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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Discussion of Election Results; Rand Paul Attacks Hillary Clinton; Milestones for Women Elected in the Senate; Interview with Senator-Elect Steve Daines; Victim of Violent Kidnapping Freed Safe and Sound

Aired November 05, 2014 - 20:00   ET

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

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, good evening. Thanks for joining us.

By any measure, the 2014 midterm elections were a rout in overnight. The news only got worse for Democrats. It is now clear the Republicans will control at least 52 seats in the Senate and will have their biggest majority in the House since World War II. GOP also kept its hold on governors' mansions fighting off some tough challenges while picking up three reliably blue states, even Illinois, President Obama's home state elect a Republican governor.

Today. Mr. Obama conceded in an understatement of epic proportions and that it was quote " good night for the Republicans." That is the baseline you would likely heard it all day. So in the next hour, we are going to be looking at what it all means and what comes next. What's next for the Democratic Party that got so thoroughly drubbed last night. And what is next for the 2016 hopefuls like Hillary Clinton, Chris Christie who backed some winners and losers last night. And what is next for the president who despite this new world order today said all of the right things about still trying to get things done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm eager to work with the new Congress to make the next two years as productive as possible, and I look forward to work ahead. Anywhere where we can find common ground, I'm eager to pursue it. I am very eager to hear the Republican ideas for what they think we can do together. Working together, we can surely find ways to work together. We can and we will make progress if the we do it together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: And President Obama also drew some lines in the sand today.

Chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash joins me now with that.

So, for all of the talk of working together, I mean, they said all the right things, how much common ground is there really?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are some issues where there common ground, but it is sort of as they say here, low-hanging fruit. There are some issues that they can work together, not unimportant issues and infrastructure bills for example. But I think that that at the end of the day, this is going to be a true test for Republicans on whether they can get beyond just winning in politics and getting to doing well governing. And it was very clear in listening to Mitch McConnell who is very likely going to be elected the majority leader next week. He was abundantly obvious that he knows that they didn't have to prove that they can govern and this wasn't just a referendum against the president. But it is also against the dysfunction in Washington.

He said, this the, the voters don't think that the Senate work, it does not work. We have to make it work. Never mind the Democrats probably rightly have a complaint that the reason that the Senate is not working is because Mitch McConnell and the opposition made it so.

COOPER: Some warning signs, though, not just for the Republicans, I mean, President Obama, you know, threatening the possibility of his executive action on immigration. What effect could that have?

BASH: It could have a very, very dire effect. I think this was the big warning sign and the big red flag. And in fact, what Mitch McConnell said today is that maybe waving a red flag in front of a bull. And what we are talking about is the president had promised before the reelection that if there is not any movement on immigration reform, he would use his executive authority and do some things with the power that he has.

The problem is that if he does that, then you are going to have a lot of rank and file Republicans in the House and the Senate who already have a trust issue, not only with the president, but with their own leadership that they can actually negotiate some things with the president that they like, it is going to make it a whole lot worse. And a whole lot harder for Mitch McConnell and John Boehner to get it done. Because remember, these, the leadership, they are kind of institutionalists, they are legislators at heart. They want to get things done. The problem has been particularly, in the House, that they don't have the backing of the rank and file, and I believe if the president uses his executive authority, it will make it a lot harder to get that backing.

COOPER: Dana, thanks for that.

Let's bring in our political panel. CNN political commentators Paul Begala, Ana Navarro and senior political analyst David Gergen,.

David, I mean, what now? There was plenty of nice talks (INAUDIBLE) majority leader Mitch McConnell. President Obama, both saying things about working together. How long does that lasts because we have heard this plaintiff before?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: We certainly have, Anderson. They just said the right things. But when the president didn't just imply. I mean, he just said flat out he is going to sign this executive order on immigration reform. And just moments after Mitch McConnell said it would poison the well. And signing that is going to infuriate a lot of these Republicans and make it much, much harder to do it. They want -- you know, I sort of criticize the president frequently, but sometimes you can't avoid it.

Listen. You would think that coming out of the election like this, he would have made offered a peace pipe and said, why done we wait six months, see if we can -- on the immigration reform, let's see if we can take it one more try in the Congress. And if we don't make it, I'm going to sign the thing, instead, I'm going to do it anyway, you know. I really don't care about the elections. And I think there was also an air of unreality in the president's response to the election. It is almost as if, well, with just one more election, what does it matter?

COOPER: Paul, what about that? I mean, why go ahead with the executive action if it is going to derail everything?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, because I suspect that the president is thinking to derail it compared to what? This bill has been languishing. It has been languishing in the House, frankly, for what, because it is going to be more difficult than easier to get a comprehensive bill through. And he has an obligation here, too. He is trying to run a country. He is trying to lead, and he has promised that he would do this. This, too, is important.

