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- [00:00]
A
Senator, it is right now 11:30 at night. For everyone that's listening this morning, we have been doing a live verdict before this. I want to do a recap. I think it's pretty clear now that if we were gonna be waiting up for a official result in a lot of these races, we would not get any sleep at all. Let's kind of recap where we are at this moment. I think you would agree with me that is the, the highlight of the night is we're taking back the House. The concerning moment of the night is the Senate is still very much it's even at this point and that concerns all of us. This was a map that was a map that was designed in this midterm for Democrats. They had the advantage. There's a lot of tribalism in this country. We can see now shocking that Fetterman is still in this one. Shocking what we're seeing in Arizona right now. But let's focus on the one exciting point in the House races. We are going to have a substantial red wave in the House. That means Nancy Pelosi is going to retire and we won't have to deal with her anymore. But we're also going to have subpoena power in the House to get some stuff done that needs to be looked at.
- [01:13]
B
Well, I think that's right. I think it is a good election tonight, but I also think it could have been much better. So it is a red wave, but it's not as big a wave as it should have been, frankly, given the disaster from the Democrats. This should have been a massive red wave and we're going to take the House. But at this point it's not clear how big a majority. I had hoped it would be a 40, 50 vote majority. I think it will be substantially smaller than that. We are losing a number of close House races that were winnable that we didn't win.
- [01:51]
A
Republicans at this moment have 175 seats. Democrats are 138 in the House. There's 121 at 11:31 at night Central time that are still out there. And again, we're going to win back the House. That's going to be great. Senator, I want to get into some predictions in just a moment, but first I want to tell everybody about Amazing Company. And if you're a conservative, if you're a Christian conservative, you need to check out Patriot Mobile. 99% of you have a cell phone. How would you like to know that you're actually fighting for the causes you believe in? Every time you make a phone call, that's what happens when you're with Patriot Mobile. They are America's only Christian conservative mobile phone provider and they are a force for conservative values. Now, I've been telling you about them for years and been using them for years. Why? Because they take a portion of my bill every month. And they fund conservative causes in Canada to believe in the sanctity of life, freedom of speech, the second amendment, and that is why I recommend them. Patriot Mobile has affordable plans that can save you money. They can save you money on your personal bill, your family's bill, and even your business. They offer the same nationwide coverage as the major carriers because they use the same towers in the same networks that you're using right now. Plus, every time you pay your bill and every time you use your phone, you're supporting conservative values that you believe in. With every call, you want to save even more. Go online to patriot mobile.com verdict patriot mobile.com verdict and you'll get free activation. You can also call them. Switching is easy and many times you can keep the same cell phone that's in your hand right now. 972 Patriot. That's 972-patriot. Use the promo code VERDICT. You'll get free activation and other amazing deals. Patriotmobile.com verdict or 972 Patriot. You look at the Senate right now, and this is the part that is very concerning. It's 4747 as we speak. We're going. We're headed for probably a runoff in Georgia. For people that don't understand this, if you don't get above 50% right now.
- [04:10]
B
In Pennsylvania, Fetterman has a 40,000 vote lead with 82% in.
- [04:17]
A
And that's concerning that.
- [04:18]
B
That is very concerning.
- [04:20]
A
What does that tell you about the mistake that was made with. And I say mistake because I think Oz was the easier candidate to beat, in my opinion, in the general.
- [04:29]
B
Look, I went all in for Dave McCormick in the primary. I leaned in vigorously. Part of the reason I went all in is I thought he was the strongest conservative who can win. I think if McCormick had been the nominee, he would have won decisively. I hope Oz wins as we're sitting here late at night. I supported Oz once he was the nominee. I wanted him to win. I think Fetterman is a spectacularly bad candidate. He's radical, he's extreme, he's on the bleeding left. He's going to join if he becomes the senator Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the cuckoo caucus of the Democrat Party. That Is not good. That's not, I think, where a lot of Pennsylvanians are. But there were.
- [05:15]
A
What is the takeaway? That a guy that has clearly cognitive issues has had this stroke. I hate that for him sincerely, but can't even get through debates, says good night at the beginning of the debate, cannot understand questions, basic questions. This is a guy. You wouldn't want to be the pilot of your plane or your Uber driver. You probably wouldn't hire him for a lot of jobs right now. It's because of the medical issues. And yet he's leading as we speak at 11:33 at night in a race that is so important, that could really deal with who's in charge of the senate.
