Latest / Zero Shot Podcast DEMO / Midterm Elections: A Shift in Power

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Midterm Elections: A Shift in Power · Zero Shot Podcast DEMO

• 0:03
  Alex Marquardt: Hello, I'm Alex Marquardt in Washington, D .C.
• 0:06
  with Al Jazeera's ongoing special coverage of the U .S.
• 0:09
  midterm elections live from the nation's capital.
• 0:11
  President Donald Trump, he told voters in the lead up to the midterms to pretend that he was on the ballot.
• 0:17
  And they did just that, turning expectations of a blue wave into a historic route of Republicans, including
• 0:25
  candidates that Trump had personally selected.
• 0:28
  Democrats, House and Senate majorities have continued to grow.
• 0:31
  And today, Trump rejected the notion that these dramatic GOP losses had anything to do with him.
• 0:38
  Donald Trump: I mean, if I were on the ballot, we would have won.
• 0:41
  You saw the people that were packed, thousands and thousands of people at every rally.
• 0:45
  And if I was on the ballot, we would have won.
• 0:48
  But they just you couldn't transfer that love.
• 0:50
  There was such love at those rallies.
• 0:52
  It was a crowded one.
• 0:53
  We weren't able to transfer the love to candidates.
• 0:59
  Meanwhile, Donald Trump's vice president made clear what he believes the reason for this brutal defeat was.
• 1:05
  He wrote, quote, the reason we lost is the war.
• 1:08
  If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next six years was worth it, then do so.
• 1:13
  Argue that it was a worthwhile cost to pay.
• 1:17
  Agree or disagree.
• 1:18
  That's at least honest.
• 1:19
  But everyone knows why we lost.
• 1:22
  Our chief U .S.
• 1:23
  correspondent, Alan Fisher, joins us now live from the White House.
• 1:26
  So, Alan, Alan, we did hear from Donald Trump today touring his ballroom.
• 1:31
  It's really quite a remarkable sight, considering that he went into the campaign at the reflecting pool, talking about renovations now coming out of this
• 1:39
  election day, talking about his renovations.
• 1:41
  What else did he have to say?
• 1:42
  Well, just on a battle over affordability, to take time to go to talk about your ballroom, rather than talk
• 1:50
  about the election, seems odd.
• 1:52
  We've heard from George W.
• 1:54
  Bush and Barack Obama, after they lost midterm elections, Barack Obama famously coming out and said, well, I got a shellacking last night, meaning
• 2:02
  that he had really been hammered.
• 2:04
  And the defeat that Donald Trump suffered was even greater.
• 2:08
  Donald Trump sounded a bit low key, but he accepted that they hadn't won the election, that the Democrats had.
• 2:15
  In the words of one Democrat, the win was too big to accuse them that it was rigged.
• 2:20
  And Donald Trump says he'll work with the Democrats.
• 2:23
  But clearly, he believed that not being on the ballot was the thing that changed everything.
• 2:30
  He campaigned, of course, 30 rallies in 32 days.
• 2:33
  He tried to pick candidates and place them in places like North Carolina, South Carolina, to try and make sure that he
• 2:41
  got MAGA wins, even in Texas as well with Paxton.
• 2:46
  But he lost, and he lost quite convincingly.
• 2:50
  In fact, this is the biggest loss that any party has suffered in the House and the Senate since 1974.
• 2:57
  Donald Trump often likes to talk about how he's making history.
• 3:00
  That is one historical landmark he will not be proud of.
• 3:04
  Alan, is there any sense of how Donald Trump is going to be working with these Democratic majorities?
• 3:09
  He said if they don't propose anything insane, he will sign.
• 3:14
  Now, he's aware that he has to deal with his legacy.
• 3:17
  He has to work out how people will remember him, and that will happen over the next two years.
• 3:22
  He doesn't want to become a lame duck president.
• 3:25
  So he will work with the Democrats when he thinks it will benefit the American people, or certainly that's what we're being told.
• 3:32
  The other thing to remember is that he is being advised by those close to him, like Russell Voigt, who's the head of the Office Management and
• 3:39
  Budget, and Stephen Miller, who is his Deputy Chief of Staff, that he can expand the parameters of what the Oval Office can
• 3:47
  do, that he can use executive orders and presidential power and get backed up by the courts to change the way that he has a
• 3:55
  relationship with how they make the laws in this country.
