hello, you're watching msnbc's special coverage of those midterm elections. oom ari melber, control of both houses of the congress is yet to be determined at this hour. president biden about to deliver his first remarks on the election is and take questions. you can see the white house press pool assorted there in the room ready to go. it's going to be an interesting statement to be sure because as you probably know, it is customary to have a post-election address for presidents. this president will be taking questions so we'll hear his remarks and response to reporters. this is the same appearance where past incumbent presidents have discussed what are often huge midterm elections. obama spoke of the 201, republicans will make a net gain of about nine seats. many races have not yet been called. for their part, democrats beat election deniers for government

races in key states like michigan, wisconsin, and pennsylvania where josh shapiro absolutely crushed the extreme candidacy of doug mastriano. he was of course at the capitol on january 6th and john fetterman beating out a trump style tv candidate in dr. oz, and that puts more heat on the republicans to try to win the outstanding and close senate races if they have any hope of flipping the whole senate. today both parties are tracking arizona and nevada where every statewide race is still too close to call. the senate hanging in the balance because of these open states. the big answers will take more time and more counting. this year saw a spike in conspiracy theories and threats. election workers are doing their job stacking up every ballot so we get a correct count. we all need patience for that. i know that it's difficult stacking this paper. it's sort of habitual. count it up, count it up, count it. so the counting continues, and when the president does speak in what we believe will be just a few moments, he will be able to

invoke some of the numbers that have been counted. that he performed better than most recent presidents, better than obama losing 60 plus, and that biden basically held much of his coalition together with many independents in the places where we do have results against what were, of course, the changes of inflation and economic headwinds. how? well, let's get into that with our panel as we await the president's remarks, and we will go to it, of course when we get it. right now we are joined by former republican congressman and msnbc contributor, david jolly, alicia menendez, democratic strategist, aisha mills, and the former white house deputy chief of staff for operations under the aforementioned former president, barack obama as well as campaign manager for obama's 2012 re-election campaign. a wonderful panel here. we're awaiting the president's remarks. i could start anywhere, but i will start with you, jim. it's not a knock on obama to recall those headwinds, the tea

party, all of that, as we await this president's remarks, what do you think of how this early indication stacks up against past losses for incumbents? >> way better than expected. i was just on a call just now with the largest donors in the democratic party, and to say there was a sense of relief and surprise, yes, we're going to legal cause the -- lose the house although very, very close. the president's party in the last 40 years has lost an average of 28 house seats and four senate seats. democrats are overperforming and once again it's the women who saved us. the abortion issue and the democracy issue both combined, if you look at some of the exit polling and you look at why we did so much better than expected, as i discussed many times, the polls were wrong again for the cycle, and the reason why they were wrong is they underestimated democratic enthusiasm in some of these key races, especially in the midwest. >> yes, the democrats are doing

well, but i would like to think actually decency is what prevailed last night. sure the democrats are going to lose a few seats but what i'm excited about is that we are seeing a resistance in a lot of places to trumpism. the vile, nasty, hostile, evil tones that republican extremists have campaigned on seem to be falling flat, so what i'm going to be watching for is that when they do have an opportunity to lead in the house, what's going to be the tone and tenor of that. are they still going to succumb to that radical wing of the party or get back to normalcy with the rest of us. >> what's going to be the tone and tenor, and also what is their governing agenda going to look like? i think we were all prepared to ask the question what happens if voters don't punish republicans for the overturn of roe. they have now seen how this has played out with americans. do they continue this nonsense about a federal ban? do they -- what do they do about inflation? it is the issue they ran on that they have no solution for. what do they do about crime?

they also don't have an answer about that. this is where all of their chickens come to roost. >> to build on that, we're seeing in the exit polls and some of the indications -- and again, we don't have it all yet, we're going to keep counting what we don't know -- in many places where the coalition for the president held, independents didn't break with republicans. women did appear to turn out. democrats spent a lot more time and money messaging and ads on women's rights and abortion. how much of that is the story of this turnout? >> it was a lot of this story. there was this freakout that there had been too much emphasis on democracy. when i was out there speaking with candidates, i heard them talking about the economy. i heard them talking about the summer of action. when you talk to voters, they may not say, wow, i loved the ira, right? they may not talk about the chips act, but they had a sense that the government was working and so much of that language that democrats wanted voters out there thinking about, who's got your back.

who cares about you, when i was standing in parking lots outside of grocery stores talking to votes in arizona and nevada, that was being repeated back to me. >> david, you look at the president here, he's going to be coming out with much, much better scenario than most of washington was bracing for. jim mentioned the polls. a note about that, and then i want to hear your reaction. the polls are not a measurement of the actual turnout, right? the polls are a prediction about who will turn out. they tend to be more accurate when you get the turnout model right. what does it tell you that this turnout model did something different than most incumbent presidents and second, as someone who's been around that town, how is the republican party that you were a member of waking up today? >> let's just lay out there that the republican party is really good at learning all the wrong lessons and i think they're going to learn all the wrong lessons coming out of this. i don't think you will see a

course correction that alicia is referring to. i think we're going to see in joe biden a very confident president and a little bit of swagger, and he should show it. there's no other way to look at what happened last night than a historic night for democrats, and very importantly, consistent with 2018 and 2020. this is now a pattern, and this is why this could be a complete shifting of the ground of american politics. what you saw emerge in 2018 in the face of trumpism is this coalition, a strong resilient coalition led by democrats together with disaffected republicans and independent thes who said we want to put a stop to the type of republicans -- they turned out in '20 and turned out last night. >> i'll let you build on this point. you almost get the feeling at this juncture that donald trump might be unpopular. >> what? listen, yes. >> just go with me. >> i'm going with you. >> just consider it. >> is it possible because he got fewer votes in '16 and he got

fewer votes in '20, and everyone seems to agree including mitch mcconnell that these low quality -- as mitch mcconnell put it -- maga style candidates who are in the trump echo are underperforming for republicans. i know it's a crazy thought, i'm putting it out there for you. >> i know what you're meaning, i think a lot of pundits are too quick to dismiss donald trump and write his epitaph, he has a strangle hold on 30% of the country. >> but if you don't have romney was a big lie. do republicans do better today than they did? >> the two biggest losers last night, kevin mccarthy and donald trump, wu to think that this means donald trump exits stage right. >> i said unpopular, i didn't say gone. >> this is also why this anointment of ron desantis is also premature. donald trump ain't going anywhere. he's not going anywhere. >> i would take a slightly

different tact on that, and you'll tell me where i'm wrong. >> you tell me where i'm wrong. >> what i think -- there's trump and there's trumpism, and trumpism is still deeply entrenched in the republican party. i think to distill trumpism solely to election denialism is a mistake. you look at ron desantis, he's putting migrants on buses and planes and shipping them to blue cities. the same type of cruelty we saw stephen miller, donald trump lay the foundation for. you had the miami herald saying this is supposed to be a disqualifier for elections and instead you have florida voters coming out and supporting desantis because of it. that is because the ground was laid. you have his election police task force where all they have discovered is voters caught in the act of voting. there is more than one way to disrupt a fair and free election, and then you have the 15-week abortion ban out of florida. so yes, he may not be carrying the water explicitly on the big lie, but there's still so much of trumpism that he is bringing

into his own candidacy. >> including the bombastic attitude and the way that people are showing up. i keep looking at georgia right now skpks it is shocking to me that herschel walker who can barely put two sentences together sometimes, says things that don't make any kind of sense, asserts them were a lot of bravado. tells lies, is rude to people is doing so well. i'm with you on this. trumpism may not go anywhere anytime soon, we just have to keep beating it back. >> i'm not talking about predictions. i'm not saying that because he's unpopular x, y, z will happen, right? you can point to a lot of unpopular items that persist. but if they did worse yesterday because of trumpism and trump, then where does that put the republican party? because democrats, biden might love it if they don't course correct. that might be good for the white house. >> there's a fundamental split

between the modern r.n. republican party and trumpism. mitch mcconnell and kevin mccarthy would dump him tomorrow if they could. his approval rating is over 80%. he leads the primary 70-# 1 in the last thing. david's exactly right, they are not going to get rid of this guy until this guy decides to get rid of himself. joe biden should take a victory lap hear. he was largely and people routed him in d.c. for his democracy speech saying it was stupid. they hammered him for the democrats moving to abortion, and both those decisions were spot on and they closed better than i've seen the democrats close in a very long time. >> you talk about that close as we keep an eye right here on the white house where we have the president prepared to give these post-midterm remarks. the senate and the house are still not technically decided. the senate might be a long time, it might even go to a special election in georgia to decide, and yet, as jim messina was just reminding us and we're about 12 minutes past when the president said they'd come out, so we

expect this san. jim, you're saying that the president has a lot of opportunity, open lane hear. we're used to hearing people spin a loss. george w. bush being folksy about the thumping. what exactly do you want to hear from the president right now? >> i want him to say that america had a very clear vote last night about working together, getting things done, and about the democracy stuff that she was talking about and about choice, and i wanted him to steer right into it. the other thing i want to have very, very clear is that the american public has been clear that we don't want extremism. we want this democracy to work together and one more thing, we are gone, and we are no longer discussing a primary for joe biden. that's the other thing last night. he is absolutely going to be the democratic nominee for president and everyone is just done talking about it. >> was that the perception, you said you were on the call with the party's biggest donor. is that the feeling that joe biden is now the presumptive no, ma'am -- nominee.

