Tone-deaf Trump, a blue wave, WH shake-up & more | Erin Burnett OutFront this week — Transcript

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1. 0:00tonedeaf President Trump tonight though. The  president making his final midterm pitch and
2. 0:04it was a message which had nothing  to do with Americans, Republicans,
3. 0:08the economy. None of that. Absolutely none.  Today, I'm thrilled to announce the official
4. 0:16opening of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting  pool. It's actually the largest pool,
5. 0:22the longest pool anywhere in the world by far.  And by the way, we we resurfaced the granite.
6. 0:27This was sad because this was the grass and it  was totally vandalized. So that says 8647. You
7. 0:35don't see it as clearly because we we sprayed  it. I looked at it two days before and I said,
8. 0:39"What beautiful grass." You can even see where  the concrete gets the rebar behind. So this was
9. 0:46just really worn out. Tremendous algae problems.  And you have that picture with the algae. Yeah.
10. 0:52Let me see that. The green, that's not grass.  That's algae that it took over the entire pool.
11. 0:57The grass in front of the White House. If you take  a look at the new helellipad and all of the grass
12. 1:02and surroundings, that's brand new and it's it's  beautiful. We're much even more proud of all the
13. 1:08statues that we've done all over Washington. We're  uh going for a final approval of the Triumphal
14. 1:15Arc Military Complex. We're doing a renovation of  the golf course which is in a horrible condition,
15. 1:22very dangerous and horrible condition. The walls  are caving in. The whole thing is a mess. So Trump
16. 1:30spent about 25 minutes talking about what you just  heard, the reflecting pool, granite, rebar, grass,
17. 1:36algae, uh the golf course. He had props and he  didn't actually wrap it up even at the end by
18. 1:42mentioning the election, urging people to vote,  endorsing his candidates. Instead, he did this.
19. 2:05So, what we heard from Trump today was actually  very consistent with CNN's latest poll in which
20. 2:1174% of voters said Trump does not have the right  priorities. And that of course has been dragging
21. 2:17down his party. And tonight, the final forecast  from two of the nation's top election forecasters
22. 2:22are out. Larry Sabado moving five Senate races  today in the Democratic direction. Just one
23. 2:26Iowa going towards the Republicans. And the Cook  Political Report's final prediction moves that
24. 2:31Michigan Senate race from tossup to lean Dem.  Both Cook and Sabido forecast the House goes to
25. 2:36the Dems easily. They'll be here in just a moment.  But election day voters, right, they're going to
26. 2:40start going to the polls in less than 10 hours.  But election day voters are following on the heels
27. 2:45of 56 million Americans who have already voted.  56 million Americans. So we don't know what's
28. 2:52going to happen tomorrow. But we can tell you some  things about those early 56 million voters. And so
29. 2:58far it boils down to this. Overall, Democrats  have a 13point advantage in terms of voter uh
30. 3:05identification across 25 states, which compares to  a four-point advantage just two years ago. Kristen
31. 3:12Holmes begins our coverage tonight out front the  outside the White House. And Kristen, what are you
32. 3:16hearing? You know, we hear Trump publicly. Okay.  Algae, golf courses, statues, the triumphal arc,
33. 3:22all of that. What's he saying privately behind  closed doors about the election tomorrow? Yeah. I
34. 3:28mean, Erin, he has seen all the same things that  we at CNN have seen with reporters across the
35. 3:34country. He's seen the polling, which obviously  does not look good for Republicans. He'd seen the
36. 3:38field of candidates. He's seen the landscape.  and privately to some allies and advisers he
37. 3:43has predicted the worst case scenario which is  that Democrats win both chambers of Congress and
38. 3:50in that has talked about what exactly that would  look like in terms of governing or investigations
39. 3:56or potential impeachment hearings. The other part  of this that was interesting is you almost heard
40. 4:01Trump admitting that today during that speech in  front of the reflecting pool. Yes, he spent most
41. 4:07of the time talking about things that most  Americans don't care about and frankly will
42. 4:11probably never see. But he also did talk about the  midterms only to stress that almost every cycle a
43. 4:18president wins and then the next cycle the other  party wins and then saying we gave it our best
44. 4:23shot which sounds like almost a concession before  actually seeing the results. Now, I will tell you,
45. 4:30even though he has privately predicted this, when  I ask White House officials, how do you think he's
46. 4:34going to react if in fact Democrats do win both  chambers of Congress, they say it's anyone's
47. 4:40guess. It's going to be how Donald Trump uh feels  in that moment, even though he has been prepared,
48. 4:46even though he has been predicting this. Now,  interestingly, the White House just added this
49. 4:50viewing party closed press tomorrow night starting  at 700 p.m. in the East Room. We'll see if they
50. 4:57end up opening to the press. I think a lot  of that's going to depend on how Republicans
51. 5:01are actually doing. I mean, today he goes out  to this reflecting pool. That would be a site
