, what can you do? he didn't want to do hypotheticals, but he said they have the power to order all documents legally preserved, that could include sealed indictments, grand jury material, other things legally protected. this is another way we're seeing directly from people on the staff of these committees or in this case the ranking member himself outlining very clearly in public what they want to do. i also asked him about the potential removal of jeff sessions. he struck an interesting note. he said it would be suspicious if donald trump moves with haste to try to get rid of jeff sessions after these midterms. his line is not the removal of sessions but, rather, the person they put in. a person they see as designed to interfere with the probe or not. >> in terms of what you just said about the preservation of documents. one thing we don't necessarily know but we've been anticipating

about mueller is he may make some sort of report to congress. if he makes a report to congress, congress is going to have to decide what to do with it. if that report goes to a republican-controlled committee, we had a pretty good guess what might happen to that sort of report. it might disappear. when nadler talks about preserving doumcuments, is he making sure any production from mueller sees the light of day and gets to public, or is he talking about the risk mueller's office might be shut down, in which case his committee would try to physically preserve the material evidence that mueller has collected? >> i think in our conversation today over the phone he was talking about the latter, the emergency preservation. we do know if there was a potentially unlawful removal of bob mueller, that itself would end up in court but that takes time. he says the big difference, starting tonight, is the democrats have the legal authority to preserve everything, even before the courts act. i think more broadly we know from the ken starr president

there is the report that's issued that can guide the house and then there's everything else. that's in those files. so, it matters a lot right now that the democrats have this extra power here to basically be a police bumper, a police line for this open investigation. >> great reporting. you're adding a lot to our understanding about what it means for the democrats to be taking control of the house with tonight's elections. thanks very much. >> thank you. a bit of news from upstate new york. chris collins has won re-election to the house. >> while under indictment. >> why up there. >> that's not that easy. you got to give him credit. when you're facing federal corruption charges, that's a hurdle that most people don't have. >> that is an uncommon hurdle, but he's been richly rewarded for staying in the race. his victory tonight over nate mcmurray in the northern tier of upstate new york. >> congratulations, district 27. >> and let us, without delay, go out to el paso, texas, where chris hayes is under active threat of being asked by

security to leave. the party's over, as the song says. chris, what's your after-action report on what you witnessed there tonight? >> reporter: i mean, look, i think all the talk about beto as a national political figure after tonight is not wrong. you know, part of it is that the baseline against which he was performing has been so dire and so terrible for texas democrats for so long. and what he was able to pull off in every texas democrat will tell you this, it helped everywhere in the party. the texas democrats tonight had a good night for the first time in a long time. and one thing i think you saw in that speech is, democrats are trying to figure out how to craft a message in the trump era, in some ways, how to keep the obama coalition, a majority coalition for two presidential elections, together. they have a hard job. they have to cobble together lots of different groups. they have to get a bunch of different demographics into the

same tent. one thing from beto, it's upbeat, about unity. that harkens back to barack obama in 2004 with the famous dnc speech and the campaign he ran in 2008. there's something about that for democrats as they think about what their message is when you try to put together a diverse and multicoalition which is the only one that will work for a democratic party in texas and other states nationally, you have to figure out what binds people together and unites them. that's a hard thing to talk about in this current environment, but i think beto was rewarded with the result tonight with that kind of message. >> one follow-up would be, a harsh-sounding point/question, and that is -- barack obama won. >> reporter: yep. yeah, and i don't know -- you know, there's no precedent really for someone to run nationally after what beto's done, except for abraham

lincoln, who lost a senate race. it's a very uphill hill to climb. donald trump is the president of the united states, so no one -- no one knows. i've said all along, the odds of the 2020 democratic nominee being someone whose name wasn't even on people's radar screen in mid--2018 is particularly high. you never know in american politics in the year of 2018. >> chris hayes out in el paso, where the stadium lights have come on, indicating the end of the night and the end of the beto o'rourke campaign. more indictment news. >> i just got to say, we're on a roll here. we were talking about chris collins, the indicted new york congressman. he's under federal felony indictment. which doesn't mean, they're thinking of charging him, he's under investigation. no, he's charged with felonies, he'll be on trial. chris collins has just been re-elected in new york 27. and the other sitting republican congressman who has been charged