COOPER: And with David's point, why not six months and, you know, to give him one last chance?

BEGALA: Yes, you know what, I think it is a good point, frankly. David and I both worked for the guy who always looking a compromise, and I love compromise. I believe in compromise. But on this one, the president has given his word. The Republicans, by the way, did not run, this I think was different. They ran against Obama personally. They did not run against immigration reform except Scott Brown who lost. Most Republicans did not run on the set of issues the way they did in 1994, frankly, with my old boss, Bill Clinton got drubbed. They had a contract on America then, they were very issue-oriented. This group was all about stopping just Obama. So the notion that a bunch of people who got elected saying they will lock everything Obama wants to do, the notion they are going to compromises him, I think is a fantasy. They are not going to pass anything important. And I think president (INAUDIBLE) at that.

COOPER: Now, Ana, what about that? I mean, assuming does play on the Republicans, I have places it to the narrative that a lot of Republican have a President Obama in terms of governing by fiat?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, and it is something that bothers Republicans a lot. This issue about him doing things by executive action and not legislatively.

Now, you know, I think the bipartisan immigration bill from last year that left the Senate is dead, frankly. If something is going to pass at this point, it is going to have to be a new bill and something that can also pass the House.

I do think there is genuine willingness from the House and the Senate leadership to get a compromise on immigration. It is going to be made more difficult by an executive action. I don't know if they cannot broker a deal on the executive action, say, you know, I'm going to wait some time or do a short-term executive action that gets supplanted by a bill if and when that passes.

So we have got two questions. One is, is President Obama going to sign the executive action which he said today that he would, but he has said many times that he would, and he continues delaying it?

So, you know, I think that is one of the problems he has got right now, that he has got very impatient base groups, Latino group, immigrant advocacy groups that have been waiting for seven years for him to fulfill his promises.

And the second question is what is in the executive action? How broad is it? How many people are going to be covered? These groups have nearly large expectations. We have no idea what that executive action is going to encompass. So I think that is going to be part of what their reaction will be as well.

COOPER: And David, realistically, where are the areas that the Democrats and the Republicans who say they want to work together, could actually work together and moving forward?

GERGEN: Anderson, most of them in the economic area. And first and foremost is trade authority. That may not sound like very much to most Americans, but it is actually quite important for the country. The president doesn't have trade authority. He needs that done through Congress. I think the Republicans are willing to step up to that. There is a trans-specific trade agreement that is shaping up. United States to take the lead on that and say everything s authorized by the Congress. A very, very important to this whole notion of pivoting as the word once was. And also, the trade agreement with Europe.

So a lot there possibly tax reform, although they are disagreeing on the elements of that. And I think the transportation bill -- the infrastructure is important, and investing in the roads and the highways and the ports, you know, the Chinese are just outstripping us by crazy on infrastructure spending.

COOPER: You know, Paul, there are some conservatives who are saying, look, why should Republicans try to work with this president if they are interested in winning in 2016? It is actually better to do nothing, rather there was -- the "National Review" about this today about that the problem of governing. Why actually show that you can work together, because then voters are going to think OK, why not just keep things as they are, have a democratic president?

BEGALA: I think that is part of what is going on in the Republican base. I think the antipathy towards this president in the Republican base is almost unimaginable. And these folks who just won, and they ran quick campaign and are talented politician. I don't really want to denigrate them. But they did not run around their state saying if you vote for me, I will compromise with Barack Obama, they did not. And the folks who elected them are going to be furious if they come

here to do it. This is not a crowd, and I know that Mitch McConnell is a serious legislator. Ana is right. He will probably want to cut a deal. But the folks who got elected last night are Tec Cruz Republicans, they are Sarah Palin Republicans, these are deeply principled people who mostly important principle is never compromise with Barack Obama.

COOPER: Paul, you were saying that last night -- go ahead, Ana.

NAVARRO: Paul, you keep saying that, and that is not --

BEGALA: Because it is true.

NAVARRO: No. It is not, Paul. And let me explain to you why it is not true. If you remember back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, and back when we were in the midst of these Republican primaries, the national tea party groups targeted a bunch of the incumbent senators to be taken out, people like Lindsey Graham were on the target list. People like Mitch McConnell were on the target list. People like John Cornyn were on the target list. And a lot of the people that ended up as general candidates, both incumbents and non-incumbents for republican, were precisely people that were not the national tea party candidates. They were the so-called establishment candidate. The only people calling this new batch of senators-elect tea party are Democrats, because that is how they want to frame them. Let's give them a chance to be senators and then we can judge them.

