this sunday, after a post truth election, do the president-elect's words matter? donald trump's first campaign manager says, maybe not. >> this is the problem with the media, you guys took everything donald trump said so literally. >> when candidate trump says -- >> we're going to drain the swamp. >> what ds he mean? what about repealing obamacare or the conversations with the leaders of taiwan, pakistan and the philippines? this morning, my interview with the vice-president-elect, governor mike pence of indiana. post-election bitterness. we're bringing together top campaign figures from the trump and clinton campaigns.

bennenson. and why after losing 63 house seats did the democrats choose the same leadership team? >> i have a special spring in my step today. >> can democrats reach new voters with the same old team? joining me for insight and analysis are amy walter, rich lowry, andrea mitchell and welcome to sunday, it's "meet the press." >> from nbc news in washington, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning. there used to be an ad campaign on tv when i was a kid for ef hutton whose tag line was when ef hutton talks, people listen.

we're being told by his staff and by mr. trump himself, you shouldn't take him literally, except perhaps when you should. remember when candidate trump said this about president obama during the campaign? >> he is the founder of isis. he is the founder of isis. okay? he is the founder. >> next day, hugh hewitt assumed we were not to take mr. trump literally. you meant he created the vacuum, he lost the peace. >> no. i meant he's the founder of isis. >> in that case, we were supposed to take him literally. the question is, after what many have dubbed the post-truth election, are we getting a look at a post-truth presidency? trump's first campaign manager argued at a campaign postmortem this week that his words don't

and those trump promised in april to keep carrier jobs in the u.s. -- >> we're not going to let carrier leave. >> he actually said this week, while announcing that half those carrier jobs will stay, that he did not except to be taken literally. >> i said, carrier will never leave. but that was a you've mix. >> the idea he is not a campaign trope. >> the voters take donald trump seriously as a candidate. >> as trump shifts from campaigning to governing his words will have legal, diplomatic, political and national security implications. as past presidents have quickly discovered. >> the british government has learned that saddam hussein

uranium. >> you like your health care plan, you keep your health care plan. >> trump learned that words matter. after he broke with decades of diplomatic precedent and took the first call from taiwan by a u.s. president-elect since 1979. angering the chinese. indians are befuddled after trump called pakistan's prime minister a terrific guy and promised to when can u.s. allied, enemies, members of congress and voters take trump at his word? nbc counted 141 distinct shifts on 23 major policy issues during trump's 511-day white house run. during the campaign, trump said he was going to repeal obamacare. now he is promising to keep the most popular elements of the law intact. during the campaign, trump pledged to dump the paris clie malt agreement.

>> now he says he will keep an open mind. during the campaign, trump promised to end pay to play politics in washington. >> drain the swamp. >> now, former governor sarah palin is calling the carrier deal crony capitalism. ultimately, donald trump's success may depend on how literally his supporters take his promises. >> politicians are always saying they want to drain the swamp and get rid of their briefcases into the pa tomorrowic. they expect him to put the lobbyists in their place. >> joining me now is the vice-president-elect of the united states, and still governor of indiana mike pence. mr. vice-president-elect, welcome back to the show. >> good morning. good to be here. >> let me start with some foreign policy and the issue with taiwan. does the president-elect intend to break with one china policy? >> i think the conversation that happened this week with the president of taiwan was a courtesy call.

president-elect and he took the call from the democratically elected leader of taiwan. it's one of more than 50 telephone calls that the president-elect has taken from and made to world leaders in the midst of a historic pace and cabinet appointments and senior appointments, building a legislative agenda, even traveling the country and saving 1,000 jobs in indiana. it's all a reflection of the energy and i think it's the kind of approach that you are going to see hri at home and abroad. >> so this was an intentional sort of challenge to the foreign policy establishment a little bit, to the u.s./chinese establishment? >> no. this was a courtesy call, the democratically elected president of taiwan called to congratulate the president-elect. and as a gracious man -- >> nothing new should be read into it? >> well, i don't think so.

those that have reached out to the president-elect, those that i have talked to -- i have talked to several dozen world leaders. i spoke to king abdullah yesterday. i think there's a great sense of enthusiasm and optimism around the world, because they're counting in president-elect donald trump -- >> they are upset about this. >> he is also going to be engaging the world on behalf of america. >> i chinese government is very do they have a right to be? do you tell them, back down. you are overworrying? what is your advice to your counterparts to n china? >> i think i would say to our counterparts in china that this was a moment of courtesy. the president-elect talked to the president two weeks ago in the same manner. it was not a discussion about policy.

