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Control of House Up for Grabs; Harris Camp Needs Time to Process; CNN Projects Trump Wins. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired November 06, 2024 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: By and favor. The United States was once the country that would help these nations develop. I'm worried about that competition there as well. So, for me, what is the strategy from the Trump administration outside of tariffs to equal the playing field with China. And I believe they are making some important advancements that we need to pay attention to.

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: So, one thing just in here, in terms of our conversation. We're hearing from NATO's secretary-general who said that Donald Trump's leadership will, quote, "again be key to keeping our alliance strong." It was a congratulatory tweet that was sent before we actually called things. And they say, quote, "I look forward to working with him again to advance peace through strength through NATO."

Geoff Duncan, what do you - how do you think Donald Trump is going to approach NATO here?

GEOFF DUNCAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, he's playing 3-D chess. I mean he's in a situation now where two - two leaders that he got close with, North Korea and Vladimir Putin, now have troops on the front lines in Ukraine. He's got a western Europe that is - that's nervous. Chaos is a good idea until it's not, right? Like, chaos creates churn, it creates - you mistake activity for progress. But we have to have a sober mind show up and really cast a vision out.

History shows that building consensus is really the winning strategy globally. And it doesn't feel that way, right? Somebody wants to read 10 second - or watch 10 second soundbites or read a tweet. It feels good to see, you know, chaos but it doesn't play out well.

HUNT: All right, so, just in, we've got new reporting from inside the Harris campaign coming in. What they're saying after their loss. We'll tell you that, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:35:34]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our special live coverage. CNN now Election Day in America.

Jessica Dean has a new projection in the U.S. Senate races. Jessica.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we do. CNN can now project that Tim Sheehy will be the next senator from Montana. Take a look at this. Tim Sheehy defeating Jon Tester, the Democratic incumbent there in Montana. This is a pickup for Republicans as they now seek to expand their new majority in the U.S. Senate, flipping control of the U.S. Senate in this election. Tester long considered the most vulnerable incumbent that was running for re-election. You see there, 52.8 percent to 45.4 percent. Sheehy was recruited by Montana's junior senator, Steve Danes, who's the head of the NRSC. He's a businessman who's never held elected office before.

What does this mean for the balance of power? Well, we know that Republicans are already going to be controlling the U.S. Senate. Right now they are holding 52 seats with three pickups, this being one of them. Democrats with 42 seats, including one independent. There are six seats that are outstanding. A lot of those still in the blue wall states that we have been watching overnight as well.

John.

BERMAN: All right, Jessica Dean, thank you very much.

Fifty-two. And I think the operative word there is at least, I guess that's two words, at least 52 Senate seats for the Republicans because here I am at the magic wall with Phil Mattingly. And there are, what, one, two, three, four, five, really at this point, Senate races that hang in the balance.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. And the overlap with the battleground states for the presidential race, which has already been called, is fascinating and always has been. You have the blue wall states. You have Arizona. You have Nevada. Some are a little bit closer and tighter than others. The one I think everybody's paying attention to right now -- well, probably all five of them -

BERMAN: Yes.

MATTINGLY: Particularly if you're the potential next leader of the Senate majority - of the Senate conference for the Republican Party. But look at this right here. This is 95 percent reporting. Mike Rogers, former congressman, Elissa Slotkin, current congresswoman, that is as close as you're going to - well, I shouldn't say that in Michigan. We've had closer depending on which cycle it is.

BERMAN: Ten thousand.

MATTINGLY: But 10,000 votes, 0.2 of a percentage point. First, let's start with this. Look at what Donald Trump's doing here, outrunning the Senate counterparts. How many cycles, John, did we watch the candidates on the Senate or House level to do whatever they could to stay away from Donald Trump, and then ran out in front of him? That's not happening anymore. And you've seen that in the Senate's strategy, in the campaign in the closing weeks. But let's take a look at those critical counties we've been going

through for Kamala Harris and Donald Trump and where does Elissa Slotkin. So, there's still 14 percent outstanding in Wayne, right? If you're down by 10,000 votes and you're a Democrat and there's still that much vote outstanding, you're saying, all right, there's a pathway here through one of our critical counties, 63-32. What's the presidential at right now? Narrowly, narrowly outrunning.

