← Clock It with Symone & Eugene
Clock It with Symone & Eugene
Live Coverage: Election Night 2024
01:21:28
Listen to key portions of MSNBC’s live coverage of Election Night results.
Loading summary
Transcript102 lines
- [00:01]
Rachel Maddow
Subscribe to MSNBC Premium on Apple Podcasts New episodes of all your favorite MSNBC shows now ad free plus ad free listening to all of Rachel Maddow's original series, Ultra Bagman and Deja News and all MSNBC original podcasts are available ad free and with bonus content including why Is this Happening? Felshey Band Book Club and more. Subscribe to MSNBC Premium on Apple Podcasts.
- [00:35]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Welcome back to our coverage of the presidential election. It is 1:52am which means we are obviously at our best at this point. Two of the seven swing states have been called by NBC News. North Carolina and Georgia have both been projected as having been won by Republican candidate Donald Trump. Now on the Democratic side, the campaign that had posted up at Howard University in Washington, D.C. the alma mater of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, the co chair of the campaign, Cedric Richmond, came out and told the assembled crowd there, as our correspondent told us, as Michelle Norris told us, the increasingly somber crowd there told them basically to go home, that Vice President Harris would not be making any remarks tonight, that she will be speaking both to Howard University and to the nation tomorrow. And so that sort of ended the ended the event, at least the physical in person event for the Harris campaign tonight at Howard University. On the Republican side, Donald Trump has been watching election returns at his home private club membership club thing at Mar a Lago and has since moved to the Palm Beach Convention center where his supporters have been gathered over the course of the evening watching returns and they are now preparing to hear from their candidate. We don't know exactly when Donald Trump is going to speak or exactly what the character of his remarks. Our own Vaughn Hilliard is at the convention Center. He's been covering the Trump campaign throughout this for the duration and has been there tonight as that crowd has become increasingly exuberant and excited about the results that they're seeing in this race. Vaughn, what are you expecting, if anything, if you have any reason to have any expectation in terms of what we're going to hear from their candidate tonight.
- [02:30]
Vaughn Hilliard
Right, Rachel? I think it's notable, number one, that he's waiting to take the stage. Of course, the hope from this campaign is that this race would be completely, completely called in his favor and he would be declared the 47th President elect of the United States of America. Of course, North Carolina and Georgia, I was told, were two states that they were specifically waiting to be called before he took the stage. NBC News has called both of those states and what you're looking at, the battleground data that is coming in through the Midwest. Right now, the Trump campaign officials are telling us that they're very eager about the direction that this is going. And I think it's important to kind of scene set for everybody what this event venue looks like tonight. Donald Trump, he was first watching the results come in alongside the likes of UFC, Dana White, Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. At his Mar A Lago estate, Roger Stone, other close family, friends and allies and campaign advisors. Of course, after the January 6th insurrection, there were a great many staffers from that White House that left Trump world and those that stuck around at Mar A Lago as he sort of existed down here in Florida in isolation. It's those folks who three and a half years later are the ones here in West Palm beach at the convention center about to celebrate alongside Donald Trump as he either declares victory or gives the indication that he intends to in the days ahead. You're talking about the likes of Rudy Giuliani, who is here. You're talking about Roger Stone. These are folks that have really stood by Donald Trump through these years. And it's not Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis who are going to be joining him on stage, but it's those loyalists, including at the staff level, that are going to be the ones that take his side. Here Tonight, we expect J.D. vance, who we are told went from Mar A logo here in the motorcade with Donald Trump. J.D. vance, who eight years ago was on our own air saying that the country should be warned about what Donald Trump could potentially do to this country, referring to him as America's Hitler. But in 2022, he ultimately ran with the Trump endorsement, and since then he has been by his side. We are going to see J.D. vance here take the stage alongside Donald Trump. So there is a lot at play when we're looking at what this administration could very well look like, guys from the extent to aid to Ukraine from Elon Musk and whether he actually takes a role in this federal government. Elon Musk himself has said that he intends to cut the federal budget by one third. That's $2 trillion. Of course, you have conversation around Social Security, defense spending, Medicaid and Medicare. You have the likes of conversations that go at the use of the Department of Justice. Steve Bannon has been airing his podcast War Room from the Willard hotel