> welcome to "kasie dc." i'm kasie hunt. we're live every sunday from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. tonight a warning against nationalism. on the soil where that very idea led millions of americans and europeans to shed their blood in two world wars paving the way for democracy. plus, the president gets a new top lawyer and now fights break out over matt whitaker and the uncertain future of robert mueller.

senator chris coons joins us live to talk about his bipartisan effort to protect the special counsel. later, tuesday was a long night and it's still going. the president tries to put his thumb on the scale as recounts are under way. and we'll talk about lessons learned from the midterms as naturally the curtain rises on 2020. we're going to start here in washington where president trump has just arrived after another memorable trip overseas that highlighted tensions with leaders of america's longest standing allies and showcased his embrace of america first nationalism. trump joined more than six dozen world leaders at a ceremony in paris commemorating the end of world war i. it was during that ceremony that emmanuel macron delivered a searing rebuke of the rising nationalism around the globe. >> translator: this vision of france as a generous nation, of france as a project, as france,

the bearer of universal values was displayed during these dark hours as the very opposite of the selfishness of a nation which only looks after its own interests because patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. by saying, our interests first, who cares about the others? we erase what a nation holds dearest, what gives it life, what makes it great and what is essential. its moral values. >> pretty remarkable moment. among the other leaders in the crowd were russian president vladimir putin who greeted trump with a thumbs up. plus angela merkel, the leaders of nato and the u.n. along with canadian prime minister justin trudeau who also echoed macron's warning. meanwhile, that rising nationalism was on full display. you can see it there in poland this morning as the country's president addressed a crowd of

an estimated 200,000 people at an independence day march organized by nationalist and far right groups. here with me to discuss all of this, reuters white house correspondent jeff mace orngs michael beschloss, and the author of the new book "presidents of war." i highly recommend it. we have managing editor of the beat dc, tiffany cross and associate editor and columnist for real clear clicks, a.b. stoddard. thank you for being here tonight on what is yet another kind of moment that i just find to be so striking in the history of our country. michael beschloss, i want to start with you on that. for some of our viewers who may not remember what we all learn in sort of our first history classes about the previous century, nationalism is what got us to this event that this is a centennial of world war i. >> nationalism brought world war i. and when macron was talking about nationalism, he was also talking about donald trump. and here we are, a situation

where we lost we americans, 116,000 or more americans in world war i. it's not a huge thing to imagine that our president would want to come and honor them and so the fact that he did not in the rain yesterday, that was not a great idea. but the other thing is that these ceremonies, we almost don't look forward to them because we think that we know that they'll -- how they'll unfold. this alliance is strong. all the members of the alliance will say things that affirm the permanence of the alliance. >> and let's just pause, too. i want to point out what they're seeing. this is a collection of all of our most significant allies. you saw close shots of angela merkel and french president macron, justin trudeau. not among this group walking down the champs-elysees, donald trump. so vladimir putin was sitting there, probably had a great time today. may have been the reason he put thumbs up because he loves to see signs that there is trouble in our alliance. and when the french president is denouncing at least implicitly the president of the united states and others and donald

trump is not there with all these leaders, that is music to his ears. >> jeff mason, can we talk about that moment yesterday and for anyone who is not tuned in to their televisions or e-mails over the last 48 hours. yesterday there was an event at a cemetery honoring world war i veterans and the president elected not to attend even though general dunn ford and the chief of staff john kelly both attended. other leaders motorcaded there. the white house says the president couldn't go because he couldn't fly his helicopter in the rain. you've done this job for many years covering the white house. various administrations. i've heard some of your colleagues in the white house press corps argue he's the president. if he wanted to go, he always could have showed up. there's always a second plan. the white house is saying we didn't want to lock up traffic for four hours. does that ring true to you as a good excuse? >> number one, a lot of these calls, we call it a weather call. if, instead of taking marine one, his helicopter to joint base andrews, he takes a

