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Perspectives for Obama Working with Republican Congress; Republicans Starting Presidential Race; Uphill Battle for Governorship for Mary Landrieu

Aired November 05, 2014 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), KENTUCKY: Americans have seen that what that the current crowd in Washington is offering is making us weaker, both at home and abroad. They have had enough.

SEN.-ELECT THOM TILLIS (R), NORTH CAROLINA: We have swept this nation with a compelling Senate majority.

(CHEERS & APPLAUSE)

So somehow I think Senator Reid's going to have a different office assignment come January.

SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R), KANSAS: Tonight candidates stood up and said enough. Enough of the gridlock, enough of the failed leadership under President Obama and, yes, Harry Reid.

JONI ERNST (R) IOWA SENATOR-ELECT: Thanks to all of you we are heading to Washington. And we are going to make them squeal!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. A tidal wave of voter anger washes across the U.S. and Republicans surf that tsunami to same game- changing victory. They thrash the Democrats, getting seven new seats in the Senate, at least 14 in the House and wrestle away the governors' offices in four states. The big takeaway the GOP seize the Senate and now how has full control of both houses of Congress. This was the balance of power yesterday, the president's party in power with 53 seats. And as you can see in blue and gray representing the interest of a broad cross section of the country.

Now watch the transformation to red as states switch allegiances to Republican candidates. It may even be more striking in the governor races. Here is yesterday's color-coded breakdown based on the 2012 elections and here's the changeover from blue and gray states to red. President Obama awakens this morning to a hostile Congress, a disenchanted public and the threat of a lame duck presidency stifling his last two years in office.

We're covering all the results and all the angles. Let's begin with our chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash. Good morning, Dana. DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Everybody on

Capitol Hill who won last night -- meaning top Democrats and top Republicans -- are talking about working together now, making government work. That clearly was one of the top messages from voters that they're just kind of sick of Washington not working. I mean who isn't. But the question is whether or not that is realistic. I'm already hearing from administration sources that they want to work, but they're just not that optimistic that they can get big things done like immigration reform, even though on the Republican side in Congress they know that in order to win in 2016 the White House in order to grow the Republican Party, that's the kind of tough compromise on issues like immigration they're going to have to do. At least those who are in leadership understand that.

As for Mitch McConnell, the new majority leader, likely incoming majority leader, he told "Time" magazine some of the things that he wants to do. The specifics, he said "I think we need to do everything we can to get America back to work." Some examples of things that we're very likely to be voting on, approving the Keystone Pipeline or repealing the medical device tax, trying to restore the 40 hour work week and trying to get rid of the individual mandate.

Well, the first two there are more likely than not issues that could pass, the Keystone pipeline, repealing the medical device tax. Those have bipartisan support. But then you get to the last thing he talked about, repealing the individual mandate that is Obamacare. Of course, any Republican majority is likely going to have to at least take a vote to show their base that they are going to do it in the Senate just like they tried so many times in the House but if that's the kind of thing that the Senate majority is going to do over and over again like the house, there is not going to be a recipe for bipartisanship.

COSTELLO: All right. Dana Bash reporting live from with Washington this morning. Thank you.

It's safe to say it was a rough night for the White House. Overnight President Obama phoned members from both parties. He is expected to make his first public comments at a news conference this afternoon. As for what the GOP sweep means for the president's last two years in office, just ask RNC Chair Reince Priebus.

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REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: It's a call to President Obama that he's going to have to start working with Republicans to get things done and I think obviously with a Republican majority in the Senate, he's going to have no other option than to work with Republicans and get things done. Well, he should have been doing that for the past five years and he hasn't been.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Let's bring in CNN's senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta. Good morning, Jim. The president is expected to speak later this afternoon. What might he say? JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, I think we're all going to be looking for a change in tone. You know, last night officials here at the White House were sounding very pugnacious, that the president no matter what happened last night was going to go ahead and take executive action on immigration. Is that still going to be the case? That will be one of the key questions for President Obama later on this afternoon when he holds that formal news conference in the east room of the White House at around 3:00 this afternoon. And, Carol, you know, they are still getting reacquainted, the president and Mitch McConnell. The president called the Senate majority, the incoming Senate majority leader last night, but could not connect so he had to leave a message. So they're going to have to work on their communication over the next several days and weeks.