I think this was what I was most fascinated to look into. What about Oakland County? In the presidential you see where that currently stands, Harris underperforming the 2020 results here. Where's Slotkin? Yes, right there. I mean that's - I'm surprised by that to be completely candid with you. Going into this cycle, I didn't think that would be a problem - as big a problem for Elissa Slotkin.

Right now I think the biggest question is, where is the outstanding vote? We know there's vote in Wayne. Where else? Let's go over here into Kalamazoo. How much is outstanding? There's still 21 percent here. What's interesting, in a presidential, back in 2020, this was a county that Joe Biden won by 18 points, almost 19 points. Where's Kamala Harris right now? At 11.

So, again, the underperformance, and then you flip that over to the Senate, where is - so Slotkin's doing better than Harris was doing. Is it enough given the scale of Trump's lead right now in this critical blue wall state.

BERMAN: Yes.

MATTINGLY: I think that's one of the big questions as the Democrats try and figure out, is this a 55-45 type deal or is this a 52-48.

BERMAN: And this matters. Absolutely the margins will matter in the Senate for them. So they are watching this close as these Senate races that have yet to have been called, these close races, very closely. We'll continue to watch throughout the morning. Phil, thank you very much.

Let's go back to Kasie and her team.

HUNT: All right, John Berman, thank you.

CNN's Eva McKend has been embedded with the Harris campaign, and she's got some new reporting now about how they're feeling this morning as we, of course, wait to hear from the vice president.

Eva, what can you tell us?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kasie, a Harris ally telling me to give the campaign space and time to assess their strengths and weaknesses. And, you know, when you were speaking to them, they went into election night feeling confident they had multiple pathways to 270, that they didn't necessarily have to just rely on the blue wall.

[06:40:05] So, this is a stunning defeat for the campaign. The vice president, confident, running on offering the country a new generation of leadership, restoring reproductive rights, warning against the threat, in her view, a second Trump presidency would bring. And ultimately that argument did not win the day.

So, this is a team that I've been with them for several months, have worked very, very hard to make their case, to broaden their coalition beyond the Democratic base. That perhaps is a part of the strategy that is going to get the most scrutiny.

The degree to which they embraced Republicans, that, of course, is being criticized in some Democratic corners this morning. But all of this is what they have to process in the hours ahead as we await the vice president to address the nation and concede defeat to former President Donald Trump.

Kasie.

HUNT: Indeed, we wait this morning.

All right, Eva McKend for us.

Eva, thank you very much.

So, concerns about the economy powered Donald Trump to the White House again. So, how are the markets reacting to his historic victory? CNN's special live coverage continues in just minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:45:12]

BERMAN: All right, welcome back to CNN's special live coverage, Election Day in America. We still have a few hours before the opening bell on Wall Street, but the markets are already reacting to Donald Trump's historic election, his election back to office.

CNN's Matt Egan is here, along with our panel.

And, Matt, when I say the markets are reacting, they seem happy.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes, John, markets are going straight up. Dow futures at last look up something like 1,200 points. You see that more than 2 percent, sharply higher.

Look, first of all, I think that investors are happy that someone won. There was a real risk that this fight was going to drag out for weeks or longer. That would not have been good for business. Investors hate uncertainty. Something playing out in the Supreme Court would have been a nightmare.

I also think there's some relief that the winner is Donald Trump, because he's, obviously, presented himself as the more pro-business candidate. He's promised to cut taxes, fully extend those 2017 tax cuts. That's going to help corporate profits. He's also promised to cut red tape. That's good news for investors too.

But there's also the fact that he's promising to use tariffs more than he did during his first term. That's not something that most of the mainstream economist I talk to, most of the CEO's like, because that can actually be inflationary.

But for now, there is a sigh of relief on Wall Street.

BERMAN: Look, I think you're on to something here that what Wall Street was most nervous about was uncertainty. They absolutely have certainty now. And there's also some irony in them being excited about the market maybe going up long term with him in office when, as we know, actually, markets do really well with Democrats.

EGAN: They did better under President Biden than under President Trump.

BERMAN: But throw that to the side say investors this morning.

