i loved him and would've done a lot of things for him. >> so you are kind of a victim here? >> i don't like to call myself a victim. by your definition, you have. >> there's one person who's clearly a victim, vern holbrook, built a successful business and loved his role at the center of a happy family. did he trust too much? should have known what might be coming? baby. those are tough question to answer because the truth is, no one wants to believe your business partner would betray you. after all, the idea is they are just like family. just like family. ♪♪ ♪♪ this sunday, return to ♪♪ this sunday, return to power. >> look what happened?

is this crazy? >> and i think that we just witnessed the greatest political comeback in the history of the united states of america. in a decisive victory, donald trump is elected the 47th president of the united states returning to the white house after an extraordinary political comeback. >> this will truly be the golden age of america. >> how will he lead in a second term? plus, defeated. >> the outcome of this election is not what we wanted. >> vice president kamala harris faces a stunning loss from voters deeply upset with the direction of the country. >> while i concede this election, i do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign. >> defeat does not mean we are defeated. we lost this battle. >> what lessons will democrats take from their loss? and majority rule.

republicans regain control of the senate and fight to keep their majority in the house. how will the gop implement trump's agenda on capitol hill? my guests this morning, republican senator john barrasso of wyoming and independent senator bernie sanders of vermont. joining me for insight and analysis are nbc news senior capitol hill correspondent garrett haake, amy walter, editor in chief of the cooke political report and ramesh ponnuru of national review, and maria teresa kumar, president of voto latino. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press". >> from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with kristen welker. >> good sunday morning, president elect donald trump is now returning to the white house after an historic political realignment. mr. trump swept all seven battleground states after nbc news projected overnight that he won arizona.

he also tore down the democratic blue wall, and is poised to become the first republican in two decades to win the national popular vote. president-elect trump charged with plotting to overturn the last election, now establishing himself as a transformational political force, reshaping american politics in his own image. >> we made history for a reason tonight, and the reason is going to be just that. we overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible. >> i think we just witnessed the greatest political comeback in the history of the united states of america. >> this decisive victory should shake the democrat establishment to its core. >> this is a new dawn of republican leadership where president trump and j.d. vance in the white house we are going to advance an agenda that is an american agenda. >> we will have the most aggressive first hundred days' agenda that anybody's seen in the modern era.

>> those are seen with popular frustrations with exit polls showing three-quarters of voters angry or dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country. more than half of voters saying they strongly disapprove of president biden saying they've gotten worse off in the current administration and the highest ever in exit polls asking the question, surpassing the great recession. vice president kamala harris conceding defeat. >> look, i am so proud of the race we ran and the way we ran it. now, i know folks are feeling and experiencing a range of emotions right now. i get it. but we must accept the results of this election. >> democrats now grappling with their stunning loss and trying to figure out what went wrong. >> had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race. kamala, i think, still would have won, but she may have been

stronger having taken her case to the public sooner. >> i think people never got to know kamala harris during the time she was in this campaign. >> if the goal is to win elections on twitter, then you should embrace movements like defund the police, but if the goal is to win elections in the real world where it matters, then you have to appeal to working class people of color. >> the party itself has increasingly become a smarty pants suburban, college-educated party. >> i take issue sometimes with people saying, oh, the quote, unquote left is the reason why this is happening. the ultimate problem is our ability to clearly and forthrightly advocate for an agenda that clearly champions the working class. >> joe biden's decision to run for president again was a catastrophic mistake. >> we can all unite and admit

joe biden deserves blame for what we're in. >> with the republican senate majority and presidential power expanded by the supreme court. at this hour, control of the house remains up for grabs with the 19 races still uncalled. on the campaign trail, mr. trump made many promises to voters. >> on day one, i will launch the largest deportation program of criminals in the history of america. if these companies don't make their products here in the usa, then they will be forced to pay a stiff tariff. and i will cut your energy prices in half within 12 months. for people that are using ivf, which is fertilization, the government is going to pay for it, or we will mandate your insurance company to pay for it. we will cut your taxes and inflation, slash your prices, raise your wages and bring

thousands and thousands of factories back to america. >> president biden has invited president-elect trump to the white house on wednesday, a longstanding tradition trump didn't extend to president biden in 2020. i spoke to the president-elect on the phone 48 hours after his victory, and asked him what he believe his mandate is. he told me it's to bring common sense back to the country. as for day one, he told me, i think we have a lot of firsts and brought up strengthening the border. i pressed him on the price tag of his mass deportation plan which experts say could be in the billions. he told me, quote, it's not a question of price tag. really, we have no choice. when people have killed and murdered, they're not staying here. there is no price tag. for more on all of this, i am joined by national political correspondent steve kornacki. steve, historic results. break it down for us. >> yeah, well, kristen, you said it, not just donald trump winning the election, but winning the popular vote.