COOPER: To Paul's larger point, though, there weren't a lot of people running around their states saying let's compromise.

GERGEN: But Anderson --

COOPER: David, go ahead.

GERGEN: There were people -- there was no question that Mitch McConnell and the establishment team got much better candidates on the field this year not seen as tea party candidates, were not seen as far right, and that is why they did so well. The states like Colorado, very, very important, "Denver Post" which is a free liberal newspaper endorsed the Republican candidate for the Senate, Cory Gardner, and he won. Now, that was a real breakthrough for Republicans to be nominate and sending someone like that to Washington. Is he conservative, yes. Is he hard right conservative, no. So, I think it is a mischaracterization to say that it is a whole bunch of tea party people.

COOPER: We got to leave it there. Paul Begala, David Gergen, Ana Navarro, thanks very much.

We are on the air for two hours tonight. There is a lot of election coverage ahead.

A quick reminder, be sure you set your DVR tonight. You can watch "360" whenever you want. Just ahead, for Republicans yesterday, the road to victory was paved

with red, John King is going to break it down and explain how why so many states have shift shifted to right.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back.

As we said, Senator Mitch McConnell is expected to be elect the Senate majority leader when the next Congress convenes in January. Here is what he said today about the message that he heard from the voters yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), KENTUCKY: I think that what the voters were saying yesterday was a couple of things. Number one, they are obviously not satisfied with the direction of the administration. But at the same time, I heard a lot of discussion about dysfunction in Washington, and I think that there are a lot of people who believe that just because you have divided government, it does not mean that you don't accomplish anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: And whether or not the newly elected Republican control of Congress is going to accomplish more than the current Congress has, that of course, remains to be seen. And for every candidate who won yesterday, the road to victory is very different.

Now, the big takeaway from last night is just how red much of the of the country has become. Chief national correspondent John King joins me now at the magic wall.

So, break it down for us how this played out for us.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, the numbers and the colors don't lie. I almost don't have to talk. Just watch the map as it plays out. You will see the dramatic changes. Last night and during the course of the Obama administration.

Let's focus on the Senate last night. You start the night with 55 Democrats, at blue, includes two independents and 45 Republicans. That was to begin the night. Here is where we are now. Just got a lot more red, didn't it? And the expectation is that the Republican Dan Sullivan will win Alaska when the counting is done there. Republicans are favorite. We have a Louisiana runoff in the first week of December. Republicans are favorite there. It looks like Democrats will hold on to this Virginia seat narrowly. So, if you just end the cycle with that, you will go from 45 republicans to 54 Republicans a lot more red at the Senate level. That is the Senate level.

Let's switch maps and come out to the national level here. And look, that is the Senate that I showed you. Here are the governors, 31 Republican governors after last night, several big pickups for the Republicans. Look at all that red. And here is what I think is the most stunning map you could show. We live in a red America.

This is the House of Representatives. The Republicans have the biggest a majority in the house since World War II. Let's go back in time. This is just after President Obama was elected in the big Democratic year of 2008. Look at all these blue in no matter where you live in the country, take a peek. Look at the northwest. Look at the southwest. Looking across the southern border state here, even up in New England and in the Midwest, that is normally blue, that was then, this is now. One more time. That is when the president was elected, and this is now. He went from 257 Democrats here, and this is how they passed the health care, 257 Democrats back then, 179 now.

And underneath all of this, Anderson, the Republicans had gained 600 state legislative seats coming into last night, they picked up 165 more. So Republicans are winning when it comes to the Washington jobs and they are winning at the state level, as well.

COOPER: I mean, all day, you are looking at the turnout, you are looking at the exit polls. Is it safe to simply say this was just a repudiation of President Obama and the embrace of the Republicans or there was more going on?

KING: Well, the first part, yes, it is a repudiation of the president, without a doubt. He said, himself, his policies were on the ballot. But the Republicans, better be careful. And let's take a look at the exit poll data to go into that question. Look, your view of government, 54 percent of the vote yesterday said government is doing too much. That's a Republican, a conservative electorate. Republicans will like that. That's yesterday.

How is the president handling his job, 55 percent disapprove. Again, if you are a Republican, especially the new majority leader and the returning speaker, if you look at that, you think I'm on solid ground, right?

But, and there is always a but here, look at this. Opinion of the Republican leaders in Congress, even as they gave republicans new powers and new seats, Anderson, six in 10 Americans say they are angry and dissatisfied. So the Republican leadership is on a short leash, no doubt about it.

What is your opinion of the Republican party, that is pretty much the same as the president's numbers. The American people don't like anybody when it comes to politics, 544 percent said they view the Republicans unfavorably.