that was not just telegraphing, you're saying that? >> except for 1988 where the president gives it up or is term limited, the other party usually wins the white house. if indicates want to hold the white house, joe biden is our candidate. >> we're about to hear from someone who outperformed and is planning to run again. >> absolutely. >> i want to tell folks we think we're within two minutes, one minute here. you can see from sort of the -- some of the reporters there who are in position to give their final remarks. we think the president's coming out any moment. we will jump to it immediately. >> which i also appreciate is your cue to me and david to keep it short. >> it could be. it could have been what they sometimes call double discoursing. more than one purpose. >> i think this speech writes itself. one of the things this president has always been good at is being empathetic. yes, it is a victory lap, but it also is a victory lap that is couched in that i know people are still out there hurting and i know that things may not be where you want them to be. what i need you to do is trust

that me and my allies in congress have already delivered and we're going to continue to deliver. and then he acts like this win is not his. this win belongs to the american people. the there were a lot of people bho doubted you. there were a lot of people who thought you didn't understand the stakes, you didn't know what was on the line, and you proved them wrong. people want to be the heroes of their own story. if he now gets up there, he puts that power back in the hands of people, that's something that has a long tail. >> i think there's a big question hear. i mean, look, if joe biden takes the approach there's a split decision, i think that's the wrong approach. i think he needs to say america chose the direction of democrats last night. the truth is through gerrymandering republicans were gifted five or six, and then beyond that there were a dozen seats held by democrats that donald trump had won. this was a layup for republicans, should have been historically and by

redistricting, and in fact, democrats have really crushed republicans in this moment. look, joe biden is not an arrogant actor, right? he will naturally be humble. he will be a servant leader. he will declare victory and keep the biden tone. i'm giving folks the play by play as we are awaiting the president coming out. you can see reporters in the room take their seat. jim messina, you're saying we're going to -- let's go right to it. we have the president of the united states here after outperforming in the midterms. let's take a listen. >> well, we had an election yesterday, and it was a good day, i think, for democracy, and i think it was a good day for america. excuse me, i'm a little hoarse. our democracy has been tested in recent years, but with their votes, the american people have spoken and proven once again that democracy is who we are. states across the country saw

record voter turnout, and the heart and soul of our democracy, the voters, the poll workers, election officials, they did their job, and they fulfilled their duty, apparently without much interference at all, that's a testament, i think, to the american people. while we don't know all the results yet, at least i don't know them all yet, here's what we do know. while the press and the pundits are predicting a giant red wave, it didn't happen. and i know you were somewhat miffed by my optimism, but i felt good during the whole process. i thought we were going to do fine. while any seat lost is painful, some good democrats didn't win last night, democrats had a strong night, and we lost fewer seats in the house of representatives than any democratic president's first midterm election in the last 40 years, and we had the best mid

term for governors since 1986. and another thing that we know is that voters spoke clearly about their concerns, about raising costs, or the rising costs and the need to get inflation down. there's still a lot of people hurting. they're very concerned. and it's about crime and public safety, and they sent a clear and unmistakable message that they want to preserve our democracy and protect the right to choose in this country, and i especially want to thank the young people of this nation who i'm told -- i haven't seen the numbers -- voted historic numbers again, and just as they did two years ago. they voted to continue addressing the climate crisis, gun violence, their personal rights and freedoms, and the student debt relief. last night i was pleased to call maxwell frost, the 25-year-old who got elected, i guess the youngest man ever elected to the united states congress, and i

told him that -- i told him that i was first elected the second youngest person elected to the united states senate at 29, but i have no doubt he's off to an incredible start in what i'm sure will be a long, distinguished career. and when he's president and they say joe biden's out in the other office, i'm going to say joe who, but the voters were also clear that they're still frustrated. i get it. i understand it's been really tough few years in this country for so many people. when i came to office, we inherited a nation with a pandemic raging and an economy that was railing and we acted quickly and boldly to vaccinate the country and create stable and sustained growth in our economy, long-term investment to rebuild america, our roads, our bridges, ports, airport, clean water systems, high speed internet. we're just getting started. this is all going to come into clear view for people in

january, february, march of next year. it's just getting underway, so i'm optimistic about how the public could be even more em bray sieve of what we've done. historic investments leading companies to invest literally hundreds of billions of dollars combined to build semiconductor factories and other advanced manufacturing here in america. it's going to create tens of thousands of good paying jobs. a significant number of those jobs are going to pay an average of $126,000, you don't need a college degree to get those jobs. and we're dealing with putin's war in ukraine, we're also handling better than most nations. we're lowering gas praises. we're taking on powerful interests, lower prescription drug costs, health insurance premiums and energy bills. after 20 months of hard work, the pandemic no longer controls our life. it's still a concern but no

longer controls our lives. our economic policies created a record 10 million new jobs since i came into office. unemployment rate is down from 6.4 when i was sworn in to 3.7% near a 50 year low, and we've done all this while lowering the federal deficit in the two years by $1.7 trillion. let me say it again, $1.7 trillion. no administration has ever cut the deficit that much. and reducing the federal deficit is one of the best things we can do to lower inflation. while we made real progress as a nation, i know it's hard for folks to see that progress in their everyday lives, and it's hard to see the results from actions that we took while we have to implement what we've done, but i believe we took the right steps for the country and for the american people. in fact, if you look at the polls, overwhelming majority -- i don't look at them much anymore because i'm not quite sure how to read them anymore.

i hope you are uncertain as well. the overwhelming majority of the american people support the elements of my economic agenda. from rebuilding america's roads and bridges to lowering prescription drug costs to historic investment and tackling the climate crisis to making sure that large corporations begin to pay their fair share in taxes. i'm confident these policies are working and that we're on the right path and we need to stick with them. all these initiatives take hold as they do from lead pipes being removed from schools and homes to new factories being built in communities with the resurgence of american manufacturing. you've heard me say it ad nauseam, i don't know where it's written, we can't be the manufacturing capital of the world. we are now exporting product, not jobs around the world. people across the country are going to see even more clearly the positive effects on their

day-to-day lives, but i still understand why they're hurting right now, so many people are concerned. as i have throughout my career, i'm going to continue to work across the aisle to deliver for the american people and it's not always easy, but ill be surprised a lot of people, we signed over 210 bipartisan laws since i've become president and we're revitalizing american manufacturing, gun safety, we did it together, and dozens of laws positively impacting our veterans. and let me say this, regardless, regardless of what the final tally of these elections show -- and there's still some counting going on -- i'm prepared to work with my republican colleagues. ed the american people have made clear they expect republicans to be prepared to work with me as well. in the area of foreign policy, i hope we'll continue this bipartisan approach of confronting russia's aggression in ukraine. when i return from the g20

meetings in indonesia with other world leaders i'm going to invite the leaders of both political parties to the white house to discuss how we can work together for the remain ter of this year and into the next congress. vance the economic and national security priorities of the united states. i'm open to any good ideas. i want to clear, i'm not going to support any republican proposal that's going to make things worse. i'm not going to walk away from historic commitments we just made to take on the climate crisis. they're not compromisable issues to me. and i won't let it happen. the voters don't want more taxes for the super -- tax cuts if the super wealthy and biggest corporations, and i'm going to continue to focus on cost cutting for working and middle class families, and building an economy from the bottom up and middle out.