first time in two decades for a republican and how did he do it? he did it by transforming the republican party. it is now more diverse than its ever been in modern times and certainly much more than when donald trump first came on the scene eight years ago. a lot of ways to look at this. how about this? when it said pre-trump, that's the last presidential election before donald trump started running. you got have to go back to 2012 for that. remember three straight elections and pre-trump voters under 30 were going for the democrats by 23 points. folks with incomes under 50,000, 22 points for the democrats, and folks without college degrees, four points for the democrats and that's pre-trump. what comes out of this election? look at these shifts. the youth vote, the democratic margin cut more than in half. voters under 50,000 now a republican constituency and voters without a college degree and look at that shift, now a core republican constituency and then we can talk about race, ethnicity and this gets into

that diversity i mentioned a minute ago. check this out. pre-trump versus now. the black vote still overwhelmingly democratic, but that's a 15-point shift that used to be 87 points for the democrats, down to 72. how about this? you heard a lot about it this week. this is what the numbers look like. hispanic voters were 44 points democratic before donald trump, now basically a toss-up constituency and asian-americans, a 32-point shift there, as well. that's what's happened to the republican party since donald trump became a standard bearer eight years ago. this has been the movement and, meanwhile, for the democratic party the story is the opposite. pre-trump versus now. check out some of these movements. among white voters, this was a 20-point republican constituency before trump, still a republican constituency and less so and white voters are such a massive share of the electorate and that four-point shift very meaningful. again, college-educated voters now a core democratic constituency.

folks earning more than $100,000 used to be republican constituency and now a democratic constituency and this gets to, we talk all about the battlegrounds. trump swept the battlegrounds, week has to do with the popular vote and how trump pulled that off, here's one answer. big, blue state with diverse populations and this new coalition that donald trump's assembled, it meant he didn't win any of these, but he made giant strides. california, the biggest of them all, 29-point biden win four years ago and currently only 18 for harris, her home state. look at new york, trump cutting that democratic margin in half. go down this list and look inside those states and you will see it. blue collar areas, cities metro areas with large, hispanic populations and that's where trump made his big gains there. we'll land on this one map, one battleground state i think that tells the story of these two coalitions here visually. let's call up wisconsin. we know in this election went wisconsin with donald trump.

you are looking at a pre-trump election, because i want to show you, this is what a battleground state like wisconsin looked like not that long ago. when barack obama ran and carried the state over john mccain. look at all of the blue here. so many were small, counties with blue collar populations. barack obama could sweep almost all of these counties. take a look at this map and i'll recall what just happened this week. all of that blue has become look at all that red. all of those blue collar areas with donald trump as the republican leader has moved this dramatically to the republicans and it's left the democrats relying more than ever on areas like madison, wisconsin, milwaukee county, areas that have large populations of voters with college degrees, of higher income voters, of progressive voters, and in this election, kristen, it just wasn't enough for the democrats to lean on that when they lost so much ground with blue collar voters elsewhere. >> steve, it is just striking to look at that map of wisconsin

and, frankly, all of the results that you laid out. now, look, the results are in. they're not going to change. it is worth noting there is still counting going on. >> yeah. i mean, if you remember from 2020, it took about a month until we got all of the national popular vote and let me just show you, nationally here, one thing we're waiting on big. we know california is a harris state, but as i said, still votes to come. 75% are in. that means there are millions more votes just from california and there are other states like this, and a lot of it has to do with the vote by mail. those ballots taking a long time for some of these states, so when you look at where the current popular vote stands, you got there, probably another 10 million or so, when all was said and done, will be added to this. this will be the story for a while in states like california. they take a very long time. >> steve kornacki, we know you'll continue to stay on top of every vote. thank you so much. >> you got it. joining me now is the senate