And look at this. What are most of the conservative base voters in the Republican Party think? Amnesty, if you give legal status or citizenship, right, to the undocumented. Nearly six in 10 Americans yesterday said they should be offered some legal status. That runs counter to the base. You also had several minimum wage initiatives pass in states across the country. That runs counter to the Republican positions, so the voters, Anderson, gave Republicans broad new power, but I would say, a very short, skeptical leash.

COOPER: All right, John. John is going to be with us for the next two hours crunching numbers for us and look looking at the maps.

So what -- the question is what is a Democrat to do? For that, let's talk to a couple of them. Political commentator and former special advisor to the Obama White House Van Jones, political commentator Paul Begala joins us again, also political commentator and former Obama adviser, Stephanie Cutter.

So, how concern, Paul, are you that his Republican wave signals a broader change in the country or is, in your opinion, just typical midterm pushback in supporting the White House?

BEGALA: I don't like just dismissing these sorts of things. It is an impressive win by the Republicans. But it is in this aught here where in a teeter totter time in America. And it is a reverse of the 1980s when the Republicans had electoral lock in the White House, but the Democrats, all they have to do is eat right and exercise and they will control the House of representatives in the Tip O'Neal days.

So this is now been flipped. It is a big concern. And I think President Obama is in the center of it. The truth is that we never have the White House without him, and the Republicans probably never have the Congress without him. And so, in two years he could be gone, and it is going to hurt both parties. It is going to be completely new politics that we are going to enter to. And I'm not entirely sure how are we going to navigate this.

COOPER: Van, I mean, I have heard you are cautioning is over interpreting your results, but surely, there are lessons to take away from this?

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Sure. But, you know, we have been talking about it. This is a question of Republican strength. It is also, this election yesterday, it was also a question of democratic weakness.

The base did not turn out, and I think Democrats have to look in the mirror why we were not able to get that African-American base, that Latino bas, that young base out. We did not nationalize this election on the issues. We didn't say we are going to do something -- we want to do something for you on the student debt, young people, but the Republicans won't let us. We want to do something on criminal justice reform, working with Republicans who actually also want criminal justice reform. But the Republicans right now, we have not had the breakthrough yet.

We did not nationalize it on the issues. They nationalized it on Obama. And so, we wind up with the situation where our base did not feel inspired to come out, on the Latino base did feel inspire to come out. And it hurt us.

And so, I think it is fine to talk about the Republican strength, but we have to find a way to come in between this presidential elections to get our base inspire to come out. We have tuque to the pain that the base is feeling in this party. We didn't do it this time and it hurt us.

COOPER: So Stephanie, what do you do in the next two years?

STEPHANIE CUTTER, OBAMA DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, I think you have to find a way to govern. You know, I agree with both Paul and Van on their comments about this election meant.

Two things, one, it is a repudiation of Washington. The president is the highest ranking official in the country in Washington. So he bears most of the blame or at least the voters are dealing with him, and dealing him most of the blame. But we also did not give most of the argument to the base to come out. And mostly because crisis after crisis was eating up all of that oxygen. It was difficult to get an argument the breakthrough, but also Democrats across the country were running away from the president. So it is hard to make that argument about what we stand for, when you are running away from the leader at the top.

So what do we do over the next two years? I think Democrats have an opportunity to make that core economic argument. How do you help students to pay for their loan debt? How do you help the workers get the wages to go up?

You know, the minimum wage passed in very deeply red states yesterday. That is a signal to both Democrats and Republicans that the American people are looking for action on these issues. Democrats can help make action on those issues. And I hope that Republicans are hearing that message, too. It is an opportunity for us to work together.

JONES. I agree. I think that we missed the big opportunity. Now, when you look at minimum wage and giving America a wage very popular in both parties, when you look at extending unemployment benefits, giving a little bit more runway to active jobs seekers who are out there and turning in their resumes and trying. Those were very positive things. Democrats were for them. Republicans were against it. We never made that case.

Look at the help we are trying to give that you help you get back on your feet, look at who is in your way. We did not nationalize the economic fight. The only person who did it was Elizabeth Warren. And Elizabeth Warren, a liberal from Massachusetts could go to Kentucky and be well received because he was bringing that tough economic message. We have to be able to do that across the party.

COOPER: Paul, was it a mistake not to have President Obama going out to some of these races?

BEGALA: No, it was a mistake to let him go to the five he went to.

COOPER: Really?

BEGALA: Because if nothing (INAUDIBLE) gifted campaigner, good voice, a great politician. But the country wants to punish him. I think Stephanie points out. Fairly or not, they wanted to punish President Obama. And so, bring him out more would have caused more damage. It is just -- it did not made any strategic sense at all.