- [05:48]
B
Look, the 2,386,595 people who, as of now, have voted for Fetterman, they only care about one vote he cast, and that's for Chuck Schumer. They don't care that he can spell his name. They don't care that he knows what's going on. They want him to vote for Chuck Schumer because we are so deeply divided and tribalized. That's their team. For the same reason that there were no Philadelphia residents rooting for the Houston Astros.
- [06:23]
A
Why?
- [06:23]
B
Because their team is the Phillies. Of course, you know, it's not complicated. If you're a Philly guy, you root for the Phillies across the country. And this is true on both sides. This is true red and blue, where people right now put on their jersey and they're not focused on. If you could pull those Democrat voters, I'd love to see a room attended those Democrat voters and be like, okay, do you agree with Fetterman voting over and over and over again to release murderers? Do you agree with that?
- [06:59]
A
Yeah.
- [06:59]
B
Do you agree with Fetterman saying we should release one third of the criminals in prison in Pennsylvania? Do you agree with that? Like, his positions have been radical and yet, at least in this election. And we've been moving more and more in that path, radical or not. And by the way, I think many, if not most of those Democrats who voted for him don't actually agree with those views, but they don't really know about them. The corporate media doesn't cover them, and their view is just, I'm on Team Democrat.
- [07:38]
A
Yeah.
- [07:39]
B
So I vote Democrat. And that's where we are. If you're going to win, you've got to make the election about issues and not personalities. And by the way, this is a broader point. I think too many of these Republican races became personality battles. When you have first time candidates who've never run, who are celebrities or coming from outside, they have no record, they have no voting record, they've not been involved in issues, they've never taken a stand on anything, they frequently make major mistakes. And experience matters. Actually, knowing what you're doing matters. Listen, you were a serious competitive tennis player. You played at Ole Miss. If I wandered out on the tennis court for a competitive Division 1 game, I'd get crushed. And it doesn't matter that on my iPhone I have a tennis game, that if I flick my finger, I have a wicked backhand on my iPhone. But it actually, experience does matter and practice does matter. And spending, you know, when you were seven years old, you were going to tennis camp and practicing and, you know, hitting a backhand over and over and over and over again so that it became routine. If you look at some of these races with first time candidates, what they became was personality battles. The single best political advice I've ever gotten came from Heidi, and it came years ago, right when I was getting started. And she said, remember, it's not about you, it's about them. It's about their lives, it's about their kids, it's about their family, it's about their future. You can tell a bad candidate if they stand up there and say over and over again the word I, I, I, I. You know, I remember back in 2008, the Iowa caucuses. Hillary Clinton was supposed to have a coronation, and this unknown senator from Illinois stuns the world by beating her. And I'm watching the TV speeches that night, and Hillary Clinton gets up and her concession speech, such as it was, every third word was I, I, I. And over her right shoulder, Bill Clinton was standing, the best natural politician of his generation. And you could see Bill Clinton physically wince. It was like he was being punched.
- [10:32]
A
I remember, I remember watching it. It was the difference between Hillary and Bill Clinton was just night and day. It's like, how did he not coach her more?
- [10:39]
B
He was in agony. I mean, he was in actual pain. Every time she said I, you could see the pain in his eyes. You cut to Barack Obama in his speech that night. Every third word was we, we, we. And watching that, my reaction is, that guy's going to win. And I will say, in too many of these races, it became about the personality and not about the issues that impact the kitchen table, the kids, the family, the safety, the security that impact the people. That's what we need to make races about.
- [11:18]
A
There's some good news tonight. One of Your dear friends, one of your closest friends in the Senate, we were concerned about this race, talked about it on this show. You went out there for Mike Lee. That race has now been called for Mike Lee. You gotta be happy about that.
- [11:31]
B
Personally, look, I'm very happy. If Mike Lee had lost tonight, it would have been cataclysmic. I literally would have been in tears if Mike Lee had lost. He is by far my closest friend in the Senate. He is a smart, principled conservative. He's also the single most frequent guest on Verdict. I think Mike has been three times on Verdict. There's no other person that has been that many times on Verdict. His race was close. Public polling had it three points. At one point. It had him down. He ended up winning by, as of tonight, 12 points. He ended up winning pretty decisively. And I think what happened was Republicans came home that even the sort of. So the reason he was in danger is all the Ds were voting for McMullen and the sort of wobbly Rs who want to be nice and aren't sure and think Mike is really conservative. They were flirting with McMullen. And I think the tribalism prevailed. And they said, okay, I'm not voting for the guy the Democrats support. I'm coming home. I'm glad of it there. I'm not glad of it in the New York gubernatorial race. I wish Lee Zeldin had won.