• 3:58
  Now, it could well be that a lot of them are going to end up in court, but Donald Trump has always been keen to try and stretch the power of the presidency.
• 4:06
  And of course, the Supreme Court has ruled very much in his favour.
• 4:10
  One interesting thing is Donald Trump has acknowledged that the war in Iran probably did cost them.
• 4:14
  He was asked whether or not he would fire Pete Hegseth, because what I was hearing last night from Republicans is this is Hegseth's fault.
• 4:22
  He talked Donald Trump into a war that he said was going to be quick and easy.
• 4:26
  Donald Trump said he wouldn't fire Hegseth.
• 4:29
  He thinks he's doing a good job.
• 4:30
  But on the suggestion he might be parachuted in to a Senate seat after one Republican won that a governorship and
• 4:38
  now has to pick their replacement, he said that would be a good idea, which kind of opens the way for Hegseth to leave on his own terms.
• 4:46
  Trump not firing him.
• 4:48
  But clearly, the whole Iran war is something that the Republicans are ruining this morning and this afternoon.
• 4:56
  Yeah, Trump certainly doesn't want to be told what to do.
• 4:58
  Alan Fisher at the White House, thank you very much.
• 4:59
  Now, the leader of the Democrats in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, he says that the election results are monumental.
• 5:07
  Once every vote has been tallied.
• 5:11
  It's a historic majority in the 21st century.
• 5:16
  Democrats have taken back control of the Senate.
• 5:19
  Democrats have won governorships all across the country.
• 5:22
  We flipped legislative chambers in the North, in the South, in the East, in the West, and in the Midwest.
• 5:30
  Yes, it was a great victory for the American people.
• 5:36
  I want to go to my colleague, Scott McClain, at the decision desk.
• 5:39
  Scott, it could have been an even longer night waiting for these results, but it was very swift and decisive.
• 5:45
  And yet, your task is not over.
• 5:47
  There are still races out there that are not called.
• 5:49
  Lots more still to count.
• 5:50
  But what is clear at this stage, Alex, is that the United States Congress, well, the Democrats will get control of the House.
• 5:55
  They will get control of the Senate as well.
• 5:57
  The only outstanding question is, how big was that blue wave?
• 6:00
  How big will their majorities actually be?
• 6:02
  I'll show you up here.
• 6:03
  The state of affairs here on the big board just changed.
• 6:06
  237 is what the Democrats are at.
• 6:09
  But by our count, there have been 28, at least, flips from Republican districts over to Democratic -held districts.
• 6:16
  And there could be about a dozen or so more.
• 6:19
  I want to show you some examples of just how high this blue wave was.
• 6:22
  We'll go down here to South Florida.
• 6:23
  Mario Diaz -Balart, 12 -term congressman, very well -known Cuban -American congressman.
• 6:30
  2024, he won 70 -30.
• 6:32
  Now, the district has been redrawn slightly, but still, he's just hanging on by the skin of his teeth here.
• 6:38
  This one hasn't been called yet.
• 6:39
  What has been called is this one up in North Carolina, the 11th congressional district.
• 6:44
  This one, frankly, this one's Trump country.
• 6:46
  It's been Republican for as long as we've got data here.
• 6:50
  Hurricane Helene, natural disaster from two years ago was a big issue in this particular district.
• 6:55
  It swung in a big way for the Democrats.
• 6:58
  Also, look at Kentucky 6.
• 6:59
  This really is Trump country.
• 7:01
  This is whiter.
• 7:02
  This is poorer than most of the rest of the country.
• 7:05
  This is also bourbon country.
• 7:07
  They've had issues getting their product out to market, particularly Canada.
• 7:11
  They've been hurt.
• 7:12
  This one in 2024, look, 27 -point margins in favor of the Republicans.
• 7:16
  This time, the Democrats won it pretty handily by nine points.
• 7:20
  Massive, massive swing.
• 7:21
  Our signal pollster, Alex Taurasso, is back with us.
• 7:24
  All right, Alex, let's talk about the United States Senate.
• 7:27
  54 is the number for Democrats.
• 7:28
  So that's seven flips.
• 7:30
  So far, the Democrats actually only needed four in order to take control.
• 7:33
  They could still well get two more.
• 7:35
  I want to ask you about these two that are still outstanding.
• 7:37
  Mississippi.
• 7:38
  I know that there was some polling suggesting this one could be close, but are you surprised by how close?
• 7:45
  There wasn't much polling suggesting this could be close.