52. 5:05that you'd go to if that was actually a successful  project because then you could say, "Look at this
53. 5:10beautiful reflecting pool behind us. We created  this and we got rid of taxes on tips and we,
54. 5:17you know, secured the border and we've increased  the economy if he actually had." But instead,
55. 5:23he goes and for 25 minutes talks about a debacle.  I have no idea what that was. And he certainly
56. 5:29has done nothing to try and help Republicans  for the last two years. I mean, Jonah, he said
57. 5:35something else at the end of his speech. I saved  it for this. I wanted you to hear it cuz I Okay,
58. 5:3925 minutes of what you heard, right? Algae and  arcs and um interesting as an arc, not an arch. Um
59. 5:45and and the golf courses and everything. And then  he ends uh to towards the end with this. We have
60. 5:52a lot of great things planned for Washington. and  I could get into the nation but for that you don't
61. 5:56have enough time. So 25 minutes of golf courses  in the elk but not enough time to mention anything
62. 6:03about the country. Yeah. I mean uh like uh you  can imagine the political consultants inside
63. 6:10the White House white knuckling it through this  you know chain smoking cigarettes and shooting
64. 6:15up black tart teroin thinking you know what's he  going to say? What's he going to say? You know,
65. 6:19it's it's sort of like, you know, like you expect  them to do that that that thing from Jerry Maguire
66. 6:23where they just drop to their knees and say, "Help  me help you." Right? Because this like like I take
67. 6:32Richard's point about, you know, if this had  been successful and all that. Let's just assume
68. 6:36it was successful. Like he thinks who's voting on  the rehab of the Lincoln Memorial Pool. I mean,
69. 6:42like I live in Washington DC. I will actually make  the case that there have been improvements because
70. 6:47of Trump's doing this stuff. No one cares. Like  where in America is someone voting on this? How
71. 6:53does this affect affordability or all the stuff  Democrats want to talk about? Like he's talking
72. 6:58about great doing great stuff for the nation.  It's like his showman reveal like stay tuned
73. 7:04because you know same bat time, same bat channel,  the second half is going to be awesome and I just
74. 7:09don't think it's working on anybody. The grass  looks really good. He says the grass looks good.
75. 7:13Listen, I've been around presidential politics  for a long time. I've been with winners. I've been
76. 7:17with losers. And I got to tell you, he's done the  hardest thing there is to do in politics. He did
77. 7:22it twice. He won the White House. So, it means I  have to assume there's something that's happening
78. 7:26that's not just crazy. So, here's what I think is  going on. He's just counterprogramming the news.
79. 7:31As long as we're talking about whatever crazy  thing Donald Trump is talking about, then we're
80. 7:36not talking about $4 gas and we're not talking  about the fact that people can't go to the grocery
81. 7:40store and buy food and we're not talking about  the inflation rate or the mortgage rates that are
82. 7:44going over 7%. All those things are things that he  doesn't want us talking about, which creates space
83. 7:50for candidates in the states to actually have time  to maybe escape that narrative for a little bit
84. 7:55and try to run on something else, which is what  culture play is about. And it's about all of the
85. 8:00touching talking about men's backsides, all that.  It's to get us to not talk about the economy. Paul
86. 8:05Trump did talk today about the biggest drop in in  oil in history, which has not happened. Um, just
87. 8:11to be clear, right? Um, we have the most expensive  election day gasoline on record tomorrow,
88. 8:16the most expensive. Uh, so just that th those are  the realities. But, you know, to to Jamal's point,
89. 8:22so he mentions a drop that didn't happen. We've  got the most expensive gas. Americans know that,
90. 8:27right? people see that and and instead of talking  about gas prices, he talked about something else
91. 8:33here. We're doing a renovation of the golf  course, which is in a horrible condition,
92. 8:41very dangerous and horrible condition. And  we're doing a renovation of the golf course,
93. 8:45and we're going to make it a world championship  course. It's going to be built to the highest
94. 8:50standard standards of golf, a worldass uh  golf course. But even if that's to distract,
95. 9:00people are seeing this. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And  tonedeaf maybe doesn't even capture it. No. Chaos
96. 9:05is our new normal. And it's been our normal with  him through both administrations. And I think he's
97. 9:10reminding everybody why they don't like him.  Every time he's out there talking about things
98. 9:15that are unfocused, no working people care about  his golf course or the reflecting pool except
99. 9:19for maybe people who run pool companies, right?  But if you wanted to craft a message that would
100. 9:22be explicitly ineffective with independence, it  would sound like that. But I think this is also
101. 9:27what we should brace for no matter what happens  tomorrow because he is going to be all gas no
102. 9:32breaks and maybe even more so. You know, I think  he he maybe even accepting the loss and a corner
103. 9:37animal is a dangerous animal. Simultaneously,  he's talking about increasing attacks on Iran.