i know you're tired of hearing me say that. i genuine ly mean it. the wealthy do very well when the middle class is doing well and the poor have a way up. and while continuing to bring down the federal deficit. when we look at tax cuts, we should be looking at tax cuts for working people and middle class people, not the very wealthy. they're fine. if you can go out and be a multimillion naur, that's great. just pay your fair share. it's like those 55 corporations in 2000, that made a billion dollars and didn't pay a penny in federal taxes. it's not right. everybody has an obligation. so now they have to pay a staggering 15%. you all pay more than that for your taxes. i'm going to keep my commitment that no one, no one earning less than $400,000 a year -- and that's a lot of money where i come from -- are going to see their federal taxes going up. and i want to be very clear, under no circumstances will i

support the proposal put forward by senators johnson and the senator from down in florida to cut or make fundamental changes in social security and medicare. that's not on the table. i will not do that. i will veto any attempt to pass a national ban on abortion, but i'm ready to compromise the republicans where it makes sense on many other issues. i'll always put the needs and interests of the american people first. let me close with this. on this election season, the american people made it clear, they don't want every day going forward to be a constant political battle. there's too much of that going on, and there's too much that we have to do. the future of america is too promising, too promising to be trapped in an endless political warfare, and i really mean it. you've heard me say it time and again for the last 20 months or so. i am so optimistic about the prospects for america. we need to be looking to the

future, not fixated on the past, and that future is bright as can be. we were the only nation in the world that's come out of every crisis stronger than we went into the crisis, and that's a fact. i literally mean that. we've come out stronger than we've gone in, and i've never been more optimistic about america's future than i am today, particularly because of all those young people i talk about, 18 to 30. they're showing up, they're the least prejudice generation in american history, the most engaged in american history and the most involved. look, after a long campaign season, i still believe it, i always have, this is a great nation, and we're a great people, and it's never been a good bet to bet against america, never been a good bet to bet against america. there's nothing, nothing beyond our capacity if we work together, we just need to remember who the hell we are.

we're the united states of america, the united states of america. there's nothing beyond our capacity. i'm pretty well convinced we're going to be able to get a lot done. i've been given a list of ten people that i'm supposed to call on, and you're all supposed to ask me one question, but i'm sure you'll ask me more, and so let me start off with a list i've been given. zeke miller, "associated press." >> thank you, mr. president, two questions for you. as you mentioned -- >> how come we never hold you guys to the same standards you hold us to. but anyway, go ahead. i'm teasing. >> you mentioned that americans are frustrated, in fact, 75% of voters say the country is heading into the wrong direction despite the results of last night, what in the next two years do you intend to do differently to change people's opinion of the direction of the country, particularly as you contemplate a run for president in 2024? >> nothing. because they're just finding out what we're doing.

the more they know about what we're doing, the more support there is. do you know anybody who wants us to get rid of the change we made on prescription drug prices and raise prices again? do you know anybody who wants us to walk away from building those roads and bridges and the internet and so on? i think that the problem is the major piece of legislation we passed, some of it bipartisan, takes time to be recognized. for example, you got over a trillion dollars worth of infrastructure money, but not that many spades put in the ground. it takes time. i was on the phone congratulating a californian recently, and then someone up in scranton, pennsylvania, the congressman who got elected. can you help us make sure we're able to have high speed rail service from scranton to new york, new york city, i said, yeah, we can. we can. first of all, it would make it a

lot easier, take a lot of vehicles off the road, and we have more money in the pot now already out there. we voted for it, than the entire money we spent on amtrak to begin with. it's the same way, for example, i talked about through the campaign that we're going to limit the cost of insulin for seniors to $35 a month instead of 400 a month. it doesn't take effect until next year. so there's a lot of things that are just starting to kick in, and the same way with what we've tone in terms of the environmental stuff. it takes time to get it moving. i'm not going to change. as a matter of fact, there's some things i want to change and add to, for example, we've passed most bipartisan -- we passed the most extensive gun legislation, rational gun policy in 30 years, and -- but we didn't ban assault weapons. i'm going to ban assault weapons. going to try like the devil. so i'm not going to change the direction -- i said i ran for three reasons. i'm going to continue to stay --

i fully understand the legitimate concern that what i'm saying is wrong, okay? one is that i said we're going to restore the soul of the country. begin to treat it with decency, honor and integrity, and it's starting to happen. the conversations are becoming more normal, becoming more how can i say it? decent. second thing i said is i want to build a country from the middle out, bottom up. and that way everybody does fine. i'm tired of trickle down. not a whole lot trickles down. the third thing is very hard, i'm going to do everything in my power to see we reunite the country. it's hard to sustain yourself as a leading democracy in the world if you can't generate some unity. so i'm not going to change anything in any fundamental way. >> just on a different topic, mr. president, russia today

claimed it had evacuated the kherson region and the kherson city. do you believe this is potentially an inflection point in that conflict, and do you believe that ukraine now has the leverage it needs to begin peace negotiations with moscow? >> first of all, i found it interesting they waited until after the election to make that judgment. which we knew for some time that they were going to be doing. and it's evidence of the fact that they have some real problems, the russian military. number one. and number two, whether or not that leads to at a minimum, it will lead to time for everyone to recalibrate their positions over the winter period, and it remains to be seen whether or not there will be a judgment made as to whether or not ukraine is prepared to compromise for russia. i'm going to the g20. i'm told that president putin is not likely to be there, but

other world leaders are going to be there in indonesia. we'll have an opportunity to see what the next steps will be. nancy, cvs, nancy cordes. >> thank you, mr. president, i have a few questions. saving them up. first of all, republican leader kevin mccarthy said last night that it is clear we are going to take the house back. do you think he's probably right about that? >> well, based on when we know as of today, we've lost very few seats for certain. we still have a possibility of keeping the house, but it's going to be close. for example, in nevada, we won all three of those seats, contested seats. i spoke with each of those folks. we won them all. it's a moving target, but it's going to be very close. >> can you describe your relationship with. mccarthy? how often to you speak to him? what do you think of him?

>> i think he's a republican leader, and i haven't had much occasion to talk to him. i will be talking to him -- i think talking to him later today. >> when it comes to your legislative agenda, when you were vice president, your legislative agenda basically ran into brick wall two years in when republicans took control of. the house and that lasted for the rest of the obama presidency. is there any way for you to prevent that same fate from happening this time around if republicans take control of the house? >> yes, because it's going to be much closer if they take control. lack, the predictions were -- and again, i'm not being critical of anybody who made the predictions. i got it, okay? this is supposed to be a red wave. you guys were talking about us losing 30 to 50 seats and this was going to -- that's not going to happen, and so there's always enough people in the -- on the other team, whether it's democrat or republican that the opposite party can make an appeal to and maybe pick them off to get the help.

and so it remains to be seen but look, i doubt whether or not -- for example, all the talk i'd ask -- i don't expect you to answer, but the rhetorical question, do you think that, you know, senator johnson is going to mauve to cut medicare and social security, and if he does, how many republicans are going to vote for it? it depends. >> and then my final question, republicans have made it clear that if they do take control of the house that they want to launch investigations on day one into your handling of afghanistan, the border, they want to look into some of your cabinet officials. they want to investigate you. they may even want to investigate your son. what's your message to republicans who are considering investigating your family and particularly your son hunter's business dealings? >> lots of luck in your senior years my coach used to say.

look, i think the american public wants to move on and get things done for them. i heard that it was reported, whether it's accurate or not, i'm not sure. it was reported many times, the republicans were saying, the former president was saying how many times you going to impeach biden. i think the american people will look at all of that for what it is. it's just almost comedy. but you know, look, i can't control what they're going to do. all i can do is continue to try to make life better for the american people. okay, phil, matingly, cnn. >> thank you, mr. president. i have 37 questions -- i'm kidding. [ laughter ] sir, at a fundraiser last month you said, quote, the the rest of the world is lacking at -- looking at this election, the good boys and the bad guys. you're going to the g20 to come face-to-face with many of those leaders, the same moment that

your predecessor is considering launching his re-election effort. how should those world leaders, good guys and bad guys view this moment both for america and your presidency? >> will, first of all, these world leaders know we're doing better than anybody else in the world as a practical matter. notwithstanding the difficulies we have with our economy growing, we're still growing at 2.6%. we're creating jobs. we're still in a solid position and there's not many other countries in the world in that position and i promise you from the telephone calls i still are have and the meetings i have with heads of state, they're looking to the united states and saying how are you doing it? what are you doing? what can we do together? so i think that the vast majority of my colleagues, at least those colleagues who are nato members, european union, japan, south korea, et cetera, i think they're looking to cooperate and wanting to know how we can help one another. and what was the other question? >> oh, i'm sorry.

i think one way to follow up on that is you noted that you felt like there was a shift in terms of people being willing to show more decency in this moment, you've often talked about breaking the fever or kind of a transition from this moment that we faced over the last several years. do you feel like the election is what represents that? do you feel like the fever is broken, i guess? >> well, i don't think we're going to break the fever for the super mega maga republicans, i mean, but i think they're a minority of the republican e party. i think the vast majority of the members of the republican party would disagree strongly on issues, but they're decent honorable people. we have differences of agreement on, on issues. but they -- you know, i work with a lot of these focus in the senate and the house for a long time, and, you know, they're honest, and they're straightforward. they're different, but you know, they're decent folks.