will be president-elect -- president trump's agenda. >> have you or the team or president-elect trump reached out to the chinese government since this bubbled up? >> not to my knowledge. >> should we expect a call this week to calm the waters? >> chuck, i wouldn't -- you know, i wouldn't expect so. to be honest with you, the waters here seem like a little bit o it's striking that president obama would reach out to a murdering dictator in cuba and be hailed as a hero and president-elect trump takes a courtesy call from a democratically elected president of taiwan and it becomes something of a thing in the media. i think most americans and frankly most leaders around the world know this for what it was. it's all part and parcel -- i

president donald trump a willingness to engage the world. >> here was a headline. trump says ready to play role in resolution of issues. let me ask you, is he offering to mediate border disputes -- i guess pakistan wanted to imply that, that he was offering to mediate border disputes between pakistan and india. >> there has been great tension between india and pakistan in recent days. it's resulted in violence along the i think what the president-elect expressed in conversation with leaders from both countries was a desire for continued u.s. engagement and building the relationship with both those countries. these are two nuclear powers. s president-elect recognizes that. and making sure that they know that when this administration takes office, that we intend to be fully engaged in the region and fully engaged with both nations to advance peace and security.

cashmere? >> i think in president-elect donald trump you have someone who is prepared to advance america's interests here at home, to rebuild the economy, to fight for american jobs. but i think you are also going to see an energetic leadership in the world, prepared to engage and to look for ways that he can bring those extraordinary deal making skills to bear on lessening tensions and solving problems in the world. >> are you guy using the sta professionals when you use these phone calls, getting the okay, the protocol talking points that are not partisan but as you know sort of that have been accepted as sort of international norms? >> chuck, the president-elect and i have had the privilege of receiving presidential daily briefs. we receive the formal daily briefings that come about during the course of the transition.

has been briefed as he has been making the calls. i saw a report that during his transition, president obama reached out to 22 world leaders. president-elect trump has already spoken to more than 50 leaders around the world. he has been briefed. those have been courtesy conversations. but it's all part and parcel of beginning the kinds of relationships that will allow our new president to advance america's interests in the world. >> where are we on secretary of state? when donald trump did the you tour, there was chants of no romney. what did he make of that? is mitt romney still a top tier candidate for secretary of state? >> i think what people are seeing in the transition, which is moving -- it's outpacing all of his predecessors for the last 40 years. to be around donald trump as you know, having known him for a number of years, is to be around a man of boundless energy from literally the day after the election. historical election where he won

counties than any candidate on our side since ronald reagan. we went right to work. my job, chairing the transition, has been to bring together the broadest range of men and women with diverse backgrounds for him to be able to choose these key positions. he has chosen over a dozen senior positions. even before the end of november. with regard to secretary of state, we have been winnowing the list. it might grow a little bit. i think to talk to the president-elect is to know he is simply looking for the best men and women to advance the agenda that we know will make america great again. >> it does seem -- you heard early names and it keeps broadening out. what is it about the current field that he hasn't found yet? >> it's not a reflection of the current field. i think everyone that he has talked to and has been talked about, whether it be ruy giuliani or senator corker, john bolton and others bring

qualities to this. i think you are going to see -- i think you are going to see the president-elect continue that process to ensure that as he has a vision for really reengaging the world with an america first agenda, advancing america's interests in the world economically and diplomatically, that he is going to make sure that he has the right person in that role just like he is in every role. >> given how high profile the e-mail situation was, the classified issue was for secretary clinton during the presidential campaign, how significant is the conviction against general patraeus in your thinking and the president-elect's thinking when it comes to secretary of state? >> first, let me say that general david patraeus is an american hero. led forces in battle. he paid a price. >> did he deserve to pay a price? >> he paid a price for mishandling classified information.