But, you know, as for the prospects for getting things done up on Capitol Hill, you know, it really could be gridlock on steroids. And talking to White House officials last night, the question has been asked, well, is the president going to take a more conciliatory tone? Is he going to be interested in compromise? We heard Vice President Joe Biden say that to Gloria Borger in recent days that we want to compromise. I wasn't hearing that from White House officials.

They were saying essentially what are the Republicans going to do to show that they're willing to compromise? They like to point out very quickly that House Speaker John Boehner had the chance to take up immigration reform and he didn't do it. And so they feel like the president now has the latitude to take executive action in the coming weeks.

But you know, Carol the other question I think that we're going to have to wait and hear to see the president answer this afternoon is exactly what his read is on what happened last night. Because they were arguing yesterday that this was a bad map that they were fighting on Mitt Romney's turf, trying to win in states like Arkansas and Louisiana and so forth. But then they ended up losing in states like Colorado and losing gubernatorial races in the president's home state of Illinois. So this was a big, big wave for the Republicans and they're still, frankly, a little shell-shocked over here at the White House, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Jim Acosta reporting live from the White House this morning. Thank you. Remember, you can watch the president speak this afternoon, 2:50 eastern. We'll, of course, carry his remarks live.

Even though the midterms are just hours old, the race for 2016 has definitely begun. The proof? Listen to Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, a man some observers think could be gearing up for a White House run himself.

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SEN. RAND PAUL (R) KENTUCKY: Now, the Clintons have long been represented as leaders of the Democratic Party. She's said to be the front-runner for the nomination for their party. So really elections are about who the leadership is in the party and it's about either accepting or rejecting those leaders and, frankly, I think that yesterday was a repudiation of Hillary Clinton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Paul even took to Facebook where he posted a photo album of sorts with Clinton campaigning with candidates who lost. Paul's hashtag? "Hillary's losers."

Joining me now, Larry Sabato, director for the University Of Virginia Center for Politics and Peter Wehner, a former senior advisor for the Mitt Romney campaign and a senior fellow at the ethics and public policy center. Welcome, gentlemen.

LARRY SABATO, DIR., CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Hi.

PETER WEHNER, FMR. SENIOR ADVISOR, ROMNEY CAMPAIGN: Thanks, Carol.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Hi. Thanks for being here. Peter, I want to start with you. For all intense and purposes, some say Rand Paul possibly started his campaign last night. Is this really the time?

WEHNER: Well, I think he's actually started his campaign before last night you can say, somewhat more official. You know, it's fine. I mean look, this is -- this is what happens every time after a second midterm, the people in the opposition party begin to maneuver, but that's really not what's most important for Republicans now. What's important now is that they're the governing party in America. They had gains in the senate, the House, the governorships, the state legislature. They are the governing party in America, and now they have to act like it. And that means that during the next two years they have not only got to put forward a governing agenda, but they have to demonstrate a governing temperament. The 2016 politics is going to sort itself out. I do suspect that probably the person that helped himself most may have been John Kasich with that overwhelming win in Ohio and maybe Scott Walker. I think the governors had a great night.

COSTELLO: OK, so they'll be in the mix, too. So, Larry, I'll ask you that question and keep in mind those two names because it won't be long until Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush and Rick Perry start making more news because they want to be president, too, right? At least that's what a lot of analysts say. So, will this make it harder for Mitch McConnell to work with the president?

SABATO: Well, I'm not sure that working with the president is all that high on his agenda. We're going to hear a lot of happy talk, you know, for a month or two, we always do after an election and everybody sings Kumbaya. I think we've all been around the block enough to know that that's just not going to happen. The Republicans in the House and Senate will have enough trouble just working with each other, much less with the president that they simply disagree with on most basic issues. The ideological gap is enormous.

The polarization is enormous and President Obama is now fully a lame duck. This is a classic sixth-year itch election. It has made President Obama a weak president, at least in domestic matters for his final two years and so I would expect a lot of positioning by Congress, by the governors you mentioned who want to run for president, by the senators you mentioned who want to run for president so, oh, good. We have - the next campaign has started, Carol. We don't have to get depressed because there isn't a campaign. There's one going on right now and it will fully blossom in the next few months as candidates announce.