And I suspect that the president understands that as well. Some of these people were putting out that line and said, we should have had more of him. I mean, he did campaign, for example, in Maryland, a state he won by 26 point. And yet the Democrat for whom he campaigned lost.

It is really -- this is, I think, very much about the president. And that is why, as Van points out, the very same people who for example in Arkansas threw out the democratic senator by 17 points also raised the minimum wage by two to one in the home state of Walmart.

So it is not the ideas actually that they are against. They just want to take out their anger on the president. But the way, message received. OK, we get it. And you know, and said that today. I thought he handled it quite well.

COOPER: All right, Paul Begala, Stephanie Cutter, thanks very much. Van is going to stick around.

Up next, let the 26 trash talking begin. Potential GOP presidential candidate Rand Paul attacking Hillary Clinton a ton last night. She stubbed for several candidates who lost last night. He dubbed on Hillary's loses or Hillary's loser. We will dig into that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, the glove is already off in the 2016 presidential race. Kentucky GOP senator Rand Paul is wasting no time at all in going after potential Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Paul tipped to Facebook last night to mock Democratic senate candidates who Clinton campaigned for and lost. He posted a couple of photos with the #Hillary's losers including one of fellow Kentuckian Allison Lundergan Grimes who failed to unseat Mitch McConnell. And another Clinton with Georgia candidate Michelle Nunn.

Back with us is CNN political commentator Van Jones and CNN chief political correspondent Candy Crowley.

So Candy, before people start angrily tweeting me, I know we just got done with 2014 election, but the Iowa presidential caucus is actually a little more than a year away. And this race has already clearly began. People already jockeying as we saw last night.

Does it seem odd that Senator Paul, though, appears more preoccupied with Hillary Clinton than he does with his likely primary rivals?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, no. Because I think -- look. The only person -- the only name we heard on the Democratic side, at least headliner. There are others like Martin O'Malley about to leave the governorship of Maryland that are out there thinking about the president. Where in the Democratic side, it has been all Hillary all the time.

So Paul is not the only one taking shot at her. So has Ted Cruz and many number of folks that are out there. So the fact that he did it in a speech right before Mitch McConnell came up to say, hey, thanks very much for reelecting me, Kentucky, I thought was probably a land speed record for, you know, pivoting from 2014 to 2016, but not unusual in this day and age when elections kind of run into each other.

COOPER: I think he had the hashtag ready to go before - before the night even began.

CROWLEY: Absolutely.

COOPER: Then - and the results last night, you say they really can't be uses as a kind of bellwether as to whether - whether, you know, what might and might not happen for Hillary Clinton or another Democrat in 2016?

JONES: Well, that is true. I mean you just literally have two different Americas, two different clumps of voters that come out. And Republicans did about it what they always do, it's just the Democrats didn't turn up in the numbers that we need to be able to perform well. And let me say a couple of things about Rand Paul, though. This guy started out with a very big problem with African-Americans, he really stepped on it, he said that he would have been essentially against Dr. King on the Civil Rights Act of the 1960s, shocked a lot of people. He started off way, way down in terms of his esteem for the African- Americans. He has pulled himself out of that gutter by talking about criminal justice reform, here you have Rand Paul reaching out to Cory Booker, the young senator from New Jersey and holding hands and saying, we want to do something about the excessive number of African- Americans and Latinos and young people, people period, who are winding up in prison on nonviolent drug charges, and that has struck a chord in this kind of post-Ferguson African-American environment, it struck a chord with African-Americans and you have a lot of young libertarians who feel like hey, this guy is speaking for me.

And so for Rand Paul to kind of tweak Hillary Clinton, you'd be getting to see him getting very, very smart about how to position himself to be an alternative for a chunk of the Democratic Party coming up on the 2016, and watch Rand Paul on the criminal justice and you are going to see a very sophisticated strategy here.

COOPER: You know, Candy, when you look at the Republican Party, and there are really two sides to the Republican Party, there's always - more kind of establishment side and Chris Christie and Jeb Bush and Mitch McConnell, then the more Tea Party side of Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, who has got the advantage right now after last night?

CROWLEY: I am not sure anybody does. I mean look, Chris Christie had a great night, he was in charge of getting Republican governors elected, and boy, did he. So, it was a great night for him, and it gave him visibility, you didn't hear anybody talking about bridges to New York, none of that stuff. I mean - and let's remember that the governorships were supposed to be a great big bright spot for Democrats, so I think he came out fine. I think that the rest of them, you saw Ted Cruz out there, and you saw Rand Paul out there all talking about what the election meant, and they will do more of that on the Senate floor. They have got their platforms ready, but - if anybody stands out certainly for success, it does have to be Chris Christie, but the fact is it is just hard to take 2014 and do an overlay to 2016 and know what it's going to mean, it is a long time before they get really active. COOPER: All right.