• 7:48
  There weren't very many people that were putting money into doing polls here.
• 7:50
  It's Mississippi.
• 7:51
  How could it even be close?
• 7:52
  But this is how high the wave has crested.
• 7:55
  So Cindy Hyde -Smith is currently behind by 65 votes.
• 7:59
  There's a handful of votes outstanding, 4%.
• 8:01
  That's not very much, but that's coming from a combination of counties that makes it hard to tell who's going to pull this one out.
• 8:07
  And that's why we don't have it decided yet.
• 8:08
  So this is Heinz County in the big population centers here.
• 8:11
  You have Rankin County where the Republican is in the lead.
• 8:14
  So again, Heinz County, 10 % of the vote still outstanding.
• 8:19
  Rankin County, if my board will cooperate here for one second.
• 8:22
  Rankin County, I don't know why my board's not cooperating here.
• 8:25
  It's about 10 % as well.
• 8:26
  But about 10 % as well.
• 8:27
  So you have some votes outstanding.
• 8:29
  The question is, where are those votes going to come from?
• 8:32
  And so Scott Colum, the Democrat, is leading in Heinz County.
• 8:36
  He should net about 7 ,500 votes from there.
• 8:38
  That's more than enough to put him where he needs to be.
• 8:41
  But there's a comparable number of ballots out in the rest of the state.
• 8:44
  And so it might take a while to count these up, but we're not going to know and be able to call this until we do.
• 8:48
  There's also not a law on the books for Mississippi that allows for automatic recount.
• 8:54
  Do you think that this one, despite the lack of a law, ends up in a courtroom anyways?
• 8:58
  It should.
• 8:59
  And if I'm on the Cindy Hyde -Smith team, then I'm calling every single election lawyer in the country who can fly out to Mississippi right now and
• 9:06
  comb every single one of those counties and look for irregularities.
• 9:10
  Because the only way that she can win a recount is if it's a small number of votes that are separating the two.
• 9:16
  And if they can prove irregularities and they need to prove those in court, that's hard to do.
• 9:19
  Just quickly, I mean, do you have any sense of which direction this one's going?
• 9:22
  I don't.
• 9:23
  Let's see.
• 9:24
  Flip a coin.
• 9:25
  Let me ask you about Alaska here.
• 9:27
  This is the double Dan Sullivan ballot.
• 9:30
  Two men named Dan Sullivan on the ballot.
• 9:32
  One of them got 3 ,500 votes.
• 9:34
  I mean, I know you said last hour that you think that there are probably people who voted for the other Dan Sullivan in error.
• 9:41
  How much does that become an issue once you count the second round of votes?
• 9:45
  Because Alaska has this odd sort of ranked choice voting system.
• 9:48
  So overall, I'm not happy being here if I'm Mary Peltola.
• 9:52
  This is really, really close.
• 9:53
  And you have to assume that if you don't like Senator Dan Sullivan, then you don't vote for the other Dan Sullivan.
• 9:59
  You just vote for Mary Peltola.
• 10:00
  And so most of those 3 ,500 or so people who voted for the other Dan Sullivan, when the votes are recalculated from redistricting or from, I'm sorry,
• 10:08
  from ranked choice voting, then they should go to Dan Sullivan.
• 10:11
  They are separated by a couple hundred votes.
• 10:14
  And so if most of those 3 ,500 go back to him, then he should be ahead.
• 10:18
  However, 74 % counted means that there's a lot of first round votes that have not come in yet.
• 10:23
  And that's a combination of mail.
• 10:25
  Alaska's huge and Election Day votes.
• 10:27
  And those don't automatically go to Senator Dan Sullivan.
• 10:30
  They'll go both ways.
• 10:30
  We might not have a result here for days, maybe weeks.
• 10:33
  Let's see what happens.
• 10:34
  Alex Tarasso, appreciate it.
• 10:36
  Alex, we'll send it upstairs.
• 10:37
  All right, Scott.
• 10:37
  Thanks very much.
• 10:38
  We have correspondents still across the country, Texas, Maine and North Carolina, all critical states in this blue wave last night.
• 10:44
  I want to talk to Phil Lavelle in Austin, Texas first.
• 10:47
  Phil, one of the questions that Democrats are facing now that they're going to have control of Congress is to what extent are they going to try again to impeach
• 10:55
  Donald Trump?
• 10:56
  And the senator -elect James Tallarico was asked about that today.