disqualified him to be secretary of state? >> i think that will be up to the president-elect. the president-elect will weigh that against a backdrop of an extraordinary career whether it's as secretary of state or another role. it will be the president-elect's decision about the totality of general patraeus' experience and background. but i first met general patraeus when he was commanding the 101st airborne in iraq. then i saw him marsha and the resources for what became the successful surge in iraq. he is an american hero and he has our great respect. >> let me ask you this. define the phrase drain the swamp. people hear different things when they hear that phrase. what should the american people hear? what is your definition of draining the swamp? >> i think drain the swamp is a commitment by the president-elect to once again have government as good as our people, to have a direction in

working for the political class and the lobbyists, isn't working for wall street but it's working every day for the american people. it's one of the reasons why we set the policies even in this transition, you know, from the time the president-elect asked me to take it over. we asked people that were active in the lobbying world to step aside from being involved in the transition. we're going to set into place a five-year ban on lobbying from the executive branch and a lifetime ban of anyone who serves in our foreign government. making sure we have people in the administration that are deeply committed to the president-elect's agenda to bring a renewed commitment to america first and america's interests first is what we mean. >> what do you say to people that look at the wealth of individuals being named to the cabinet and say that seems like a different type of swamp. the wealthy are well connected even if they weren't washington players. what do you say to that criticism? >> i say what the

he said, people have talked about some people that know how to make money being appointed to the cabinet. he said, it's better to choose people who know how to make money than people that don't know how to make money. you look at the selections in this cabinet and those that have been named. these are people of extraordinary accomplishment. and they are people that are going to be able to bring the same caliber of intellect, the the world economy that our president-elect is bringing. we're going to be able to go out there and fight for american jobs and fight for america's interests. >> some conservatives not happy. when it comes to donald trump's cabinet, it makes the establishment in goldman sachs great again. this is the swamp draining trump. what do you tell mark levin? i would tell my friend, all of these appointees are signing on

whether it be the ethics reforms that we're going to advance, whether there be our commitment to cut taxes, to roll back regulations, repeal and replace obamacare, we're going to have a team that is ready on day one to work with members of congress to get this economy moving again and have america standing tall in the world again. >> quickly, two more questions. on carrier, why isn't this pay to play politics? you gave a tax break -- some people could say you gave a tax break to carrier so that they would only send 700 jobs sarah palin called it crony capitalism. why isn't it? >> we were heartbroken in february when carrier announced they were pulling up and taking all of their jobs south of the border to mexico, closing factories in a couple locations in indiana. i asked them at that time whether or not the state of indiana could offer any incentives that are very routine in the competition for jobs in the country. they said, don't bother.

staying in the united states is because donald trump was elected president of the united states. the leadership at united technologies and carrier -- >> this is a government intervening in the private sector? why is this not government intervening in the private sector? >> first off, remember not more than 1,000 hoosiers have certainty in their jobs and in their futures going into this christmas season because of the leadership of donald trump. >> 700 don't. >> i couldn't be more grateful for that. >> 700 n >> i know the glass is half empty. >> it's not about the media. >> what you saw -- >> the media -- hitting the media is a crutch for you guys. it's not about the media. >> it's not a crutch. >> there's 700 -- what do you say? >> here is the bottom line. i was in the room when he made the call. what the american people have now in donald trump is someone who will be a champion for the american economy. he said to the leadership of the company, we're going to cut taxes. we're going to roll back the regulations that are driving

we're going to renegotiate trade deals so that they put american jobs and american workers first. he just asked them very respectfully to reconsider their decision to leave. as governor of indiana, i couldn't be more proud and more grateful that now more than 1,000 americans have certainty in their economic future. more than 1,000 jobs even before he becomes president of the united states. i think it's just the beginning. stay tuned. be ready. donald trump's going to be champion for the american economy. >> that's all the time we have. would love to have more time with you. i'm guessing that will come in the future. thanks for coming in. >> thanks. coming up, with emotions still raw, are clinton campaign staffers being sore losers? and are the trump folks being sore winners? we will bring together top officials from both campaigns to officials from both campaigns to see if they can hug it out. welcome to the world 2116, you can fly across town in minutes or across the globe in under an hour.

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welcome back. the panel is andrea mitchell and rich lowry. andrea, let's start with, why isn't donald trump's tweet about this right? we gave all this money to taiwan. everybody makes a big deal over a phone call. the average american sitting out there going, this seems like the typical washington thing that

china, economically or militarily. look, this is arguably the most important relationship that the u.s. has. there has been no call, no conversation -- it doesn't matter who made the call. the point is the conversation happened. and even here someone as careful as mike pence referred to her as the president of taiwan. >> that's a no no? >> that's a no no of the one china policy devised articulated and finalized by jimmy carter. it has been bipartisan. are trying to seize -- they will seize on what mike pence said. it was one of 50 calls, it was a courtesy call. try to move on in a certain way. they are looking at donald trump in a very different way. they were hoping -- this is a businessman, we can do business with him. this is not barack obama who will bludgeon us over human rights.