104. 9:41I think we have to prepare for the unexpected  and don't have a failure of imagination cuz
105. 9:45Trump never does. I mean, the only thing he could  do to be less popular is say he's hitting Cuba and
106. 9:49he's talking about doing that too. I think we  have to take a step back too and remember the
107. 9:52world is watching and he looks deeply unserious  and unfocused and we're laser focused on our
108. 9:58election. But the Chinese love this, Putin loves  this. I mean, our enemies are celebrating his lack
109. 10:02of focus and his lack of seriousness. And I would  just add that the chaos here to me is because he
110. 10:08doesn't have anybody surrounding him anymore in  this second term that is going to tell him the
111. 10:13actual truth. You had some of those people in the  first term. He got rid of most of them quickly,
112. 10:17but at least they had experience in knowing how to  do this. Now he has absolutely nobody. Anybody who
113. 10:23would look at that event today and say, I planned  that, you know, I developed that. I think that was
114. 10:28a great display. That is not happening anywhere  because he is just running the show. There's
115. 10:34nobody else there. And that's where you get to  the really dangerous point. You talk about corner
116. 10:38being a cornered animal when someone gets in a  corner. We do have the breaking news. The tsunami
117. 10:42getting even bigger. More midterm results coming  in tonight and Democrats have flipped. Eight more
118. 10:48Republican seats just today and we've got more  projections possibly coming in at any moment
119. 10:52this hour as we are watching that decision desk.  Eight additional seats that I mentioned now gives
120. 10:57Democrats 253. 253 and more to count. Okay, that's  a 97 seat majority compared to Republicans just at
121. 11:06this moment. And as I said, more races in play.  In fact, 27 races still uh not yet called of as
122. 11:13of tonight. And Democrats are leading in five  of those districts that are currently held by
123. 11:18Republicans. And Republicans are no longer leading  in any district currently held by Democrats. So,
124. 11:23Democrats are now on track for what may be the  biggest gains for the Democratic party since 1974,
125. 11:29a party left for dead a couple years ago. 1974,  of course, was right after the Watergate scandal,
126. 11:34which walked Washington, after Richard Nixon was  forced to resign in one of the darkest periods of
127. 11:40America's history. Uh, up until that time, and  Democrats, remarkably, are now on track to hit
128. 11:46or even exceed, are you ready for this? 260 seats  in the House. 260 is possible. So, now let's go to
129. 11:52the Senate. Uh, also there the tsunami. Democrats  now have already earned 54 seats. Uh, even three
130. 11:58days ago, nobody thought we would be saying any  such thing, right? every single possible map was
131. 12:02to try to get to 51 or 52. 54 already two seats up  in the air. It could go to 56. We'll see how those
132. 12:09go. But those are Alaska and Mississippi. And that  brings me to where I began, which is Mississippi,
133. 12:13where we just got more results. Democrat Scott  Column leads the incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde
134. 12:19Smith right now by more than 1,800 votes. That  gap uh just getting a little bit bigger. Still
135. 12:24razor thin, but it's bigger, right? 24 hours  ago, we were uh in the low 40s. Uh so now
136. 12:29let's go to Alaska. Mary Pelola, the Democrat  there, leading Dan S. Sullivan, the incumbent,
137. 12:34by more than 600 votes. Alaska still counting.  And that's what we continue to see 48 hours
138. 12:40after the first polls closed in what turned out  to be a monumental election. And this election
139. 12:46was a crushing rebuke of President Trump. We've  heard the word extinction from many Republicans
140. 12:51talking about their own party. And Democrats  are picking up more and more seats. Meanwhile,
141. 12:56Republicans want heads to roll. I'm a business  guy and if uh in business all of a sudden you lose
142. 13:05uh that much of your uh work to your competitor  uh you you're going to fire people. In fact,
143. 13:10I think there should be some heads rolling  from the White House as well right now. Heads
144. 13:15rolling from the White House. And one of the  heads that more and more Republicans want to
145. 13:19see roll is the defense secretary Pete Hexath or  as he calls himself the secretary of war. Today,
146. 13:25Hegsth responded to this, releasing a sixinute  screed rant online. He railed against diversity.