Look, Matt brings up a really good point here, which is that one of the things that Donald Trump ran on more than anything is tariffs. I mean I'm really curious to see what happens with this because that's a major policy and a major policy shift if Trump is able to get those through.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean no doubt because if he does get them through, it's going to cost us, as consumers here in the United States, a lot more because we're so used to these cheap goods that are coming in from China and from elsewhere.

But let me give Matt a shout out because he wrote a story a couple days ago that was so spot on that talked about how here in New York, and in Washington, D.C., talk - everyone talked about how inflation was coming down and that's going to help the Democrats.

Well, guess what, prices are going to stay where they are. They're not following inflation. And, by the way, a person's dollar is still not going as far as it was during Donald Trump's years. Again, another reason why Donald Trump won.

EGAN: Yes, absolutely. I mean, listen, James Carville might have been right, not about who won, but that it's the economy, right? And in particular, it's the inflation.

Now, obviously, the rate of inflation has come down so much, but Americans are fed up because they're paying so much more than they were back in 2019, right? Car insurance, groceries, everything has gotten so much more expensive. But that does bring us to one of the ironies here, right? Inflation may have gotten Trump elected again and yet a lot of the mainstream economist, a lot of the experts who know how this stuff really works, they're worried that he could make inflation worse if he actually does what he's promised to do, which is go all out with tariffs.

Now, maybe some of that was just campaign rhetoric, right? Maybe he won't actually do that. Maybe those are just threats. But if you actually put tariffs on all $3 trillion of U.S. imports, that's going to make prices go higher.

BERMAN: All right, standby, everyone. Much more to come. This is CNN Election Day in America. We are going to speak with a very prominent Donald Trump supporter. Someone who worked hard to get him elected once again to the White House.

Stay with us. Our special coverage continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:52:52]

HUNT: Donald Trump waking up this morning president-elect. Arriving on his doorstep, the morning's newspapers, each emblazoned with the news of his historic comeback.

"The New York Times," "Trump Stuns Back: Stunning Return to Power After Dark and Defiant Campaign."

"The Washington Post" with a two-word headline, "Trump Triumphs."

And "The New York Post," well, they're doing what they do, "Don Deal: Donald Trump Wins 2024 Presidential Election Defying the Odds Again."

Our panel is here where we have been reflecting on this moment in American history, which is really one that I think a lot of Americans clearly were waiting for this day with a lot of anxiety, with a lot of hope.

And, Alex Thompson, clearly a reckoning for the Harris campaign and also for Americans who wanted to see her get elected in what remains a very divided country, now facing four more years of Donald Trump.

ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, the - the next two or three weeks are going to be sort of a circular firing squad within the Democratic Party. There's going to be a lot - there are already a lot of fingers being pointed. I'd say, just in my - the last three or four hours, people I've talked to, most of the fingers are pointed at Joe Biden and the decision to run again. Early, after the midterms in 2022 in which Democrats over performed, the decision that at 80 years old that he could serve another six years essentially is what he was running for, and basically bet the farm on the fact that he was going to stay completely healthy and would be able to be a consistent, coherent messenger, which we all clearly saw he is no longer capable of doing. I think that decision. And then, you know, Kamala Harris, I think most people say, like, she made some missteps, but she had 100 and some days to introduce herself to the American people. She raised a billion dollars Sure. And she had her chance. But, at the end of the day, that - that is - you know, she - she had - she was dealt a bad hand.

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This race, though, was bigger than a single decision.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

[06:55:00]

SELLERS: And that's what is going to drive me crazy about the postmortems that different reporters are going to write about because I already know - I'm - I am waiting on the Cillizza missive (ph) about the fact that she didn't choose Josh Shapiro. Josh Shapiro was not going to change the outcome of this race, period. I mean it's bigger - what we saw were the fundamentals of this race were different than everything that I thought it was prior to the election, right?

The fundamentals of this race, the headwinds that they were running against, I believe even if Joe Biden made the decision two years ago, those headwinds would still be there. We're talking about inflation. We're talking about immigration. We're talking about crime. All of those things, the war in Gaza, Ukraine, Russia-Ukraine, all of these things were still going to be in place. And so I think when the Democratic Party looks at this, it's more of a - instead of what decision could we have been done - could we do differently versus some type of pedagogy shift or ideological shift, or how do we rebuild our coalition.