republican conference chair john barrasso of wyoming poised to be the next republican whip. senator barrasso, welcome back to "meet the press." >> great to be back. what you saw there was the biggest in the country. they used to call bill clinton the comeback kid. donald trump is the comeback king. he's come back from two impeachments, from being dragged through the courts, from getting shot, and he won with 300 electoral votes, a majority of the people winning all of these demographic areas and, you know, he brought us four new republican senators. we now have 53 republican senators. what that proves is america, the people of this country voted. they want to get this country back on track. >> we should note nbc news still hasn't called arizona or pennsylvania, but let's talk about the earthquake because republicans do control the senate, senator. so talk to me about how you see this?

how do you think and what do you think the senate republican mandate is? >> well, the mandate are the two things that people care the most about which is the high cost and the open border, and those are the things we're going to start working on immediately. we've been working with a transition team on those things. there are some things that the president can do as soon as he takes office in terms of making some u-turns on these bad policies of the current administration in terms of unleashing american energy, in terms of the policies with the border, reversing so many of these executive orders that were put in place four years ago. i expect to see the president put back in place the remain in mexico policy. stop this catch and release policy. and the senate also wants to work very quickly, actually, before the inauguration on making sure the president's cabinet is in place. we will have hearings and votes so that on day one, january 20th, when the president takes over, he'll have as much of the cabinet in place as we can get

and he met huge resistance in 2016 when he was inaugurated in 2017 with getting his cabinet in place. what i am hoping is as a result of this huge landslide victory that we get a little more cooperation from the democrats and helping president trump get that cabinet in place for day one. >> senator, let's talk about some of those priorities that you mapped out and let's talk about the border. i had the opportunity to talk to president-elect trump this week about his win. he said at the top of the list, securing the border. i asked him for details, what's the price tag? he said, quote, it's not a question of a price tag. we have no choice. there is no price tag. ultimately, congress will have to decide whether to give president-elect trump a blank check. do you agree that there is no price tag for donald trump's mass deportation plan? >> i agree there's no price tag on protecting the safety and security of our country and our citizens. president trump is going to enforce the law, and we haven't

had that over the last four years. there are over 10 million illegal immigrants in this country right now and we're talking from people who are from criminal cartels, drug dealers and people on the terrorist watch list and people in the country that have been murdering, raping, poisoning our citizens, and what the president said is he wants to prioritize and go after those people first to deport those individuals. kristen, if you take a look, you didn't get here with the poll numbers and the number of people who support deporting these individuals it's the super majority of the people and it had to do with the president's overwhelming success at the polls last tuesday. >> worth noting, not all 10 million are criminals and let me drill down with you because some estimates, that mass deportation plan can cost as much as $88 billion a year just to deport one million people, senator. would you approve of a package that big which would undoubtedly

add to the national debt? >> i agree with the president with where we need to start. we need to start with the people who are felons who have been left in this country. people who are on the terrorist watch list. people who have been convicted in other countries of murder and rape. people committing crimes in this country. that is the place to start and that is where president trump is about to start. >> all right. let's talk about president-elect trump's other priorities. taxes. he's promised a lot of tax cuts. we have a list of some of them here. let's take a look. extending the 2017 tax cuts, further slashing the corporate rate, and lifting the cap on deductions for state and local taxes, and eliminating taxes on tips and overtime and social security benefits and so on. the estimated price of this to the tune of $9 trillion. do you believe that president-elect trump will be able to deliver on all of those tax cuts, senator? >> we've been working with the

transition team and in the hope that we took the presidency, the house and the senate, members have been meeting on the finance committee, we have been meeting through the summer and the fall in terms of saying what can we do? how can we make sure we can continue these tax cuts from 2017 and extend them and make them permanent? what sort of things can we claw back from some of the excessive spending that the democrats have done in terms it money that is going out or hasn't gone out yet. so we've been working all of the way through and we'll continue to do that, and as you know, this is something that we will do through reconciliation and we have to pass a budget, but we've been working with lindsey graham. he'll be chairman of the budget committee in the senate to make sure we can accomplish as much as we possibly can to give the tax relief that the american people deserve, need. and we know that with all of this massive spending by the last administration that gave us this inflation that hurt the country so much.