motorcade. those calls are usually made by the secret service. it's not a political decision, usually. that said, you're right to say there are backups. this was one of those times where getting there, the motorcade would have taken 90 minutes or so. yes, i'm sure it would have created a lot of traffic. it's correct to say as well that the president if he wanted to get there probably could have made it happen. there are times i was traveling with president obama in ireland and he was flying to, i think it was montegal where he had relatives and they almost canceled that trip because he had to fly and the motorcade there and back would have been four hours and it wouldn't have worked. this was not four hours away. >> there was at least one example of the president ignoring the secret service security requirement in the inageral parade when they told him they didn't want him to get out of the car and he did it anyway. >> he has the option of saying we're going to make this work. it's important context to say, usually those calls about whether a helicopter flies or not are made by the secret

service. i've seen some comments about a helicopter could have flown in that weather. that was probably not the president's call. >> fair enough. fair enough. meanwhile white house officials sought to undermine basic american institutions time and again this week including while on foreign soil. the president has suggested that elections in florida were being stolen and alleged corruption in the ongoing arizona senate race. the administration distributed edited video of the moment of confrontation between cnn white house correspondent jim acosta and a white house staffer trying to take a microphone. and amid mass evacuations and the deaths of nine people, the president expressed not sympathy but shamed forest management and threatened to hold federal funding from those affected areas. jeff, i want to come back to you on the jim acosta thing, but tiffany cross, i want to start with you and look at -- talk for

a minute about what's going on with these recounts in florida and arizona. the rhetoric coming from not just the president but also some of the press releases from the nrsc and other groups have been rick scott, the potential next senator from florida challenging bill nelson. i am struggling to remember a time when there was so much undermining from the collective official apparatus of our election systems. >> it's really scary. when you hear these candidates echoing this rhetoric that comes from donald trump as a scary time. it's reflective of what happened in the midterms. moderate, reasonable republicans lost their seats. when you have people like marco rubio weighed in and echoed the president's accusations. >> and cory gardner. not typically a flame thrower comes from the state. >> it's a really scary thing for the republican party to do. it's hypocritical because i don't think they were as vocal when the president sat on the world stage and congratulated and locked arms with vladimir putin. this is somebody who, obviously, interfered with the election process. now that we have a situation where every vote should be counted. is that not what patriotism is? it shows a rip in their ranks when you hear this rhetoric and it undermines our core democratic institutions.

our democracy is what makes us america. and hear these people who purport to be patriots not echo that. i also want to say really quickly about donald trump being on the world stage. when you hear this rhetoric domestically and on the world stage, this president is seeing that leadership requires followers and he's having a less amount of people following him and he's being met now more, i think, with a skeptical world stage. and that's reflecting domestically and globally. >> what's your take on whether this is the permanent new trajectory of the republican party, the sort of -- the president has stood on a stamg here in the united states and declared himself to be a nationalist. he sounds much different than a ronald reagan or any number of figures. obviously, this strain has always existed in american politics but it's never been so directly embraced by someone certainly in the post war era

like this. >> that's what's really so pronounced in the months since john mccain became more ill and eventually died from his brain cancer was that what we've seen is discomfort within the republican party about trump's embrace of nationalism but a paralysis in their ability to define what trumpian nationalism is if it still embraces the international order. the post world war ii order that's given us the most peace and prosperity ever. american led and must be american supported. this is something that's just fallen away with the loss of john mccain. you don't hear it from lindsey graham or any republicans. i saw the second republican in the senate, john cornyn, tweet some time today, america first is not america only. what is it? it's easy for trump to say i'm just putting our needs and our citizens first. but what the implication is in terms of exiting from the world stage and our role as leaders. as the real hope of the earth, it is so profound and i don't hear mike pence articulating it. i don't hear james mattis assuring us.

he does it privately to world leaders. but where is this sort of articulation of what nationalism is that still -- whatever the strain is that republican party of today is embracing, does it still protect this international order? and the silence is staggering. >> michael beschloss, how do you view this? is this an aberration in our historical moniker or are we setting a new trajectory. >> we've seen it before the end of world war ii. and we are usually used to our presidents when there is a radical departure and donald trump talking about america first and nationalism. this is radical. this is not just a little change from what we've seen before. we've been accustomed to presidents giving us an extended view of why they want us to