COSTELLO: Larry, that's so cynical. Peter, are you quite that cynical?

WEHNER: Not quite as much. Look, it's the nature of American politics, it's always like that. And in one campaign ends and the other begins but the reality is that you do have to govern. I mean there is a president, there is a Congress and there are governors and they've got to put forth legislation. So that's really what Republicans are going to be -- are going to be judged on.

COSTELLO: So what do you think, Peter, the first order of business should be? You know, Dana Bash mentioned, you know, eliminating Obamacare but that's not going to happen because the president still has veto power. So, will that be the first thing out of the gate, you think, or will it be something else?

WEHNER : Well, I think Obamacare is going to -- I think what's going to happen is it's going to be an effort at piecemeal taking it apart like the medical device tax. Which you actually could get, some Democrats to go along.

COSTELLO: Well, there's bipartisan support for that, that's true.

WEHNER: There is bipartisan support for that. Look, you have some smaller things like prison reform. Then there's some big things like tax reform. But Republicans shouldn't kid themselves. The president has a veto pen and he may veto some things and there is the filibuster. But what Republicans have to do is they have to put forward a governing agenda that's geared particularly for the middle- class and if they have to put it on the president's desk and he vetoes it or Democrats filibuster it, they can't control that. What they can control is what they put forward and I do think from Keystone pipeline to tax reform to prison reform to trade issues to various parts of the Affordable Care Act I think there's an actual agenda there. Higher education there's some steps that can be taken. There are actually things on the shelf that Republicans can do.

COSTELLO: Larry, I hope Peter is right, frankly, because I think people just want to get something done in this country. They don't like that gridlock, they want the two parties to come together. But you heard what Dana and Jim Acosta said, they don't really see the gridlock ending. From your perspective, what do you see?

SABATO: I just heard a lot of happy talk, as I predicted. There will be a lot more of it. I think that your correspondents are absolutely correct. Essentially you're going to have more gridlock, it is going to deepen, it will be worse than it has been over the last couple of years, partly because a presidency is ending and two years is a short time span and most people in Congress realize they will be in Congress many years after President Obama has finished. So there will be a lot of talk and there will be some things passed and then vetoed. There will be some minor compromises on smaller issues but that's not really what the American public voted for yesterday. They voted for a very different vision of government and I doubt it's going to be shared enough by President Obama to produce much legislation.

COSTELLO: Larry Sabato, Peter Wehner, thank you so much for your insight. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, while the midterms mark the end for some high profile campaigns, it's only the beginning down in Louisiana.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is there. Good morning.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. It's going into overtime down here in the Senate race. I'll have the details of what voters here in Louisiana should expect over the course of the next month when CNN continues.

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COSTELLO: In Louisiana, a Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu is vowing to fight on in a runoff with her Republican challenger Bill Cassidy. CNN's Ed Lavandera is covering the Louisiana Senate race from Baton Rouge this morning. Good morning, Ed.

LAVANDERA: Good morning, Carol. Well, it's not quite over here yet, even though the fate of the Senate and who controls the Senate has already been decided. There's one race here left in Louisiana to settle, and that is between incumbent Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu and Bill Cassidy representative who's currently serving in the U.S. House, but is challenging Mary Landrieu. Many people here think that because there was a third - a second Republican candidate in this race, a Tea Party favorite Rob Maness who had also gotten the support of Sarah Palin, he got about -- almost 15 percent of the vote yesterday. So many people, especially Republicans, wonder,

