woman: i don't know what i'm gonna do. man: congress needs to act now. this sunday, political realignment. democrats take back the house. >> taking our voice to washington. >> republicans hold the senate. >> tonight is a victory for the people of texas. >> and president trump gloats about republicans who shunned his support and lost. >> mlo gave me no love, and she lost. too bad. sorry abouthat, mia. >> democrats grabbed the suburbs, repubcans tightened their hold on rural counties. what this realignment could m for 2020. plus, president trump feeling emboldened and rattled lashes out, claiming with no evidence election llfraud. >> a of a sudden they're finding votes out of >> firing attorney general jeff sessions and choosing an acting a.g. who has described how a

sessions' replacement could kil thmueller investigation. >> he just reduces the budget so low the investigation grinds to a halt. >> already democts are calli for matt whitaker to recuse himself. joining me this morning, the head of the republican campaign committee, senator cory gardner of colorado and democratic congressman adam schiff of the house intelligence committee. also a woman' place is in the house. a record 100 plus elected, most of them democrats. two are with us today. elissa slotkin of michigan and lauren underwood of illinois. and some two dozen people have now died in those california wildfires. we'll have an update.or joining insight and analysis are matthew continetti, editor in chief of the washington free beacon, donna edwards, "new york times"t columnavid brooks and eliana johnson, national politica reporter for politico. welcome to sunday, it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running show inelevision history, this

is "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning on this terans day. 100 years to the day that marked the end of world war i. in the first few hours of election night, it looked asf 2016 was repeating itself. democratic house victories were a mere trickle in the first couple of hours. republicans were winning big marquee races. we wondered whether democrats would have to wave their wave good-bye. five days later the election looks like what wepe ed. nationally democrats won 52% of the house vote to 46% for republicans. that 46% exactly matches president trump's popular vote total in20. his job approval rating in our final poll on sunday, 46%. which is likely to be it looks like the number in the exit polf it kudos to our pollsters. as of this hour, nbc news projects that democra will win 231 seats in the house, plus or minus five. democrats should end up netting somewhere between 35 and 40

seats when all the votes are counted. we have 10 or 11 races still uncalled. in the senate republicans have netted two seats but arizona and florida ar too close to call with florida headed for a recount and there's that mississippi runoff later this month. president trump reacted with concern and nfidence. concern that house democrats can now block his agendand use their newfound subpoena power to investige russian election interference and see if he's profiting off the presidency. and confidence the senate will have his back on those issues andapprove his judicial appointments. meanwhile mr. trump signalled he has no intention of slowing his assault on the mueller investigation, sacking immediately his attorney general jeff sessions within hours after the polls closed and choosing matt whitaker, who will an investigation he's openly attacked. but it was the growing realization that democrats had won a sizeable victory on seemed to have th president rattled. >> whether they get a coup more house seats doesn't matter. it doesn't matter.

>> president trump acting emboldened, but newly vulnerable is attacking the institutions which could hold him in check. claiming election fraud in florida without any evidence. >> and all of a sudden they're finding votes out of nowhere. >> do you have evidence of fraud? >> i don't know, you tell me. >> accusing arizona of electoral corruption and even asking elether it is time to call for a new tion. mr. trump banned a cnn correspondent from the white house, while threatening to pull access from other reporters. >> there could be others when you're in the white house, this is a very sacred place to be. >> he also threatened house democrats, who made their biggest gains since the post-watergate elections of 1974 d will now wield subpoena power in investigations into his personal finances and contacts with russia. >> they can play that game, but we can play it better. because we have a thing called the united states senate. >> a he mocked republicans who refused to e him. >> carlos curbelo.

mike coffman. o bad, mike. mia love gave me no love. and she lost. >> most consequentially less than 24 hours after polls closed, mr. trump fired his attorney general, replacing jeff sessions with loyalist matt itaker, lashing out at reporters who asked if he wants his new acting attorney general to rein in robert mueller's russia probe. >> what a stupid question that is. what a stupid question. >> the president denied his relationship with when it ak on. >> i don't know matt whitaker.h >> but a mo ago. >> i know matt whitaker. >> as a tv pundit, whitaker h said mr. mueller's investigation could be turning into a witch hunt and float ways to weaken it. >> i see a scenario where jeff sessions is replaced with a recess appointment and that attorney general doesn't fire bob mueller but just reduces the budget so low tha his investigation grinds to almost a halt. aker crosses wh