I mean also - I mean this is the second -

HUNT: Are you saying this was inevitable?

SELLERS: I think after we look at these - I mean I've been here with you for four hours now. I'm getting to that. I'm getting to that kind of - I mean it took me a while to figure out.

HUNT: We're working it out in real time.

SELLERS: I'm - I'm still working through this.

FINNEY: Let's give him some sugar then.

SELLERS: But the inevitability of this actually looks as if it was there.

I think the only - the only bet that could have done differently, and I don't even know how you do it because it's reproductive rights. But we were just talking about white women. This is the second time - the second time that Democrats bet the House on white women, and suburban white women.

FINNEY: Yes.

SELLERS: And this is the second time they've been left at the altar by suburban white women.

HUNT: Kristen, tell us what happened.

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: When I take a look - when I take a look at the exit polls, if you look at the national exit polls -

SELLERS: Say I'm right. Say I'm right. ANDERSON: White suburban women went for Trump by four points. White women overall slightly go for Trump. But also the story here is the education gap. If you have a bachelor's degree or not, white women with a bachelor's degree break for Kamala Harris by 20 points, but white women without a bachelor's degree break for Trump by 25. I mean it's like different universes.

And I really think the Democrats felt - I mean you saw it in the ads, right, the woman with the sparkly Trump hat goes into the voting booth but she winks at the other woman like, shh, I'm secretly voting for Harris. And I'm telling you, for every one woman out there who they thought was doing that, there were two women out there who were not telling their book club why they didn't want to go canvas for Kamala Harris over the weekend, and it's because they were voting for Trump. And that's what we see in the exit polls and that's what we see in the results.

DUNCAN: For me, this die was cast well before Joe Biden made the decision to run again or not again. And it started when they just ignored the border. I mean literally within hours - ignore is the wrong word. They - they - they unwound, I think the day he got sworn in, they had a stack of executive orders.

HUNT: Yes, there was a Trump - or executive order that undid the Trump policy.

DUNCAN: So, it started right then. And so that - that was a huge step in the - in the wrong direction. And then the unwillingness to really, truly, authentically dissect inflation authentically, that cast the die, in my opinion, and this margin of victory shows that.

And I do think there's going to be this whole soul searching, dissecting of, you know, all these brackets and what voters they've lost, but they've got to go figure out, who do they want to be. Do they want to be a party that goes further left to get more votes, or do they want to be a party that finds a little bit more center ground towards the middle.

FINNEY: So, having been through this a couple of times, you know, in 2004, after John Kerry lost, we were - had this big soul-searching moment. And Howard Dean became the chair of the party. And I worked for him. And one of the most brilliant things he did was put in place the 50-state strategy.

And his theory of a case was, it is a sign of respect to show up and ask people for their votes. And we've got to show up everywhere and do that. And we've got to be able to do it year-round, in all different communities.

And I would say - I mean I was - you know, many of us were frustrated and questioning how much should we be looking at, you know, getting the Republican white woman vote versus why aren't we doing more to talk to black and brown voters and young voters where they are.

And, look, I think the campaign, again, it was 100 and some days. I think they did a lot of things very right. But if, as a party, we need to take a bigger look at - because the 50 state strategy went away after Howard Dean, we need to bring that back and we need to be having conversations and be in communities year-round, all the time. And the second thing that I think we will, in the days to come, have to take a look at, as we did after 2016, where the research showed that cultural fears and - were a big driver of Trump voters. People who were afraid, white voters in particular, of the way the world is changing and their place in it. And I think we're going to see more of those conversations.

SINGLETON: I mean, Kasie, if I could just quickly - I actually agree with Karen in terms of placing the focus more on black and brown voters and less on Republicans. I can understand strategically why the appeal would be, I guess, somewhat smart and tactical for Biden. I think many moderate Republicans would say, OK, Biden's sort of a centrist, old-school Democrat. I don't mind voting for him.

HUNT: Yes.

[07:00:02]

SINGLETON: I think for some it was a bridge too far for the vice president. But if you would have double down on black and brown voters, that may have made some numeric difference in some places.

HUNT: We'll never know.

All right, standby everyone, our special coverage continues right now.