>> okay. so let me ask you that because again, the estimate is all those tax cuts could cost about $9 trillion and could add that much to the national debt. would you approve that? $9 trillion? >> what we know is when we cut taxes last time, the amount of money coming into the treasury actually went up. it stimulated the economy. less burden on businesses, less burden on families and individuals. what we also know is that government spending went up more. our problem is not that we are taxed too little. it's that as a nation, we spend too much. the government is too big. we spend too much, and i think that's a message coming out of this election. >> just to be clear though, you are saying, yes, you are okay adding to the national debt? just to be very clear? >> what i'm saying is we have to take a look at the spending. that's the problem. when we cut taxes in 2017 revenue, money coming into the

treasury actually went up, but we ended up spending more than we brought in. so that's the problem. it's not that we're taxed too little. it's that we continue to spend too much. the government is too big, it does too much, and we need to take a look at what we can do to make sure the american people have what they need. >> senator, you said earlier in this interview that you are determined to move quickly to confirm president-elect trump's cabinet picks. you are a doctor and a believer in vaccines. how would you feel about robert f. kennedy, jr., who is an outspoken vaccine skeptic, would you support that? >> since president trump hasn't made any nominations along those lines, i'm not going to comment on any one individual. what i will tell you is i expect the president to make bold decisions. he has to come up with 1200 different appointees who get confirmed by the united states senate. the senate will be ready to look

at every nominee that he makes and he's made one decision already and that's putting susie wiles in as the first chief of staff woman in history. she is terrific. i can tell you, there are lots and lots of very qualified individuals who want to be considered for cabinet posts and other posts in government and the senate is ready to take a look at every one of them and i'm not going to comment on any specific potential nominee this morning. >> we are almost out of time and one of the important positions is attorney general. we saw the tension between president trump and his attorney general during his first administration. do you think it's important to preserve the independence that's traditionally existed between the white house and the justice department, senator? >> i think john kennedy appointed his little brother bobby as attorney general. the president gets to choose who he wants. we'll have hearings on whoever the president appoints as

attorney general of the united states, and i'm looking forward to those discussions and those hearings, and i'm looking forward to moving quickly with the majority that we have in the senate to get the president's cabinet in place so he can hit the ground running come january 20th. >> of course, there is a leadership race this week in the senate. so we'll be watching that closely. great to have your voice and your perspective on this sunday. senator barrasso, thank you so much. >> thank you. and when we come back, senator bernie sanders joins me next.

switch to shopify and sell smarter at every stage of your business. take full control of your brand with your own custom store. scale faster with tools that let you manage every sale from every channel. and sell more with the best converting checkout on the planet. a lot more. take your business to the next stage when you switch to shopify.

let's go boys. the way that i approach work, post fatherhood, has really been trying to understand the generation

that we're building devices for. here in the comcast family, we're building an integrated in-home wifi solution for millions of families, like my own. connectivity is a big part of my boys' lives. it brings people together in meaningful ways. ♪ ♪ senator bernie sanders issued a scathing welcome back. senator bernie sanders issued a scathing statement after the vice president's loss in what he called a disastrous campaign saying, quote, it should come as no great surprise that a democratic party which has abandoned working-class people would find that the working class has abandoned them. and independent senator bernie

sanders of vermont joins me now. senator sanders, welcome back to "meet the press." thank you for having me. >> thank you for being here on this sunday after election day. let's start right there. your criticism incredibly direct. you say you think the democratic party has, quote, abandoned the working class. how exactly do you think democrats have abandoned the working class, senator? >> look, the working people of this country are extremely angry. they have a right to be angry in the richest country in the history of the world, today, the people on top are doing phenomenally well, while 60% of americans are living paycheck to paycheck, and millions of families worry that their kids are actually going to have a lower standard of living than they do. you've got the top 1% owning more wealth than the bottom 90%. we're the only major country not to guarantee health care to all

of our people. 25% of our seniors are trying to live on $15,000 a year or less. we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on earth, and the gap between the people on top and everybody else is getting wider and wider, and then, kristen, on top of all of that, we have a corrupt campaign finance system which allows billionaires to buy elections. so if you're an average worker out there and you're saying, hey, i'm working longer and longer hours, going nowhere in a hurry, worried about my kids and yet the people on top have never had it so good. where is the democratic party? are they prepared to stand up to these powerful corporate interests, raise the minimum wage, fight for health care for all people? make sure that all of our kids get the quality education that they need, expand social security, are they prepared to do those things? that's the issue that we have to address. >> as you know, your statement