the line the moment he accepts the job and doesn't recuse himself, and we know he's not going to recuse himself because the only reason a he waspointed was to sabotage the investigation. >> preeddent trump has conti to mold the republican party in his own image, and earned the gratitude of newly elected republican senators who ran like trump. >> i want say a special thank you to the president. >> special tribute to our president. >> thank you, mr. oresident. >>n friday, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell made it clear he has no plans to bring a bill to protect robert mueller to the floor. >> it's not necessary. the mueller investigation isot der threat. >> joining me now is democratic congressman adam schiff of california, who will the chairman of the house intelligence committee when the new congress is sworn in in january. before we get to the political news, we want to note the three terrible wifires that are taking place in your home state, congressman. last night the death toll rose to 25. 23 of those deaths are in the campfire that's in northern

california north ofsacramento. two more fires are burning north of los angeles. neither ofhe fires is under control. congressman schiff, i know this is notne -- it's to your congressional district but you and i were just talking and you said there's nre some f actually in your congressional district. what's the latest? doing their they' best to try to control these fires, but this late in the fire season to have this kind of devastation, it just takes yo breathaway. people are losing their lives, losing loved onehe losing homes, and our thoughts are with them as well as these incredibly brave responders. >> the president tweeted the following yesterday. there is no reason for these massiveadly and costly forest fires in california except that forest magement is sopoor. billions of dollars are given each year with so many lives lost all because of gross mismanagement of thor for's. remedy now, or no more fed payments. is that what this fire is about, mismanagement of the forests in calit'rnia? >> no, not. there are a lot of root causes about why the fire season has become so much worse over the years, but for the president at a time when people are facing

utter disaster to be making a statement like this, making a threat like this, this just goe to show how little he understands the job he has.d that he wo punitive at a time like this rather than oming to the defense of people facing the worst disaster of their lives. he's out there making these broad and false statements and threatening to remove funding from a state that's devastated right now. >> do you think it's aolical thing because california is so blue? >> i do. i do. this is a president who more than any other is punitive. i think we saw that in the tax cut by taking away state and local tax deductions. that was aimed at the states. he is only the president, in his view, of those who voted for him. the rest he could care less. >> i want to ask you about a letter that you guys are releasing this morning i mean the leadership of the house, the senate, key committee chairs, you're a signer of this letter, asking the juste department's ethics office to

carefully review the current acting attorney genera whitaker's statements and comments and essentially trying to see if they are advising him to recuse and, ifreso, they going to inform congress of that. what more can you telt me ab this letter? >> well, it's signed boy all of our leadership,ouse and senate, myself included, to demand that we find out did they gin ethics opinion. has one been sought on recusal. it seems to the facts for recusal are very strong here. this is someone who's made repeated and prejudicial comments against the investigation, it's someone who has made false statements about it, claiming that the russians really had no impact on ourec on. it's someone who has a relationship with one of the important investigation. and i want to say this, if mr. whitaker does t recuse himself -- >> he's not legally required to, even if the ethics office says he should, correct? >> i don't know whether he's legally required to. but here's the we have every right to expect

all of the employees of thert justice dent to follow the ethics rules and that means especially the attorney general, but, you k want to make this very clear, if he doesn't cuse himself, if he has any involvement whatsoever in this russia probe, we are going to find out whether he made commitments to the president about the probe, whether he is serving as a back channel toidhe prt or his lawyers about the probe, whether he's doing anything to interfere with the probe. whitaker needs to understand that he will be called to answer and any role that he plays will be exposed to the we don't want there to be any ambiguity about that. >> are you convied that he's constitutionally eligible to hold the position? >> i'm not convinced at all. s there arious constitutional arguments that as a principal officer he cannot be appointed to this position. i thinthat's certainly the right policy answer, it also may be the answer demanded by the constitution. >> i'm curious what you thought of voter reaction to the mueller probe. our exit poll, we asked about their feelings on the mueller investigation. 46% disapprove.

that is a very familiar number to our viewers, 46% is the present's job rating. the number of the republican vote. so i think we know what that core vote is. but only 41% approved of the mueller investigation. does political opinion -- how muchshould it impact what you do in the democratic congress the days? >> well, public opinion always affects useg in onee or another, but i will say this having watched mueller'ser ratis time. the one thing that we see is around theime he produces indictments, around the time that he produces convictions, the support for his investigation goes up. the longer the lapse between indictments, the more his wntings go so what we're seeing now, i think, is merely the lull, eabecause in the periodng up to the midterms, he properly took no action. but i think when he issues his ilport or if there are further indictments, you see public confidence in his work once -ain rise. >> there is i know you

probably want to get the house intelligence committee's investigation back on track after your -- after the uneasy relationship between you and who will nowbe the ranking member devin nunes, but i've heard a lot of investigations democrats want to do. you talked about in another interview that's going to air tonight about investigating what was the president doing with amazon andhe postal service. the incoming house judiciary committee chairman was caught on the acela talking about how to investigate the kava obviously the mueller probe is going to be a part of this. how do you prioritize what to investigate? and at what point do you do too much investigating? well, this is going to be very important, not just in terms of which investigations ought to go forward, which ought to go forward first, but also our strongest purpose here is to put forward a positive agenda. we don't want that lost in aur of investigations. >> you are worried there's so much talk about investigations, that actually the idea of dealing with pre-existing conditions is getting lost?