• 10:59
  What did he say?
• 11:03
  Yeah, you know, he's actually been asked about it a couple of times because, remember, there was a lot of talk from some within the Democratic Party before this election saying that they would want to impeach Donald Trump.
• 11:11
  You get the sense that Tallarico is really trying to play this down.
• 11:14
  He says, of course, as a senator, he would have a role during an official impeachment process if there was to be an impeachment trial.
• 11:21
  But you get the sense that he's really trying to move away from this because what he wants to do is portray a unity.
• 11:27
  He says he's not interested in a retribution tour.
• 11:30
  And he's even said that he would be willing to work with Donald Trump on some issues.
• 11:34
  And this is kind of a message that we saw throughout this campaign.
• 11:37
  Every time he was asked a question that might try to put him in that position, including on Fox News, I have to say, by the way, this morning, which is not considered friendly territory
• 11:45
  to a Democrat, he has tried to move away from that and say, look, I am trying to bring people together.
• 11:50
  We have one chance here.
• 11:51
  We have one job.
• 11:52
  And that is to make sure that we don't mess this up, that we bring people together.
• 11:56
  And if you remember last night during his acceptance speech, he stood in front of a lectern.
• 11:59
  It didn't say Tallarico for Texas like it did everywhere else.
• 12:02
  It said, love thy neighbor, because he's really tried to say that he is not a Democrat.
• 12:07
  He is a Texan first, Democrat second.
• 12:10
  He's not going to go to Washington as a Democrat.
• 12:12
  He's going to go as a Texan representing the interests of people here who just happens to be a Democrat.
• 12:17
  So that's the message he's trying to portray.
• 12:19
  And he's really trying to move away from what he calls those divisive politics.
• 12:23
  You know, he talked about Elon Musk.
• 12:25
  He talked about the billionaires.
• 12:26
  He said there are people in society who are making money on dividing us.
• 12:31
  We have to end this.
• 12:32
  We have to take big money out of politics, especially considering, remember, that Elon Musk contributed something like 150 million to the Paxton campaign.
• 12:39
  We have to take that money out and we have to unify people.
• 12:42
  This is our one chance and we've got to make sure we get it right.
• 12:44
  That's his message.
• 12:45
  Yeah, he does seem cleanly aware about the issues that he was voted into office on.
• 12:49
  I want to go to our Eva McKend, who is in Portland, Maine.
• 12:52
  Eva, Maine is a purple state.
• 12:54
  Democrats have had their eye on the Senate seat of Susans Collins for a long time.
• 12:59
  She has been in office for some 30 years.
• 13:02
  How did Democrats finally pull this out?
• 13:09
  Alex Marquardt: Well, Alex, by focusing on affordability, by focusing on a working class message, that is ultimately what allowed them
• 13:17
  to prevail in this state.
• 13:18
  We've been on the ground here for about three weeks and we've traveled all the way up to Presque Isle and down here to Portland.
• 13:24
  So really, we have been able to get a diversity of perspectives.
• 13:29
  And last night was kind of telling because when we were speaking to Lobsterman and Loggers, they were saying that they supported Republican incumbent Susan
• 13:36
  Collins in the past.
• 13:38
  But this year they were voting for Troy Jackson.
• 13:41
  So maybe this was all sort of in plain sight, but people just could not believe it.
• 13:48
  Just given Collins a legacy in this state, nearly 30 years is quite remarkable.
• 13:54
  In the state of Maine, she ascended to the chair of the Appropriations Committee.
• 13:59
  And Democrats, even ones that were excited by Troy Jackson and voting for him, didn't necessarily think that he could win.
• 14:07
  And take a listen to how his supporters are processing this big moment.
• 14:15
  Graham's failure highlights the challenges faced by candidates aligned with Trump.
• 14:24
  Donald Trump: Yes, Alex.
• 14:25
  So let's start with South Carolina and Darlene Graham.
• 14:28
  And she thought that her name recognition and the support of President Donald Trump would help get her over the finish
• 14:36
  line.
• 14:36
  But in the end, she made quite a bit of flubs when it came to the campaign trail and also to the debates, most notably when she
• 14:44
  said that national security wasn't really my thing.
• 14:47
  And she tried to play it off as a political novice who was, you know, an outsider from Washington.
• 14:51
  But her message and the backing of President Trump never really stuck with voters in South Carolina compared to her opponent, Annie
• 14:59
  Andrews, who is now the first Democrat to win in South Carolina since 2008.