with 60 felonies, duncan hunter has been charged with a 60-count federal corruption indictment and duncan hunter has just been re-elected by the proud, proud voters of california congressional district 50. >> republican values. they do not value law-abiding citizens. it's so funny. for donald trump -- like, we have two indicted republicans who won tonight. >> we saw blum in iowa. he's not under indictment but facing a very serious ethics charge. he was basically running a fake business out of his congressional office. there will be an ethics report about him next month. in iowa they were facing the choice of re-electing him and then being re-elected from the senate on an ethics charge. it's worse when you have a guy literally on trial being re-elected. what's he's being indicted for, in part, is living off his campaign money and now he'll use

his campaign money to pay his defense lawyers. >> these two could go to jail. it wouldn't be sad if it wasn't funny or funny if it wasn't sad. this was a cabinet with a -- >> tactical pants. >> tactical pants? >> these guys are charged with serious crimes. >> multiple felonies. >> the california race is interesting. they went after -- this is is a former obama alum that was running and they went after him, basically calling him -- that he used part of isis and part of this muslim -- >> he was infiltrating congress for the muslim brotherhood. to see that in california itself. >> he was a national security -- can we put the board back up on the duncan race? he was a national security official in the obama administration to the extend he had multiply renewed security clearances. duncan hunter went after him as

literally a security threat. and -- but the voters in house district 50 in california have rewarded mr. hunter. if he does go to jail, they'll have to make a decision about whether they're still comfortable representing him for congress from prison. >> you're being too specific. he's a bad guy. >> i'm sure he's a nice, guy. >> no, he's not. >> but going to jail in all likelihood. >> we'll change steve kornacki's sim card and we'll be back with more returns after this break. ♪ toyland, toyland ♪ little girl and boy land ♪ while you dwell within it ♪ you are ever happy there daddy, it's christmas! ♪ childhoods, joyland

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controversial republican governor will be succeeded by a

woman and a democrat. moody has conceded, the republican running against janet mills. mills will be the first woman governor of maine, i believe, a democrat succeeding the controversial sort of pugnacious governor of maine, paul lepage. governor lepage on the eve of the election announced to his constituents that now that he was leaving office as governor, he'd be moving to florida full time. >> really? >> literally he announced that yesterday. >> the climate is better and the taxes are less. >> so, again, and had he said that earlier on, that would have shed light on his governing decisions. >> enough of maine winters for the former governor of the state. we're joined by michael, who has been very patient, waiting to talk to us. michael, let's talk about the

accumulation and rewarding of power and what the democrats might do with that. i suppose it is possible that they will overreach, but have you been able to grab any parallels given your vast knowledge of history tonight? >> yeah, you know, i could talk to you until the cows come home, brian, about 1946 when truman lost both houses or, you know, 1994 when bill clinton did the same thing. but i think tonight is something we haven't seen tonight in american history. because we're watching a house of congress pass from the part of a president at the same time as there is a serious investigation by a special prosecutor that is really a danger to this administration, at a time we've seen enormous corruption and abuse of power, to my mind, even during the last couple of weeks, you know, the use by a president of armed forces to go down to the border for a threat that i think was to a great degree contrived to help him win this election.