JONES: Just one second, one last thing, you know, you are going to see disgruntlement, you know, frustration. You are going to see Obama trying to reach out to Republicans, that's going to be - make some people happy. It's going to make some people in the Democratic Party sad especially if it is going to be bad trade deals, giving tax breaks to corporate tax cheats. There's a lot of stuff and resentment that's getting built up, or fear. Elizabeth Warren could catch fire in a way as Obama tries to deal with his new reality, he could open the door for an Elizabeth Warren challenge. So ...

CROWLEY: So, Anderson, what are you saying is the Republican Party is not the only party that has splits with him?

COOPER: Clearly that. Candy, thanks very much. Van Jones as well. Up next, history made now, we are just going to take a look at how Washington is changing a series of first. Including the first African-American Republican woman elected to Congress ever, and also, it will be more than 100 women in Congress for the first time, and we'll tell you about the youngest woman elected to Congress, just 30 years old. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back. When the new Congress goes to work in January there's going to be a whole lot of firsts for the history books including for the first time more than 100 women between the House and the Senate, among them, Republican Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, who'd been moving to the Senate. Voters chose her to replace retiring Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller. Capito will serve as West Virginia's first female U.S. senator.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO (R) U.S. SENATOR-ELECT, W.VA: Well, West Virginia is one of the first tonight, and West Virginia has done it right.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

CAPITO: I want to be the first to share with you how optimistic I am about our future. This election marks a true turning point in our state's history. It is the first time you have heard that a couple of times tonight, in nearly 60 years that we have sent a Republican to the United States Senate.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: As we said there are a lot of congressional first decided on Election Day, Dana Bash joins us now with some details. Big night for women no doubt about it, in Congress.

BASH: A big night for women in that women have now gone on the other side of the 100 mark, and there are still some outside races, outstanding races, I should say, but at least 101 women across Congress in the House and the Senate. In the Senate, it is possible though that they might go down, right now there are 20 female senators, if Mary Landrieu who's in run-up in Louisiana loses it will go down to 19, but let me just give you a little bit of perspective. I said about 100 women in Congress, women make up more than 50 percent of the population, so to get to equity, it would be 267.5 women in Congress, so we have a little longer way to go. But 100 is OK.

COOPER: It's a milestones for African-American candidates as well?

BASH: That's right. One of those new women, Mia Love, she is somebody who made kind of a national headlines, and she was in the national spotlight two years ago when she was featured at the Republican convention. She lost her race in Utah then. This time she won. She is going to be the first female African-American Republican in Congress. And so it is certainly is a first, and the fact that she is coming from Utah which has a black population of I believe less than one percent is pretty amazing.

COOPER: And Tom Cotton who pushed out the incumbent for the Senate seat, he made history also.

BASH: He did. He - first of all, he made it so that there does not appear to be any white Democrat in the Deep South, which, of course, was the birthplace of the Democratic Party, and it was all white Democrats in the south. That is no longer the case, but for Tom Cotton, he is going to be now the youngest senator. He is 37 years old, and there is one other thing I can tell you about, and I don't know if this is going to make you -- I don't know, roll your eyes or feel old the way it made me, Anderson, he is the first senator elected who was born after the bicentennial.

(LAUGHTER)

COOPER: He has got an incredibly impressive resume.

BASH: Yes. He is in a rock band, too.

COOPER: Yeah, Dana, thanks ...

BASH: It is important.

COOPER: Yeah. Thanks very much for that. Another first, for the first time in more than a century, Republican is going to serve in the U.S. Senate for Montana. Freshman Congressman Steve Daines is moving to the Senate after victory on Election Day. He joins me tonight.

Senator-elect Daines, first of all, congratulations on your victory and enormous win, and what message do you think was being sent by voters in this Republican surge?

REP. STEVE DAINES (R ) U.S. SENATOR-ELECT, MONT.: Well, last night was historic in Montana, it is the first time a Republican has held this seat in 101 years, but the message that I heard was not necessarily that Republicans Democrats are right, it is just they want leaders back in Washington that get something done. I heard over and over again the concerns about the gridlock. The hyperpolarized environment back in Washington, and the need for leaders to rise above that and move forward with legislation, and to actually get results for the American people.

COOPER: You know, we asked, we talked to the viewers about this last night, and there is a lot of people skeptical that this is actually going to produce that, there was a column in the "National Review" titled "The Governing Trap" and it's suggesting that the best way for it for Republicans in Congress is essentially to do nothing next year. And I want to read just some what they say - they say a prove you can govern strategy will never lead to divide the party on the same Tea Party versus establishment lines, that Republicans have just succeeded in overcoming. If voters come to believe that a Republican Congress and a Democratic president are doing a fine job of governing together, why wouldn't they vote to continue that arrangement in 2016?" Do you agree with that?