>> we have to me sure it doesn't get lost. you know, that's really the first priority forus, it's the reason people voted to put us in they major put forward a positive agenda. let's face it, the investigations are sexy, they're interesting, you bring witnesses and people tune in. he legislative process is less so. it's much less dramatic. but nonetheless in terms of importance to the americanle pe making sure that they can provide for their families, that they can t healthcare, they can keep their health care, that has to be priority number but going to need to one. ruthlessly prioritize on the intel committee which investigative threads we go down, but among the committees l , and we've already started that process. >> two quick questions. first, the khashoggi tape that erdogan hasaid -- the turkish president said that the united states has a co of it. you are part of that gang of eight. is that true? if so, have you heard it? w re going to get a briefing -- i'm going to get a briefing this week, so i full t expe find out.

i did have a briefiup until -- and got information up until recently, but i don't know the answer to that. i'm not sure if i did, whether i'd be able to share it with you anyway. >> i want to share with you, final number from our exit poll as the favorable rating of nancypelosi, 36% favorable, 56% unfavorable. it looks like she has the votes for speaker of the house. what do y say to the new members who campaigned on new new rship, campaigned on a generation of leadership? if the democrats re-elect pelosi, hoyer and clyburn as the face of the house democratic leadership. >> we're going to have a lot of new people in thele ership. they may not be in the top positions, but we're going to have new leadership in the caucus. we've got a great breadth of talent coming up through ranks. but i will say this, we're going into a fight likely with the presiden i certainly hope that this president decides that it's in his nakedersonal self-interest, because that's the only thing that motivates him, to work with democrats on

an infrastructure bill, on bringing down prescription drug prices, but if he decides it isn't, if he continues along this path where all he wlets to do is is base. >> and run against nancy pelosi. >> and run against nancy pwelos, eed the strongest general we have, the best tactician, the best organizer. >> and you belie that's her? >> that's her. there's no one else honest 3 comes close. be the schiff, who will new chairman of the house intelligence committee, thanks yofor coming on and sharin views. >> good to see you. joining me now, senator cort gardne man who is in charge or till in charge of trying to get republicans elected to the senate. i say still in charge because we have some outcomes that we don't know. welcome to "meet the press," sir. >> thanks for having me, chuck. >> let me just start quickly with the president's comments about the wildfires. numbone, i was curious what you made of the appropriateness of the president thrng to deny federal help to california

in the moment that people were fighting for their life? >> t well, fi all, i think the colorado thoughts and prayers of our state go o to california. we've been through this, certainly the catastrop we face each and every day we have a forest fire, what they're going through. it's tragic and terrible. i don't t nk it's appropriate to threaten funding. that's not going to happen. funding will be availablay it ais available to our people wherever they are, whatever disaster they are ci . i do think, though, this year we came upith a strong bipartisan success in fixing the wildfire hnding issue th paralyzed our ability to go out and fight fires and suppress fires and mitigate next year's forest fires. one of the great bipartisan accomplishments of this past congress was in the area of forest fires and finding a solution for funding. >> let me move t your jobhese days, which is at the nrsc. the florida recounts, i want to play something that governor scott said on thursday night

when it was clear that we were headed into some form of a recount down in florida. here it is. >> every floridian should be concerned there may be rampant fraudappening in palm beach and broward counties. we've all seen the incompetence in broward county for years. here we go again. i will not sit idly by while unethical liberals try to steal this election from the great people of florida. >> do you have any evidence that fraud was committed, that somehow unethical liberals are down there tryingo change the vote in broward county? was that rhetoric? was that an appropriate timing for that rhetoric? it well, we have evidence that the state conion of florida was violated. a court in florida has said that. we he evidence that people were going into unwitnessed areas filling out ballots, duplicat g ballots, whic allowed under the law but only if you have witnesses in the canvassing board. we have officials, elections officials who are disobeying court or at least were