and the other thing we've seen unusual is lap dog leaders of his own party. many people felt when donald trump became president, republicans owned the house and senate, at least there would be some criticism from the speaker of the house paul ryan. i think most people have been astounded he's been as compliant as he has been. so, if this didn't happen tonight you could see the mueller report deep sixed, all of those things metastasized. >> any thing that leads you to believe the most mow men to us of the trump administration is yed yet to come? forget what we've just witnessed for two years. >> oh i think absolutely. but it might have been more if he had still owned both houses of congress because he would have felt licensed to do all sorts of things that he will now think twice about now that he has to confront a democratic house with power of subpoena and investigation. james madison would love this. he would have been horrified by

the idea that a president could have gone on for four years with not only owning the house and senate, but now with a five-justice majority in the supreme court and the fifth justice, someone that donald trump chose, i believe, because brett kavanaugh had the most extremely permissive views of how much power a president can have. >> republicans are fond of reminding everyone they are the party of lincoln. we have heard the president say that recently. we can't assume but with the air of someone who learned it fairly recently, parties go through cycles and they change their definitions. are we see any of that? is it like the eye wall replacement cycle in a hurricane? >> i think abraham lincoln, were he to come back, would want recognize his party. if the republican party wants to make a change at some point in

history, they may feel they need to change the name. that's happened with other parties earlier in our history. the wigs flamed out in the 1850s. >> i'm on record as being a friend but i'm also just a reader, so on that basis to our viewers i can't recommend "presidents of war," michael's new book, highly enough, having just completed it. thank you. >> thank you so much for coming on the air. >> thank you. one of the things we're still watching for tonight and actually expecting it to be a big bunch of news when it finally comes in is the results from contested house races in california. polls are closed in california. they've been closed for well over an hour. from a distance going into tonight, the biggest group of any state house races the democrats were hoping to flip was in california. democrats are hoping to flip as many as seven. on a night like tonight the democrats are already closing in on a 30-seat gain in the house of representatives, which is a

big gain for any midterm election. that's before any of these california races are counted. our friend jacob soboroff has been on the ground in santa ana, california, not only watching what voters are doing but watching what's expected in terms of the process. >> reporter: rachel, this is not only extraordinarily consequential, but also for people like me and you guys who are nerdy about elections, come with me. what's happening is literally hundreds of thousands of ballots from across orange county, california, are being unloaded from vans. they have chips inside each one of these boxes. they're taking out one at a time. we'll watch this next one come out. they're coming from a thousand different polling places from across orange county. let's follow it in. they put it on the conveyor belt into this warehouse run by the orange county registrar. come on, come on, let's go! we're going with this. who knows, this could be thousands of ballots on a little chip inside here.

do you know where neil went? they're very serious. this is a secure area. neil kelly is the registrar. they're coming. neil, we're live on the air. come on over. this man is responsible for not only toss-up congressional districts and how many seats the democrats gain in the house. it's a lot of pressure on you as the registrar. all these chips are coming in. hundreds of thousands of votes. you seem very calm. >> i am calm. thanks for reminding me about the pressure because there is a lot of pressure involved in this. these folks work really hard and we've been preparing for this for a long time. >> reporter: you and i were talking yesterday about the fact that you have been on the homeland security election advisory task force. for two years you've been working with the fbi. you say you have been probed, scanned by foreign actors, foreign governments, including russia and china. what does that mean? should the voters of orange

county be worried about the voting integrity tonight? >> the answer is no. we've doen a lot of work over the last two years to make sure we're resilient, prepared for this. i can tell you right now that those efforts are paying off. this security is secure. the ballots are secure. we're ready for it. >> reporter: thank you very much. i appreciate it. come with me. i want to show you one more thing. once these things ultimately get unloadsed, they take the chips out of the machines. here's the machines over here. can you open that up real quick? these are the vote-counting machines that actually in each of the polling places, they take a chip out of them and come over to here. they get one of these little things that look like a thermos. maybe i shouldn't have done that. it goes into this tube right here, pneumatic tube, shot up into the counting room. i think i screwed something up here. >> you just passed a very serious looking sheriff. is he coming for you? >> reporter: no, no, they're