in Washington, D.C. alongside the likes of Jeffrey Clark, of course, who was the individual that Donald Trump had tried to install his attorney General after the 2020 election when he was trying to hold on to power. And so for Donald Trump he and his team, they have made the case for the last years that the country was by his side. Not only the Republican Party, but they were going to effectively be able to build the MAGA movement. And so far what our data has shown us is that he was able to grow support among voters of color, young voters. And for him and his coalition, he did it while acting as an unvarnished shelf, denigrating his opponents, suggesting that prosecutors that went after him should be jailed this weekend, suggesting that members of the press that he would be fine with them being shot. There's a reckoning here of whether Donald Trump is ultimately called the victor in this race or not. Of course the ballots are going to be counted, but at a minimum, the MAGA movement has grown over the course of nine years and we have watched it up close. And Donald Trump feels like this Republican Party is not only his, but also the American electorate here has given him a resounding head nod that they back his his intended use of a greater executive office and teaming up with a Republican Congress potentially that could very well pass the MAGA agenda that Donald Trump has been clearly outlining for the American public over the course of these last years.
- [06:49]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Rachel Vaughn, in terms of what happens next, one of the things that's been sort of an unusual, like a thing to kind of, it's hard to get your head around, and the reporting on it has been really fuzzy, is that the Trump campaign didn't participate, at least didn't seem to participate in any of the standard transition things that campaigns are supposed to do. The way the transition process is structured, it's supposed to be set up so that if either candidate from either major party wins, each of them already has plenty of Runway, plenty of on ramp, plenty of ability to integrate their transition team seamlessly into the government so they can take office on Inauguration Day. One sort of seamlessly, the Trump campaign has refused to do any of that. And in fact, Trump has refused intelligence briefings throughout the campaign itself. And so part of the question here is how well stood up are they as a professional organization in order to take on the responsibilities of governing, if that is in fact what's going to happen here.
- [07:54]
Vaughn Hilliard
Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon are the two CO chairs of the transition project. And I was talking with Howard Lutnick, who insisted to me just the other day that he has been engaged in phone calls with the litany of not only top executives but other political allies. As Donald Trump will make very clear who he intends to surround himself with in this administration. But You've also seen members of Congress, but also people like Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Who have been traveling with him on the campaign trail. You know, I covered the transition eight years ago when Donald Trump was living at Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan at the time. And a great many people came up and down those elevators to meet with him. We could see, I'm told, a similar operation taking place here out of Palm Beach, Florida and Mar a Lago, effectively serving as the transition office. I was talking to one potential staffer who is indicating to me that they could envision sort of half of the operation being here, the other half being in Washington, D.C. i think that this is, Rachel, a transition here. That one. Donald Trump has been very keen and very specific that he would intend to only have loyalists around here. Of course, Johnny McEntee, who is a part of Project 2025, used to be his director of personnel in the White House. They were building a database in which they were taking essentially applications from potential MAGA political appointees. There's about 3,000 political appointees in the executive branch that are appointed by the President of the United States. And I've been told that that database still exists. And to the extent that the transition team would like to use it, it could be made available to them. And when you're the MAGA movement, and so far what our data has shown us is that he was able to grow support among voters of color, young voters, and for him and his coalition, he did it while acting as his unvarnished shelf, denigrating his opponents, suggesting that prosecutors that went after him should be jailed this weekend, suggesting that members of the press, that he would be fine with them being shot. There's a reckoning here of whether Donald Trump is ultimately called the victor in this race or not. Of course the ballots are going to be counted, but at a minimum, the MAGA movement has grown over the course of nine years. And we have watched it up close, and Donald Trump feels like this Republican Party is not only his, but but also the American electorate here has given him a resounding head nod that they back his intended use of a greater executive office and teaming up with a Republican Congress potentially that could very well pass the MAGA agenda that Donald Trump has been clearly outlining for the American public over the course of these last years.