disobeying court orders so i understand governor sc frustration that there are people who are breaking thelaw, violating the con itution in florida in broward county and palm. so i think he's right to be upset. now, what we have to do, though, is make suhat we are protecting the integrity of this election, that w count every vote, that we count every ballot, that we make sure that the integrity of this election is as strong as it can be and that we keep out those attempts by some to violate the constitution a where we have those -- >> do you believe democrats are actually trying to steal the electionn flori because that's what the president has implied in his tweets and tha t seemed to be implication of governor scott. >> well, let's look at the courts i you have a court in florida that has said the constitution of florida has been violated. you have several -- >> i understand that -- >> there are several cases and i feel very strong about that. >> but there's no evidence that they're trying to steal this. >> is this a democrat that's doing this that violated the constitution or is this a

reconstitution? i'm going to leave it to the courts to decide how we best protect th integrity of this election. but i think every person in florida and around this country has an interest and a right to a secureil integrityd election. and if somebody is violating the consti stion, that's got toop and that's what we're trying to do. let's get the results the florida people actually went to the ballot on. let's make sureie cou across florida have the same standards, that a vote in miami issa treat th as a vote in pensacola. if they're not, something is wrong wio that process let's get this fixed, let's make sure this is right and make sure that are proud of the results going forward in florida. >> if a recount shows anything other than a rick scott victory but there's no -- you can't find any evidence of fraud or anything else, but the recount happens to show bill nelson winning and it's done on the up and up, are you going to accept thosresults? >> well, look, this is going to ca done on the up and up e we're ensuring that. we've gone to court and won those court cases.t we've proven te violation -- we've proven the

violation of the florida constitution. i think that has shown the courts have worked. so i believe this will be an election that we can be proud of, an election that we were able to protect the voters in. >> i'm going to ask you about the arizona senate race. that counti is still coming i the president has tweeted about it, implying that fraud could still be going on. arizona obviously ha a lot of history of taking a while to count. i want to ask you about this. top officials at the whitee ouse and publican national committee, this is in politico, who have been prodding the mcsally cpaign to amp up its efforts of expressed frustration that the arizona congresswoman hasn't tried to drive a messages that thereething amiss with the vote count. do you believe there's something amiss with the vot arizona or not? >> we're still looking at hundreds of thoands of votes to be counted in arizona. it's a little bit different than what we've see in lorida, whether it's incompetence or corruption, they're the same side of the ledger. what we've seen in arizona is a concern that every ballot -- every county be treated equally in how they deal with elections

andsignatures. and i believe we've come to an agreement in arizona wre wever they're treating a ballot in maricopa, signature verification or otherwis is the same way they're treating it in yuma or wherever else in arizona.t you cave two different standards on determining what is a valid or legal vote. because that'sat not fair. so i think we're on the right track in arizona. we need to make sure tha we do this. but there is no way, there is no way that an election official in arizona should be allowed to treatheir votes differently, more specially than any other area of the state. > there was a staffer of yours at the nrsc who was quoted as saying that an official in maricopa county was, quote unquote, trying to cook the books. it inspir thisweet from mark salter, the chief of staff for the late senator john mccain. stop doing this, nrsc. mcsally is losing fair and square and underperforming in more than maricopa. the race is almost certainly lost and nothing will change that. all this does is poison our

politics more. despicabat. o you say to mr. salter? chance nk we do have a to win in florida -- in arizona. i do think there is a path. numbers.n it in the but i do think it's important that we protect the people of arizona. we can't sit by and alw votes to be counted in maricopa that would not be counted somewhere else. >> i understand uat. but did approve of your staffer saying things like cook the books? it does --wi by th that language in there, as you know, it automaticallyolarizes the two sides. the minute this language used. >> look, there's a lot of releases that go out that i don'see and i'm not familiar with this one. what i do think is important and it's not the first time somebody has been accused of cooking the books or rig ong thecome of an election. i think that's the last two years have been about by democrats trying to go after president trump on that as well. to do i think we have and what we've proven in the court in arizona -- excuse me, the agreements we've come to in arizona is a way to treat voters the state.oss

this is about making sure that the votes are counted and the votes are counted fairly and that's what i think we're getting to in arizona finally. >> finally, last question very quickly, the muellerprobe, jeff flake and chris coons said when ey come back from the lame duck they're going to get for unanimous consent to get this bill voted on. do you think it's necessary? do you think mueller needs protection? mitch mcconnell doenot. what say you, cory gardner? >> i support the mueller i know i've heard senator mcconnell say he supports the mueller investigation. it's important for the american people. it's important we have this for transparency and i think it's important for the president to have this information out there fully, transparently and accurately. the president has said he waees to this investigation moving forward and i believe that's the way it will go. >> does it needrotection legislatively, though? do you need to do that in the senate >> mueller i not going to be stopped. it's going to continue and it should continue. >> all right, butdn you say whether it was necessary in the senate? >> well, i think it's going to continue. if it continues -- >> you don't need --hy