>> i hope this was intentional ari tweeted. he would like it if it was intentional. is that where you are? >> i'm the wrong guy to ask. national view opposed this. we consider china a province of taiwan. obviously, you can reconsider these diplomatic arrangements that have been just accepted for decades. you need to do it with some deliberation that appears to have been lacking in this instance. >> he ev s with him that we're going to get to policy when he is the president. right now, this is about courtesy. theoretically, you should be already having a policy and then everything you do from now through your presidency is moving forward on that. so this is a candidate who ran as i'm unpredictable, you are not going to know what you are going to get, which a lot of voters liked about him. when it comes to the world stage, unpredictability can be very dangerous.

this? >> no. i think the other thing that casts a shadow is the self-dealing. we know so many of the conversations he is having are with countries and leaders where there are massive trump corporate interests. this is where the trust that he hasn't yet built by actually creating a blind trust, not just saying his kids who are close to him will run his corporation -- it's undermining even the sort of benefit of the doubt that some people might give him. >> what when you take him literally and all this stuff. really, i'm sorry this is coming across to me as ludicrous. when i heard corey lewandowski say, you people in the media -- frankly, the words matter. lie of the year was barack obama. that was a case and it cost him, cost his party a lot of political problems. words mattered for george w. bush. he got accused of lying to get into war. can they really expect to govern this way? >> well, the kind of

of the key to his appeal to a lot of his voters who are going to have to get used to a president of the united states who is going to communicate differently. more direct. more informal. it's occasionally going to be bizarre. but the one thing i think we need to focus on is the words are going to matter more. but what's going to matter most in a couple months in the performance. if he delivers a more robust economy and there's not a blowup overseas -- >> we should never start being appalled at t disrespect this man has for the facts. there's a man headed to the white house that has a relationship to the truth that is unbefitting of our country. the other sort of latent thing we're talking about whether we take him literally or seriously is how dangerous he is. honestly, we are going to look back at this moment and ask how much backbone we all had at this moment. are we going to follow those in his party like romney and ryan and cruz who frankly ended up putting their love of power ahead of their love of country, or are we going to have the

neighbors who are under threat right now and stand up for our constitution and our values and the planet? >> let me say one word about the foreign policy aspects of this. that is why you have a national security adviser, whether it's steve hadly, sandy berger, who was the national security adviser, tony lake, here is what your defense secretary wants, here is what i believe, if you want. these are the risks and benefits. if you want to change policy, accept this phone call. here is what's going to happen. you are being told, john bolton has written this is a great thing to do. but this will be the after affect. you now have to make that decision. that's the problem i'm not sure that he is getting that kind of advice. >> more so than the literally and seriously, i think kellyanne conway has a better way of saying this which is things that offend voters versus things that affect voters. you can be offended but to

i'm going to feel differently about that. i think we also have to remember his policy and how it actually ends up in people's lives, affecting people's lives. it's very important. the other thing is to remember that we have -- we still have a very divided country. for all the talk about he won because he did this, he is coming into a country where you have 2.5 fewer votes and where you still have to reach out to those people who didn't support you and show them that you are g positively. >> i want to hit you with one more issue, rich, that is on this carrier deal and this idea that this is crony capitalism or it -- if barack obama had done this, conseratives would have pounded him across the board.

do you accept this as new conservatism? >> no. i will say, look, the positive thing is the gop needed to become the party of workers. and donald trump is forcing that change. the tax incentive part of this, it's not ideal policy making, governors do it all the time. the truly extraordinary and from where i sit disturbing part of it is to have a president-elect threatening companies for making business decisions he doesn't one has the leverage to stop him from doing that and it's probably going to be popular. >> paul ryan's house, are they going to roll over. he is threatening 35% tariffs. he did that again this morning in tweets. >> there are affirmative parts that won't pass the house. i think paul ryan and others had this conception of president trump as the guy who just signs their bills. that's not the way it's going to work.