147. 13:34He touted what he says are his accomplishments and  he gave a warning to his critics. A disgruntled,
148. 13:42defeated congressman along with all his  Democrat allies has also dropped sham
149. 13:47articles of impeachment against yours truly, just  like they tried against President Trump twice.
150. 13:55You see, their policies don't work. So, their  obsession with political theater disguised as
151. 14:00power drives them to try to destroy their  opponents. It's all about the politics of
152. 14:05personal destruction. Didn't work against  President Trump and it won't work with me.
153. 14:11You can rest assured of that. Uh much more on  that to come, but I want to go over to the magic
154. 14:18wall. Harry Anton's uh out front with me there.  Harry obviously we just played he sets there but
155. 14:23the count the count that he is responding to a  situation which he did not see coming. I don't
156. 14:28think many of us saw it to this scale to this  scale. No. And and and here we are. So we're
157. 14:33we're trending now to Watergate levels possibly  for for Democrats. I mean a possibility of 260.
158. 14:39This is this is stunning. So what are you seeing?  It is it is absolutely nutter butter. Let's just
159. 14:45start with what we've called so far, right? 253  for the Democrats, only 156 for the Republicans,
160. 14:51already a net gain pickup of 40 seats for the  Democrats. Now, you spoke about the fact that
161. 14:56we called some races today. Let's talk about those  races that we called today. And look at this. Look
162. 15:01at this. You can come in on here and call races  in North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Colorado,
163. 15:07Arizona. I want to go into North Carolina here  for a split second because this was a state that
164. 15:12Republicans redistrict to pick up seats from the  Democrats. Uh-uh. Uh-uh. Did not work. I mean,
165. 15:19my goodness gracious. Look at this. Look at this.  I didn't even know who these Democrats were for my
166. 15:24for goodness sake. Look at this. Here's a district  they redistricted. The Democrat wins there. Let's
167. 15:28go here. How about right down here? Addison  McDow, an incumbent, loses in this district.
168. 15:33We can go here. How about this one? Tim Moore. I I  again I never even heard of these Democrats before
169. 15:40this election and before all of a sudden election  night we were looking at them. Now more than that,
170. 15:45let's sort of zone out on the map here and let's  just sort of get an understanding of what we are
171. 15:50really dealing with in this election. Okay, so  we're going to go in terms of the flips so far.