>> do something if it's actually continuing. >>vekay. i will lt there. senator cory gardner, thanks for coming on. >>when we come back, is president trump trying to derail the mueller investigation by the mueller investigation by naming matthew whitaker

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it all means massive disruption to the car industry, cities, businesses and investors. ♪ ♪ welcome back. panel is here. matthew r matthew, formerra demc congressman. david brooks, welcome. happy sunday after the midterms. david, i want ask this, did the mid determines change anything, let me put up the numbers here. 46% was the prident's popular te total in 2016. 46% was the house vote for the repuicans in 2018. and 45% and then perhaps gets t reweighted 46% will be the president's job rating. i think i sense a pattern here, but i ess, did the midterms change anything. >> they entrenched things.

we've got a big wall. a big barricade around the 46%. that's his ese. they c out for him. i don't see anyone leaving him. this election wasn't a realigning election. was an endrenetrenching. hing that leapt out is his people did show up. that tells me the working class is still hurting despite the economy. the second thing. the new democrats, there always a spin debate whether the progressive new democrats more moderate. more moderate have a very good story to tell this year. flipped 23 red seats with people embraced by te moder democrats. there is some moderation still in america. it's a lot of republicans who used to be oubhodox rcans who are now moderate democrats. >> midterm loss is typically humble a sitting president of the united states. donald trump is beyond humbling.

a high stakes come bcosback. he will be at the center of it all. >> what we have seen from the two dent over the past years, questions of whether he would become presidential in the job. we've seen he's a skilled communicator, but he doesn't have a lot of range or abilih to swi gears. what we get from him is a number of meditions on american carnage whether it's on immigration or post midterms, democrats stealing the vote in places where he lost. and that's what we're going to get for the two years from here until 20 and as david ntioned, that does get the base out, but it doesn't expand the elect trorate. now can they put a candidate u going forward that expands theirs and eats into the obama trump voters who turn out for the psident and are proving extremely loyal to him. ho he is very skilled at communicating with. >> was this a referendum on the president. >> i think it was a rebuke of the president.

i think we began the week on election night with a modest, but significant victory for democrats. by the end of the week, it had really crested into a blue wave. and whereoo i at promises for the democrats going forward is in states likend michigan pennsylvania and wisconsin, that we're really significants victor southern virginia. and to me says where thes democreed to place their eggs in the 2020 basket. >> what you make ohe president, it did seem as if he moved faster on jeff sessions than jefpasessions was pd for to the point sessions made it clear, i was asked for this w resignatioch is washington speak for you need to call it a firing. >> we've seen this with donald trump since he descended down that escalator three years ago when he was t hit with setback. immediately pivots and create as through controversy where heay have a more solid ground. so have things changed, of course they've changed. the democrats are going to be in charge of the united states

hous that is a big deal. we've seen with chairman shift there will beat investns. the chance for conservative legislation. not that there is mucsing this year anyway, but the chance going forward is greatly diminished. was there a referendu trump. yes, what we've seen again, and, again, i think, really since 1994 is that these med term elections are referendums on the president. typically the voters don't like 's happening, whether that president is a democrat or republican. >> matt whittaker, david brooks, what do we make of him? the arguments that he's evenns tutionally is even a constitution appointment. >> i think one of the -- i went to 23 states this election and heard the word unraveling over and over again. are we racially together? are w economically together. are we morally together. are our institutionsge er. donald trump threatens the institution by personalizing poweve you don't she constitution, you serve donald

trump. he wants people to serve him. that's not how the attorney general's office is supposed to act. 's a threat to one of our institutions and another one is the way with bark ates the r on the elections. and when you accuse somebody of corruption without any evidenes, you'reoy the social fabric to some degree. we've seen a lot of that this week. we're seeing the decay. >> what do you make of that? >> i agree with david. i mean, i think that you know the president has gone after one institution after the other and you see that in this call of corruption in these elections, not to allow an election to be settled. and what i see is a president who really does feel that he's under threat and so if you look at hisy response both firing sessions and appointing whittaker who , you know, made himself known to the president sot he can take advantage of that, and then you look at democrats response, i think it's going to be important to be really judicious about how they