was met with some sharp reaction, as well. this is what speaker nancy pelosi had to say. take a listen. i'll take your reaction on the other side. >> bernie sanders has not won. with all due respect and i have a great deal of respect for him for what he stands for, but i don't respect him saying that the democratic party has abandoned the working-class families. >> senator, how do you respond to nancy pelosi? >> nancy is a friend of mine and we've worked together on many issues, but here is the reality i have to say to nancy. in the senate in the last two years, we have not even brought forth legislation to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, despite the fact that some 20 million people in this country are working for less than $15 an hour. in america today, we have not brought -- in the senate, we have not brought to the floor the pro act to make it easier for workers to join unions. we're not talking about defined benefit pension plans so that our elderly can retire with security.

we're not talking about lifting the cap on social security so that we can extend the solvency of social security and raise benefits. bottom line, if you're an average working person out there, do you really think that the democratic party is going to the max, taking on powerful special interests and fighting for you? i think the overwhelming answer is no, and that is what has got to change. >> senator, let me zoom out and just ask you about these results. you've heard some of the reaction throughout the democratic party. how much do you personally blame president biden for this loss? >> president biden, when he came into office, said that he would be the most progressive president since fdr, and i think on domestic issues, not foreign policy, on domestic issues, he has kept his word and the agenda that he has pushed through has been an extraordinarily strong one, but that agenda has got to be placed within the overall context of american society

today, and that american society today is one in which tens of millions of working families and elderly people are struggling while the people on top have never had it so good. >> senator, should he have gotten out of the race more quickly as some are arguing? >> i'm not going to -- i supported him because i think his agenda was a strong agenda, a working-class agenda. i'm not going to look back. kamala ran a strong campaign. she did everything that she could. she decisively won the debate, so to me, it's not just about the campaign. it's about what does the democratic party stand for? do ordinary people say, yeah, that is a party that is fighting for my interest and prepared to take on the big money interests who control the economic and political life of the country? that's to me what the issue is. >> we are talking a lot about the economics. you talked about how the democratic party is out of touch when it comes to economic issues. some democrats are saying it's not just the economic issues. it's cultural issues, as well.

here's what democratic strategist james carville had to say. take a look. >> what killed the democrats, and what killed biden was a sense of disorder, and part of the sense of disorder was the unfortunate events of what i would refer to as the woke era. >> has the democratic party's focus on identity politics gone too far, senator? >> let me answer it this way. i think you -- if the -- the democratic party must continue to stand up against all forms of bigotry, and democrats should hold their head high in saying we lead the fight for women's rights and to protect the woman's constitutional right for abortion. we led the fight for civil rights and gay rights. this is something we should be proud of, but it's not either/or, kristen. this is the problem. you can do both.

you can say i'm for raising the minimum wage to a living wage, guarantee health care for all people, expanding social security and, by the way, i also support a woman's right to control her own body, et cetera. it's not either/or. it's going forward in both directions. >> you know, i've been speaking to some democrats who are concerned because now president-elect trump has beaten two women candidates and their concern is that it will make it more difficult to nominate a woman candidate in the future. do you share that concern, senator? >> no, i don't. i think it's not a question -- look, i'm not going to deny that there is sexism in this country, there's racism and homophobia. it's there. but on the other hand, i think what the american people want to support, whether it's a woman, a man, a black or a white or latino, whatever, is they want to support somebody who is standing up, kristen, and

fighting for them, people are in pain. people are hurting and they can't afford to go to a doctor. they can't afford to send their kids to child care or to college. they're worried about future generations and what kind of standard of living they will have. here is the bottom line, and it has to be dealt with. you got an economy today doing phenomenally well for the people on top. it is not working for the working class, all right? how do we address those issues? and in the richest country in the history of the world create an economy that works for all. that is the issue. by the way, what trump did in this election is to say i know you are hurting and the reason is they've got millions of people coming across the border illegally, they're eating your dogs, they're eating your cats and he gave an explanation, it was a crazy explanation and that will not raise wages for working-class people. or provide insurance for all people. the democrats need an explanation and that explanation is corporate greed and the power of the billionaire class.

