Dems widen House edge with CO seat flip — Transcript

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1. 0:00a Republican forcing an impeachment vote on Pete  Hegath. A vote that I indicated could be hours
2. 0:05away. The vote in the House of Representatives  could come as early as tomorrow morning. And
3. 0:08there are likely enough votes to impeach him  in the House. A really important thing to say,
4. 0:13right? You still have a Republican  House. And Republican Congressman
5. 0:16Thomas Massie is the one leading the  impeachment charge. He says Hegsth is
6. 0:20a threat to the Constitution if he remains in  office. But Trump tonight is defending Hegs.
7. 0:30given Vladimir Putin. Yeah, I'll stand by. So even  if he's impeached, you're going to stand by your
8. 0:34defense secretary. They won two wars. He was in  charge. We all won. Massie had great people. You
9. 0:40what? Massie says that he's carried out. Massiey's  a loser. Now Hegat says he's not concerned even
10. 0:48though the vice president said it was the war  that cost Republicans the House, the Senate,
11. 0:51and state races all across the country. There's a  lot of politically motivated people who may have
12. 0:59uh substantial policy disagreements, but their  disagreements are with success. And so if we want
13. 1:06to litigate that the success of those things, I'm  happy to do it all day long. Do you have enough
14. 1:13um Republican support to defeat the future?  Oh, we're not worried about that. All right.
15. 1:21All of this coming and that vote hours away  as we are getting some more projections and
16. 1:25the Democrats margin in the House is actually  getting even bigger here. We're almost a week
17. 1:29out and some of these final races are coming in  today. Democrats flipping another Republican House
18. 1:33seat. We are projecting tonight that Republican  Congresswoman and Trump ally Lauren Boowbert
19. 1:39is out. She was defeated by Eileen Lawacher. So  you can see now we're making that call by 3,237
20. 1:46votes. Making that call today and that win gives  Democrats 256 seats. There are still 15 races to
21. 1:52be called, which could even make the balance of  power even more lopsided. Of those outstanding
22. 1:58races, Democrats are leading in three seats  currently held by a Republican. So far, Democrats
23. 2:03have a net gain of 42 seats. That's the most since  2018. Democrats also lead in the Senate, 54 seats,
24. 2:10and those two high-profile races, Mississippi  and Alaska, are still not yet called. However,
25. 2:16we can tell you at this moment that Democrats  are leading in both of those seats. Now, Trump,
26. 2:216 days after it was clear that this was one of  the most crushing losses in political history,
27. 2:25is now starting to say it was all rigged. He  writes online, "Does anybody really believe quote
28. 2:31unquote election was honest? How could the polls  be so wrong?" Three exclamation points. Some early
29. 2:37voting dumps were so large that it was impossible  to win no matter how many people went to vote.
30. 2:42It's all about the machines which are  far more important than the voter. Now,
31. 2:46obviously, this is sour grapes. But even though  the allegations are absurd, I just want to take a
32. 2:53moment in the context of them because sometimes  when you throw, you know, seeds of doubt,
33. 2:57they can take root. It's important to note  that Democrats won in multiple states where
34. 3:01Republicans control the count and the elections  like Texas, right, where Telerico got more votes
35. 3:07in the early vote than Paxton got combined. But  Trump's turn to a rigged election, of course,
36. 3:13is not surprising. Actually, what is more  surprising is what Trump told the New York Times
37. 3:17the day after the election. Then he said that he  was quote absolutely willing to accept the results
38. 3:22of the midterm elections and was prepared to work  with Democrats. That was what is out of character,
39. 3:27not tonight saying that it was all rigged. Kristen  Holmes is out front live outside the White House.
40. 3:34Kristen, you know, you've got Trump making  complaints about a rigged election yet again
41. 3:38as he is standing publicly behind Hegathth in the  hours before Republicans may have enough votes to
42. 3:45uh impeach him. Uh and you're learning that not  everybody is buying what Trump's saying publicly
43. 3:50about Hegath. What are you hearing? Yeah,  that's true. And that was happening before
44. 3:54pro Trump actually spoke about it. And even now  that Trump has said this officially, I spoke to
45. 3:59a number of allies and advisers who have talked  to Donald Trump in the last two days and they
46. 4:03say they think there's a strong likelihood that  Hegsth could still be asked to resign if he is in
47. 4:10fact impeached. It could be regardless, but that's  coming from conversations that these allies, these
48. 4:15advisers are having with Donald Trump himself.  Now, it was interesting to hear there saying,
49. 4:19"We're not worried about that." when he's asked if  Republicans if they're concerned that Republicans
50. 4:24have the vote to actually impeach him in the  House. That is not the same feeling for many at
51. 4:29the White House. There is concern that Republicans  have those votes. They have been asking people on
52. 4:34the Hill how they're going to vote and there is a  concern that he could be impeached by the House,
53. 4:38though they don't believe it will go anywhere  in the Senate. And that would likely mean that
54. 4:42there's not a soft landing for Hegathth because  it had long been kind of speculated that Marshia
55. 4:48Blackburn, the current senator of Tennessee,  who's just elected governor, would appoint
56. 4:52Hegsth to her senator seat and that would give him  the kind of out there and give the administration
57. 4:58an out. We have now learned that Blackburn does  not intend to appoint him to that seat. I will
58. 5:04also note that this is coming at the same time.  I'm hearing increased speculation really from
59. 5:08all corners of Trump's orbit that Pete Hgsth is  going to run for president in 2028. Obviously,
60. 5:14what happens this week and what happens in the  next several weeks is going to play a role in all
61. 5:18of that. In the context of what Kristen just said  that everyone around him says it's a sure thing
62. 5:22that Pete Hagath is going to run for president.  Yeah. How worried uh should he be that an an
63. 5:28effort led by a Republican in the House could get  him impeached in a Republican House? That's the
64. 5:34one that's going to leave a mark, isn't it? Uh  that's the one that doesn't help in a primary.