following his lead much more than they expect. you have seen it on the carrier deal. >> you know several hundred thousands jobs churn every week in the u.s. economy. these are 7,000 jobs. he is a great storyteller. this is a narrative that is going to be very appealing to a lot of people. >> it was a bad deal. the numbers are still coming out. but the latest -- did you read the carrier letter? it started out saying we are pleased to inform you and ended up talking about all the jobs that would still be shipped overseas. the numbers i'm looking at say less than half are actually staying. >> that truth will not catch up -- >> he was using other people's money. he doesn't like paying taxes. it was a bad deal. the better way to actually say that we are on the side of workers is to look at the tens of millions of service sector jobs that are not going anywhere. i would like to see him go to target or walmart or mcdonald's and say i support $15 an hour. >> i will pause it there. interesting ways you both don't like the carrier deal for very different reasons.

challenge trump is facing. nerves are still pretty raw on both sides. we will talk to kellyanne conway and joel benenson. as we go to break, we want to remember grant tinker, chief executive of nbc. he died this week. he revamped nbc and the entertainment street. would honor him here. what if a company that didn't make cars made plastics that make them lighter? the lubricants that improved fuel economy. even technology to make engines more efficient. what company does all this? exxonmobil, that's who. we're working on all these things to make cars better and use less fuel. helping you save money and reduce emissions.

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welcome back. this week harvard hosted its traditional postmortem. what's typically a thoughtful and reflective forum soon turned hostile as tensions ran high in both of the general election campaigns. clinton accused breitbart run by steve bannon of promoting racist views. >> trump campaign manager kellyanne conway took issue with joel benenson for bringing up

>> kellyanne conway and joel benenson join me now. we will see if that is yelling. they promised there won't be. let me ask you this, different versions of the same question. joel, i will start with are you being sore losers? >> no, i don't think we're being sore losers. i think we have acknowledged and i acknowledged in the exchange that they won. he is president-elect. but i was also saying and taking issue with the notion that there was a mandate and that when you talk about connecting with people over america, hillary clinton had 2.5 million more americans vote for her than donald trump. i'm aware of the currency of

electoral college. i've been on three winning presidential campaigns. but a mandate is when you win big in the popular vote, when you win big in the election toal college vote. like president obama did two times. i don't recall kellyanne that president obama had a mandate or any republican saying he had a mandate. >> are you being a sore winner? you have done this a few times, your own twitter i think biosays, we won. it's like i dropped the mike. >> chuck, first of respect to my colleagues for over two hours before this happened. but the fact is that we are -- we're the ones who understood america. the idea that we're going to talk about the popular vote answers your questions about sore losers. the idea that donald trump doesn't have a mandate after he got 100 more electoral votes than mitt romney, he got 306, it wasn't close. he won states that had not gone republican in decades. had this been a race for the

in california, in new york, stayed in florida, gone to illinois perhaps. these population rich states. we did what you are supposed to do to become president. campaign in the battleground states, actually have an economic message that appealed to workers across the country, actually talk about patriotism, defeating radical islamism, people open their mailbox, they s the idea he doesn't have a mandate when they lost the white house 60 seats in the house, over a dozen senate seats, over a dozen governorships and over 1,000 state legislative seats, this is democratic party is having an identity crisis and a circular firing squad what i heard is, it's bernie sanders fault, anybody but hillary clinton's fault. >> a lot of people look at what you have said and what others have said, including the president-elect at his rally in

they can't seem to accept winning. that they haven't been gracious in victory. what do you say to that? >> you know, i'm going to hit back on that. i'm incredibly gracious, humble. every single media outlet, including this one, on good days ignored us, on regular days mocked us. that included when i told you and your colleagues there is an under cover under counted trump vote. there's not. maybe it's under counted for hillary people said. it portends the momentum that is owned by donald trump. we're the ones with the message. we're the ones turning these counties around that president obama carried twice. we switched 200 counties. we did that with messages that matter. he talked about veterans, talked about defeating terrorism. we were mocked and ignored. go back and look at the headlines two weeks out everywhere. the talk on networks like this,

secretary clinton wasn't even mentioning donald trump's name most of the time. >> joel, let me turn to you. she brought up this. it seems as if -- we gathered the reasons that you and others have given to hillary clinton's defeat. james comey, third party candidate, sexism, young voters shgsz media, obamacare preem ups, bernie sanders, health rumors. what wasn't on there was the point kellyanne brought up, hillary clinton. does she accept any responsibility for this defeat on her own? >> look, i think the reality here is that there was this -- this was was a strong ca kellyanne conway said they had a better message on the economy. when you look at voters who said they vote for someone who cares, hillary clinton won. when you look at voters who said the economy was the number one issue, hillary clinton won those voters. i think the issue now going forward is -- i think kellyanne conway again today, kellyanne talked about his economic message. i think he raised the bar very high. this is a guy who during the campaign built his businesses on