- [10:47]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Rachel Vaughn, in terms of what happens next, one of the things that's been sort of an unusual like a thing to kind of, it's hard to get your head around and the reporting on it has been really fuzzy is that the Trump campaign didn't participate, at least didn't seem to participate in any of the standard transition things that campaigns are supposed to do. The way the transition process is structured, it's supposed to be set up so that if either candidate from either major party wins, each of them has plenty of Runway, plenty of on ramp, plenty of ability to integrate their transition team seamlessly into the government so they can take office on Inauguration Day. One, sort of seamlessly. The Trump campaign has refused to do any of that. And in fact, Trump has refused intelligence briefings throughout the campaign itself. And so part of the question here is how well stood up are they as a professional organization in order to take on the responsibilities of governing, if that is in fact what's going to happen here.
- [11:51]
Vaughn Hilliard
Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon are the two CO chairs of the transition project. And I was talking with our Lutnick, who insisted to me just the other day that he has been engaged in phone calls with the litany of not only top executives, but other political allies, as Donald Trump will make very clear who he intends to surround himself with in this administration. But you've also seen members of Congress, but also people like Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Who have been traveling with him on the campaign trail. You know, I covered the transition eight years ago when Donald Trump was living at Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan at the time. And a great many people came up and down those elevators to meet with him. We could see, I'm told, a similar operation taking place here out of Palm Beach, Florida and Mar A Lago, effectively serving as the transition office. I was talking to one potential staffer who is indicating to me that they could envision sort of half of the operation being here, the other half being in Washington, D.C. i think that this is, Rachel, a transition here, that one Donald Trump has been very keen and very specific that he would intend to only have loyalists around here. Of course, Johnny McEntee, who is a part of Project 2025, used to be his director of personnel in the White House. They were building a database in which they were taking essentially applications from potential Maga political appointees. There's about 3,000 political appointees in the executive branch that are appointed by the president of the United States. And I've been told that that database still exists. And to the extent that the transition team would like to use it, it could be made available to them. And when you're looking at J.D. vance as being the vice presidential pick, it was back in 2021, I remember listening to his podcast while he was actually running for the U.S. senate in Ohio. And I was driving through Ohio, listening to quite a lengthy podcast. And he talked about the federal civil workforce and his intent, believing that most of the civil workforce should be fired, saying that, in his words, that 95% of them were liberals and that they should be replaced with individuals who pledged to uphold the Trump agenda as he was foreshadowing a second Trump administration come 2025. Of course, J.D. vance has been a little bit more cagey about those previous statements, but there are allies from Project 2025, JD Vance, who have suggested that they want to ensure that there are more loyal civil servants. And Schedule F was something that was actually signed, an executive order by Donald Trump just before he left the White House in 2020, which would have effectively allowed potentially thousands, if not tens of thousands of federal civil servant jobs to be turned into political appointments. And so the anticipation is that Donald Trump would sign a similar executive order to give his executive branch greater authority to make more federal career employees a political appointee so that they could be more easily removed. There's a lot of layers to this, Rachel. I know that you guys are not naive to the conversations of what a federal or what the executive branch under Donald Trump could look like. But they have made the case, people like Jeffrey Clark and Steve Bannon, that everything from the Department of Justice on down should be directed by the President of the United States. The President is the chief executive and therefore what the departments and agencies that fall under the president that he should have greater authority over, for example, the prosecutions that take place. This is if Donald Trump is declared the 47th President, United States. It's going to be a very intense several weeks as we ask questions about exactly whether people like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Are actually going to be tasked with overseeing the US's 13 different health agencies and HHS and potentially vaccine policy. And those are conversations that would begin immediately just a couple miles from where we are theoretically over at his Mar A Lago estate salon.