i know that's uncomfortable, but people in the democratic party, some people, but that is the issue we have to address. >> senator, quickly, before i let you go. i do want to ask you about the supreme court. some democrats behind the scenes quietly talking about the possibility should justice sotomayor step down to allow president biden to appoint someone who is younger? she's only 70 years old. is that something that you would support? do you think she should step down? >> no, i don't. >> have you heard any talk of this? >> a little bit, yes. i don't think that's the sensible approach. >> you don't think it's a sensible approach? >> correct. >> all right. >> senator bernie sanders, thank you very much for your time this morning and your perspective. we really appreciate it. when we come back, donald trump's remarkable return to the white house. what will a second term look like? the panel is next.

your business needs a network it can count on... even during the unexpected. power's out! -power's out! comcast business has you covered, with wifi backup to help keep you up and running. wifi's up. let's power on! let's power on! -let's power on! it's from the company with 99.9% network reliability. let's power on! power on with the leader in connectivity. stay connected with comcast business internet and wifi back-up or get started for $49.99 a month. plus ask how to get up to a $500 prepaid card. call today! the panel is here.

nbc news senior welcome back. the panel is here. nbc news senior capitol hill correspondent garrett haake. amy walter, publisher and editor in chief of "the cook political report." ramesh ponnuru, editor of "national review, and maria teresa kumar, president of voto latino. thank you all for being here on a big sunday after election day. a lot to chew on. garrett, let me start with you. you've been covering the trump campaign from the very beginning. i spoke to president-elect trump. he believes he's got a mandate after this decisive victory. what are you hearing from inside the campaign and your sources? >> his team feels vindicated. they had a theory of the case. it proved out. they won big, bigger than some of them anticipated it would. and the mandate is broad. trump is having conversations with world leaders and starting to flush out his foreign policy and domestically, and you heard john barrasso plans to make his economic agenda the senate and the house's economic agenda and this

is not paul ryan's congress he's coming into. he's coming into essentially a maga congress here and i think stylistically, we're starting to see the norms that trump always leaned against and bursting through in his first administration and this will be trump's washington when he comes back to it. that is really the big difference from his first administration. you lay it out so well. amy, let me ask you because you spend your life studying these numbers and these patterns and here we saw a pattern-shattering event. and it was a big win and a decisive win. i also like to sometimes step away from the numbers. >> yes. >> i think going back to the theory of the case, the theory of the case was pretty clear for both sides which was you have an electorate that is angry, dissatisfied, frustrated with the direction that the country is going in, frustrated with the economy. both candidates were trying to be the anti-status quo.

both candidates were trying to be the change candidate. they each had headwinds to that, right? obviously, it's hard to be the change candidate as vice president. it's hard for trump to comes with a lot of bag for that. what he had going for them and kudos to the nbc news poll which had been showing this for the last couple of months, the way in which people saw trump's presidency was much more rosy when he was not president. so in the most recent polls, so in october, people saw his presidency in a positive way that they didn't see it when he was the actual president, and i think that helped him. finally, who do you see as the candidate of change? if you want to talk about realigning. he won in the exit polls 71% of people who said -- who is the candidate who is going to bring

needed change? >> it's fascinating because we spent so much time during the campaign talking about the issue of change and that number, amy, that you cite, it really is stunning. maria teresa, central to his victory is the fact that he increased his support among latino voters. our correspondent david muriega had a chance to speak to one family. the father, mario, made the decision to vote for vice president harris at the last month but described himself as more happy than upset about donald trump's victory, and his wife and son voted for trump. take a listen. get your reaction on the other side. >> when you hear trump promise mass deportations, do you worry about that? >> yes and no. the ones that i know are doing good and they're not breaking any laws. >> i believe he'll start deporting all of the bad people and all of the criminals. >> maria teresa, that is the distinction. that's how they see it. it's a very clear window into one of the reasons why latino

voters voted for trump in larger numbers than the past. >> i also think there is a realignment right now where we have a working class that says i'm voting for trump for a cry for help. if you look at the latino community, we have been the brunt of the pandemic, the brunt of essential workers. most folks never recovered. when you look at who participates in union, just 9% of the latino community participate. my concern, though is, that under trump the last time, there was no distinction if you were a criminal. there was no distinction if you were a u.s. citizen. so many families under trump got caught in a dragnet where u.s. citizens were all of a sudden literally put in detentions and then people said oh, i'm so sorry. i think that there was a really big gamble, but i do think that the party has to have a conversation with itself, the democratic party on how do you talk to this individual that are feeling need? the ira and the infrastructure bill and a lot of these pieces