now voters are going to hear him as president call for giving the biggest tax cuts in history to corporations and very wealthy americans. >> you are not answering my question. do you accept this -- >> he did answer your question. they never accept it. >> i also said in that panel when we were asked what we have to do differently during the course of the day, the democratic party can't just keep winning the popular vote in presidential elections. we have won them five out of seven times. we have to rebuild at the state levels. of the states that they had to win. they did a good job, obviously, in michigan and wisconsin by eeking out narrow wins in those states where we -- they hadn't won previously. >> joel, let me ask you this. if the election -- i will get you one more shot. joel, if the election were the first tuesday in january and you had another six weeks here, what's one thing you would do differently in the last four weeks of the campaign? >> just probably do more.

i would hit more states more frequently. i would probably ask for another debate. probably ask for a faith forum to hear hillary clinton and donald trump both talk about their roots in faith and the strength of hers which i think are dominant. i think we would also probably keep talking about those tax cuts i just mentioned that we're going to hold him to during the course of his presidency. the biggest tax cuts. i don't think that's what working people think they're goito help them. that will be the high bar he has to clear. >> kellyanne, he went on this thank you tour. he will continue it on states he won. does he have a plan -- do you give list advice -- i asked you this before and you haven't answered it -- to go to states but meet with voters who didn't vote for him? he is down in the popular vote. say what you want. the california vote counts as much as the pennsylvania vote.

does he have plans to do that. >> he does. i have answered this many times. he started saying i will be the president for all americans even those who did not support me. he is not even inaugurated and he is going around doing this, bringing -- keeping jobs in the country through carrier. he will be a very actively traveled president. joel hit on something that's absolutely correct but wasn't done by his campaign. you have to show up where the people are. you just can't have a flood of advertisements and this ground game that didn't work. you have to go where the people are. secretary clinton took off a lot in august. we had 137 events to her 88 or so events after these conventions. donald trump did not take five days off before that final debate on october 19th in las vegas. secretary clinton did. everybody said, she's so brilliant to take off five days. voters said, where are you? come to me. bring the message here. he will be a very active

cranny of this country. he will be the president to all americans. it's time for those who lost to say he is their president, too. >> kellyanne conway, joel benenson, you are correct, neither one of you yelled at each other. >> this is the full jersey. >> fair enough. >> new york, kellyanne. >> thank you both. a little less heated than harvard. in case you missed it, hillary clinton lost the election despite leading in the popular vote by more than when we come back, why we may be seeing this kind of result more frequently in the near term. we'll be right back. david. what's going on? oh hey! ?? that's it? yeah. ?? everybody two seconds! ?? "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..."

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we are back. data download time. only five times has the person who won popular vote not won the presidency. two have been in the last five elections, since 2000. we might see it happen more frequently in the future. of the six most populous states, democrats have won california, new york and illinois by double digits since 1992. of the other three, democrats have been making gains in texas. it was big time this cycle, hosting their own in florida. only pennsylvania of the top six seems to be edging to the red column. all of this helps explain hillary clinton's growing popular vote margin. over 2.5 million votes right

of course, part of the reason for the popular vote, electoral college split is something we're calling sue per flewous votes. once a candidate wins a state, is it doesn't matter how many votes they win it by. anything more than one is unnecessary. by that standard, hillary clinton had 10 million extra votes that made no different to her electoral college total. donald trump by the way had 8.3 million, quote, extra votes. that's despite the fact that clinton won 20 plus the district of columbia for a final electoral vote tally. the democratic strongholds are growing in population. they will continue to favor democrats in the future. it also means it could be a while until we see a republican win the popular vote again. that doesn't mean they won't win the presidency. because it's in the states in the industrial midwest where this election was decided. pennsylvania, wisconsin and

shift, tilt to the right, we may continue to see this split between the popular vote and the electoral college when republicans win it going forward. when we come back, democrats have been losing big time at the congressional level. why did they re-elect the same leadership that was in charge of the house democrats when they

back now with the panel. heather, i want to start with you. because house democrats this week had the first shot at sort of deciding a new leadership team or stick with the old leadership team. they decided to stick with the old leadership te w didn't seem to earn the right to stay. why do you think they are there? >> i think the change at the top

supremacist republican party. that are trents going on that are not i don't think reaching up to the question of who the leadership in the congress but you will see in 2017, '18 and primaries. there's as much energy at the base of the democratic party right now that there was at the base of the party. >> there's a it's the math problem for democrats. two-thirds of the house democratic caucus comes from the west coast or the eastern seaboard. the base is not middle of america, tim ryan from rust belt ohio. when we started in the business, there were southern democrats. there were midwestern democrats. there were blue dog democrats. they are gone. >> isn't that the problem, given