DAINES: Anderson, my background before serving in Congress, and I just was elected as a freshman in Congress two years ago before running for the Senate.

COOPER: Right.

DAINES: I was a chemical engineer by degree. Engineers are trained to solve problems and not just go off and win arguments. And then I spent 28 years in business, spent some time living overseas, working to build businesses for American companies, but I think the American people want to return to some pragmatism, and to look at how do we move forward with legislation that actually starts to improve the economy and deal with the problems that our country is facing.

COOPER: Is there pressure, I mean on Republicans, do you believe, to prove that they can effectively legislate? Because for the last several years, the congressional inaction from a Republican standpoint could be put off in the fact that the Senate was democratically controlled?

DAINES: Well, as the member of the House, we passed over 380 bills, and many with bipartisan support since January of 2013 that are sitting on Harry Reid's desk right now without an up or down vote by the United States Senate. So I think we can remove that portion of the gridlock in Washington by getting the House and the Senate on the same page.

COOPER: You campaigned against Obamacare, as you know, some of your future colleagues like Ted Cruz, they are intent on pushing for a full repeal of it. Now that you have been elected to the Senate, is that a fight you intend to join?

DAINES: Well, I voted for the repeal of Obamacare in the house, but the reality going forward in the next two years is the president is not going to sign a repeal of Obamacare piece of legislation, so we need to take a look at part of Obamacare in the next two years that we can address and improve, because we are not going to get it repealed as long as President Obama is in the White House. COOPER: The fact that according to, you know, the exit polls,

Americans have negative views of the president, Congress, both parties, the federal government, the media, what does that tell you? And what isn't working?

DAINES: What tells me is that the American people in Montana is frankly not enamored with either party. And I hope we can identify two or three important areas of common ground we can come together on and move legislation quickly in the next six months that are working on behalf of the people who elected us in the first place.

COOPER: Senator-elect Daines, again, congratulations and appreciate you are talking tonight.

DAINES: Thanks so much, Anderson.

COOPER: Up next, more breaking news.

Woman who's violent abduction was caught on surveillance video in Philadelphia, that's the video right there, she has been found alive in Maryland. The suspect is in custody, the woman's mom obviously overjoyed. We will tell you how she was found and what we know about the abduction next.

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COOPER: And more breaking news tonight. A 22-year-old woman whose abduction was caught on surveillance video in Philadelphia, that's the video right there, she has been found alive. You are looking at the surveillance video, and you can see the suspect dragging Carlesha Freeland-Gaither down the street, tossing on the ground with her, and enforcing her into a vehicle. There's no audio, obviously, on the footage.

A witness, though, says that the woman was yelling for help. Now, the good news as I said she has been found in Maryland. The suspect is in custody, we are going to have the latest on her condition in just a moment, as well as how police actually tracked down the suspect. But first, the victim's mom spoke in Philadelphia just a short time ago. She is as you'd expect, relieved and incredibly thankful.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEISHA GAITHER, MOTHER OF KIDNAPPING VICTIM: I just want to thank everybody. I would like to thank the Philadelphia department of police, the FBI in Maryland, everywhere, the public, especially the public - my family and my friends, everybody. Thank you so much for having us in your prayers. Thank you for keeping me up, thank you for being there for us. I'm taking my baby home. Thank you.

COOPER: Jean Casarez joins me now live from Philadelphia. So, how exactly did authorities find them?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's amazing, and absolutely amazing story. I mean what we have learned is that they were able to locate the individual because of all of the surveillance video from the ATM to the convenient store, and once they located his identity, then they were able to locate his vehicle, they were able to trace it to Jessup, Maryland. And they found his car parked to the side of the road, so the FBI, the ATF, the U.S. marshals, they waited, they waited until he exited the car. They apprehended him, and they rescued her. And that is the amazing part of the story. And Anderson, I want to tell you, we are right here where she was abducted. This is a family area, this is a business area, there are schools in the area. This was 9:40 at night on Sunday night. She gets off of we believe the bus right behind me, and she is just walking home. And they believe at this point they've said they think it's a stranger abduction, they are beginning to talk with her, but they think it is a stranger.

COOPER: Wow. So, I mean they didn't even know each other. She was taken to the hospital. How is she doing?

CASAREZ: She's been taken to the hospital tonight, we understand. She is still there. She has minor injuries, which is a very, very good thing. But they are starting to talk with her slowly at the hospital. She did speak to her mother on the phone, and mother said that she was crying, she was very upset and she wants her mother. She is 22 years old, she's a certified nursing assistant here in Philadelphia at the local hospital, and she is beloved by her patients we understand.