• 15:05
  And it was just a record turnout.
• 15:07
  And people were just not happy with the messaging coming out of Darlene Graham and President Donald Trump.
• 15:13
  And his support in the state there was not enough to get her over the finish line, as White House officials told me they were hoping for.
• 15:20
  And now they are saying that the candidate might have just not been strong enough.
• 15:23
  And so I must note, though, in South Carolina, it's the first time a woman has been elected to the Senate in U .S.
• 15:31
  history, in South Carolina history.
• 15:32
  But in North Carolina now, it is a totally different scenario because voters here are dubbing it the Roy Cooper effect.
• 15:40
  He is a beloved governor.
• 15:42
  He has never lost an election in North Carolina.
• 15:45
  And voters say that he is responsible from turning the state from red to purple and now blue.
• 15:52
  And it's not so much his opponents, Michael Watley, and Trump's messaging.
• 15:57
  It was more Cooper's reputation as a beloved governor, but also his messaging on affordability.
• 16:04
  Alex, you traveled to North Carolina as well during the midterm elections.
• 16:07
  And that's all that voters were speaking about here was that key issue.
• 16:11
  And so Cooper has been leading the poll.
• 16:15
  So that was not as much of a surprise to voters here.
• 16:18
  But what was a surprise was that the Cooper effect went down the ballot.
• 16:22
  It was a total wipeout across the board for Democrats in North Carolina.
• 16:27
  And that is what is surprising to some voters here in the state.
• 16:30
  They won control of the House of Representatives in North Carolina for the first time in 16 years.
• 16:36
  They broke Republican supermajority in the state Senate.
• 16:40
  Cooper now is the first Democrat to flip the Republican seat from red to blue since 2008.
• 16:46
  And since we are now starting to discuss the 2008 presidential election, voters here in North Carolina are pitching
• 16:54
  Roy Cooper, Alex.
• 16:56
  Yeah, the long tail of Roy Cooper, who, as you correctly note, is beloved in that state.
• 17:00
  All right.
• 17:00
  Tanya Nouri in North Carolina, Eva McKendon in Maine, and Phil LaVelle in Texas.
• 17:04
  Thank you all very much.
• 17:05
  Appreciate it.
• 17:05
  I want to go to Ohio now, one of several states that saw Senate seats turn blue.
• 17:09
  It was a tight race with Democrat Sherrod Brown defeating the incumbent John Husted.
• 17:14
  I'll do zero as Heidi Jo Castro checked in with voters in Columbus.
• 17:24
  Alex Marquardt: The upset in Maine is historic, as a logger defeated a long-standing senator, showcasing a shift in voter sentiment and a desire for change.
• 17:35
  Donald Trump: Absolutely unbelievable.
• 17:36
  Unbelievable.
• 17:37
  This is the biggest upset that the state of Maine will ever feel.
• 17:41
  Yeah, I think that, you know, as this campaign built and as people really, you know, heard what Troy's message was, they, you know, they got behind that
• 17:48
  message.
• 17:49
  And people were looking for hope.
• 17:51
  Yeah, I was going to say this.
• 17:52
  This is American history.
• 17:54
  A logger from the town of 300 people.
• 17:58
  A logger has beaten a 30 -year United States senator who outspent him six to one with
• 18:06
  Elon Musk money and troop billionaire money.
• 18:09
  And it is just a fantastic result for people.
• 18:13
  And every now and then, America does something really great.
• 18:20
  Alex Marquardt: I do think that this is going to say about a lot about our politics in the future.
• 18:27
  All types of assumptions were made about Troy Jackson's intellect because of the way he spoke, because of his background.
• 18:34
  At times, he did accuse Republicans of looking down on him.
• 18:39
  But his background actually allowed him to assemble a winning coalition, people that could really identify
• 18:47
  with being working class, with growing up, without having a lot, and wanting someone who could fiercely fight for that
• 18:55
  perspective.
• 18:56
  So I think that's why we saw Troy Jackson be so successful.
• 19:01
  Collins, though, will get her due from Republicans.
• 19:03
  30 years of service is a remarkable legacy.
• 19:07
  But her time in this state is over.
• 19:09
  Alex?
• 19:10
  Yeah, it is a remarkable race.
• 19:11
  All right.
• 19:12
  Even McKenna in Maine, thank you so much.