proceed. >> the whittak appointme to me was reminiscent of the administration's policy on chilw separatire it was something that the president thought about and wanted to do, put in an acting attorney general who could sit there for 210 days and who was skeptical of the mueller probe and yet you see the president skeptical of it and backing away because he didn't anticipate the blow back that he would get from democrats and republicans alike and it really i think revealed how even the best laid plans of this administrationn' aso well thought through in that his statements hadn'teen reviewed by the white house and tend to backfire and then you have a president who abandoning them very quickly. >> what do you make of that. >> almost any attorney general who succeedsoi sessions is to have a critical view of the mueller probe. most republicans now haveic a cr view of the mueller probe chblt there probe. >> there's two sets of criticism of whittaker. is the appointment even constitutional. the are pretty at least

disputed and probably weak. the more substantive criticism is he qlified for the jochblt you just look at the resume, r qualified our les attorney generals. so that i think is f a problem the president. and that he has to come up with someone to reple whittaker and emphasize the temporary on the temporary appointment. ms like some of the candidates are pulling out. they want to wait to see what mueller does. you're coming in front of ngress with whatever action you do anyway. >> 2018 was indeed turned out to be tear of the woman. when we come back, two democrats who helped make that goal a reality. ♪ traders -- they're always looking foadvantages. the smart ones look to fidelity to find them. we give you research and data-visualization tools to help identify potential opportunities. so, you can do it this way... or get everything you need to help capture investment ideas

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welcome back. move over, 1992, 2018 is the real year of the whaan. moren 100 women, including incumbents, were elected to the housetun day. in fact, democrats got the 23 seats they needed to win back the housith just women candidates alone. the "new yorker" is mosarking ts with a cover called "welcome to congress." two of the men who toppled

republicans and helped power democrats to victory in the use are with me this morning. lauren underwood, whose district is just outside of chicago, and elissa slotkin who represents a michigan district that stretches from suburban detroit to the state's capital,lansing. welcome to "meet the press" to both of you. >> thank you so mu. >> congresswoman-elect slotkin, let me start with you. would you call your victory a referendum on the president? >> no. i think honestl wy we able to amass support from democrats, republican independents because the overall tenor and tone of politics i think is fundamentally unbecoming of the country. so the president, leadersisp climat set from the top so he's certainly a part of it, but it wn overall feeling that washington was broken and integrity had been evaporated from the system. so it wasn't just the president. he was a part of it. >> what about in your distrmut, ho did the president matter in your district? >> well, the president is certainly a factor,but in the illinois 14th district we had not been well represented. we had a congressman who was not carrying forward our health,

voted to raise our taxes, refu id to act the face of escalating gun violence in our country. in our di vrict, it wasry clearly about representation and did we have what weer ded. >> it's i'm sure hard to think about the fact that you have to immediately think about re-election, but let me ask you both this question and i'll start with you congresswoman-elect underwood. what is the one aomplishment u have to have if you seek re-election two years from now? >> protect health care for people with pre-existing conditions. it is the most critical issue -- >> is that a promise that you made? >> absolutely. >> how do you think that's going to get done? >> it's going to g done immediately because we can protect the affordable care act, fix i stabilize premium prices, lower drug prices, but this idea that somehow people with pre-existing conditions might be vulnerable is something that i would never support. >> other an healthcare, i imagine pre-existing conditions was huge in your district too. frankly it washe number one advertised subject. is there another accomplishment you have to have besides that in

order to earn re-e wction? have to move on infrastructure and not just talk about it but actually put money behind it. in michigan we need once in a generation investment in infrastrucbure. our roadour water. i live 15 minutes from flint, michigan. we have a water issue going in our state, so we have -- that's a place i think we have real bityrtisan opportu people have talked the talk and now we need to walk the walk with real federal dollars. >> neither one of you brought up investigations of the president. how do your constients, how d they view these potential wrongdoings by the president? how often did it come up? how much do you think congress should focus on this? >> prcrecting dey is critically importance. article 1 the congress is a co-equal branch of government so oversight is critically important. the congressional republicans essentially refused to do so. so i think that there's certainly an interest to make sure that our critical pillars of democracy like free and fair elections can cur but that it's not our primary and chief priority. >> you heard esconan schiff,