172. 15:55And this to me really just does tell the story.  There are a few Republican districts that flip,
173. 15:59but the Democratic districts that flip, just the  geographic diversity of it, we're talking from
174. 16:04the Northeast, New York, Pennsylvania down to  the Southeast, right? Virginia, North Carolina,
175. 16:10you go to the Midwest, it's Michigan, it's  Iowa, it's Texas, it's Colorado, it's Nevada,
176. 16:15it's California, it's Montana, for goodness sake.  And you of course mentioned, Erin, that so far,
177. 16:21obviously, we have only called 253 states. It can  go even bigger than that. It can go even bigger
178. 16:27than that because I want you to look at the ahead  column here. Look at this. Democrats currently
179. 16:31leading in 261 districts. I think they're going  to probably end up right around the 260 mark which
180. 16:38of course would be a tremendous net gain well  into the 40s at this point which would mark the
181. 16:43biggest gain since Watergate as you were pointing  out. And more than that, what I want to note is
182. 16:48I'm going to bring out the pen here. Right now  in the national popular vote for the US House,
183. 16:52Democrats lead by, get this, 12 points. 12 points  at this point. I think that number is going to go
184. 17:00higher, probably closer to, let's say, 14 points.  And that would mark the biggest popular vote win
185. 17:06for Democrats since the bicesentennial  50 years ago. This is 1976. 1976. I mean,
186. 17:13it is incredible because I'm just thinking back  to the eve of the election. Yeah. when the most
187. 17:17optimistic forecasters were saying somewhere  between 230 and 240 and if Democrats get a miracle
188. 17:24240. Yeah. And you're now saying that somewhere  around 260 is within reach. This is absolutely
189. 17:31within reach. This was a wave because it was wide  across the map and it was deep in terms of the
190. 17:37trend in which we see Republican people who voted  for Republicans just two years ago flipping across
191. 17:42the map voting for Democrats. Absolutely. Uh  stunning and as you said the count's still coming
192. 17:45in. are watching this because we do anticipate  more numbers coming in through this hour. So,
193. 17:50we'll see if any of these these become firm calls  in the next few moments. Let's go to Kristen
194. 17:54Holmes at the White House. Kristen, if there was  any talk that that Trump might have had of saying,
195. 17:58"Oh, well, it didn't go my way here, so I'm  going to say it was rigged or that." I mean,
196. 18:02it is the depth of this wave which made any such  thing impossible. What more are you learning about
197. 18:08the White House thinking on this stunning and  major loss? Well, Erin, they're still coming
198. 18:13up with their strategy to move forward. You have  to remember this. There were a lot of different
199. 18:17scenarios they planned for. They planned for a  scenario in which they lost the House and kept the
200. 18:20Senate. They even planned for a scenario in which  they both lost the Senate and the House. But what
201. 18:25they didn't plan for was losing it by this much.  These are insane margins. And so all of the things
202. 18:31that they had been actually planning for, they  need to be adjusted. And I was told the day after
203. 18:36the election, they had a senior staff meeting  where they talked about what the White House paths
204. 18:40forward are. They talked about executive orders,  how to work with Democrats. if Democrats do want
205. 18:45to work with them, what would they actually  believe that they could compromise on? What are
206. 18:49things that they could present to Democrats? And I  also heard that there was talk about how they will
207. 18:54react if Democrats come in and they are planning  immediate expansive investigations. And that's
208. 19:01going to be a more aggressive approach obviously  from this White House and one we've seen before.
209. 19:06Now, in terms of how the White House is thinking  about moving forward and looking back, I'm still
210. 19:12told that there is so much animosity behind  the scenes, fingerpointing, a lot of it at Pete
211. 19:18Hegath, at the Secretary of Defense. And the big  question is whether or not Trump ends up cutting
212. 19:23him loose. He has said publicly, repeatedly, that  he is not going to fire him, that he thinks he's
213. 19:28doing a fantastic job, but it hasn't stopped him  from calling and talking to a number of people and
214. 19:33saying, "How do you think he's doing?" and he  has been fielding calls. He said this earlier,
215. 19:38but a lot of Republicans who say they don't  think that Hegsth should remain in the job. Now,
216. 19:43if in fact Republicans do vote in the House to  impeach Hegsath next week, which is what we're
217. 19:50hearing could happen, then we're going to look  at this again because that could be a chance that
218. 19:55President Trump uses to cut him loose. Yeah. Yeah.  Absolutely. And then when you talk about Hegath,
219. 20:00that's something whatever the vote might be that  has a lot of bipartisan support. Kristen, thank
220. 20:05you very much. I appreciate you and everyone's  here with me. John, you know, just just sitting,
221. 20:09you know, sitting over there with Harry. Yeah.  You know, thinking about on the eve, you know,
222. 20:12the 235 240 seat in the house forecast that  everybody said, "Oh man, those people are
223. 20:17crazy." And now you're looking at 260 261 is  very conceivable. Uh getting close to that is
224. 20:24is quite probable and likely. I mean, uh this is  really stunning. It is a landslide. Um, it is a
225. 20:33definitive rebuke of Donald Trump like we've never  seen. I mean, you got to go back to Watergate
226. 20:37as we've seen, but it's also, you know, a dozen  state legislatores. Um, it's deep into the South
227. 20:43and the Midwest. And so, the the whole Republican  coalition has been blown up because Trump pursued
228. 20:48policies that were not only made people's economic  situation worse, but were intentionally unpopular.