- [16:01]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Hilliard. Thank you very much. I would be interrupting you if you had not just concluded your remarks because NBC News has a projection to make in the presidential contest in the swing state of Pennsylvania. NBC News now projects that that presidential contest has been won by Donald Trump. Now, I believe that means that we are at a 266 electoral vote count for Donald Trump. Kamala Harris had 194 electoral votes. So to be clear here, this is the third of the seven major swing states that have been called, but Georgia and North Carolina and Pennsylvania, as those three states states presents an almost unless there's a. It presents an insurmountable future here for Kamala Harrison for the Democratic ticket. In terms of what's going to happen here next, we are expecting that Donald Trump is going to speak to the Palm Beach Convention center in Florida. We've seen in the backdrop there while we are speaking with Vaughn about, we've seen how excited the crowd is. You see the crowd there now wrapped, waiting for Donald Trump to speak. We do not have guidance as to when Trump's remarks will happen, but we expect that it could be any moment now. Chris Hayes with the projection in Pennsylvania. We pretty much know how this is going to end.
- [17:38]
Steve Kornacki
Yeah, I think it's pretty clear. I think the writing has been on the wall. And, you know, one of the jobs that we all have in the media is to be truthful with people and transparent. We're very transparent about the process that brought us to this point. I'll just say this. As we're preparing for Trump to take the stage, you know, Steve is going through the numbers, we have this very funky and terrible system called the Electoral College, which decides elections in a way that's totally different than every other election the United States has decided. And the way that anything is decided anywhere else in the world, we should scrap it. From the perspective of basic democratic legitimacy, which is something I'm pretty concerned about, something we talk about a lot on this network, it looks possible that Donald Trump might emerge with a popular vote majority when all the voters won't know.
- [18:25]
Lawrence O'Donnell
For a long time.
- [18:26]
Steve Kornacki
We won't know for a long time. But this is not outside the realm of possibility. The Electoral College looks strongly in his favor. And if that is the case, if he has won the election, then he has won the election. And the reason I say that is because we've spent many years talking about democracy and its vibrancy and the importance of the peaceful transfer of power. We had a violent insurrection staged against the constitutional order by the man we're expecting to speak here who urged his supporters to march to that Capitol where they assaulted police officers and attempted to essentially steal power away from the majority of the country that had voted for Joe Biden. It's really important to note that, that while I believe that institutions have failed dramatically in putting us in the position we are, including the Supreme Court and other institutions, the Republican Party, that if he won, then he won. And that's what the Constitution says. It's what Our current constitutional order says it's what Democratic majorities, at least in the swing states, electoral college, have said, and that that means we're in a new world for this country. But the sort of preservation of American democracy in the constitutional order begins as an ongoing process anew tomorrow.
- [19:42]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Steph, go ahead, but just keep your eyes on that monitor because we are expecting these remarks any moment.
- [19:45]
Stephanie Ruhle
But unlike 2016, there are no surprises.
- [19:49]
Vaughn Hilliard
Right?
- [19:50]
Stephanie Ruhle
In 2016, many people in this country said, you know, I'm sick of the system. I want something different. Let's see what this gives us. When you talk about what happened in 2020, this whole country, this whole world saw it. People know exactly who they're getting, and they chose this. So as we go into this next phase, I actually, I'm sure for the next month, it's going to be an autopsy of Kamala Harris campaign and what she did or didn't do. I don't actually think this is about Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. I think this is about the American people. We know exactly who he is, and we or the majority of the people who voted for him and created this outcome chose this.
- [20:29]
Alex Wagner
And I think that's the important point, right? To elect is to choose. To vote is to choose. And you were never given, I think in the modern era, a clearer choice than voters were given. In this election in 2016, Trump was, at least as a politician, an unknown quantity. People knew him as a television star. People knew him from tv, and that's all they really knew. But to Stephanie's point, they absolutely know not just who he is, but who he closed as. Calling a powerful woman the B word, his running mate. Calling Kamala Harris garbage. Trash. Calling her trash. We're going to take out the trash. Vowing to arrest his supporters. You know, talking about Liz Cheney being shot in the face. I mean, and so it's not as if this was a surprise being pulled on the American people. This was a very clear message. It was not done through a ground game. This was Elon Musk doing a fake lottery in Pennsylvania. This was not a ground game situation. This was nothing to do with Kamala Harris campaign, which was again, flawlessly run in 100 days. And so that wasn't the reason for the choice. And so whatever the reason for the choice was, a choice is made and then you get what you chose. And so if, if the, if Donald Trump then does what he has promised to do, people need to understand that he didn't pull one over on the American people when he does it. If he does the things he said he was going to do. It was chosen by this country, at least by a majority.