65. 5:38And obviously Pete Hugs looks in the mirror and  sees a president. Who knows what else he sees, but
66. 5:43uh getting impeached by a Republican uh Congress  when the margin is this narrow when a Thomas
67. 5:48Massiey's putting forward the articles and they  are legitimate. This isn't just political theater.
68. 5:53That's a problem. He also knows he's going to get  impeached, if not this time, the next time when
69. 5:57Democrats uh control Congress. And here's the  additional calculus for Trump co. uh they have
70. 6:02an ability to pick a successor with a Republican  Congress during a lame duck. Now they won't have
71. 6:09that come January. So, you know, he he he he's  going to be, you know, Trump's hand could be
72. 6:14forced and Yep. That's right. So, watch out. And  Max, you know, that context, what John is laying
73. 6:19out, right, that if Trump wants to get somebody  to replace HGs that he wants to replace him,
74. 6:25um you know, he might need to act now. uh put some  context around Trump today defending Hexath and
75. 6:31criticizing people calling for his impeachment.  Here he is. Pete Hexath won two wars. Oh, let's
76. 6:38impeach him. What about impeaching the gentleman  from Biden, his person that disappeared for two
77. 6:47weeks and nobody had any idea where he was? What  about impeaching the people that ran the Vietnam
78. 6:52War? What about impeaching that went that ran Iraq  and Afghanistan and all of these other wars? What
79. 7:00about impeaching the leaders of these stupid wars  that were done when nothing was gained? But look,
80. 7:05once Steven Miller was appointed to be the chief  of staff, the ship sailed on them actually waking
81. 7:12up to the fact that the American people have  rejected this war. They're doubling down. It
82. 7:18seems ludicrous. seems insane, but they are  not going to fire Pete Hegathth. But I do think
83. 7:24that they will be astounded by the extent of this  impeachment vote because they may not be listening
84. 7:31to the voters, but certainly the Republican  members of the House and Senate are. I mean,
85. 7:35Tara, now the members of the House and Senate  know where the public stands. So, to the extent
86. 7:40that maybe somebody was afraid to have a backbone  before, the voters may have given them one. Well,
87. 7:45I'm not going to hold my breath for the intestinal  fortitude or lack thereof of Republicans in over
88. 7:50the last 10 years. Um, but now you have a lot  of angry moderate Republicans who lost who may
89. 7:56now say, you know, find some courage and actually  do the right thing cuz so many of them know that
90. 8:01Pete Hexath was never qualified to be Secretary of  Defense in the first place. I mean, the guy is an
91. 8:06absolute disgrace on a number of levels. I run a  women's organization. How do you think the women
92. 8:11in the military feel that this feel that this  guy is their their secretary of defense when he
93. 8:16was incredibly accused of sexual assault where he  denigrates women particularly women of color. He's
94. 8:22denigrated the top brass of the military. He's  been an absolute embarrassment. He's obsessed
95. 8:26with beards and testosterone. It's very odd. And  what are we doing here? This is supposed to be
96. 8:30the greatest military in the world and he's  diminishing it. and Donald Trump is standing
97. 8:34by him after a tsunami from the American people  basically rebuking everything this administration
98. 8:40has done including what happened in Iraq.  Nobody's won anything in Iraq. If I mean in Iran,
99. 8:45if we had won in Iran, Donald Trump wouldn't still  be up there trying to gaslight the American people
100. 8:50into believing we've won in Iran. We can all see  it and we can also see it at the gas pump and and
101. 8:54and that's why we see the margin getting wider  and wider right now still as a vote count comes
102. 8:58in and Lauren Boowbert losing, right? We got 256  now in the House. I mean, this could go this could
103. 9:02go a little bit above 260 as Harry Anton's laid  out. So, Lauren Boowbert loses. Um, and and look,
104. 9:08she was a major Trump ally, a major Trump ally.  This is a really close race and we knew this one
105. 9:13would be close, but but you know, that's that's  another loss. And this was a seat that she'd been
106. 9:18moved into that was supposed to be safer. Another  one of the red redist she was moved into a safer
107. 9:24Republican seat because she'd been in a marginal  district before. So, it just shows the depth
108. 9:29and breadth of the wave. Now, this is even in  Colorado. Look, there are upsides. She goes to the
109. 9:33theater with less scrutiny going forward. That's a  that's a quality of life improvement, but they're
110. 9:37going to be I'll let people Google that if they're  curious. Please Google it at home. Uh but but I
111. 9:42mean, you know, this just so many Trump loyalists  have been wiped out because they were were
112. 9:48enabling a behavior that their constituents, even  in conservative districts, said no MOS. But Max,
113. 9:52you know, he's back to the rigging and that and  that I think the real surprise was that it took a
114. 9:57week. Yeah, I guess it's because he wasn't on the  ballot this time that it took him a little bit to
115. 10:02wake up to the fact that this was about Exactly.  It was still about him. He's also waking up to the
116. 10:10fact that this is a different Democratic party  than the one that previously took um the House.
117. 10:17This is a party that isn't going to be distracted  by any of their ideological differences. You know,
118. 10:23I remember in 2018 there was that that was  dominating the news cycle for quite some time.
119. 10:28It's not a Democratic party that's going to get  overtaken by like a Trump focus, you know, that
120. 10:34they they are going to focus in on the things they  ran on. And I think he's pretty intimidated by