229. 20:55He pursued an extremist agenda. And so, this  is a populist blowback. I mean, Ashley, also,
230. 20:59you know, they didn't even I'm just thinking the  former speaker of the Texas House Republican was
231. 21:03with me. He lives along the Louisiana border. He's  like, "Look at Louisiana." Oh, I mean, this looked
232. 21:08at Louisiana, they they only are winning by like  a pointish, Tennessee, Florida. Um, you look at
233. 21:16South Carolina, even the governor's race in South  Carolina, 90,000 votes, it was the difference with
234. 21:21minimal investment. It could have been so much  worse. But here's here here's what I'll say is I
235. 21:26think this it is should not be surprising for two  reasons. One, Dem should not have lost in 2024 if
236. 21:33I'm honest. There was a miscalculation and we  can go back and relitigate all of that. But the
237. 21:38reality that Donald Trump ever was elected should  have never happened because of how dissatisfied
238. 21:43Americans were on the first term. But all you had  to do was open your ears and and uh look through
239. 21:51your eyes and just pay attention to what people  were saying. They were pleading pleading with
240. 21:56this administration, screaming from the rooftops,  I'm unhappy. I'm unhappy. I don't want a war. I
241. 22:01You broke all these promises. This is what people  get to do in two years. They don't have to wait
242. 22:05four years to get rid of Donald Trump. They might  feel overly loyal to him, but they do not to these
243. 22:09uh people in the House and the Senate and and  governor's races and all of that. And here we are.
244. 22:14Trump says tonight more firings could be coming as  he's publicly spinning his party's massive defeat.
245. 22:21President Trump just speaking at the Kennedy Space  Center, which is his first major speech since the
246. 22:25election. But as you're about to hear, Trump is  not taking the blame. Despite the $3 trillion
247. 22:33lost yesterday, you know, our country lost three  trillion all because of an election. I wonder
248. 22:39what that means. If we would have gained three  trillion, I probably would have been more unhappy.
249. 22:45But you know what that means? That means that they  thought somebody else did well in election. By the
250. 22:50way, I was not on the ballot, just in case you  had any questions, cuz if we were on the ballot,
251. 22:55we would have won. But we weren't. So he said I  wasn't on the ballot. If we were on the ballot,
252. 23:02um referring to himself, uh that Republicans would  have won. But I just want to remind everybody in
253. 23:08the context of what he just said there what  he said days before the election. You have
254. 23:15to do the one thing. Pretend I'm on the ballot.  Pretend I'm on the ballot. But in this election,
255. 23:21I'm asking you to pretend I'm on the ballot just  one more time. So what I really want you to do
256. 23:27is pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot. What?  Well, it of course seemed like the American public
257. 23:36uh did that. They did vote like he was on the  ballot and we are just getting in more results
258. 23:40from the historic midterms. Democrat Nancy Laor  flipping the seat that was once held by Nancy
259. 23:46Mace obviously. So that's going R to D. 99% of  the vote now in and Laor leads the Republican
260. 23:51Jenny Costa Honeyut by more than 3,000 votes.  Now, that gives Democrats 254 seats compared to
261. 23:58163 for Republicans and puts Democrats on the  path to their excuse me, largest gains since
262. 24:04Watergate. And at this hour, Democrats are still  leading in four districts currently being held by
263. 24:09Republicans. And today, with all of this fallout,  a major shakeup at the White House after the GOP
264. 24:15collapse. Trump elevating his controversial top  deputy Steven Miller to become his new chief of
265. 24:20staff. And it takes place right away. There's no  two weeks notice. Uh this is Monday. Steven Miller
266. 24:24is going to walk in and be the chief of staff  replacing Susie Wilds. As of tonight, that's
267. 24:29the highest ranking White House official to leave  Trump's White House in the wake of the colossal
268. 24:34Republican collapse. A wipeout that sources tell  CNN has left Trump fuming. And maybe you could
269. 24:39even see from that speech today uncertain as to  how to deal with it. And despite saying he'd work
270. 24:45with Democrats after those losses by promoting  Miller, uh Trump is sending obviously the complete