- [22:14]
Stephanie Ruhle
And the media didn't get snookered and the media didn't get snookered on his policies or Elon Musk. Just two nights ago, Rachel laid out for our audience the national security risk and the conflicts that Elon Musk poses. This isn't a. Well, the media let all of those surrogates on TV and you got all of it has been laid out. This is what was chosen.
- [22:34]
Steve Kornacki
I'll just say one thing. I think one of the weird axes that sort of developed over the course of this campaign to your point about sort of choices, was a sort of pro system, anti system dynamic. And one of the very intentional cultivations of the Trump campaign was the kind of anti system people like you bring RFK into your coalition to get his voters right. Like the sort of, you know, the conspiracists or the skeptics or the people that are like, it's all corrupt and it's all rigged and it's all wrong. And that axis, you know, has ended up, I think, being a potent one. I think we see it in some of the realignment figures we're seeing. But I would also say that like, the valence of that should also be viewed in the context of an international situation in which we have seen incumbent parties in just about every developed democracy across the ideological spectrum, left, right and center, get their butts kicked coming out of the period of post Covid inflation. The Labour party in the UK which couldn't win an election for 20 years, it was completely one of the most sort of deficient and moribund parties since Tony Blair finally took power of that government.
- [23:56]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Massively, massively.
- [23:58]
Steve Kornacki
In the context of and when you polled voters in the exit polls in the election that labor won for the first time in basically two decades, they said they didn't like the cost of living, they didn't like the economy. It's true in a whole bunch of countries across the world. So, like, there is a context here that we've seen from democratic republics and publics across the country that is a huge part of this. And then the last thing I would just say is like it was a 4 point swing from 2020. And majorities matter because they matter for democracy and they matter because we care about democracy and we care about all of us choosing together what we do. But it was, it's going to end up being about a four or five.
- [24:36]
Alex Wagner
Point swing, but by the way, it's a four Point swing. And it's not even across the board.
- [24:40]
Steve Kornacki
No.
- [24:40]
Alex Wagner
Because it does appear that Vice President Harris did really well with young voters, with the voters who have the most at stake, who are going to have to live with the consequences of this in a way that they can do the least about. At least if these early sort of exits are accurate, it's 18 to 29 year olds and 30 to 34 year olds with whom she did the best. And she also did well with seniors who understand the consequences of things like losing Roe. Unfortunately, we're talking about my generation, the generation that grew up under Trump that were his sort of fan base. Gen Xers in the Gen Xers who were his fan base for the Apprentice are the one constituency, but it's a big group. They are now larger as a share of the electorate than seniors. Than seniors. And so there you go.
- [25:26]
Chris Hayes
I mean, I would just say, I remember when Obama was reelected in 2012, and for both that president and the people that worked for him, in many ways, the reelection was much more meaningful than the initial election because it was. It was basically an affirmation that it wasn't an aberration. Right. That he was someone the country wanted and wanted again. And I think when you have a result like this, potentially, it's obviously not concluded. We're still waiting for more count. But if Donald Trump is reelected, given the entire history that you outlined, Stephanie, that we've talked about a lot on this network, it suggests that MAGA ism needs to be considered a real movement with potentially legs. JD Vance is 20 years old. Not really, but he's young. You know, there is 40. There is a real question about the sort of tenets of MAGA ism that exists beyond Donald Trump that I think people need to take seriously, both in terms of their threat and the weight that the pull on American democracy.
- [26:27]
Steve Kornacki
One thing I would add to that, which I totally agree with, is that in the specific case of Donald Trump, we will be inaugurating again if things go the way they appear to go at the moment. As we wait for him to speak, we will be inaugurating a lame duck president for the first time since Grover Cleveland in the late 19th century. Now, that's a strange thing.