and so i think that the rest of the world and a lot of you have covered other parts of the world and you know -- the rest of the world is looking at the united states, i guess the best way to say this is to repeat something you heard me say before. the first g-7 meeting, that's the seven largest democracies when i went to -- right after we got elected in february after i got sworn in in january, and i sat down at a table, a round table with the six other world leaders from european union and canada, et cetera, and said america's back, and one of them turned to me and said for how long. for how long. it was a deadly earnest question. i looked at them and another went on to say -- i'm not going

to name them -- went on to say what would you say, joe, if in fact, we went to bed tonight hear in england, woke up the next morning and found out that a thousand people had stormed the parliament of great britain, gone down the hole, broken down the doors, two cops ended up dying, a number of people injured, and they tried to stop the confirmation of an election, it's not the same situation, obviously. and they said what would you think. i asked the rhetorical question, what would you all think? you'd think england was really in trouble. you'd think democracy was on the edge if that happened at great britain, and so that's the way people were looking at us like when's this going to stop. nothing like this has happened since the civil war. i don't want to exaggerate, but literally nothing like this has happened since the civil war, and so what i find is that they

want to know is the united states stable? are we the same democracy we've always been? because, look, the rest of the world looks to us. i don't mean like we're always right, but if the united states tomorrow were to, quote, withdraw from the world, a lot of things would change around the world, a whole lot would change, and so they very concern that we are still the open democracy we've been and that we have rules and the institutions matter, and that's the context in which i think that they're looking at are we back to a place where we are going to accept decisions made by the court, by the congress, by the government, et cetera. >> so the entire genesis of that g-7 conversation was tied to your predecessor who is about to launch at campaign. so how do you reassure them if

that is the reason for their questioning that the former president will not return or that his political movement, which is still very strong, will not once again take power in the united states? >> we just have to demonstrate that he will not take power, if he does run. i'm making sure he under the legitimate effort s of our constitution does not become the next president again. steve, reuters, i'm sorry. >> how do you interpret last night's results in terms of deciding whether you want to seek another term? is it now more likely that you will run, and what's going to be your time line for consideration? >> well, first of all, jill and i have -- and by the way, that's my wife jill who's a hell of a lot more popular than i am in the democratic party too, but at

any rate, all kidding aside, our intention is to run again. that's been our intention, regardless of what the outcome of this election was. and the fact that we won, we, i didn't run, the fact that the democratic party outperformed anything anyone expected and did better than any off year presidency since john kennedy is one that gives everybody like a sigh of relief that the maga republicans are not taking over the government again, et cetera. and so my judgment of running when i announce, my intention is that i run again, but i am a great respect er of fate, and this is ultimately a family decision. i think everybody wants me to

run, but we're going to have discussions about it, and i don't feel any hurry one way or another to make that judgment today, tomorrow, whenever, no matter what my predecessor does. >> early next year, or what's your thinking? >> my guess is -- i hope jill and i get a little time to actually sneak away for a week afternoon between christmas and thanksgiving, and my guess is it will be early next year we make that judgment. but my plan to do it now, but okay, i'm sorry, karen, karen travers of abc radio. >> thank you, mr. president. wnba star brittney griner today was moved to a russian penal colony to serve out her nine-year sentence. do you have an update right now on her condition? what do you know about that, and does this mark a new phase in negotiations with the russians to secure her release?

can the u.s. now fully engage in talks under prisoner swap, follow-up if i can. >> we've been engaging on a regular basis. i've been spending a fair amount of time with her wife about what's going on with her and my guess is, my hope is that now that the election is over that mr. putin will be able to discuss with us and be willing to talk more seriously about prisoner exchange. that is my intention. my intention is to get her home, and we've had a number of discussions so far, and i'm hopeful that now that our election is over there's a willingness to negotiate more specifically with us. thank you. >> and if i can, your press secretary had said that the u.s. government has continue ed to follow up on that significant offer but also proposed alternative potential ways forward with the russians. can you tell us what those alternative ways forward are and

how russia has responded to those? >> yes, i can, but i won't. i mean, you know, it would not be a wise thing to do in order to see if they would move forward. but it is my -- i'm telling you, i am determined to get her home and get her home safely. along with others i might add. april ryan. >> of the grillo. >> i beg your pardon. i got it right last time we did this. >> yes, you did. >> i have a couple of questions on several issues. one, the supreme court. as you know, the supreme court has before it the issue of college admissions and affirmative action. what can and are you planning in case of a rollback that is expected, there are legal analysts that say that there

will be drastic implications, there are tentacles from this, ask they even say this could impact brown v. board, the decision from brown v. board. >> well, you know, first of all, i asked our justice department to defend the president policy before the supreme court and like a lot of pundits, i'm not prepared to believe that the supreme court is going to overrule the existing decision. that's far from certain, and i don't believe that. number one, so number one what i did to try to change it is object to it before the supreme court of the united states, our administration. number two i -- there are a number of things that we can and must do to make -- and by the way, this is a case involving an asian american in terms of getting into school and whether there's affirmative action makes sense at all from the standpoint of those arguing against it.

you know, the fact is that we're also in a circumstance where there's a lot that we can do in the meantime to make sure that there's an access to good education across the board, and that is by doing things that relate to starting education at age 3, formal schooling at age 3, which increases not day care but school, all the studies over ten years show that that increases the prospect of someone making it through 12 years without any difficulty, no matter what the background they come from by 56%, and i also think that we should be making sure that we have the ability to provide for two years of education beyond that, whether it's apprenticeships or community colleges. and we also are in a situation where i think that, for example, i want to make sure a lot of it has to do with finances as well, and we make sure that we have

help for people who come from modest means to be able to get to school. you know, the cost of college education has increased fourfold, and it used to be that a pell grant would cover something like 70% of the college tuition. now it covers significantly less than that. so i want to increase the pell grants as well. let's see what the supreme court decides, and i am hopeful and our team and the lawyers who argued for us are not nearly as certain as the people you quoted as saying that's going to be overruled. >> next question, sir. the issue is inflation. the grillo and kff conducted a study of black voters that said inflation was the number one issue and we saw it in this midterm election. what can you promise concretely in these next two years that will help turn the pocketbook for the better in the midst of staving off a recession. >> well, a number of things.

first of all, black unemployment is almost cut in half in my administration just since i began. more black businesses opened up, small businesses than ever before. we're now in a situation where we're providing through the small business administration down payments for people buying homes because most people accumulate wealth in the value of their home. most middle class families are like mine. my dad bought a home, didn't have enough to scrape together to get a home, by the time he was able to retire, he had built up equity in the home. that's how most people do that. and so what i can't do is i can't guarantee that we're going to be able to get rid of inflation, but i do think we we've already brought down the price of gasoline about $1.20 across the board. and i think that the -- the -- the -- the oil companies are really doing the nation a real

disservice. they've made -- six of them made over $100 billion in the last quarter profit. $100 billion. in the past, if they had done the two things they had done before, one, invest in more refineries and producing more product, and/or passing on the rebates to the gas stations like sell the oil at a cheaper rate than they are selling it now, not taking advantage, and that lowers the price of the total gallon of gas, because that gets passed on. so there's a whole lot of things that we can do that are difficult to do, but we'll continue to push to do them. and the other thing is that one of the things that makes a gigantic difference is what are the costs that exist in the average family, and the average black community. one, prescription drug costs. well, we're driving those down precipitously beginning next

year. i bet you know a lot of people in the african american and caucasian community that need to take insulin for diabetes. they're not going to pay more than $35 instead of $400. i can list the things -- i dad used to say it in a different way. at the end of the month, the things you have to pay for, from your mortgage to food on the table to gasoline in the automobile, do you have enough money to do it? when it's done, do you have anything left over? and medical bills are a big piece of that. particularly in the african american community and the poor -- and poorer communities. they need help. so we're driving down all of those costs, and we have passed legislation to do that, it's just taking effect. so there's a lot of things that we can do to affect things that people need on a monthly basis to reduce their cost of living, to reduce their inflation.