change our minds about this and what are -- and what are we to think of this. when was the last time that donald trump gave an extended speech explaining why he's asking americans to take what is this amazingly sharp turn in our foreign policy with the danger of breaking up our alliances. we are seeing this minute by minute and it's hard for us to understand, you know, what his general reason for doing this is. >> what do you think donald trump's sense of history is compared to his predecessors? >> he boasts about the fact he does not read books. he wears that as a badge of honor. you can imagine i'm not thrilled to hear this. and also this is not someone who knows a lot of history, and he would be the first one to say that. and there's a problem here because the best reason for a president to love democracy is to know american history and what democracy has done over 200 years. if you don't know it and don't know the importance of a president, for instance, supporting institutions like elections, not saying this was rigged and you shouldn't trust their results. if you don't know the importance of a president supporting the role of the press in american society, even though they all hate often times what reporters write, as you well know, but only if you know history do you know that this is probably the

only american -- only business in american life that's specifically explicitly protected by the constitution. jefferson said he'd rather live in a country without a government and without a press. that is probably news to donald trump. and so it leads him to say things like enemy of the people without having any idea how that fits into our history. >> we'll talk more of that in a minute. michael beschloss, thank you for your time and insight. we're going to talk about the races not yet over. despite all the groaning you may have heard from democrats on election night, the party is expanding their lead in the house. when you woke up wednesday morning, democrats' net gain was 28 seats. they've expanded that to 30. and according to some analysts when all is said and done it could grow to 39. how did democrats find a way to flip mark sanford's dark red seat?

joe cunningham joins me. first chris coons on his push to protect special counsel robert mueller. "kasie dc" back after this. [ phone rings ] what?!

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by saying "get grinch tickets" into your xfinity x1 voice remote. a guy just dropped this off. he-he-he-he. with election day now behind usome are predicting robert mueller could be getting ready to submit his final report in the russia investigation.

but trump's appointment of matthew whitaker as acting attorney general has drawn concern about mueller's future. whitaker will oversee the probe in his new role and has in the past raised questions about the legitimacy of the investigation and mueller's appointment as special counsel. meanwhile, senator jeff flake and fellow judiciary member chris coons will be pushing to protect mueller. joining me is senator chris coons. it's good to see you after -- i feel like it's been too long since i saw any of you in the halls of the capitol. it's been a whirlwind couple of weeks with the election. thank you for being here. i want to start with that legislation you have with senator flake. mitch mcconnell seems to be on the record. he was saying there's nothing to worry about. mueller is not in any sort of jeopardy. do you agree with that assessment, and what should they be doing?

>> this is a bill, a bipartisan bill that passed the senate judiciary committee back in april by a strong bipartisan margin of 14-7. my co-sponsors on the republican side, senators graham and tillis and co-sponsor on the democratic side, senator booker, have all urged this not just to protect this special counsel but future special counsels. to make sure that it's clear in law that you can't abruptly and for no good reason fire the special counsel. as he mentioned in the lead-in, we are hoping the special counsel is concluding his investigation, preparing his report. but we don't know that. and matt whitaker strikes me as a clear and present danger to the independence of the special counsel given things he has said a year ago when he was a cnn commentator and given some of his unusual legal theories. kasie, i expect there's going to be challenges to matthew whitaker's appointment. legal challenges. a letter sent to the doj ethics counsel asking for a ruling on whether or not he should recuse himself. but as we wait for those two things to develop, senator flake

and i will be going to the floor this week and asking for a live unanimous consent on the bill that is ready for action at any time. >> do you think that whitaker's appointment is constitutional? >> i have real doubts about that. the appointments clause, article 2, section 2, clause 2, of our constitution, it strongly suggests that in something like the principal officer, the attorney general of the united states, it has to be senate confirmed. that may have to be tested in a lawsuit. we'll see. but a number of legal scholars, both conservative and liberal, have said this is a highly questionable appointment. as you know, kasie, the president didn't follow the department of justice succession statute. that would have made rod rosenstein the senate confirmed deputy attorney general. the acting attorney general. that would have been the wiser course of action here. >> i'm glad you brought up rod rosenstein. he has talked a little bit