- [12:48]
A
He ran an amazing campaign, by the way, with not near the resources that the Democrats had. You and I talked about this on the live portion earlier, and I think it's important to recap if there's any big takeaway from these midterm elections is that Democrats are doing a hell of a lot better job of fundraising and funding their candidates. Republicans are holding back great candidates by not raising as much money as we need to to be competitive and win some of these races. And that may be one of the biggest takeaways from these midterms is it is time for Republicans to go out there and to get in this game and write more checks and to give more money to candidates because Democrats are doing an amazing job of that. And Republicans are. Are letting too many candidates kind of hang out to dry for too long before at the last minute. All right, let's give a little extra cash here. Well, the damage is already done. Democrats are far better at fundraising nationwide than we are. We should learn from this now. Getting ready for the presidential and the big election 2024.
- [13:50]
B
Look, we also need Republicans to step up and answer the call and we need serious candidates with experience. You look at the best candidates this cycle. Adam Laxalt in Nevada, who I backed early. Adam was the Attorney General in Nevada. He ran for governor, did not win governor, but he's smart, experienced, talented, he has a record. He ran a disciplined campaign. Sitting here tonight, we don't know if he'll win or lose, but he was the best candidate to win in Nevada. If Adam doesn't win in Nevada, nobody could have won. And he was by far the best candidate to win in Nevada. Another one of the really good candidates this cycle was Eric Schmidt in Missouri. Same thing. He was the Attorney General in Missouri. Smart, disciplined and had been on the ballot, had a very conservative record, knew the pitfalls, knew the questions that, knew the ways you can step on a landmine and blow up. If we end up, if the Democrats keep control of the Senate, which is entirely possible as we sit here tonight, I don't think it'll happen, but it's possible. You know, one person who could have altered that single handedly is Chris Sununu, the governor of New Hampshire. Yeah, Chris Sununu, a very popular governor. If he had run for Senate, he would have won and he made the decision. I like being governor. It's a better job. You know my reaction, so what? It's a better job. That's good for you. How about for the country? How about for the 300 million people that are getting screwed by these left wing socialists? Look, Arizona, right now, I hope we.
- [15:33]
A
Pull out Arizona, Yeah, let's talk about Arizona, because Arizona is one that you and I talked about a lot. You've been out there. This was a race that was obviously personality driven. To go back to that theme for a moment, and what we're seeing in Arizona is not what we wanted to see, at least at this point tonight, as we are recording this at 11:43.
- [15:52]
B
In the evening, and I will say if you followed traditional standards for how you win Arizona, the obvious candidate to run was Doug Ducey, the incumbent Republican governor, relatively popular in the state. If you're talking about who could beat an incumbent Democrat with a ton of money, Ducey was the obvious choice. So why did Ducey not run? Ducey didn't run because Donald Trump hates him. And if Ducey had run, Trump would have carpet bombed him into oblivion. They would have had a civil war and we would have lost. So as a result, Ducey didn't win. If we end up losing Arizona, I think we ought to look back and say, well, was there a candidate who could have won and why didn't they run? And is that good? You look at Colorado, I think Colorado was a winnable state, although given the tribalism that played out, it may have been less winnable than possible than initially it was perceived. I think Bennett was a very weak incumbent. I think he was vulnerable. But you look at the Republican candidate, Joe O'Day, He's a business guy, never run for office, didn't know anything about politics, nice guy, met him, I liked him, I supported him. What killed him? One, he was massively outspent, but secondly, went on one of the Sunday shows and they asked him, hey, what do you think about Trump running in 24? And he said, well, I would actively oppose that. I think that's a bad idea, and I would campaign against him. And he listed several other people that he would support. Now, in a normal universe where you had someone trying to run in Colorado, trying to appeal to moderate or independent or liberals in the Denver suburbs, that's not an insane answer for someone to say in a state like that. But the reaction of Trump should have been obvious. At this point, Trump's reactions are entirely predictable and consistent.