but i am optimistic, because we continue to grow, at a rational pace. we are not anywhere near a recession right now in terms of the growth. but i think we can have what most economists call a soft landing. i'm convinced that we'll be able to bring down prices so that they, in fact, end up with us not having to move into recession to be able to get control of inflation. >> last question on humanity. sir, you can't legislate and you can't executive out the order of empathy or the lack thereof in the midst of this heated political rhetoric. what's next? >> part of what i think leadership requires, and i hope i meet the standard, is letting

people know you understand their problem. again, my dad used to have an expression. i don't expect the government to solve my problems, but i expect them to at least know what they are, to understand them. like a lot of you, we have been very fortunate as a family. we've also been through a lot of fairly tough times. and it's not -- and i've had the great advantage of having a family to get through them. my first wife and daughter were killed when a tractor trailer broad sided them and killed my first wife and killed my daughter, and my two boys were expected to die. it took the jaws of life three hours to get them out. they were on top of their dead mother and dead sister. i understand what that pain is like. when jill and i lost bo after a year in iraq, winning a bronze

medal, came home with cancer because he lived 200 yards from a burn pit, ten feet deep, burning every toxic waste you can find. you know, i think that we understand what it's like to lose family members, mothers, fathers, all of you. we've been fortunate, though. we've had each other. we've had strong families. jill's sisters, my brothers, my sister. so what we can do to deal with that empathy is make sure there's help available. make sure there's people who are there to help, whether they are psychologists or whether they're medical doctors or whether they're social workers, to be there to help. to help just hold a hand. for example, we can do a awful lot for a lot of families, if we raise the state's child tax credit. it cut child poverty by 40%.

i couldn't get it passed the second time around. so there's a lot we can do. the empathy is communicating to people you generally understand. and i hope a lot of people don't understand, because i don't want people having to know the pain. but the second piece of that is, letting them know that you are there to help. you're there to help. and one of the things i've talked with evette murphy about is the need for mental health care in america. you know, when we got elected, there was something like, i don't know, two, three, five million people who had gotten their covid shots. well, in the meantime, i got over 220 million people with all three shots. but in the meantime, what happened? we lost over a million dead.

a million dead. i read one study that for those million people, they had nine people who each one averaged nine people close to them. a relative, some of them married to a child, someone close. the impact has been profound and profound. think of all the people, think of all your children and your grandchildren who didn't have that senior prom, who didn't have that graduation party, who didn't have all the things we had that we took for grant it. so there's a lot we have to do, and empathy reflects itself when a person demonstrates they understand, but knowing what people need and making it happen. and we're trying to do it. and a lot of republicans are trying to do it, too. a lot of people are trying to do it, because they know we've got a problem. okay, excuse me. these ten questions are going

quickly. i've got to meet with some of my -- talk with some of the republican leadership soon. but any way, jenny leonard, bloomberg. >> thank you, mr. president. two questions. one, shifting back to your trip to asia. when you meet with president xi jinping of china, will you tell him that you're committed to defending taiwan militarily? and what are you hoping to get out of this meeting that will make it a success? are you willing to make any concessions to him? >> look, i'm not willing to make any fundamental concessions. i told him in the beginning, and i spent over 78, i think they told me, hours with him so far. 67, 7 in person when i was vice president. president obama knew he couldn't spend time with the vice president of another country, so i traveled 17,000 miles with him in china and around the united

states. i met with him many times. i told him, i'm looking for competition, not conflict. so what i want to do with him, when we talk, is lay out what each of our red lines are, understand what he believes to be in the critical national interest of china, what i know to be the critical national interests of the united states and if they conflict with another, how to work it out. the taiwan doctrine has not changed from the very beginning. so i'm sure we'll discuss china -- excuse me, taiwan, and a number of issues including fair trade and relationships relating to his relationship with other countries in the region. and so at any rate, so there's a lot we will discuss.

do you have another question? >> you didn't say if you would tell xi jinping personally that you are committed to defending taiwan. >> i'm going to have that conversation with him. >> sorry, i have an unrelated question, too. mr. president, do you think elon musk is a threat to u.s. national security, and should the u.s. and with the tools you have, investigate his joint acquisition of twitter with foreign governments, which include the saudis? >> i think that elon musk's cooperation and/or technical relationships with other

countries is worthy of being looked at. whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate, i'm not suggesting that. i'm suggesting that it is worth being looked at. umm, and, umm, that's all i'll say. there's a lot of ways -- umm -- all right. umm, christian, christian welker. >> thank you so much, mr. president, i appreciate it. i want to follow up with you on working with republicans. leader mccarthy again suggested that he is not prepared to write what he's called a blank check to you, yet you expressed optimism that funding for ukraine would continue, that the policies toward ukraine would continue. why should the people of ukraine and this country have confidence this that, given the comments by

leader mccarthy? and just to follow up on your comments to zeke, you said you don't need to do anything differently. if republicans control the house, don't you need to recalibrate to some extent to work across the aisle with the republican white house? >> what i meant is i don't have to change any of the policies i've already passed. that's what they said they want to go after. so i have a pen that can veto, okay? so that's what i mean. i don't have to recalibrate whether or not i'm going to continue to, you know, fund the infrastructure bill or we're going to continue to fund the environment, et cetera. we have to -- i hope -- i think it's a growing pressure on the part of the american people, expecting both parties and all elements of both parties, to,

umm, to work out their substantive differences, and not just -- i'm not going to do that because i'm going to benefit that party. just making it personal. so i -- and, you know, it remains to be seen what the makeup of the house will be. umm, but, umm, i'm hopeful that kevin and i can work out how we will proceed with one another. >> will aid to ukraine continue uninterrupted? >> that's my expectation. and by the way, we've not given ukraine a blank check. there's a lot of things that ukraine wants and we didn't do. for example, i was asked very much whether we would provide american aircraft to guarantee the skies over ukraine. i said no, we're not going to do that. we're not going to get into a third world war, taking on russian aircraft and directly

engage. but will we provide them with all the rational ability to defend themselves? yes. we provided himars, kind of rockets that you can drop. one that goes over 600 miles and another that goes about 160 miles. we didn't give them the ones that go 600 miles because i don't want them to stop bombing russian territory. so we want to make sure that there's a relationship that they can defend themselves and take on what is truly a -- a, umm, the ugliest aggression that's occurred since world war ii on a massive scale on the part of putin within ukraine. and there's so much at stake. so i would be surprised if -- if leader mccarthy even has a majority of his republican colleagues who say they're not going to fund the legitimate defense of ukraine.

>> and obviously a lot of attention on 2024, now that the votes have been cast in the midterms. 2/3 of americans in exit polls say that they don't think you should run for re-election. what is your message for them and how does that factor into your final decision about whether or not to run for re-election? >> it doesn't. >> what is your message to the 2/3 of americans? >> watch me. >> one more. very quickly. [ inaudible ] >> governor desantis had a resounding victory in from last night. who is a more forbiddable opponent between ron desantis and donald trump? >> it will be fun watching them take on each other. >> mr. president, i wanted to follow up on something you said

earlier. when you said it remains to be seen whether the ukraine government is prepared to compromise with russia. previously, you've told us the only thing for the russians to do is get completely out of ukraine, go back to the lines that existed prior to february 24. are you suggesting that there's room for territorial compromise? >> that's up to the ukrainians. [ inaudible ] >> i didn't have any in mind. you asked whether or not, if i recall, whether or not what would happen if, in fact, after the -- this -- i think the context is that whether or not pulling back from fallujah, and -- i mean, from the -- the -- kherson, the city of kherson, and they're coming back across the liver to the eastern side of the river, the russian

forces. and i said what's going to happen is, tay're going to both lick their wounds and decide what they're going to do over the winter and whether or not they're going to compromise. that's going to happen. whether or not. i don't know what they're going to do. but we're not going to tell them what they have to do. >> you were asked before about a meeting with president xi. at this point, the chinese government, by the estimate of the pentagon, is getting ready to bring their forces with nuclear weapons to over 1,000 weapons, a significant increase from what they have had for many decades. you have seen the threats from president putin about the use of his nuclear weapons -- >> you remember when i said that was real? [ inaudible ] >> he backed off because of that? >> i just found it interesting that biden is being a -- biden is being an extremist, and it

turns out you all are writing about it now. kind of fascinating. >> my question is, do you think that they are -- [ inaudible ] -- and do you believe that you need to begin speaking with president xi about some form of arms control if he's going to get up to a level of weapons similar to the united states and russia? >> no and yes. no, i don't think there's a lot of respect that china has for russia or for putin. i don't think they look at that as a particular alliance. as a matter of fact, they've been sort of keeping their distance a little bit. i do think that -- it remains to be seen whether xi jinping has decided that -- or backed off of his initial judgment that he wanted ukraine -- excuse me, china to have the most powerful military in the world, as well as the largest economy.