271. 24:50opposite signal, calling Miller a great manager  and also saying that he gets it politically. But
272. 24:56voters overwhelmingly from uh across the United  States have rejected Trump's actions in office and
273. 25:02and M. Miller in charge right it's continuity and  it's continuity on some of the most controversial
274. 25:07policies showing that perhaps Trump is prepared  to veer even harder to the right. Miller is the
275. 25:12architect behind the aggressive ICE raids and  mass deportations. After all, to all ICE officers,
276. 25:19you have federal immunity in the conduct of  your duties. And anybody who lays a hand on
277. 25:24you or tries to stop you or tries to obstruct  you is committing a felony. You have immunity
278. 25:31to perform your duties. Either we all side and get  behind President Trump to remove these terrorists
279. 25:37from our communities or we let a rogue radical  left judiciary shut down the machinery of our
280. 25:43national security apparatus. Of course, he's also  one of Trump's biggest cheerleaders when it comes
281. 25:48to the rest of his agenda. Julia Benbrook begins  our coverage out front live. She's at the Kennedy
282. 25:52Space Center. That's where President Trump  just spoke. And and Julia, what else are you
283. 25:56learning about this? I mean, obviously it it got  announced on a Friday. It takes place on a Monday,
284. 26:01right? This is abrupt to say the very least. What  are you learning about why Susie Wilds is out and
285. 26:06Steven Miller is in as chief of staff? It is going  to happen quickly and the one thing that is clear
286. 26:13is that Trump is frustrated and he has been  looking at strategy at things that went wrong
287. 26:19and Susie Wilds, the current chief of staff, is  taking at least part of the blame for that. Now,
288. 26:25I did want to note that here at this event, you  know, in Florida, Republicans did come out on top
289. 26:30in those big races. Ashley Moody in the Senate,  Byron Donald in the governor's race. They were
290. 26:36both here, but even they won by less significant  margins than they had hoped. So, Republicans are
291. 26:42really questioning all the things that that took  place here. Susie Wilds will be replaced by Deputy
292. 26:48Chief of Staff Steven Miller. Now, as you pointed  out, he is one of the more polarizing figures in
293. 26:53this administration. He played a key role in  orchestrating Trump's hardline immigration
294. 26:59agenda. According to a source familiar with the  matter, Wilds turned in her resignation last
295. 27:04night. She will move to the political operation  in Trump's world, and that is all going to go into
296. 27:10effect on Monday. It seemed at first like Trump  was somewhat unfased by these sweeping losses.
297. 27:17just kept saying, you know, I wasn't on the  ballot. That's really what took place here. But
298. 27:21we are learning that he was frustrated even during  that viewing party in the East Room. And that
299. 27:27frustration has only grown as he has continued to  watch the negative media coverage. And when he was
300. 27:33on his way here today, he said that he thought  that he just needed a change. He praised Wilds,
301. 27:38but he said he thought he just needed a change and  that he believes Miller gets it. He's circling the
302. 27:44wagons. He's shrinking the circle and he's getting  ready for war. I think he any any idea that he's
303. 27:50going to moderate here is unrealistic. You know,  he's not going to compromise with the Democrats.
304. 27:54He's getting ready for a fight and he's put Hex  Seth into that circle. Uh I think he's he's going
305. 28:00to be more extreme. He's going to be more radical.  He's going to be more unpredictable. You know,
306. 28:03it was a blue wave, but it was powered by  independent water and that's really where he lost
307. 28:08the country. He lost independence almost 2 to1  to the Democrats and they want to see moderation.
308. 28:12and they want to see him in check, but he's he's  ready to go. And I think it's really important to
309. 28:15underscore that in the next two months, he might  be at his most dangerous. A cornered animal is
310. 28:20a dangerous animal, especially when it comes to  national security. So, there's no limit to what he
311. 28:24could do with Iran, Cuba, here domestically. And I  think we're in for some very dangerous times after
312. 28:28this honeymoon period the Democrats have had. I  mean, I mean, Sarah, let me just remind people
313. 28:32of some of the things. I mean, I talked about  Steven Miller as the architect of ICE, right?