COOPER: And the suspect is actually being held, I understand on a warrant for a different case right now?

CASAREZ: This is amazing, Charles City County, Virginia, and they are holding him on this outstanding warrant for attempted capital murder, assault and malicious injury with acid chemicals or fire.

COOPER: Wow.

CASAREZ: So, that's how they are holding him tonight, and we understand it is going to be federal charges crossing stateliness, kidnapping for him - with this case.

COOPER: So, the murder charges or attempted murder, that's for some case that happened previously?

CASAREZ: Completely separate case, but it was an outstanding warrant so this person was on the loose, they were looking for him, and so that is how they arrested him and apprehended him. And they must have known that, you know, today, we were outside of her family's home, and the FBI was inside talking with her mother and with her aunt for a long time, and we knew that something was coming close, they would not tell us what. But it just culminated tonight that we heard the words "She is alive."

COOPER: And it sounds really that - I mean the critical piece in this was the videotapes from the ATM and elsewhere and surveillance tapes that people saw and actually called the police about which is the great news in this.

CASAREZ: Yes. They said that they got so many tips, and I asked the police chief, I said have you ever in your life seen an actual kidnapping on tape play by play, step by step as it happens. He said I've never in my career, and I know I never have, Anderson, before seeing what I saw on that videotape.

COOPER: And it seems because at the start of that tape, when you see the other camera that we have just shown, he seemed to approach her, and kind of shakes her hand and she looks - she kind of shakes his hand tentatively like, she is not sure why this person is coming up to her and doing it, and then the attack begins.

CASAREZ: Her family tells me, she is really a nice person, her grandmother who partially raised her said she is nice to everybody, she thinks everybody is going to be your friend, and maybe that right there, her instinct was to back away, but she felt she needed to extend her hand, he must have said something that was welcoming, or positive and inviting to her.

COOPER: Goodness. Well, Jean Casarez, great news that she has been rescued. Thanks very much, joining me now on the phone is Philadelphia's police commissioner Charles Ramsey.

Commissioner Ramsey, obviously, the best possible news on this. You say there was a lead today, and then everything unfolded pretty quickly after that. Can you walk us through what happened and how you were able to trace and track this person down?

CHARLES RAMSEY, PHILADELPHIA'S POLICE COMMISSIONER: Well, it did unfold very, very quickly. Once we got a tip, you know, where this guy might be, we were able to trace pretty effectively his movements from the time he left Philadelphia and into Maryland and we were able to pinpoint it to Jessup, Maryland. Now, earlier, we had already formed a task force with the FBI, ATF and the U.S. Marshall Service, so this was the task force out of the Baltimore field office that actually located the car and made the arrest. So, we are just very thankful that she is alive. This is a very, very violent predator that's off the streets, and hopefully he's going to be off of the streets for a very long time.

COOPER: And as far as you can tell so far, no connection, I mean this was a stranger abduction?

RAMSEY: That is the way it looks now, of course, we are in the process of interviewing her now, but it does look like it is a stranger abduction. I mean he has a history of doing something like this. It was mentioned earlier that he is wanted in Virginia for a similar crime. And we are looking at this as a stranger case.

COOPER: Was there evidence left behind on the street when she was taken?

RAMSEY: Yes. Her cell phone, glasses, there was certainly glass from the vehicle that he was driving that she was able to kick out, a folding knife, her glove, we did get quite a bit of evidence at the scene and that coupled, of course, with the investigative work that our detectives as well as the federal agencies that assisted and tips from the public, we were able to track him down. This is one where the media played a huge role in keeping this alive and keeping that video out there, but it was mentioned earlier, I had not seen anything quite like this. This is where the video really showed how vicious this crime really was.

COOPER: And as far as you can tell, he was acting alone.

RAMSEY: As far as we can tell, but again, we are just beginning the interrogation of him who is in custody. His name by the way is Delven Barnes, 37 years old. And he does have a Philadelphia address, although he has lived in Virginia as well. So we are just beginning to speak with him, and we are also beginning to interview her, so we will have a more complete picture in a few hours.

COOPER: Well, it's great to be able to talk to you on an occasion where something's in with a positive outcome like this. Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, I appreciate you being with us. Thank you very much.

RAMSEY: OK, thank you.

COOPER: Coming up in the second live hour of "360" we are going to be live all the way. A 10:00 hour tonight, live report from the White House where President Obama spoke today. He said he had heard the voters, we'll talk more about it and you'll hear more from what the president had to say. We are also looking ahead to see what all that's really going to mean for the president as he tries to work with the Republican-controlled Congress.

We will also take it to Israel as there are new attacks on some Israeli troops and others. We will have all of that ahead.

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