but he's a long way from both. but i think talk about nuclear weapons and location and the number of them, and access is important to discuss. thank you all so very, very much. thank you very, very much. we'll do another -- we'll do another hour a little later. thank you so much. [ overlapping speakers ] >> joe biden there speaking for just under an hour in these traditional post election remarks, and he had plenty to say. you saw him joking around at the end. he said he would take ten questions. he took many more, and this is what he emphasized. democracy won yesterday. democrats led by him and the white house did as good as

they've done in a generation for these kind of midterms. he said republicans and the pundits were wrong. there was no red wave. the president was calm, even understated at times. but with his words and substance rather than his energy, he was clear on that point. he also shared a concern about the state of politics today, saying in addition to the great showing that he believes the democrats did, outperforming, as we still await the final calls in the house and senate. he said americans lose when we have this maga endless political war. he also reiterated he intends to run again. at one point, speaking about what this all means all together for america, he donned a little bit of ice cube energy and said yesterday was a good day for america. i want to bring back in our panelists who have been watching all of this and go right to jim messina. your thoughts on what we heard from joe biden, and something that went better for democrats than many people in washington were saying. >> a vindicated joe biden was

confident. he went right back to his sweet spot, i want to work across party lines and protect democracy, i want to go straight at it. it's where he loves to be. and i think republicans in the house will, you know, he can go there easier with them now in control if they do take the house. i thought it was interesting he started to lay out the lines of negotiations with kevin mccarthy. he went into detail about what he wouldn't do. he needed a long press conference, so he was having a little fun. you could tell they wanted to be very clear what they would and wouldn't do, and the negotiations started today just hours after the polls closed last night. i think he was clear on the re-election stuff, for two reasons. one, to make sure the party knew very clearly, this was his moment and he is their nominee, and two, to avoid the whole trump/desantis thing. >> the entire speech was a

humble brag. i thought that he did have a bit of swag, and what i heard, ari, is i heard -- when askeds what he running, he said yeah, i'm running. i was thinking, you can hate me now, but i won't stop now. that's really what he was saying by outlining the entirety of his agenda that he's been able to move. he started off saying like, look, we've done a lot of things and he walked through all of his accomplishments. then he laughed when someone suggested that donald trump still had power and strength. he just said yeah, okay, sure. so i thought that he did enough of a humble brag that he looked like himself. but i actually, watching and listening to him, feel like he does have the fervor to do it again. >> in the break, i don't know if you heard, jim messina said to me, he was feeling like it was, "made you look."

alisa? >> speaking of humble brags, i think we would make fantastic speech writers. >> we're not rappers, so i'm a little lost here. >> i think it was a reminder, especially with the global context about the fact we had spoken if election deniers had won across the board, that the world would be watching, that we would look like the feckless west, and all of the people who would like to see us done harm would take this election and this moment as an opportunity. and the fact that americans came to the polls, the fact that americans rejected the alternative reality, is a message not just to our fellow countrymen but to the world. >> well put. we heard some of those issues being brought up by some of the reporters. david, what about the way that the president pretty nicely, pretty calmly, but pretty frankly said, that town and the political press, right, the pundits, were wrong. this is your expertise. there you go again.

you were wrong. what did you think about that part that he did with respect, but pretty clearly? >> look, he had to claim victory last night. he had to frame what happened last night. he did so as a gracious president in this moment. there are a lot of issues that were covered today. it's important to getting back to letting the main thing be the main thing. let's talk about politics. joe biden has republicans on the ropes right now. and he cannot let up. he's a gracious man. he cannot let up. i promise you this, having been in a republican caucus with a democratic president, kevin mccarthy is not going to negotiate, he's not going to be kind or return the grace. the republican caucus is going to move to impeach joe biden and poison the well. >> what did you think about the president bringing that up himself? he tied the idea of a potential biden impeachment in the new republican house to the unpopular former president. >> look, the way that the biden administration -- republicans will impeach joe biden because

they can't counter him on the issues. the american people said we like the direction of joe biden and the democrats. so republicans can try to handicap the president by going after him with investigations. the way you flip the script is you hit republican credibility. this will be a witch hunt and they're going to move in that direction. i understand and appreciate joe biden's need to be kind. but i promise you, that kindness is not going to be returned by house republicans. don't be fooled by it. show strength in this moment. >> excellent. we got a lot of feedback from the panel. i want to thank you all. much more straight ahead. we have a new panel coming in, because we are now in the 5:00 hour here. special coverage. joe biden just completed his remarks, taking something of a victory lap, each as we are undecided in congress at this hour. our special coverage continues after this. our special coverage continues after this

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what in the next two years do you intend to do differently to change people's opinion of the direction of the country, particularly as you contemplate a run for president in 2024? >> nothing. our intention is to run again. that's been our intention. regardless of the outcome of this election. >> moments ago we were listening to joe biden. he addressed the nation. past incumbent administrations

have lost 50, 60 seats. biden faced a projected loss of around ten seats. for the republican predictions of a red wave, well, it wasn't to be. here's how "the times" put it. the gop wave became a ripple. the idea is hardline maga candidates did not know the way, and could not take the party home. "the times" goes on to say, america's basically leaving these midterms today as a fiercely divided country, anchored, unhappy enough with biden to embrace divided government, but up willing to turn to the grievance driven politics of trumpism. biden's domestic agenda and style held independents and moderates. trump basically was part of why republicans underperformed. trump and trumpism, as we have been discussing with our ex-p -- experts. he's an unpopular weight on the

republican party. he got fewer votes than clinton in 2016. independents are able to distinguish between individual candidates. they clocked the extremism of some of the candidates. as we go into the evening on the east coast, the senate races in nevada and arizona, too early too call. georgia, headed for a runoff. and there are many house races that are yet to be called. as we told you throughout this process, we will follow the numbers and do the counting as long as it takes. steve kornacki is standing by for us. it is worth noting, some of the historic results that we have from last night. maryland, electing the first black governor for that state in wes moore. massachusetts, the first-ever gay woman. in florida, electing a very

young person that the president just mentioned there. biden explained he had a call with this gen-z member of congress. and i want to get into it with a new panel. we are continuing now. we have someone who worked very recently for joe biden, former white house press secretary, general psaki. simone sanders townsend, and we're joined by former u.s. senator claire mccaskill and al sharpton, most of msnbc's "politics nation" who interviewed the president recently. jen, we heard a president you have worked for on what sounded like one of his happier days without gloating. what did you see was important? >> he certainly woke up happier this morning than he expected they would be waking up the morning after an election. what i saw in that press conference was, every time you have a press conference prep, you think about what you want to accomplish.

he's about to go on a foreign trip, so he will be out of the eye of the american public. he wanted to project strength and confidence in his agenda. what we can see from last night is that his agenda, the accomplishments of democrats, what their plan is on the economy, fighting against extremism worked. you saw him do that over and over again. two, he wanted to be clear, he's open to running for president. he's not made a final decision. he clearly did that. >> he sounded more than open. >> he's always been planning on it, but he hasn't made a final decision. he's willing to work with republicans. that's part of the biden brand. you heard him do that over and over again. the third thing, which was intentional, he laid down a demarcation point, on area where is he wanted to have some fight. those are coming up in the lame duck. there will be a battle in the lame duck about raising the debt limit, potentially about social security, and there are some trump corporate tax cuts that are expiring at the end of the

year that would be a good fight for democrats. it may come back after the trip and fight those fights. >> look, i think that you also heard from the president, someone who is -- i mean, let's just say he is involved in, and when i was talking to former colleagues at the white house yesterday, there were reports that the white house was bracing for a bad night. i asked him, are y'all bracing for a bad night? they told me they were not. i don't think anyone anticipated the kind of night that ended up happening. it was quite good. better than good. it was great actually. but you heard him particularly in that exchange being asked about running by kristen welker. she said the exit polls don't want -- 2/3 of americans don't want you to run for re-election. he said, watch me. i think that exchange is quite important, because now we've heard the pontiicaing from everybody. will joe biden, won't he? he's too old. this is a president that bucked national trends, he helped get

vaccines to america. when congress didn't act on criminal justice he form, he did. this is the president that negotiated bipartisan deals on infrastructure, bipartisan deals on guns. he's also the president that 20 people ran against him in the primary last go around, i was there, and he won, and the person that beat donald trump. >> talk your talk, they say. that's all fair, because it's based on the results. i want to bring in senator claire mccaskill. i wonder if you want to start with the point simone landed on, which is, ain't the first time joe biden has been counted out. not just by republicans, but the elite press, et cetera, in that primary he was left forgotten, came back. he seems to have some enduring ability to connect with independents and moderates. >> independents by and large did not break republican. and i think it's complicated.