already about mr. whitaker's appointment. let's take a look at that. >> i've worked with matt whitaker for about 5 1/2 years. we actually served under seven attorneys general. four senate confirmed and three -- i explained our u.s. attorneys working with him back then and in the past year that he's been serving as chief of staff, i think he's a superb choice for attorney general and certainly understands the work. understands the priorities in terms of the department. i think he's going to do a superb job as attorney general. >> how do you read those comments from rod rosenstein? you've worked with him behind closed doors and have a good sense of him. he seems to be saying this isn't the crisis some are making it out to be. >> well, that audio clip was very muddy on my side, kasie. but i'll take it that rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, isn't saying this is a crisis yet. >> that's right. he's essentially -- he's essentially saying that he's worked with him before in other capacities. he has a good sense of him and he doesn't -- he thinks he'll do an admirable job. i apologize you couldn't hear that clip, sir.

>> it's okay. my expectation is that president trump may move fairly quickly to nominate a new attorney general and person will come in front of the judiciary committee. but it could be weeks or even months before that confirmation happens. and in the meantime, i do think matthew whitaker, the acting ag, should recuse himself given his past statements. i am somewhat encouraged if rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, has made a comment that you just played that suggests he's not alarmed, but, frankly, the test here is whether matthew whitaker is someone whose legal ideas and whose relevant experience makes him an appropriate person to act as attorney general. and there have been a number of press accounts of things that matthew whitaker said when he was a candidate in iowa. he ran for the senate previously in iowa unsuccessfully that were really way outside the legal mainstream of the united states.

suggesting that he supports some really very obscure legal theories about constitutional order and the role of states in nullifying decisions by the supreme court. >> do you think that there's anything that you can do in congress to guarantee that members of congress see whatever it is that the special counsel is going to put together, that report, let alone the public? >> it's possible. as a number of leaders have said today on television, and over the past week, jerry nadler who is likely the next judiciary committee chair in the house and there was a passing comment from senator schumer, the minority leader earlier today. we do have a end of year spending bill that will come up december 7th. it's entirely possible for us to insert into that bill a piece of legislation like the special counsel integrity and

independence act that i've co-sponsored. or another provision that would provide that the special counsel's report would need to be provided to the critical committees of congress. it is the spending power of congress that is in some ways our most important and that's one of a number of vehicles we could use to try and ensure that special counsel mueller's important work isn't simply buried or lost if there is some action against his investigation by matt whitaker. >> and would you be willing to deny government funding to those -- i don't want to call it a full government shutdown because that's not what it would represent but a partial government shutdown. would you be willing to vote for that partial shutdown over this issue? >> well, we're not there yet, kasie. i think what jeff flake and i are going to be doing this week is trying to put on the floor of the senate a bill that's ready

for action to say why even flirt with the idea of a government shutdown. this is a balanced bipartisan bill. and i respect that the majority leader has said in the past that the mueller investigation should not be interfered with. but i don't understand on what basis he thinks president trump, who continues as recently as last week, to criticize and question and challenge the mueller investigation can be trusted to stay hands off. i think it is the role of the senate to step forward in a moment like this and ensure that we don't have a constitutional crisis that is so obviously avoidable with legislation that's bipartisan and ready for action. >> senator chris coons, thank you for your time tonight. i'm sure i'll see you later on this week. >> kasie, thank you. thank you for letting me be on on veterans day. it's important we remember and thank all those who served our country in the past, present and future. >> completely agree. thank you for that, sir. >> thank you, kasie. we're going to dive into lessons learned from the midterms. one early one from the center for responsive politics. in house and senate elections the candidate with more money won more than 80% of the time. plus, we'll talk to a congresswoman about how democrats are finding ways to win in trump country.