- [17:57]
A
Yes, he does not waver in his response.
- [18:00]
B
The next day, Trump turned around and punched him in the face and told people, don't vote for the guy. And the race was lost at that point. Now, look, I wish o'day, when asked that question, that's not a hard question for O'Day to Dodge, to simply say, you know, I'm focused on 22 and the voters can worry about that in the future. But it is an example where the fact that you had a candidate who'd never run, who didn't understand, how are they going to try to get me to step on a landmine? The reason that's a landmine in Colorado is whatever answer he gave, yeah, pissed off a big chunk of voters. He needed, he needed all the Trump hardcore supporters to be with him, to have a prayer. But he also needed to not alienate the rest of the voters. And so that combination, I think was unfortunate.
- [18:53]
A
You look at one of the other things, there you go.
- [18:55]
B
Sununu won 14 points as governor, while at the same time we lose the Senate race.
- [19:04]
A
That's shocking.
- [19:05]
B
If the Democrats keep the Senate by one seat, Chris Sununu single handedly could have changed that.
- [19:10]
A
Which, it's amazing. It's going to come down to that. You look at Georgia now, we're seeing a little bit of a lead for Warnock. I don't think either person at this point in the night, it looks pretty clear they're not going to get to the 50 plus one that you're going to need to when that's going to go back to runoff. This could also be for the control of the Senate. It could all come down to Georgia, which, which is not a place we want to necessarily go back to.
- [19:34]
B
Look, right now it looks like we're headed to a runoff in Georgia. Oh, this is good. Wisconsin right now it looks like Ron Johnson has a three point lead with 88% in a 74,000 vote lead. That's positive. I think Ron will hold on. That's another seat. We need him to hold on. I think he will. Fetterman is up 62,000 votes with 83% in. And so how we deal with that. All right, Warnock. Warnock is up right now almost 30,000 votes with 95% in. But they're both below 50% right now. So it looks like we're headed to a runoff.
- [20:19]
A
When you look at this, the media is obviously going to go really, really crazy and analyzing how much the Donald Trump endorsement helped or hurt. What is the takeaway from this, from that? Because they're going to spend weeks on this saying, was he, was he an asset or did he take away? You look at, he went all in in that race in Michigan for Tudor Dixon. She lost there. That was called pretty early in the night.
- [20:45]
B
No, he didn't. He didn't put money behind it.
- [20:47]
A
Well, that's true.
- [20:48]
B
Look, going all in, when you have $100 million in the bank, go spend money. Senator Dixon had no money.
- [20:54]
A
Yeah.
- [20:55]
B
And I mean, it was a massive differential in spending. Look, going all in is not sending out a tweet. Look, did it help or hurt both? It helped enormously. JD Vance would not be a senator without Donald Trump, period. Full stop.
- [21:13]
A
J.D.
- [21:14]
B
Vance was losing that primary. Trump came in, endorsed him and it catapulted Vance to the lead. Now it's clear that Trump's endorsement has a much bigger impact in a Republican primary than in a general election. That much is clear with Vance. It turned out, and he's one of the exceptions. He'd never run before. He was a first time candidate and yet he proved more disciplined than some of the other first time candidates. And I will say you and I have talked at length about the nationwide month long 17 state bus tour. I did. I spent an entire day with JD Vance. I'd met JD before, but I didn't really know him and he really impressed me. For one thing, when I came to Ohio, we gave him a day and said, use it. And we told that to other candidates. Yeah, his campaign did a better job of using my time. So they had three rallies all over the state, in different parts of the state. They had a big fundraiser where they raised a bunch of money that they had me come to on the bus in between each of the different stops, they had me on the phone non stop to talk radio host all over the state. So they systematically, one call after the other. Now, you're particularly sympathetic to being on the phone with talk radio hosts.
- [22:29]
A
Absolutely.
- [22:30]
B
But it was impressive. The first rally we did was at 9 or 9:30 in the morning. They had a packed house. They had hundreds of people come out early in the morning, or relatively early. Yeah, that's unusual. There are a lot of campaigns that can't do that. And so Trump won the primary for him hands down. But I will say Vance ran a disciplined, effective campaign and won the general. And one of the lessons I think we need to take is, is to win, to win in 22 and to win in 24. We've got to be united, we've got to have. There are disparate parts of the Republican Party where if we're at war, the Democrats win. Now that doesn't mean that within the party, we shouldn't press the party. Look, I have famously battled Republican leadership for years and I fully expect going forward to continue doing so. We should have vigorous fights about what we should stand for and what we should do. And I'm gonna press harder than anyone for the Republican majorities to act like it and deliver on our promises. By the way, we just saw Wisconsin narrow. It's now 30,000 vote margin. That's less than ideal. And Fetterman's up 62,000 votes, which is.