i don't think it would have been fair to blame joe biden if it had been a blowout. just like i don't think it's totally fair to say it was all joe biden saving the day yesterday. i think it was more that in too many places, the republicans ended up, because of their internal fight that's going on, with really extreme candidates on the ballot. i think the election deniers, and we had election deiers nominated for governor across the country that lost. that's a lot for the republican party in the midterms of a first-term president of an opposite party. so i think the extremism, the election denial, all of the things, especially dobbs. i really think as much as it hurts me what the supreme court did, there's no question, as joe scarborough said this morning, somebody should send flowers to the federal society, and all those right-wing people that --

and mitch mcconnell who denied barack obama a supreme court justice, all those people that stacked the supreme court, because what they have done, they have really lit a fire under women in this country about their rights and their freedoms. and i think that was just as responsible for the democratic success yesterday than anything else we can talk about. >> i think the joe biden that we saw today was a joe biden that has made his own personal points. he was counted out many times. he's proven himself. i think he's really now concerned about where the country is going, and what his legacy will be as he leaves the country, whether he leaves in '24 or '28. i think he also did not want to do anything that would hurt the fact that we have a runoff going to be in georgia. he's mindful of that, and he's getting ready to have some serious foreign meetings. so he's governing and doing a

press conference at the same time. he's always been like that. i've known him for decades. he's always looking at the bigger picture and trying to fit it in. what we saw yesterday, i remember i was about 19 or 20. and muhammad ali fought george foreman in zaire, africa. >> rumble in the jungle. >> everybody was saying ali was too old, how is he going to fight this guy who just beat joe frazier. and ali fooled everybody, including his trainer. he laid on the ropes. >> the rope-a-done. >> i'll never forget when he came back, reverend, i got him with the rope-a-done. joe biden has done the rope-a dope on republicans. he laid back and let them swing themselves out. he didn't engage him and they punched out. the more they punched, the more people said herschel walker did

what? the more they punched, they said this guy, dr. oz, they exposed themself. a lot of what happened to them was self-inflicted. they punched themselves out, and joe biden then came in and started making his rounds when people said he wasn't going on the ropes, he did, he did at the right time and closed the deal and he roped some dope. >> you put the rumble in the jungle on the table. >> as i understand it, there was also an upswell in the country for ali. other people were counting him out, but they wanted him to win. so it was this idea of the narrative and the message can count you out, but do you have the people with you? do you see here with the

democratic party, there's actually a larger support than i think is registered what we might call the narration of these elections. you keep talk about go to an ohio diner. election deniers exist, but they're not the majority. >> and in many ways, they scare the majority. even people that would maybe say i don't know if i agree with that, that, or the other, they do not want at all to go with the bizarre stuff that we are hearing from the other side. the republicans had given us more, let's say stable and more secure minded candidates, we might have had a different situation. but they let donald trump take the party and appoint people that would bow to him. the only qualifications oz and herschel and them had is they were the ones that would bow to him. he says j.d. vance, kiss my a. this is how they screen their

candidates. how can you win with that unless you totally underestimate the intelligence of the american people? >> i think multiple things too, are true at the same time. it is true that congressional democrats and the president gave democrats an agenda to run on. there was an infrastructure bill. we talk about gun policy. there were things that happened on the congressional level and in washington, that emboldened things out in the field. it is also true that republicans put up bad candidates. but it's not enough to just put up bad candidates and hope that democrats are going to come out. so we talked for a long time about the enthusiasm gap and people didn't seem enthused by democrat candidates. when i was out talking to people, i saw that people were actually fired up. they were enthused. dobbs was a key part of it. young people were fired up. young people swung this for democrats across the board. whether we're talking about philadelphia, whether we're

talking about colleges in michigan, young people in georgia. definitely young people came out in wisconsin. that is a story that people miss. they said young people weren't going to turn out. >> young people, white, young people under 30 voted for democrats. that is a remarkable thing. because white people over 30 do not always vote for democrats. and obviously a lot of people voted for democrats. >> i think young people of color, too. >> i'm saying that a white person who is 43, the fact that white people under 30 voted for democrats is a good sign for the party, because that's not the direction over 30. >> you don't have to say your age. >> there was a story coming into last night, ari, about how the latino vote was moving towards republicans. that did not play out. >> in miami. >> in miami-dade, yes, that flipped. that is something we'll have to talk about, but it was a massive flip there. but in other states around the country, nevada, arizona, new

mexico, california. latinos, young latinos voted for democrats. that is a huge, growing, powerful population and a good sign for the party moving forward. >> listen, catherine cortez masto's campaign reached out to me and said please remember that are polling shows we are getting 67% of the latino vote in nevada. that's a huge margin for anybody in a state like nevada. so i do think that this has been overamped, this switching. and did you see what happened on the border in texas? we were supposed to get wiped out along the border in texas, because all the latino votes were going to the other side. that didn't happen. i think we won two out of three on the border. so i do think that we need to be mindful that just as we made many mistakes in the black

community, assuming it's monolithic, i think democrats, some democratic operatives who are making mistakes, assuming that the latino company was monolithic, and it's not. and what really hurt in florida, let's just put it out there, the big "s" world, socialism. a lot of those immigrants came from countries because they wanted to get away from socialism. they came from countries where socialism was the norm. and they thought it stunk. and they came to america to get away from it. so when they word started getting used by the republicans, there was just enough there. that's really -- that had more to do with what happened with the latino population in miami-dade than any rejection of the democratic party. >> there's no democratic party infrastructure in miami-dade. we talked about this this

morning, talking about the fact that black men and latino men have, for long not been viewed as a persuadable voter. democratic and republican campaigns weren't targeting them. that's started to happen. >> they have to address that. i think that we went right and addressed about black men, latino men. and the fact that don't underestimate, but they had oral arguments about affirmative action, which a lot of people were saying i wouldn't be in school without this. and this court that voted against women's rights are going to decide affirmative action. there was a lot of substantive things that raised enthusiasm to a high level. in the era that we're in, with donald trump and joe biden, bernie sanders, liz warren, i still feel like i'm a youth director. i'm way younger. miles to go.

>> amen, miles to go. just so people know, i was lucky enough to be at a birthday celebration for you. so i saw you dance. >> yeah. >> and it was like -- >> it was good? >> it was like he was 20. >> he couldn't keep up. >> that's a fact. so we went from miami-dade and back to zaire and back. we have steve kornacki coming in next. it might be a local state, and there's going to be less dancing. so we've got a lot to get to with steve kornacki, back in the building. a quick break. kornacki at the big board when we return. also, the big winners in the statewide race in a presidential battleground state as we look at that. and more to come as this special election coverage with our panel. we'll be right back with steve. . we'll be right back with steve moderate to severe eczema still disrupts my skin. despite treatment it disrupts my skin with itch. it disrupts my skin with rash.

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while the press and the pundits are predicting a giant red wave, it didn't happen. and i know you were somewhat miffed by my -- my, umm, optimism. but i felt good during the whole process. i thought we were going to do fine. any seat loss is painful, some good democrats didn't win last night. democrats had a strong night, and we lost fewer seats in the house of representatives than any democratic president's first midterm election in the last 40

years. that sent a clear message that they want to preserve our democracy and protect the right to choose in this country. >> joe biden just moments ago as he walked through one of the best results in a generation. he also spoke about the supreme court gutting roe, what's going on? back to the big board with one of the most celebrated and sleep deprived individuals, our friend and colleague steve kornacki. steve, walk us through what you are seeing at this hour here. we are about -- going 24 hours when polls were closing last night. >> you tell me what time it is. let's take a look here at the battle for the senate. georgia is heading to a runoff on december 6. the question is, is that december 6th runoff in georgia going to be for all the marbles? is it going to be for control of the senate or decided before then? right now, democrats have put

the gain on the board in pennsylvania. georgia is going to a runoff. but can republicans win one of these two? nevada or arizona? if republicans can one one of these two, that would offset the loss they suffered in pennsylvania, and that would mean senate control comes down to the december 6th runoff in georgia. if the democrats can go 2 for 2 in arizona and nevada, then that's ball game as far as senate control goes. the democrats would retain the senate because of that. so let's take a look inside arizona and nevada. what do they look like and what are we waiting on? here is the senate race in arizona right now. you see a lead there of about just over 80,000 votes for the democratic incumbent, mark kelly. that's come down by about 25,000 today, one of the big things that's happened in the last hour or so is the pima county, where tucson is, the second largest county in the state, released a big batch of the same-day vote.

the most republican friendly vote. so that sliced into that advantage that kelly had. what we are waiting on is roughly 8:00 p.m. eastern tonight. so i'm looking at the clock now. about 2:15 from now. we expect to get a big update from the biggest county in the state, maricopa county. this is phoenix, the phoenix metro area. this is 60% of the vote in the state. they are sitting on a total of over 400,000 uncounted ballots or unreleased votes in maricopa county. basically, the process is, what will be released tonight are ballots they received friday -- see if i can write this -- saturday, and sunday. and there may be a few from monday. in other words, these were early votes that came in over the weekend before the election. the total, if you include the monday in these, the total is about 135,000 ballots fall into that category.