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the midterm elections were nearly a week ago and yet key races are still up in the air. democrat kyrsten sinema narrowly leads marth macsally. nbc news still has it as too close to call with hundreds of thousands of votes left to count. republicans unsuccessfully filed a lawsuit to halt a practice in two counties.

officials were checking signatures on early mail ballots that did not match voter files. cindy mccain actually blasted the state republican party's effort to this. meanwhile, in georgia, republican brian kemp has declared himself the next governor, resigned as secretary of state and said the race is over. stacey abrams has yet to concede. it does not look like there are enough votes for abrams to win outright. the big question is whether it's close enough to send this race to a run-off. just this afternoon, the abrams campaign announced a lawsuit over the counting of provisional and absentee ballots. and then there is florida, florida, florida. literally three times this time. there are three recounts under way. in the governors race, a machine recount is being performed as andrew gillum withdraws his concession. the senate race is separated by fewer than 13,000 votes. incumbent democrat bill nelson's lawyer has sued, challenging a voter signature match program. also today rick scott filed two new complaints requesting that

florida law enforcement impound all voting machines and ballots when not in use until the end of the recount. and he's asking that votes counted after the saturday noon deadline not be included because they were, quote, illegally counted. and here's gillum tonight. >> before i walked into this room, i read that the governor has filed another lawsuit to try to keep the votes that were counted in broward county just yesterday from being added to the total tally. these are legal votes. these are legal votes that have been cast. and we are right now in court fighting to have those votes counted. >> and there's a number of house races still being counted as well. here with me on set is democratic congresswoman of illinois, sherry busso. she's running to be the chair of the dccc. great to see you.

i read what happened on election night as something of a vindication of the strategy that you had been pushing democrats toward all the way along. this idea if they were going to win back the house and ultimately a shot at taking back the white house in 2020, the path runs straight through the midwest, michigan, wisconsin, minnesota, iowa and, of course, areas in your state of illinois. what did you learn from what happened and what do you think the democrats should take note of and try to make sure they don't forget as we approach this presidential race? >> i do think the path to he majority did go through the heartland but it also went through our gender. look, we have a record number of women who will be serving in the congress. we needed to pick up 23 seats to win back the majority. you know how many women flipped? 23. went from red to blue. >> women. so without the women, just want to note that. what did we learn? have great candidates that fit their district. politically. people who are running who can

relate to folks at home. work hard. make sure you have the resources to get your messaging out and show up. and i know everybody -- i am almost feeling like this feels cliche anymore but listening really does matter. and i think we're going to have the greatest freshman class as soon as they're sworn in january 3rd. it's going to be unbelievable. >> i was watching one of your new members on "meet the press." and he asked them about nancy pelosi. and one of them answered exactly what you just said. listen, i've been listening to me constituents and they want a new generation of leadership. how do you square that? >> i think we will have a new generation of leadership. it may not be all the way up to the stop. there's a lot of questions to be answered. who all is going to run. it may just be nancy pelosi running for speaker, nobody else challenges her. we've got hakim jeffrey against

barbara lee. >> seen as a potential speaker in waiting. >> ben ray luhan who spent the last four years of his life working hard to help us win back the majority. a member of the hispanic caucus running for one of the top positions. i don't know if i'm necessarily considered the younger generation, but i am running in one of the top positions. >> i would say so. >> thank you. >> let's talk about florida and georgia and voter suppression and concerns. this signature matching seems to have come up as something that is now a major issue. how is this going to play out ultimately in these places? what role do the courts have? we talked about this earlier in the show, but republicans have in some of these states really cast what's going on as illegitimate. >> so i think florida and georgia are two very different states with two very different issues.

in georgia, i think there was clear voter suppression over the years committed by brian kemp. and so i think people are right to pursue a recount. i'm not sure that stacey abrams will be victorious there. her window for a recount is narrowing, as we see. in florida it was something different. i think ron desantis ran a campaign where he was very clear on where he stood. you saw gillum was so far ahead in the polls. i do think there were a significant amount of florida voters who may are said i like this gullum guy but did believe some of the things desantis was saying. both these states have to have a recount. it would be challenging for republicans to justify not having every vote counted. and like we talked about in the last segment, the fact people have come out and said ballots can't be counted or ballots coming in after the deadline should be dismissed. when you look at this from the macro, democrats are really successful like you said. when you look at it from the micro, a lot of people emotionally connected. people emotionally connected to gillum and beto and abrams. they feel disheartened by this despite demkras picking up so many gains. to maintain the integrity of the election process, republicans