he admitted, yes, there's all they investigations and can't cloud the big picture on substance. how concerned are you that it might? mean we have to watch it. as e can't as democrats, elected officials, provide for people and help their pocketbook or their kids, we do not deserve their vote. so we can walknd chew gum, right? we can protect american values and holdou aability for the executive branch, but if we can't do things on health care andinfrastructure, we' going to lose people, especially in the midwest. >> let me talk about the leadership oyour rty. the rnc had a snarky release and you're both in it in differe categories. the rnc put you, congresswoman-elect slotkin, imi the i p to oppose pelosi and/or support someone new caucus and congresswoman-ect underwood, you were in the i'm going to avoid the question beuse of how deeply unpopular pelosi is in my district. a little snarky. congresswoman-elect slotkin, is there any way under anyce circumsthat you can imagine supporting nancy pelosi as leader? >> i never want to be

disrespectful to anyone who's served, especially a woman whose broken glass ceilings, but in my district they want on bot of the aisle a new generation of leadership. so that's what i've said, that'i what i'ming by. we have a long time now until we have to make this decision in washington hours and days, and so i'm going to wait to see w else emerges and make my decision. >> congresswoman-elect underwood, where are you this? >> i think we have taunt opport to support a leader that will allow us to jump start our onomy, maintain public schools, et cetera. i'm interested in supporting someone who is aligned on that type of agen and look forward to having conversations with whichever candidates end up running. >> y t're still open supporting nancy pelosi as speaker, it sounds like? >> i'm lookinngg forward to ha conversation with her and whoever else is on the ballot for speaker. >> how wil you sell your constituents, congresswoman

slotkin, if it's the top three as far as your constituents are concerned? 'll work with whoever is speaker ander who is the er whw. amazing as it sounds, americans can disagree and still respect ch other and go on and do good work, so that's what we're going to do. >> who is the leader democratic party, if someone asked you that right now, re cowoman-elect underwood? >> that's a good question. what's been really wonderfio in this ele is that each congressional candidate was able to set the tone and agenda for their race. and so i don't know that we ve a national leader, and i think that that's just fine. >>ou aren the same position? >> i'm in the same boat. i think the lesson of thi election is you've got to run your race for your district. there is no mega message that's goinin things across the board. we have new energy in our party, which is great, but it's diverse. >> elissa slotkin, new democrat from there, lauren underwood, new emocrat, welcome to both of

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welcome back. data download time. folling tuesday's elections i feel more certain than ever that we are undergoing ae mass realign naement in american politics. ast ds we've seen over the decade in urban areas, democratic gains in suburbs and cities are t starti move south. the sun belt is the new balg battleground. let's art in ft. worth, texas, tarrant county, where ted cruz won by 16 points pack in 2012. in 2016 hillary clinton was able to cut that republican margin in half. donald trump onlwon tarrant by 8. this year, the move to the left ntinued. beto o'rourke won tarrant county by 1 point. now, this trend wasdy alr under way before president trump came on the scene, but there's evidence that hisoxicity in the suburbs has helped twend.rate the let's move to gwinnett county, georgia. nathan diehl won by 12 points in 2014. hillary clinton swung the county democratic i '16d won it by 6. this year democratic stacey abrams extended that advantage

winning the county by a whopping 14 points,di double ts. that county is blue, not purple anymore. by the way, this was one of the counties in the atlanta suburbs that once helped newt gingrich remake the republican majority back in the '80s and '90s. wow, is it looking blue today. and of course there's florida. in his 2014 race for governor rick scott won seminole county by 7 points. in 2016 donald trump lost a little ground there. he only won the county by 2. this year an few gillumipped the county blue when he narrowly won it by 2 points himself. the gop didtiten its grip on rural, white areas which led to big statewide victoriesacross the country, think ohio, for instance. but politics seems to be cahing up with geography in the sun bet. it's possibleg republicans h on to some of these areas for longer than they should have because 2014 and '16 engaged weren't fully in the sun belt. these combined with wins in suburban house seats show

democrats growing power in these areas. the question is, this the come?or is there more to do these blue dots become blobs that expand? stay tuned in 2020. m're back in aent with end game. what "animal house" has to do with this yearti midterm els. coming up, end ghgame, br to you by boeing, continuing our mission to connect, protect, explore and inspire. fact is, every insurance company hopes you drive safely. but allstate actually helps you drive safely... with drivewise. it lets you know when you go too fast... ...and brake too hard. with feedback to help you drive safer. giving you the power to actually lower your cost. unfortunately, it can't do anything about that. now that you know the truth... are you in good hands?