>> the geography problem is that they will not be in control in the house. >> i look at this election and -- republicans want to say, see, democrats have a white working class problem. i look at the popular vote thing and texas, and republicans have a latino problem. both things are correct. >> i think what democrats will likely conclude is the way they try to reach trump voters is the bernie sanders style economics. what i think they will have a harder time they need to make some nod to the cultural concerns of the voters. if the bill clinton were running this year, someone like colin kaepernick would have been ripe for a moment. you are a privileged person. the lead you can do is stand up during the national anthem. no democrat would say that except for bizarrely ruth bader ginsburg and she had to apologize. >> i have heard that from some other democrats who don't want

that. they are afraid it would make the base angry by saying what rich just said, that bill clinton would figure out how to close this gap culturally. >> that's part of why particularly young people did not vote his wife. you cannot -- we cannot just follow the conservative southern strategy to try to split working class people who are white from working class people who are people of color. this is a moment for democrats and progressives to recognize that when you have a strate the 1% by dividing everybody else, you will always lose. it will always be close margins. >> it was a change election. we saw it as early as the new hampshire primary. she was not connecting not just to the working class voters but to the young people and to the women, the young women. that generation gap was a major problem for her. >> i think another thing that will be difficult for democrats,

and can't get their heads around the fact the party was devastated under him. >> that hurt republicans in the '90s. they couldn't recover from reagan. it might be the same instance. we will be back in a moment. end game segment, both campaigns are blaming the media for their problems. is it possible they are both

- even parents need a time out sometimes, especially from communications technology. so why not spend one hour totally unplugged? read, talk, make art, or whatever. no batteries required. end game time. at that infamous harvard session, both campaigns, andrea, you were there. both campaigns didn't just tacitly blame the media. they unloaded on it and made it

side and from the losing side. is it possible both campaigns are right? >> or wrong. i think the media -- we all missed it. we missed a lot of signals. in terms of coverage, donald trump was live unedited in all of the rallies on cable for months and months and months. he got his message through. hillary clinton did not get her message through. and that is arguably a fair complaint. but that's because of e-mails, that's because of a private server. there was a lot blame that has not been acknowledged by them. for her original decisions and her lack of transparency. >> do you buy -- >> they didn't have a message. the coverage can be faulted from both sides for not being substantive for not forcing both sides to talk about issues. >> i know where you will be on the quote unquote liberal media. do the clinton people have a case? if you were in their shoes, would you be angry at the media? >> i think the republican candidates in the primaries felt this way, that trump got extraordinary direct access to

in the general election, a lot of the coverage was extremely hostile. i think kellyanne is right. broadly speaking, people like us for a solid year treated them like idiots. it's understandable that having pulled this extraordinary upset off they might feel triumphant about it. >> part of the problem of the media going in until the night before the election saying it was pretty much impossible for trump to win is that you actually had 25% of trump according to exit polls who cast the ballot and didn't think he was unfit for president. you had this sense that there was a protest vote even within the trump vote when people were looking at the polls and saying, this is just going to be a message vote. i'm going to send a message because clinton is going to win. >> do you think in 20 years when historians look back they will -- the media's role will be as high or it will be celebrity culture and our -- that trump took advantage of a cultural moment?

written about that. i will say two things. the media, they like to go around the media. we don't need the media. we have twitter, texting, facebook. on the one hand, it's the immediate why's fault. on the other hand, we don't need the media. we can make end runs. the second is what the media has done and very poorly -- sorry, is to make congress inept. >> that's all right. goit ta go. we will try to alert the affiliates for a second hour. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." >> you can see more end game in post game sponsored by boeing, on the "meet the press" facebook

wisconsin and people from wisconsin again, at the center of the political universe. >> i'm charlie sykes, and sunday