• 19:13
  I want to bring in Tanya Nouri, who is in North Carolina.
• 19:17
  But, Tanya, I've been calling you our Carolinas correspondent because you've been following the race in South Carolina very closely as well.
• 19:22
  And I think the Republican candidates in both states, Michael Watley in North Carolina, Darlene Graham in South Carolina, really
• 19:30
  do speak to this rebuking of Trump, because these were two candidates who were chosen by Trump and who had
• 19:38
  strong backing from the president.
• 19:47
  We're inside of a very busy diner, Tommy's Diner, which is very close to the state capitol.
• 19:52
  And you can see on the tables there are a lot of coffee because many of these very engaged voters were watching those election results
• 20:00
  last night in this historic midterms that here in Ohio did, as you say, flip a Senate seat to the Democrats as well as have a Democrat
• 20:07
  take over the state governor.
• 20:09
  So we were checking in with these very nice people.
• 20:11
  This is Heidi.
• 20:13
  Scott, thank you guys so much for letting us interrupt.
• 20:15
  Heidi, what did these election results mean to you?
• 20:18
  I just feel happy this morning.
• 20:20
  I'm very grateful that intelligence and compassion showed up in Ohio.
• 20:26
  Donald Trump: Which results do you think were very significant?
• 20:29
  Of course, the Senate flipping now to Democratic control is going to be significant for the entire country.
• 20:35
  That's correct.
• 20:36
  And Dr.
• 20:37
  Amy Acton being elected.
• 20:38
  It's a good day in Columbus.
• 20:41
  Good day in Ohio.
• 20:42
  I want to ask you, Scott, a lot of voters we talked to yesterday throughout the polls were telling us that this vote for them was as much about
• 20:49
  repudiating Donald Trump as it was electing a Democrat.
• 20:53
  Does that ring true to you?
• 20:55
  I think so.
• 20:56
  I think it showed that Americans were, I think they were tired of the fear tactics of,
• 21:04
  you know, the different people.
• 21:05
  And it was exciting not only to see the Democrats gain control for me, but also
• 21:13
  the younger people in different walks of life, people running and winning office.
• 21:20
  And it's a new change.
• 21:22
  And I think it's just, you know, it's addressing some of the staleness and getting some new blood in both
• 21:29
  parties, not just Democrats, but the Republicans.
• 21:32
  Everybody had new people running, and I really think that's important.
• 21:36
  Alex Marquardt: I want to bring in our midterm analysts.
• 21:40
  Eric Hamm is a former Democratic congressional staffer, and Patrick Mara is the chair of the Washington, D .C.
• 21:45
  Republican Party.
• 21:46
  Thank you both for being with me.
• 21:48
  So let's look at these majorities that are continuing to grow in the House and in the Senate.
• 21:53
  Eric, even if Democrats don't win these races in Mississippi and in Alaska, they will still have an overwhelming majority
• 22:00
  in the Senate.
• 22:02
  What do you think these Democrats coming in should be focused on in these early weeks and months?
• 22:08
  Republicans face significant challenges and must reflect on their strategies after the election losses, focusing on affordability and economic issues.
• 22:19
  Donald Trump: heard James Tallarico, for example, rejecting the notion that Donald Trump or the Democrats should go after impeachment, that they should focus on the issues.
• 22:26
  Yeah, he's absolutely right.
• 22:28
  And considering the fact that look at who was elected and where they were elected from, I think you're going to see many of these lawmakers focus on bread and butter
• 22:36
  issues.
• 22:36
  It's going to be affordability, the economy and health care.
• 22:41
  Those are going to be their central issues.
• 22:43
  I think one issue that also because you've got so many moderate to centrist Democrats there, I think you're going to also
• 22:51
  see them try to tackle the issue of the debt.
• 22:53
  It's going to be very difficult, but I think that's something at least Republicans will like.
• 22:57
  We have one big piece of news today, Patrick, and that is that Mike Johnson, who has been the Speaker of the House for the past few years, is not going to be running
• 23:04
  to be the majority leader when, sorry, to be the minority leader when Republicans are in the minority in the House.
• 23:12
  How surprising is that to you?
• 23:14
  What do you think his successor should focus on?
• 23:17
  Yeah, it's not very surprising at all.
• 23:20
  I mean, this is a pretty big loss for Republicans.
• 23:22
  Obviously, the Senate loss is much more significant.
• 23:25
  I think for a while now we've recognized that the Republicans will lose the House of Representatives.