have not been absorbed by the communities they'd hoped. at the end of the day this man may be racist, but i remember that relief check and that was something that we kept hearing over and over again. >> ramesh, you heard senator sanders talk about the fact that president-elect trump, he believed had a message that resonated with working class voters and exactly what maria teresa was pointing to. okay, the biden administration may have had a record, but trump arguably had a message that resonated more. talk about this, frankly, historic comeback given everything. >> it is a historic comeback. it's hard to think of an example in u.s. history that really parallels it. it's more of a comeback than the one that richard nixon made after losing the california race in 1962. i think the closest you can come as though aaron burr ran for president in 1804, and succeeded. he won because of a couple of things. first, republicans thought he was a successful president.

they thought that he had been more offended against than offending, and most republicans didn't think he lost in 2020. he succeeded in bringing about that false narrative and that led to his never really having had that nomination be a contest. he sailed into it, and then he was able to take advantage of an anti-incumbent mood. if you look at the results of this election, it is a classic referendum on the incumbent. people unhappy about the state of the country and taking it out on the party. >> all right, guys. stay with us because we do have another panel coming up and a lot more to discuss, including what maria teresa was talking about and some of what democrats were discussing in the aftermath. when we come back, how did donald trump appeal to the voters beyond his base to secure his victory? our "meet the press minute" is next. the gum experts.

with vaseline, hydrated skin is just the beginning. level up to even toned, radiant skin. new vaseline radiant x body lotion with 1% niacinamide. level up to even toned skin.

welcome back. president-elect trump's decisive win signals a political realignment for the country as huge gains in support among latino and working-class voters helped propel mr. trump to a white house return. for donald trump, this shift was at least eight years in the making. in a "meet the press" interview during his 2016 run, he suggested that he could generate cross-party appeal. >> i've always done better when independents could cross over and, frankly, when democrats could cross over.

in new york, when we were doing the voting, people interviewed people at the voting booths, that manned the voting booths and they said they'd never seen so many democrats who wanted to vote for trump, voting by the thousands and on election day we'll do very well in new york, but the people have said they've never seen anything like it and they've been doing this for 30 and 40 years doing this kind of stuff where democrats are coming over. when we come back, the blame game, democrats are trying to figure out why they lost to donald trump a second time. more with the panel next. switch to shopify so you can build it better, scale it faster and sell more. much more. take your business to the next stage when you switch to shopify.

♪ ♪

with so much great entertainment out there... wouldn't it be easier if you could find what you want, all in one place? my favorites. get xfinity streamsaver with netflix, apple tv+, and peacock included, for only $15 a month. welcome back. the panel is still welcome back. the panel is still here. maria teresa, let me start with you. i've been talking to my democratic sources and one described it as a moment reckoning for the democratic party. is it overstated or accurate? >> it absolutely is. the party of the people did not turn out the people, and to give you a perfect example, in texas we saw record voter registration turnout, but then those folks

didn't come out. it was down 6%. in philadelphia where it's 70% african-american, their turnout rate was 6% down from 2020, and so when you see voter registration rally, when people are getting excited, they're excited for the candidate, but when they start softening, they didn't get the economic message they needed to get out of bed, to stand three or four hours on a working wage, am i going to vote and lose money? or am i going back to work? there is roughly 10 million voters who didn't turn out this election. that's a question, and i would say that it's also an explanation that it's not enough to do digital ads and it's not enough to do tv. you need a ground game with a consortium of network of individual groups that have done the work in 2018, in 2020 and 2022. so many groups that i've spoken to were not resourced as they should have been. >> the other thing that democrats have been dining off the anti-trump coalition now since 2017 and it has brought them success in those swing

states, but if your only message is that trump is bad or trumpism or magaism and abortion, if that's it without other stuff underneath it, whether that is an economic message, whether that is a message saying here's how we're going to help you on the things that you're the most worried about, it's only going to get you so far, and, you know, the thing that we were just talking about, the swing states, this is where democrats did do better than the national swing of the country in some of though states that you all had pointed out earlier if that shifted dramatically to the right. the reason the swing states didn't shift as much to the right is maria teresa's point is there are campaigns engaging. >> the deeper problem wasn't the campaign tactics of harris. it was the policy mistakes of the biden-harris administration, and i would say particularly on immigration.