- [23:54]
A
Just shocking to me in Pennsylvania, that Fetterman, a guy that had the worst debate, I think, in history, modern political times, is actually winning by 62,000 votes as we do this at 11:52 central time at night over Dr. Oz there.
- [24:11]
B
Now, I will say, by the way, in Pennsylvania, the Democrats have gone out of their way to say, remember, the votes won't be done on election night. We're gonna be counting for days to come. So who the heck knows what kind of cluster is going to unfold in Pennsylvania, but the degree to which both Pennsylvania and Arizona, I don't know if the counting, and it may be true in Nevada also, that the counting could continue for some time, it seems.
- [24:40]
A
I have a feeling we're going to be doing another verdict a Special one on Wednesday. Because that's how long it's going to take to figure out what all this actually is going to look like.
- [24:48]
B
But a clear lesson is when you go into a general election, you've got to unite the Klans, to use a Braveheart reference. You've got to bring everyone together. If we're divided, we lose. Another clear lesson is you need effective, serious candidates. My philosophy is the strongest conservative who can win. And you got to have resources that if we send our candidates in and they're being outspent 3 to 1 or 5 to 1 or 10 to 1, they will lose. And at the end of the day, we need to ask ourselves, do we want to lose our country? Because we're not funding these people? Because the differential is deeply concerning. So those are two significant takeaways.
- [25:42]
A
Well, let's talk about the mindset. For everyone that's hearing this. I think there's a lot of people that are gonna be waking up and be a little bit depressed that this is the outcome. It is still significant that we're gonna take back the House.
- [25:58]
B
Yes.
- [25:59]
A
That is something that is going to hold this administration accountable. It's gonna be able to investigate this administration. It could lead to things like possible impeachment and mayorkas and other things like that that are very important. And accountability for Fauci and what he did with gain of function, research and funding and Wuhan Institute of Virology and all of the things that happened there. Let's not overlook that that is a big moment. We should celebrate it. And for people that might be a little bit down, don't be. Because that is huge for this country.
- [26:31]
B
Fully agree.
- [26:33]
A
Senate wise, I mean, this is. That's where you serve. What's your takeaway?
- [26:42]
B
I don't know. Looking at it right now, 96% in in Georgia. Warnock's ahead, Walker's behind. Neither are over 50. If that goes to a runoff, it could be controlled to the Senate. Pennsylvania. Right now Fetterman's winning.
- [27:05]
A
Yeah.
- [27:06]
B
If we lose Pennsylvania. Let's suppose we lose Pennsylvania and we win Nevada. And by the way, we don't have any numbers right now from Nevada. So I think Laxalt is a good candidate. But we've seen tribalism, Democrats returning to their team. I don't know that Adam wins Nevada. I hope he does. I want him to. I've campaigned with him repeatedly. I think he's a good candidate. But the results in other states are not suggesting the kind of red tsunami.
- [27:40]
A
That there's some Nevada numbers that we just got in there. This is obviously with hardly any. This is maybe the first place coming in that's reporting there with 0.14% coming in at 1159. And these are going to change a lot because you're talking about one polling place or two coming in there. But like you said, you look at tribalism, that doesn't make you as hopeful there as we would have been a couple hours ago.
- [28:04]
B
Yeah. So listen, if we are looking at a scenario where we lose Pennsylvania and we win Nevada, then we're back to the runoff in Georgia determining control of the Senate.
- [28:23]
A
That's not what we thought.
- [28:24]
B
Assuming we don't win Arizona, and I guess there's an outside chance, but we're looking at the numbers right now and Kelly's up 16 points and now 50% is in. Maybe, but that's a big margin.
- [28:35]
A
I mean when you're talking about 228,000 vote differential, that's. That is significant. That would be a lot to overcome.
- [28:43]
B
Now you can't over generalize because it depends. Like there can be really blue counties and really red counties and maybe the blues are all in and the reds haven't come. So I've seen swings, but swings are typically in the 5 point range and not the 17 point range.