• 23:30
  But this is a standard for, you know, when you have a loss like this for a speaker to move on, also going from speaker to
• 23:38
  minority leader is a tremendous, tremendous difference as well.
• 23:42
  So for him, this also could be personal.
• 23:44
  But it is important for Republicans to turn the page here.
• 23:47
  In 2012, 2013, the RNC, for example, following the Mitt Romney race and that presidential cycle, they
• 23:55
  did an autopsy.
• 23:56
  I think they called it the Growth and Opportunity Report.
• 23:58
  Alex Marquardt: Trump's comments reveal his perspective on the election results and his belief about his influence.
• 24:04
  Donald Trump: So the Republicans will need to do some soul searching, some examining as to what exactly happening, some looking in the mirror.
• 24:12
  Alex Marquardt: So the underlying economic conditions, for example, you know, Republicans are going to have to work with Democrats to focus on
• 24:20
  affordability is something that I rarely said leading up to this election.
• 24:25
  We'll need to focus on having a good resolution to the Iran conflict.
• 24:31
  The issue with that is we the U .S.
• 24:34
  can't just leave or move.
• 24:35
  Right.
• 24:36
  And so President Trump will need to bring congressional leaders, especially on the foreign affairs committees, the intelligence committees, more in
• 24:44
  armed services committees, more into the fold on the Iran war.
• 24:47
  Now, as they have budgetary authority over this and they can help to tighten up the purse strings at least.
• 24:53
  But really, it's going to come down to this next year because of the presidential election is critical for Donald Trump and the
• 25:01
  Democrats in Congress and actually getting something done.
• 25:04
  But you've seen if you look back at presidents, you know, Obama in when he lost in 10, Bill Clinton, when he lost
• 25:12
  in 94, you had some very good bipartisan public policy coming out of those divided governments.
• 25:20
  So hopefully President Trump and the Democratic Congress is able to do the same.
• 25:25
  And we actually are hearing Trump out there today congratulating Democrats and saying that he does plan to work with them.
• 25:33
  But, Eric, he is solely, along with his administration, in charge of, say, the Iran war, which could help fix this affordability crisis.
• 25:41
  What kind of pressure can Democrats actually bring to bear to help end that work?
• 25:46
  Because to Patrick's point, I mean, unless you just tell the ship captains to pack up and head home, it's a pretty messy
• 25:54
  unwinding.
• 25:55
  No, you're absolutely right.
• 25:56
  And look, this is all in terms of the management, the adjudication of that war.
• 26:02
  It's going to fall all on the administration.
• 26:05
  Congress' role is to simply approve the purse strings in terms of what is needed.
• 26:10
  That is going to require more outreach, more engagement from the White House to Congress, something that we just have not seen.
• 26:17
  So when they ask for more money for the Iran war, Democrats could just say no.
• 26:21
  Absolutely.
• 26:21
  And that gives them enormous leverage.
• 26:23
  And it also will require the administration to also make sure that there is a fulsome plan in terms of what they will do to end the
• 26:31
  war.
• 26:31
  Right now, we've seen a lot of what President Donald Trump has done over these last two years has been simply to bypass Congress.
• 26:39
  And he's never had to go to them.
• 26:40
  They've been a rubber stamp, which is one of the reasons why we see Mike Johnson actually stepping down as leader.
• 26:46
  He simply just doesn't have a role anymore.
• 26:48
  Congress is now under Democrats are going to be much more engaged in what the administration is doing.
• 26:55
  That's their job, oversight.
• 26:56
  And they're going to do a lot of it.
• 26:58
  And it's going to make the Trump administration very uncomfortable.
• 27:02
  But an oversight is, especially the Iran war, is going to be one of the jumping off points, I would imagine, from Democrats who
• 27:10
  probably have Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in their sights.
• 27:14
  And, Patrick, I wonder where you see the difference between sort of retribution, things like impeachment, going after Donald Trump that would appear overtly political,
• 27:22
  versus what Congress is actually supposed to do, which, to Eric's point, is that oversight?
• 27:27
  Say, bringing in Elon Musk to talk about Doge and bringing in others into the oversight committee to see how perhaps
• 27:35
  members of the administration or their family members have profited off of their positions.
• 27:41
  Is that justified to you?
• 27:43
  Well, I mean, look, what happens often with these oversight committees is they've now become theater on television.
• 27:49
  And that's awfully bipartisan.