314. 28:35Um but he also has gone along with Trump on all of  um some of the lowest common denominator culture
315. 28:42war comments that he's made. Uh talking about  Robert Dairo, he called him a sad, bitter, broken
316. 28:47old man. Um he talked about James Tarico who just  won in Texas. Uh when he goes in for a blood test,
317. 28:52blood doesn't come out. They say milk comes out.  He's clearly transitioning to a female. These are
318. 28:57all things Stephen Miller said and and I can go  on and on. Um but this is who is now the chief
319. 29:02of staff. Yeah. And I worked with Steven Miller  in the first Trump administration and he is about
320. 29:08as extreme as they get. And one of the things that  I think has stuck out most to me during Trump 2.0
321. 29:15is in the aftermath of our government murdering  Alex Prey in cold blood in the street. What did
322. 29:22Steven Miller tweet out? That he was a domestic  terrorist. And that is the person that Trump
323. 29:27just appointed. And I have to say that I think  Steven Miller is a horrible human being to just
324. 29:32in general. and a racist, a bigot. I could keep  going, but I won't waste our our air time with
325. 29:37that. But what I have to say, too, is that this is  just poor political instincts on the president's
326. 29:40part because Steven Miller is the chief person  responsible for blowing up his coalition, with
327. 29:46Latino voters, people who voted and sent him back  into the White House in 2024. That is what Steven
328. 29:52Miller is responsible for because he took one of  the GOP's best issues, border and immigration,
329. 29:57and made it one of the biggest liabilities with  his cruel and inhumane mass deportations. Yep. So,
330. 30:02so Trump just gave an interview after this to 60  Minutes or he might have done it just before, but
331. 30:06we just got the the sound afterwards where he says  that more he's going to be more people are going
332. 30:10to be fired. Yeah. Okay. From the administration.  Here's how he put it. In a previous lifetime,
333. 30:18you were rather famous for saying you're fired  quite often. After a big midterm defeat like this,
334. 30:23do you expect to fire anyone from your team? Yeah,  you do. Little bit. Little bit. I love my cabinet.
335. 30:29I think they're good, but I'll do be doing maybe  a few changes. I don't want to mention who.
336. 30:37Well, as tough as it was for Susie Wilds to lose  her job, she did better than Rice Prieous in 2017
337. 30:42when Donald Trump left him on the tarmac in Long  Island after he was fired unceremoniously. Um,
338. 30:48and so at least she didn't travel all the way to  the trip today and then have to find her way home.
339. 30:53Listen, Donald Trump has given America the big  middle finger. What he's decided is it doesn't
340. 30:57matter what you said on Tuesday. It doesn't matter  that you didn't you didn't you reject everything
341. 31:01that we've done over the last 20 22 months. I'm  still going to do whatever it is I want to do
342. 31:07and everybody's just going to have to take it.  And I think maybe it doesn't hurt him, but for
343. 31:12every Republican who's thinking about running for  president in 2028, they're going to have to live
344. 31:17with the hole Donald Trump is Donald Trump is  digging for Republicans. Well, Paul started out
345. 31:20by saying that that Trump's ready for war with  this and referring to war with with Democrats.
346. 31:25His initial comment rhyme was he's going to  work with them. But then you have uh Robert
347. 31:28Garcia who's expected to be the House oversight  chairman in a Democratic House uh who said that
348. 31:33Miller should quote unquote lawyer up. That was in  all caps and that was hours after the election. I
349. 31:38don't know if that's related to what happened here  today, but Trump going ahead and choosing Steven
350. 31:42Miller as his chief of staff. Um that you you can  see the f the front lines of this war right there.
351. 31:49Yeah. And it actually does change the equation  for the Democrats going after Steven Miller,
352. 31:53trying to sell him to lawyer up. In other words,  that they're going to investigate him because as
353. 31:57chief of staff, he does come with potential legal  protections that he otherwise wouldn't have. And
354. 32:02it's based on long-standing Justice Department  theories that they say that there's absolute
355. 32:06immunity. The chief of staff is the president's  alter ego. And as his alter ego, he does not have
356. 32:12to appear before Congress. He cannot be subpoenaed  before Congress. The Democrats can litigate that.
357. 32:17There's some good case law for that, but that's  a clash in the courts. Do they really want to
358. 32:21do that? Do they want to give this to the US  Supreme Court which has a maximalist view of
359. 32:25presidential authority and could easily side with  the White House. So, it does put in something else
360. 32:29into the equation when they think about Steven  Müer, who would otherwise be a great witness for