- [29:01]
A
Yeah, this is, this is not the night we were hoping for in the Senate. I think we can agree with that. There's the newest Nevada numbers. We just got a big dump that came in. 33% reporting there. Adam at 42%. She's at now at 54% up on the screen there. That is just called Fetterman and this in Pennsylvania. This is not the news we're wanting, dammit. And Fox News has just called the Feder race as the winner there. 49.4 to Oz at 48.2. That is a gain for the Democrats there. That now changes everything in the Senate. Senator.
- [29:47]
B
We'Ve got to win Georgia and Nevada to take control of the Senate and not lose Wisconsin.
- [29:53]
A
I think you and I both thought at dinner we'd be 52, 53. That's.
- [29:59]
B
I was at 53, 54. That ain't happening. Maybe we get to 51, but we could easily be with the Democrat Senate. That losing Pennsylvania changes the math profoundly.
- [30:17]
A
Now that they're calling it this way. The biggest mistake in Pennsylvania was picking odds.
- [30:24]
B
I did rallies all over the state of Pennsylvania with McCormick. I went all in.
- [30:29]
A
And by the way, people may not realize this, that was a very, very, very slim loss in number of votes that night.
- [30:35]
B
It Was a few thousand votes.
- [30:36]
A
Yeah, a couple thousand votes, and McCormick.
- [30:38]
B
Would have won tonight. So it may be that that primary gave the Democrats the Senate. If that's the outcome that's hard to stomach.
- [30:51]
A
Hard to stomach. If you go back and look at that primary, it was a very divided primary. And there were forces that were involved that were very influential in picking Oz. That may have been one of the biggest mistakes for control of the Senate again. Now, everyone calling Pennsylvania now for Fetterman.
- [31:13]
B
Look, that's not good.
- [31:22]
A
Yeah.
- [31:22]
B
It's not good for the country.
- [31:23]
A
One thing I know for sure, we'll be doing another podcast, I think, on. On Wednesday, because it's not gonna. It's not gonna end. We're not gonna know tonight, I think for sure, as we doing this at midnight.
- [31:34]
B
But by the way, Ben, since this is airing tomorrow morning.
- [31:36]
A
Yes.
- [31:38]
B
Some of the folks watching it tomorrow morning will not have participated in our live event tonight. They may wonder why the hell we're drinking White Claws.
- [31:47]
A
Yes, that's very true. We should end on at least an entertaining note. We are both having a White Claw. Will you ever drink another one of these the rest of your life? I doubt it. This is the only one I'm gonna. This is the only one I'm not.
- [31:58]
B
Gonna do as well I have ever drunk. It was mango. I like mango. But I tend if I'm gonna drink an alcoholic beverage, a beer is quite fine. Or a glass of wine. I think hard seltzer is not my thing.
- [32:10]
A
Well, in honor of you taking two shots of White Claw this week and blocking one. That figured it was entertaining. Why not?
- [32:17]
B
So I had two cans, full cans, unopened cans of White Claw thrown at me. By the way, Ben, I'm gonna say, so this is now an empty can because I've drunk it. So I'm gonna throw it at you right now. That, by the way, I'm not gonna.
- [32:31]
A
Throw this one at you. Cause mine's like 90%. Mine's like 90% full. I'm like the kid that's just holding the fake beer in college, right?
- [32:38]
B
Yeah. No. Well, then please don't throw it at. Because I don't wish you to. I don't smell of mango.
- [32:43]
A
Yes, yes.
- [32:44]
B
Like, okay, that will really. You come home to Heidi, you walk in the bedroom and your husband stinks of mango.
- [32:50]
A
Mango.
- [32:50]
B
I don't even know what you accuse him of.
- [32:51]
A
Like, what are you.
- [32:53]
B
Maybe I ran to Cancun.
- [32:54]
A
Maybe you ran to Cancun. That would be the only thing. Where were you really tonight? On election night.
- [32:59]
B
But yes, in the victory parade for the Astros, where there were over a million people came out in Houston, there were some angry Democrats. Actually, I think every Beto supporter in the state came out even though he Beto lost by 12 points statewide. They were at the parade and they were yelling and convinced their guy was gonna win. And, you know, one guy flung two full and unopened cans of White Claw, which I think the fact that it was White Claw is highly revealing.