- [26:45]
Lawrence O'Donnell
That's the only other time we've done it.
- [26:47]
Steve Kornacki
The other time we've done it. And the political dynamics around that are completely new and untested because of the question of political, political capital, the question of legacy, the question of how the people in that room read their mandate and what I will say, is this the people in that room right now, the Vivek ramaswamys and the RFKs, they are going to read this as an enormous, bold mandate. They are going to read this as a mandate to do whatever they want. They're going to read it as a mandate on abortion, which the political coalition of the right is going to push extremely hard for because they're going to show up tomorrow at Mar a Lago and say, see, especially after they protect women there, push on abortion, national abortion ban. They are going to read this mandate broadly. And I'm telling you, to the extent the seeds of their own political destruction are planted, it is in that which I am telling you right now in that room. They are feeling it and they're thinking about it. But again, nothing in politics is permanent. Nothing in Democratic politics is permanent. And every action has an equal and opposite reaction. And Trump sometimes is the action and sometimes he's the reaction. And we've seen him on both sides of that coin. And he's neither a complete idiot nor a genius. And that's where we find ourselves tonight.
- [27:56]
Lawrence O'Donnell
While we have been talk while we've been talking, we do have some results that I can share with you. You just mentioned some of the abortion referendums. We have projections on those in three states that we haven't talked about already. In Nevada and in Arizona and in Missouri, we've got the abortion referendums, the abortion ballot measures that were on the ballot in front of those voters. They have passed in all three of those states. So this is Nevada. You see the yes vote here for right to an abortion question 6 in the Nevada ballot with 62 to 38. So that passes in Nevada. That is the projection. In Arizona, we have similarly, the Arizona abortion rights measure, proposition 139, right to an abortion look similar, similar margin there, 63% vote in Arizona in favor of abortion rights. Pretty stunning result there. And also a third one in Missouri, in deep red Missouri, where they have both elected Trump president tonight and also or cast their electoral votes for Donald Trump and reelected Josh Hawley. You see even in deep red Missouri, a 5248 win at least with 97% of the vote counted, a majority win and a win, a yes for the right to an abortion in the Missouri in the Missouri state constitution.
- [29:12]
Alex Wagner
But is that not a greater incentive because you did hear J.D. vance, I believe it was J.D. vance who said that you can't have a state, you can't have different abortion rules in California than you have.
- [29:26]
Lawrence O'Donnell
He said he'd like to see a national ban.
- [29:27]
Alex Wagner
He'd like to see a national. So I think those who want a national ban are going to want that more. They're going to push because the idea of women in Missouri being able to protect themselves, you know, and not, I just do not see the, the forced birth movement being satisfied with the idea that the states get to decide. And so I think the conversation about a national abortion ban just got a lot more important.
- [29:54]
Joy Reid
I think it's actually much less likely because of these votes tonight, because these Republicans can count those votes and they can count 57% of the vote in the state of Florida. They know how to count that. The Senate is going to have a new Republican majority leader, probably John Thune. He is not going to want to bring an abortion ban through the United States Senate. Very unlikely that they would try to even get it through the House. Donald Trump will tell them don't do it. We've seen the way Donald Trump plays the abortion game. He says what he thinks the right wing really wants to hear to the extent that he needs to to get those votes. But we've all also seen him be very afraid of the consequences of this and very afraid of what's happened. And that Trump chant all year, which is, it's gone back to the states. It's gone back to the states. That's what you want. I believe that would be the Trump White House position on this. I think he's made himself, I think, clear enough about.
- [30:58]
Lawrence O'Donnell
I will say I agree with you that I don't think they'll try to do it through legislation. But I think that his right wing commitments will be that he'll do it through executive action, essentially by putting, you know, brainworm guy or whatever at the FDA and saying, okay, you can no longer have abortion medications. They'll use the Comstock Act. They'll use other measures that they can do without having to have legislative fingerprints on it. But so they can still tell their right wing, the right wing to whom they own, they owe so much of their organizing efforts that they've done it.