would be wise to say, obviously, we want to have every vote counted. desantis should be confident and say, i don't have anything to fear. same with kemp. we'll see what happens. >> rick scott, who outgoing governor of florida running against bill nelson and made some personal accusations, if we have that sound. i'd like to play it and then, a.b., i'm interested to hear you weigh in. >> we know senator nelson's lawyer said that a noncitizen should have the right to vote. senator nelson has gone to court to say that fraudulent ballots, fraudulent ballots that were not properly delivered, signed, whatever, should have -- should be counted, okay? senator nelson is clearly trying to find -- to try to commit fraud to try to win this election. that's all this is. >> you think the senator himself is committing fraud? >> well, it's his team. >> a.b. stoddard, is any of that true? >> no, the -- rick scott is the governor of florida. and there are a lot of questions about the leadership election supervisors in broward county

and palm beach. brenda snipes in broward county has had a rough history, which has caused people to be skeptical. i have a question for the governor which is why did you not replace her before this election in so remember this last-minute effort to make it the democrats' fault because they're asking for a recount where there are real problems and real distrust has been mounting that's nonpartisan over the processes that are in place in florida. it is the job of president trump and the job of rick scott who is the governor of the sunshine state to maintain whatever trust citizens have left in these systems and fix the problems they have. after elections, no one put any money into these systems. they never want to make it better. but at the time, they want to name and shame people and flip out.

they can have rudy giuliani be a pit bull on twitter. they can have people like congressman matt gates run around and be reckless with his rhetoric but it's really profound to see the governor of florida and the president of the united states insinuating that there is fraud going on in arizona as well as florida, and that it's senator nelson's fault and he wants illegal votes to count? this kind of thing, when we have such a fragile level of trust anyway in our system is so destructive. and i don't see enough people calling it out. >> can we talk about the president on this because he's obviously tweeted about some of these and suggested that the actual outcome of the election is not -- that we can't trust it. it's behind that, and does it do lasting damage as a.b. is suggesting? >> you can look back at his history in 2016. he said before he was elected

that he called the whole system into question and suggested that the election might be rigged if it were hillary clinton who were the victor. now he let that rhetoric sort of drop after he won. but that is clearly something that he's willing to say. he did then on an election as consequential as the presidential one and he's done the same now. and that's just kind of part of his war chest, i guess. part of his vocabulary when it comes down to an election where he's not seeing a result he wants to see. >> congresswoman, before we wrap up, i want to ask you about your bid to chair the dccc. potentially going to be a tougher road. so a challenging job to take on. where would you look, looking into the next cycle, and why should your colleagues pick you for that job? >> we'll have at minimum 30 members of the democratic caucus. and as many as 33 who will be serving from trump districts. i'm one of those. and i won by the largest margin of any democrat on tuesday. i won by a 24-point margin in a trump district. i defeated a republican to get here. i've increased my margin of victory. i know what it takes to win and how to hang on to it. i know how to raise the

resources we need to be resourceful and i was a journalist like you for almost two decades and worked in communications for another ten years and ended up being a co-chair. hopefully i know how to communicate as well. that probably should have been shorter if i was really good at it. >> it's okay. >> congresswoman, thank you for being here. happy birthday to your sister lynn who i know watches the show sometimes. lynn, very happy birthday to you on this veterans day. congresswoman sherry bustos, a.b. stoddard and tiffany cross. the democrats flip one of the reddest seats in the country. somehow, democrat joe cunningham shocked everyone when he pulled off an upset in a district that president trump won by about 13 percentage points. the congressman-elect joins me live from charleston up next. before we go this thought from house minority leader nancy pelosi. >> many of the women that have

been elected have said that they're not sure they can support you to be the speaker of the house. you were the first woman speaker of the house. are you confident that you are going to be the next speaker of the house and what do you say to those women? >> yes, i am. what i say to those women, congratulations on your election. welcome.