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>> announcer: end game brought to you by boeing, continuing our mission to connect, protect, explore and inspire. back now with end game and time to channel some john belushi from "animal house." >> over? did you say over? nothing is or until decide it is! >> all right. there are some races we haven't decided are over. in t senate florida remains too close to call and is headed for a recount, possibly aal ma recount with republican governor rick scott holding a narrow lead nelson.ll a scott win would be a republican pickup there. arizona is also a nail-biter. kyrsten sinema's lead has grown to 3000 with roughly 300,000 votes to be counted. that could end up being a democratic pickup. governor'seaces we'reed for another florida recount. ron desantis has a narrow lead

over andrew gillum. yesterday andrew gillum rescinded his concessiono it's going machine recount. we'll see if it falls into the threshold for handun re and brian kemp has a narrow lead over stacey abrams. that could go to recount to see if it needs to go t a runoff. in the house, 11 races have yet to be called. the democrat leads in six of those contests, the republican te five. that's why our pion is plus or minus five at 231. okay. t me start with florida and rick scott and bill nelson already with a war of words. take a listen. >> it's clear, we've got som left-wing activists, we've got some democrat d.c. lawyers, they're down here for one purpose, to steal this election. >> clearly rick scott is trying to stop all the votes from being counted, and he's impeding the democratic process. >> is this the end of 2018 or the beginning of 2020? >> you know, there are cple of races that are genuinely close. thflorida senate race is one

of them, the arizona senate race is anther, but i do think that the candidates, the other cariidates, like in the f governor's race, where gillum retracted his concession, sum no if that's happened before, and the georgia -- >> al gore famously di yes. >> and in the georgia governor's race, there is -- these candidates are looking ahead d they see digging in their heels in these races as a way to sort of amplify their celebrity. popularize themselves with their base, because i don't think the democrats will be able to pull ahead, but they are ginning up enthusiasm weir base by refusing to concede. >> donna, how important is itoc that dts fight to the end on these? >> i think it's really important. let's look what democrats are asking, they're asking for all the votes to be counted. before you get to a question of recount or runoff, count all the votes. that's the case in georgia and definitely in florida as well. you know, these races are different because in georgia,

the question is can stacey abrams get to a point where there's a runoff then in early december. that's a completely different question than what happens in the recounts in florida. this is really importantse bec democrats across the country want us to fight for every vote. >> i want to do big picture here. the nationa house vote is 52-46 and extrapolated it out as if it were electoral map. here's our what map, david and matthew here, and democrats picked up four states if you believe the house vote there. pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan and iowa. florida we put if you give them to therepublicans, democrats would need it, 284. what's interesting is democrats get to 284 without florida or ohio if the states come back to them. >> i talked about the entrenching. the democratic entrenchment isb er now and seems to be permanently bigger. the question to me is don they have agenda for the future.

running on pre-existing conditions is not exactly a vision for the future. do they haveir an ative vision on how a diverse country should work, how work should work, how moral integrity should be reintroduced. these are the big issues happening in countries all ldaround the wo democrats have been running on a very small set of issues. may bee excusable for midterm, not going forward. >> has the battleground shrunk or expanded?ls it f like colorado, nevada feel bluer today than they did yesterday. ohio feels a little redder today than it didyesterday. >> and the election is two years aw >> two y please. rsay. >> when you look back and see are dterms dispositive for the subsequent presidential? the answer is no. vedo republicans h work to do? yes, because the terrain in terms of people hasshifted. independents, they narrowly backed trump two years ago, now they'rrafor democ big time. you look at the suburbs. again, republicans competitive there two years heago,are going toward the democrats big time. white women, narrowly backed trump two years ago. going to the democrats this

time. if trump and the republicans want to have a successfulct re-en in 2020, they need to get those groups back. >> any evidence that he knows how to appeal to those groups, though? >> i go back to my comment earlier, which is that trump has not shn that he has an ability o -- he has no range as a politician or an ability to shift gears. i think with him the single gear is wt you get, andt may have worked in 2016, but i think it all depends on who the democra put up in 2020. trump was very lucky in 2016 the democrats put up a uniquely unlikable candidate and 2016 was abt who voters disliked more. we don't know if 2020 will be the same. it could. the decratic primar will be very interesting. but if trump will get lucky sure. i'm n >> donna, what did you take away from the fact that the moderate centrist democrats lost by bigger margins in places like indiana, missouri, and north dakota, but the progressive democrats got awfully close in places like texas, georgia, and of course there's florida?

>> they did, and i think what i from that is that there is a strong democratic message. i ink we spend a lot of time around these tables in this last election saying democrats didn't have message. turns out they actually did running in each one of these congressional distri ts, running to districts and if democrats do the right thing legislatively, that is going to lead to success in 2020. >> thank you very mu that's all we have for today. thank you for watching. perhaps you're watching at thth hour of the 11th day of this 11th month. enjoy raur ve day weekend. be sure to thank a veteran if you know one or love onf and course we'll be back next week, because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press."

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