had he not been in the race or had he dropped out if Bill Cassidy could have won last night outright. But nonetheless, they move on. Bill Cassidy moving on against Mary Landrieu and they will continue that theme, many people here think that Bill Cassidy will continue -- in the words of one Republican consultant I spoke with here in Louisiana -- that he's not really running against Mary Landrieu, he's running against Barack Obama and many people expect him to continue that theme. Let's listen to a little bit of what both candidates had to say last night as they spoke to their supporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BILL CASSIDY (R) LOUISIANA SENATE CANDIDATE: You, the people of Louisiana tonight have sent the signal that you want a senator who represents Louisiana, not a senator who represents Barack Obama.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) SEN. MARY LANDRIEU, (D) LOUISIANA: This race is not about who the president is, who the president was, or who the president will be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Look, Carol, all the signs point to Mary Landrieu really having an uphill fight here over the course of the next month. Polling showing that she - in a head-to-head race she is trailing Bill Cassidy. In fact, what's interesting is that with Bill Cassidy getting about - just behind Mary Landrieu 42 to 41 percent so far that many people expect all those votes that went to the second Republican candidate, Rob Maness, to move over to him. And because of that many people say Mary Landrieu really has an uphill fight. But it's interesting to note, Carol, Mary Landrieu has been in this position before. This is her fourth Senate campaign. Two of those she won in a runoff. Carol?

COSTELLO: We'll see. Ed Lavandera reporting live this morning, thanks so much.

Still to come in the "NEWSROOM" the Republican tidal wave washed GOP candidates into office, but President Obama can claim a small victory. CNN's chief business correspondent Christine Romans is here to explain.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, that's right. Voters who supported overwhelmingly Republican candidates also overwhelmingly supported one of the president's signature items on his agenda.

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COSTELLO: Voters also went to the polls yesterday to decide a number of initiatives. Both Oregon and Washington, D.C. have approved sweeping efforts to legalize marijuana. In Alaska, the measure makes pot use legal for those who are over the age of 21. Voters in Washington State supported an initiative to tighten gun control. The movement was launched after the massacre of school children in Newtown, Connecticut. It will require background checks for buyers online and at gun shows.

Republicans win big in the midterm elections, you know that by now. But in an odd twist, several red states also supported one of President Obama's signature issues. Voters in four states approved raising the minimum wage - Arkansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Alaska all agreed to hikes at a statewide level and to varying degrees. CNN's chief business correspondent Christine Romans is here to explain.

ROMANS: Carol, when you look at that chart, you can see by the degree to which they agreed to approve it. It was really high - they did - look at that, 67 percent in Illinois. Illinois, of course, well, it elected a Republican governor, but it is known as a blue state and, quite frankly, it's where's President Barack Obama got his start in politics. In Illinois, 67 percent of people said they wanted to raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour. Now, that's a question that is just an advisory measure, but those

other measures go into law, those for other states, those red states. When you add that to San Francisco and Oakland yesterday raising the minimum wage, 606,000 people will get a bigger paycheck next year. 606,000. In San Francisco, that works out to about $2,800 extra a year for the typical minimum wage worker. That's real money.

Now, businesses, of course, have long been against this. The Republican Party actually is against raising the minimum wage. They say it hurts small business owners. They also say next year is the first year for the employer mandate for Obamacare, this is not a good time to be raising wages. But the people think otherwise. 71 percent of people that we polled most recently said that they approve of raising the minimum wage, Carol.

COSTELLO: So, what do you expect to happen in Congress?

ROMANS: You know, I don't think the minimum wage will be on the agenda, but I think there's a moment here for Republicans and the White House to find some common ground and politically they need to, right? Because the Republicans have to show they've done something for the middle-class and the economy before 2016 when they want to elect a president, right?

And the White House doesn't want to be a lame duck for the next two years. They want more legislation, I think infrastructure is the place they could find common ground. Please, find common ground. And - I think corporate tax reform, and maybe even personal tax reform is a place that could be right for some common ground.

COSTELLO: We'll see, Christine Romans, many thanks, I appreciate it.

ROMANS: You are welcome.

Still to come, last night's election is fuelling speculation that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is edging toward a bid for the White House. But how would his no-nonsense style go over with the larger American public?

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GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R ) NEW JERSEY: What I found in 37 states in the last 11 months is this country is much more alike than it is different and people always say, well, will you play here or play in the South or, you know, any place other than New Jersey or New York they think you won't possibly play. It's wrong. It's just wrong. You know, I got great reaction for people all over this country in the last 11 months and what they say to me most of the time is we like the way you act like yourself. Be direct, give them hell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Coming up, what the GOP midterm sweep means for 2016.

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