- [33:28]
A
Yes.
- [33:31]
B
First one missed, landed in the vehicle. The second one was headed at me and I blocked it with my arm, knocked it down in the vehicle. I wasn't hurt at all. But the fellow was arrested and is facing charges. And I will say I put out a statement thanking the police who did a fabulous job keeping me safe arresting him. But I did say I'm glad the clown who threw his white claw at me had a noodle for an arm because if he, you know, if he could throw a 90 mile an hour fastball, I might have been. Might have been in the hospital rather than here with you on the verdict stage.
- [34:06]
A
That's very true. As we sign off tonight, Senator, biggest race. You're happy that we won tonight, at least I want to get that.
- [34:13]
B
Mike Lee. Mike Lee. Mike Lee.
- [34:16]
A
Biggest House race you're excited about for you. You busted your tail on the bus tour. There's got to be one that you're going. I love that victory.
- [34:24]
B
So I haven't seen all the results I need to go through the House victories. I'm very glad Monica Dela Cruz won. That's a big deal. In the Valley history. It is a seat that has been Democrat for over 100 years. And so the Valley is turning red. It didn't fully turn red this time. I thought it was this time, but it is moving that direction. I think that's a good thing.
- [34:45]
A
Biggest shock race of the night for you.
- [34:50]
B
Pennsylvania.
- [34:51]
A
That's mine, too. I was hoping you were going to say that.
- [34:55]
B
Look, I think Fetterman is such a radical candidate, and I'm sad that the party tribalism of Democrats in Pennsylvania trumped reason and rationality.
- [35:17]
A
It's going to be very telling for the presidential election. Pennsylvania. This one tonight for me just tells me there is such a small number of voters that are willing to switch tribes even with a terrible economy. And maybe it's more on the Democratic side. Right. Than the Republican side. But it is shocking to me that with how bad things are in this country and in Pennsylvania, that you still can't get people to Vote for what may be best for their community. Instead. It's just I'm a Democrat, dammit, and I'm gonna always be a Democrat and I'll vote for the most incompetent human being out there if they have a D next to their name. And that concerns me about the presidential because it's no longer 3, 4% of independents that you've got to swing. Right. The swing voters. It may be down to half a percentage point in some of these states.
- [36:06]
B
Look, this election was a turnout battle and we'll see where turnout comes out, but we're going to have to process the numbers. I don't know how much of it was that ours didn't turn out as much as they needed to. And I don't know how much of it was that D's, despite everything being in the crapper, showed up and pulled the lever D anyway and said, you know, you know, give me more cowbell. That's just what I need. You know, it's, you know, to mix my metaphors. I just did Christopher Walken, but let's go to Animal House. Thank you, sir. Can I have another? Apparently they really like getting smacked with the board and want more of it and that we need to do a better job making clear the stakes of these elections in people's lives. We mentioned before, this can't be a personality battle. It needs to be about substance and policy and how people can have a better life. Yeah, or a worse life. Because that's what the stakes are.
- [37:16]
A
As we end tonight, 1205am Central Time, after 1 o'clock Eastern Time, if there's any. I like to leave people with one thing that you can hold on to. Nancy Pelosi will no longer be the speaker of the House.
- [37:30]
B
I.
- [37:30]
A
If there's anything that can get you fired back up, even if you're upset about where some of these races went, at least Nancy Pelosi will retire and we will not have to deal with her ever again.
- [37:40]
B
And my side bet is she will become a constituent of Ron DeSantis, which is particularly amazing because I think she'll retire to Florida and live on the beach, which is irony personified if we.
- [37:56]
A
Made any history night. You drink a white claw and I drink one tenth of a white claw tonight. Senator, I enjoyed sitting down with you doing this tonight live on Verdict. For everybody watching, I'll say it to you. Make sure you download the Verdict wherever you get your podcast. We do it three times a week. Two of them are audio only. So if you're watching this make sure you download the podcast for all of the people listening Wednesday morning with this podcast. I have a feeling we'll probably be putting out another one letting you know after we get some of the more of these numbers in. So just download, hit that subscribe auto download button on your phone and then you'll automatically know when that next episode of ours drops. Senator, God bless America tonight. The people have spoken in many places. We may not like what they said everywhere, but at least this is the greatest country in the world and people got to vote today. And that always makes me happy. Thank you sir. And it was fun doing this with you tonight.