okay. they turned the other way. the alarm stopped. i think we're okay. >> put the tube down. >> reporter: put the thermos down. >> put it down, jacob, and keep your hands where everybody can see them. >> reporter: that's true. thank you. i guess i should throw it back to you for now. >> yes, very good. >> someone just lost 50,000 votes. >> exactly. jacob soboroff doing a great job. also, totally innocent we should point out. there goes the alarm again. >> step away from the pneumatic tube. >> we need to keep rolling in case we need to use it in court. he seems all right. >> i think they like it. >> orange county, we should say where jacob is -- where jacob was just live at the facility where they are taking in those votes, orange county has four toss-up races? that registrar of voters there does have the support of everybody who's expert in the field, in the area.

but it's seen as, a, hugely populated. it's going to be a ton of votes. and it could be a very big chunk of the democratic majority in the house. >> forgive me. i was going to ask you about election integrity. most of what we talked to you on the air about is what's happened vis-a-vis russia and this administration. we're covering a lot of incoming numbers tonight. people have gone to the polls with that inherent american promise in mind, that your vote will be recorded and has integrity. do you think all americans can assume that tonight about every vote we've cast? >> i have faith in the integrity of the election system, but the integrity of the election system has been undermined over the last two years by the faithlessness of this administration and, specifically, the president, with regard to getting to the bottom of the foreign interference in the 2016 presidential election. trust, faith and belief are the

lubricants of a democracy. and when trust collapses and faith erodes, belief also collapses. so the integrity of the election system is fundamental to the democracy. there's no higher duty that any republican president would have, any democratic president would have, than to maintain that integrity. the trust for the american people, no matter the outcome -- parties win elections, parties lose elections -- you come back and you try to win the next one. but that both sides understand that when the voters speak, that the judgment is final and that both sides accept the result and we move on. that's the tragedy of the dereliction of duty we've seen over the last two years. >> you know, what did you make of the fact that in 2016 when trump thought he was going to lose, he started playing with the idea of a rigged election,

he was throwing that out there, and he did it again the other day? i'm want sure he won't do it tomorrow morning when we wake up and say the house is gone because they stole it. >> we've seen it all through the evening. the difficulty of the concession speech. it's a painful moment for a candidate, but, for example, when john mccain conceded to president obama, the first person who mattered, that addressed barack obama is mr. president-elect. it wasn't david axelrod or david plouffe. it was john mccain. the loser grants legitimacy to the winner of an american election through their concession. and in a presidential election, that concession commences the peaceful transition of power, which happens on the inauguration day. the concessions today begin the peaceful transition between senators, between members of congress, that takes place with

the new swearing-in moment of the new congress. it's an important moment. >> steve kornacki, we have a correction of some numbers? >> yes, we do. we were telling you about the se seventh district of georgia. we called the seventh district of georgia for bordeaux over woodall. we're told there was a data entry error, not on our end. a data entry error that's changed the trajectory of this race. rob woodall, who had been trailing, now leads by 6,000 votes. that has adjusted to reflect woodall leading by 6,000 votes. a couple precincts left. we're trying to sort this out. if we characterize this again, we want to get it right et. there was a democratic pick up a minute ago in the suburbs of atlanta. now looking like something else. >> can we go next door to georgia six. >> that is, i believe, status quo. no, and -- that final precinct

did -- there was one outstanding precinct from cobb county. you can see handel picked up votes. i'm doing the quick math in my head. about 1588 votes, i think, separating them. i believe that is within a point there, so that still looks like recount territory in the sixth district of georgia. >> thank you, steve. that's very rare when a call like that has to be changed. having transparency that it was a data entry error helps happen. >> we don't know what happened on the ground, was there a c concession, did everyone report this this way? >> it's always troubling when it happens that way. there's a -- there's hundreds of races tonight and that will happen at some point. >> i see steve has refreshed his board to show the senate races. >> question showed you earlier jon tester continues to lead. it's tight. a 3,000-vote