• 27:50
  So whether you're a Republican or Democrat, regardless who controls, everyone wants to get their questioning in.
• 27:55
  The time is very limited.
• 27:57
  You know, you only have about five minutes to do a Q &A.
• 28:00
  But there's no doubt the Democrats, for example, they'll bring in Mark Wayne Mullen to talk about Customs, Border Patrol, ICE.
• 28:07
  Head of DHS.
• 28:07
  Yes, they'll bring in the director of the FBI.
• 28:12
  You know, he'll be on the list.
• 28:14
  And then, of course, Pete Hegseth is like he is at the top of everyone's list on the Democratic side and probably some Republicans as well.
• 28:21
  You probably have some bipartisan support for that.
• 28:24
  There's no doubt that their oversight and investigations of the administration will increase significantly over
• 28:31
  that done by the Republicans since.
• 28:34
  And you see the same thing if, you know, the Republicans are in charge of those bodies, then they don't they don't look into these things as much.
• 28:41
  But Democrats will be looking under rocks at these agencies.
• 28:45
  And really, that's where you run into problems.
• 28:47
  And that's where big stories arise from are these things that nobody was looking at that they're able to unearth.
• 28:53
  And that's really that's the job of the Oversight Committee.
• 28:55
  Yeah, I saw a statement from the incoming chair who his statement just said lawyer up.
• 29:00
  Yeah.
• 29:00
  Eric, you were going to jump in.
• 29:02
  No.
• 29:02
  Look, we have seen Trump cabinet secretaries be absolutely dismissive of
• 29:10
  Congress.
• 29:11
  And much of what we've seen in terms of how they engage with him has been pro forma at best.
• 29:17
  And I think that is going to have to change because now we know that there is they're going to rev up
• 29:24
  the oversight, not necessarily to simply engage in performance in terms of
• 29:32
  partisanship.
• 29:33
  But Democrats need to actually show that they can govern and they can get things done.
• 29:38
  And I think as a result of that, they're going to want to actually work with this administration.
• 29:44
  Look, yesterday was all about the midterms.
• 29:48
  Today is all about the 2028 presidential election.
• 29:52
  We may not want to talk about that.
• 29:53
  We may not want to say that we are there, but we are there.
• 29:56
  And Democrats are and Republicans are looking ahead to this reshaped landscape.
• 30:03
  And what happens in these next two years is going to set both parties up for who will control the White House in just two years.
• 30:11
  It is so important to emphasize to our international audience, especially how these American elections work, because you're absolutely right.
• 30:18
  We are turning the page into a lame duck session now.
• 30:22
  But really, the elections do start immediately in the new year and we'll have official candidates probably by next
• 30:30
  summer or in the fall.
• 30:31
  Before I let you guys go, Eric, I do want to ask you about, you know, Democratic candidates and the Democratic branding going forward, because throughout the course
• 30:39
  of these midterms, Republicans tried to paint Democrats as as socialists, that they're all members of DSA, that they're all
• 30:47
  offshoots of Mamdani, etc.
• 30:50
  Certainly, Abdul Saeed is a is a progressive, but he's kind of the only one who won a Senate race.
• 30:56
  Right.
• 30:57
  Like Angie Nixon was defeated in Florida.
• 30:59
  So.
• 31:00
  Was the Democrats do enough job at sort of pushing back on that?
• 31:04
  How much do you think that that that branding effort by Republicans is going to stick?
• 31:08
  No, they did not.
• 31:09
  In fact, if you look at the approval ratings of both Democrats and Republicans, they they both are pretty anemic right now and both have a lot
• 31:17
  of work to do, which is why it's so important, so crucial what happens in these next two years in Congress and how
• 31:24
  the executive branch and the legislative branch work together to get things done, because they have a lot of
• 31:32
  work to do.
• 31:33
  And again, what happens is going to shape what we see in terms of what happens in 2028.
• 31:39
  All right, Eric and Patrick Mara.
• 31:41
  Appreciate it.
• 31:41
  Thank you.
• 31:42
  You can catch up on all of the midterm results on our digital platforms as well.
• 31:47
  We will have more world news from you in just a moment.
• 31:49
  Stay with us here on Al Jazeera.
• 31:52
  Thanks, Sir.
• 31:54
  Thank you.
• 31:58
  Thanks.
• 31:59
  Yeah.
• 32:00
  Yeah.
• 32:01
  Hmm.