>> you have the ira and the c.h.i.p. act, and all that will breathe and actually be able to be captured under the benefits of that under the trump administration and he'll want to say claim them, but they were all done under the harris biden admission. >> they would run against biden's record when kamala harris was at the top of the ticket with a series of wars and something we haven't talked about. the border which is broken and i covered some harris events and she never mentioned immigration, and i understand it's not a strong issue. but to skip over it conceptually feels like a major loss and on inflation which will be the thing that trump will be able to do the least about, at least they were able to put it in front of voters. trump swiped the democrats' coalition by focusing on these sort of populous issues. >> we should remind folks they are still counting the overall vote. >> yeah. >> when you think of the national vote, but what about that point? i spoke to so many democrats in the closing weeks who made this point that garrett is making, okay, talk about the fact that he's a fascist, but you have to

talk about the economy. you have to talk about reproductive rights. >> so i would actually say everybody got where she was on reproductive rights. >> she did talk about it. that was the focus. >> that should be the -- >> that was the opening argument and that is why she won the women vote. but what was not happening and this is what we saw for two and a half years and all our polling said that inflation, inflation, inflation. there was never this conversation about -- and they actually had policies, this idea that we'll go after big retail folks that are basically gouging you on eggs, make that a message saying this is part one and let me continue with part two, and i will share with you, the frustration raising was that it was too comfortable around talking about reproductive rights and saying they got that. they wanted more on inflation. >> i think democrats wildly overestimated the power of the abortion issue to drive candidate choice as opposed to referenda. and 2022 should have been a sign that that was a mistake that they were making when you saw

republican governor after governor getting re-elected. democrats lost female votes in percentage terms from 2020 to 2024 after dobbs. that should tell you something about how much they invested in this issue and how much it didn't pay off. >> there is this narrative about overreading the midterm results that they felt emboldened in a way maybe they should not have. >> if any of you grew up with >> one of those books. the first adventure book. page 22, an unpopular president with high inflation loses big in the house and the senate, there would be pressure on the president, president biden to not run for reelection. there would be a recalibration in terms it of what is our message on the economy that obviously did not happen because what they took away from it was abortion and democracy are actually the fundamental message

that gets our voters to the polls. >> or on a different page of choose your own adventure, if joe biden who was a bridge candidate had stepped aside after the midterms and claimed victory, you're looking at -- to me, i think you have to go almost that far back to change any one thing that would really change the outcome of this race, but a proper primary, a proper process might have produced either a different democratic candidate or a stronger candidate in kamala harris which people thought they had an awe tenthic connection to, which is one of the candidate problems that voters told us over and over again, they never understood who kamala harris really was. >> garrett hits the nail on the head when it comes to so much we're hearing from top democrats. nancy pelosi saying there should have been an open primary as garrett was saying, harris would have been stronger or a stronger candidate. >> had i not seen the -- again,

for us our new north is the candidacy. i would say maybe i think what they were looking . for was literally that economic message. had she said the rent is too damn high. that would have been enough for her to say you see me. i do believe that the reason we did not see massive turnout was i don't know if i should stay home, or if this if this will be material change. the other folks said, you know what? i'll take my bet because i missed my check. >> ramesh, is this an issue where republicans can build on the gain by trump or is trump the only one who can expand the map in this way and do republicans need to in some ways need to do their own soul searching in this moment? >> well, winning parties rarely do any soul-searching. >> fair enough. >> it is absolutely possible that republicans could squander the moment and the opportunity that they have. they can assume these voters will be theirs while some are

giving republicans a try because they've had a negative reaction to the last four years. whether trump can build on that or run a less chaotic white house, all of these are things we'll be tracking over the next four years. >> fantastic conversation, everyone. thanks so much for being here. that is all, thank you for watching. as we prepare to mark veterans day, we want to thank all who served. we'll be back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." ♪♪ ♪ thank all who served. we'll be back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." ♪♪ ♪♪ president b