they came in over the weekend or on monday. the expectation is not that they will release all 135,000 tonight. but a big chunk of that, i think we are expecting at 8:00 tonight. again, that early vote tends to be more democratic than republican. so what democrats are hoping for is that this batch of votes that gets released tonight helps kelly pad his lead in the senate race and for that matter, helps him in the governor's race, as well. the governor's race is much closer than the senate race. kari lake is within 10,000 votes of taking the lead. so that's the first thing that will happen tonight. we'll get a big chunk of those votes, stuff that came in over the weekend. there will still be some of that left that will come out tomorrow on thursday, but what could be where this lands is, 275,000 votes, 275,000 ballots that were brought in by person on election

day, and there is a question here, are those going to be more republican or more democratic? you can get a good theory from either party which it is. because, for instance, in 2020, they were more republican. donald trump, on the strength of those ballots that were delivered in person in arizona on election day 2020, nearly erased a big lead that joe biden enjoyed all week, brought it down to inside 10,000 votes. in 2018, it was on the strength of those ballots that came in on election day that kyrsten sinema won the senate race. >> we're hearing for the first time since the president spoke, one of the things he said just in the last hour, he referred to this record turnout. a lot of folks are pointing out that this was very helpful to democrats. i'm just curious if you have any response to that, given all the numbers you have been sifting, what can you tell us now with a

little bit of time about the turnout that we saw yesterday. >> we're just in a whole different universe here in terms of interest in these elections. to have this kind of turnout, let me show you maricopa county. if you look at arizona, the total vote cast here, this is only three quarters of the vote. we're seeing it's not at the level of a presidential -- of the 2020 presidential election. but we're seeing turnout in this midterm election at the level of what presidential elections used to get. >> amazing. steve, we will stay on with you. we have the special again tonight, it's not a normal night in america or on msnbc. a lot more steve kornacki at the big board coming up. our panel is here. i want to bring in claire mccaskill. we all use precedent. people in government, a lawyer like yourself, there's a reason for that. we also use it to make sense of the world. do you see some of the precedent

is about how many people turn out and how active participation is in american democracy fundamentally changing, or is this an aberration that will pull back? >> turnout midterms is about -- in every election is about emotion. there typically is more emotion around a presidential election because of the presidential race. but what we have this time, we have had a couple of things that have changed that. one is the anti-trump emotion within the democratic party, the dobbs decision, and that felt visceral to women in america. it felt -- it wasn't a piece of paper that had writing on it. it was life changing in terms of the way that they viewed that decision. those are the things that are making it very, very -- i think the shootings in schools. i think there are a number of things that have happened that have kept motivation on the

democratic side, even when we control the house, the senate, and the white house. because typically, the reason midterms are bad after the first two years of a president's term is people just reflexively want change. we want something different. it's a little more complicated now. and, you know, it is fascinating to me that we have this situation, and i want to hit this point quickly. they tried to set the table and claim fraud for nevada or arizona, but they have this problem now. because if the votes that come in after election day in nevada help the republicans, then they're not crooked. but then they will try to say the votes that come in after election day in nevada are no good. so they really -- not that the consistency has been their mainstay in the election denier

world, but they have a real problem, because they have two separate situations in the two states we're waiting for now. >> we're going to bring in one of our elected officials, michigan secretary of state joslyn benson winning re-election last night. thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me. it was, indeed, a great day for democracy. >> let's start with your race, because people have heard about this in many states. a typical secretary of state contest is within certain boundaries, i think it's fair to say. but these have been different for the reasons claire mccaskill was just mentioning. how did that, in your view, play out in your race? and the leading question, as it were, why did you win? >> well, our campaign really brought and built a broad-based coalition of support. we earned support from republicans, independents, and democrats. we tried to make the case that democracy needs to work for

everyone, no matter who you vote for. that's what voters in michigan responded to. i think what we have seen is, what we have learned, is it's important that pro democracy messaging not be caught up in partisanship, just making sure that government and elections work for everyone. that's what people responded to in our race. >> if a candidate is running and lying about the past election, what does that tell the voters and the citizens in your view? >> it makes them question whether they will stand and defend the will of the people in future elections. if someone has shown they will not defend it, they can't be counted on in the future. voters again really correspondented to when they ne in the future. and voters respond to that and want someone who's going to tell them the truth and fight for their voice, their vote regardless of what any election might be in. >> and broadening out michigan's a key state, the president just

spoke today. he said no great red wave. he said he's prepared to work with republicans in the house, but people have to come to him. you can really claim this is a bit as a mantel. what do you think of that message, does it resonate with you and does it have its conservative if not full maga. >> people want civility. they want people going to work across the aisle and deliver results. here in michigan as we've seen our control of state legislature and state senate flipped i think it's really important we promote civility, work together, develop data driven solutions that work for everyone. that's what people have shown with their votes in our state. >> michigan secretary of state here. thank you so much. and we wanted to bring that in

and then bring back in our panel. we've been having a conversation all related to the election deniers. and claire makes a point that if i may characterize it intramural different in the democratic party. you, you're independent now but you've been affiliate would the president for some time. claire is raising the fact had there not been so many right-wing types it might not have been as good a night for the democrats, so it's not all biden. so it's a smaller point. >> i don't think it's all president biden. i was trying to say one of my take-aways is the agenda the democrats worked to pass to lower costs, fight for lower prescription drugs, do something on climate, for a woman's right to choose works. i was in the white house in 2010 when the shellacking occurred as we can all remember, and that was a reaction to the affordable care act, which was the right thing for the country. but the people who lost, lost

for the most part because they voted for the president's agenda. this was different. so this was different from that. it was more like in some ways 2002 when president bush was in office. the country rallied around him post-9/11. there wasn't a lot of seats won back by the opposing power for a lot of reasons. trump was the reason here. a lot of these candidates ran ahead of biden. there's lessons you can take how they ran their races if he doesn't or if there's another democratic nominee. john fetterman his authentic self, wearing his hoodie he went around the state and went to every county. you have to run everywhere. there's a lot of positive take-aways even as democrats have to grapple about what do you do with florida? >> should more candidates do the hoodie, shorts combo which popular among some dads but not

widely endorsed. >> exactly. i think it works for jon fetterman, but had jon fetterman been a dark skinned black man wouldn't have been but it wassa thaintic. >> just as we saw in the obama era you're pointing out the standards of what's accepted and how different you can be. >> as we look at what happened last night and again there's so much we do not know as the big bard and kornacki continues to tell us, i think race is going to be a big part of the conversation we have. what role did place play in some of these elections, what is the aapi vote. i also think there's something to be said and you mention the polls about conventional wisdom. since 2016 there's been 22 million voters introduced into the electorate. everyone doesn't vote. you've still got to get people out to vote, to register.

and the expansion of the electorate in georgia, the expansion of the electorate in texas, it cannot be overstated how important that was to the fact warnock is in a runoff right now, frankly to the fact he's elected in the first place. and in georgia that work was due to stacey abrams. >> you're right. what i mention about the polls if you watch "the beat" which is normally on at 6:00 i don't cover a lot of these pom polls because i don't think they ada lot of facts for voters these days. a lot of those predictions, those turnout models have proved inaccurate. >> the model is really outdated. pennsylvania, georgia, ohio, and there are a whole lot of new voters that are turned out that are not being poll. and i think it would not be an ossoff or a warnock if it hadn't

been for stacey abrams and the work she did from four years ago forward. let's be clear it's the work on the ground, it's the roots not the fruits that you've got to give credit to. but i also think that claire's point is right about how people began to say, wait a minute, i don't know if i agree on all things policy but i don't want to be that. because we've never had a mid-term where we've seen an insurrection in the u.s. capitol building where they tried to stop the certifying of an election. and a week before the election the speaker of the house home broke in and her husband beat with a hammer and republican candidates joking about that. >> minimizing it. >> so i mean we had a whole lot of reasons. i mean people would say, wait a minute, i don't know reverend al if i agree with what the democrats are saying but i'm not like that. joking about an 82-year-old being hit in the head in the hammer is a joke?

i think a lot of that drove a lot of people to say we've got to come back within the borders, which sets up -- and i'll close on this. i think when you say it's not about president biden, i think it was a lot of issues, but biden if he had been a different person, if he did not know how to be tough and at the same time conciliatory, a different president could have tipped it another way. it was also because of joe biden. >> that's the nuance of the conversation we're having as we count the votes. i want to thank you for joining us for our special coverage. my colleague joy reid picks it up as we all take turns right after this break. up as we all take turns right after this break but shingrix protects. proven over 90% effective, shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness and swelling at the injection site,

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