welcome back to "kasie dc." joining me is newly elected south carolina congressman joe cunningham. he pulled off one of the biggest upsets when he defeated trump-backed republican katie arrington to flip mark sanford's

seat. it's great to have you on the show. i am surprised, of course, i'm sure as many people are to call you that. but thank you for being here. my main question for you to start this off is, and i realize you may say, oh, well, you know, i'm good looking or just that wonderful, but how did you pull this off in this district? >> well, i mean, we weren't surprised. we had a strong message. this is a district that, you know, went for trump by 13 points in 2016. it's a district that mark sanford won by 22 points in 2016. it's a district that is, obviously, been gerrymandered, but through that gerrymandering, we had a strong message that cut to the core of it. and that was defeating this political tribalism that's, you know, that's ripping us apart at our moral fabric across this country. and that's what we spoke to throughout this district. and it's what resonated here. and that's why we're able to get support from republican mayors

like tim goodwin or jimmy carroll or republican counsel members like jim owens. a lot of folks, you know, heard our message and it resonated with them and we're able to break across party lines and win this seat. >> let me ask you. i'm glad you brought that up, political tribalism. what katie arrington had to explain her loss was interesting and speaks to that topic. i'm going to show it to you and then we'll talk about it. >> the first congressional district last night lost the conservative agenda. we lost because mark sanford could not understand that this was about the conservative movement and not him. mark sanford, to all of your donors, i ask them this morning to request their donation back if they are truly conservatives. to your wonderful chest that you've kept so proud and for so long.

>> so she's essentially blaming mark sanford for her loss to you. that does, in fact, seem to kind of speak of this political tribalism that you point to. do you think part of why she lost was because she was more that way than sanford was? >> yeah, i'll let her speak to why she lost. i can speak to why we won. and the reason why we won is because we start focussing on local issues and issues that impacted people at their very kitchen table. offshore drilling was a huge issue down here in low country. our district covers most of the coastline here in south carolina. and people don't want offshore drilling. and we honed in on that like a laser. you know, we focus on, you know, protecting social security, protecting medicare. we went around the district and talked to folks about their concerns and that's what we addressed. we didn't listen to the d.c. message or the rhetoric coming out of washington. we focused on local politics and we focused on local issues and we focused on a bipartisanship effort to bring people together.

you know, we built the campaign on unity and not division. and that's what carried us across the finish line. >> it's interesting. i actually was down there interviewing katie arrington earlier in the election cycle. we talked to her about offshore drilling. you had said that you supported drilling offshore. that's a trump administration proposal. you said more recently you actually oppose it. where do you stand? >> joe cunningham, the gentleman i'm running against when i was in the hospital saw the mayors and twisted the truth. i'm not for offshore drilling. never have been. there wasn't oil off the coast of south carolina 150 years ago and there's not oil now. all the studies that i've read there's maybe six days if they tapped in, 14 million barrels total. so nobody is going to drill off the coast of south carolina. but i'm not for it. >> if the trump administration tried to, would you tell them -- >> absolutely. i'd come and say, uh-uh, no, no, not here. >> so that sort of speaks to, one, this was an issue she seems to say one thing in the primary

and then change her view in that interview. but as you point out, you did focus more on this very local issue and more in line with where your voters were as you explain it. what can other candidates learn from how you ran this race that you think would apply elsewhere? >> yeah, i think just speak to the local issued and we got to get past this partisanship. and we've got to listen to one another. democrats need to listen to republicans. republicans need to start listening to democrats. and we need to start working together and realize just because we don't agree on everything, doesn't mean we can't come together and work on anything. and i think what you're seeing across the country are new leaders stepping up to say, listen, we have to come together and focus on the issues. and actually get back to what government was intended to do to make people's lives better.

>> so one of the first things you are going to have to do when you come to washington is vote for speaker of the house. if nancy pelosi is running to be speaker and she said she is, do you plan to vote in favor of her to be you plan to vote in favor? >> i will not. i said that from day one. the very first day out of the gates in this campaign and it's nothing against nancy pelosi. it's a matter of having new leadership and ideas and, you know, that's what we've ran our campaign on and what we carry to washington. i think that sentiment is being echoed across this country of having new leadership. both parties need new leadership. not just the democratic party. the republican side needs it as well. that's what we've been running on. >> congressman elect joe cunningham, thank you for your time. we'll see you in d.c. >> thank you for having me. when we come back, we look west as wildfires leave a deadly trail in southern california. today is the day you're going to get motivated...

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plus, the death toll is climbing in california as two major wildfires blaze across the state. dozens of bodies have been found in cars and homes as firefighters battle the catastrophic flames. tensions are high as candidates in florida dig in for a fight. ♪