- [31:25]
Alex Wagner
Because to your very point, to your point, there's a midterm that will be coming shortly, you know, two years from now, in which evangelical voters who've stood down on the abortion issue could come back up. And if those Republicans want to be reelected, they're going to, there's going to be a demand, you know, what was it called, the Susan B. Anthony. Those folks are going to be demanding a national abortion ban, whether it's done through executive action or Legislation.
- [31:53]
Joy Reid
Both the Republican speaker and a Republican majority leader of the Senate will both know that the way for us to lose both of these bodies is to pass this bill. That's the way to lose it. And they won't do it well.
- [32:07]
Chris Hayes
And you also saw this weird phenomenon. These states are red states in large part, or they have elected Donald Trump or they've gone for a Republican Senate candidate and they've also enshrined the right to an abortion. And what that tells you is a the mixed messaging from Republicans or Donald Trump work to some degree, but also potentially that the abortion referenda acted as kind of a permission structure, maybe for voters who understood. I know Trump says a lot of controversial stuff. This is a way for me to effectively have my cake and eat it, too. Beyond the record, supporting abortion rights, the right to bottom, the autonomy, securing them. Securing them. And then also voting for Trump because potentially, theoretically, he has mechanisms.
- [32:49]
Stephanie Ruhle
I'm not defending it. But the other things that seemed to matter to a lot of people right were the economy, immigration, and again, I'm not saying it's my view and wokeism. And many people felt like their voice wasn't getting heard right. So, so, so immigration is no longer an issue just at the border and obviously nobody's eating dogs and cats in Springfield. However, there are many, many people in communities around the country that do feel like their cities and towns are strapped. Their resources are at capacity, and while they don't want mass deportations, they're saying, I'm going to roll the dice and see what Trump is going to do. Because not enough has happened now, what a lot of those voters might now realize, be careful what you wish for because you just said I don't like the system. So you just chose somebody who is going to blow that system up. Well, giddy up. Look what you're about to get.
- [33:43]
Steve Kornacki
Can I also say something about the uncharted territory that we appear to be on the precipice of? One of the things we saw with Joe Biden, who was, when sworn in, the oldest man up to that point to be sworn in as President of the United States, we all knew this going in, but we all seen the pictures of Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama before and after. We all know the job ages you. That was very clear with Joe Biden. The job aged him. And because he was already at advanced age, it really took toll. We've never had someone this old about to be sworn in.
- [34:14]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Certainly one who has not released any detailed medical information since 2019 or his.
- [34:20]
Steve Kornacki
Text so we are in. Again, there's a lot of uncharted territory. But this is one of the places, I mean, we all heard him in the campaign. And I have to say, at 78, it was somewhat remarkable to me that he was doing four rallies a day, even if he sounded at the end like a record player is a little out of whack. But it's a demanding job. And to the extent that he'll spend a lot of time at Mar a Lago, which he will, a lot of times on the golf course, which he absolutely will, I just don't know what that is going to mean for how he does the job. I mean, the big concern that they ran on in the spring about Joe Biden was that he was. That he had lost the capacity to do the job. That was the argument against Joe Biden. And fundamentally, I think that was what ended up being reaffirmed enough by the debate to performance that we had the switch. Yeah, that. That didn't just disappear as an actuarial fact because Joe Biden left the ticket. The exact same reality of aging exists now with the man who it appears will be the oldest man ever to.
- [35:23]
Alex Wagner
And then the question becomes of how much of the responsibility possibilities get outsourced to people like Elon Musk who have tremendous power, to people like Peter Thiel who have tremendous power. Bill Ackman who's already crowing all over X Twitter. And so these sort of oligarchs, these men who have bankrolled this effort and who Donald Trump would presumably rely upon. I mean, the idea, as you said, of RFK Jr. Having tremendous power and also maybe tremendous leeway because it's not, you know, Donald Trump was not exactly an involved supervisor of the federal government the first time. And so, you know, perhaps he spends a lot of time. I mean, he wants the office because he wants the accolade of the office. He wants the respect and he wants the power to be lauded and he doesn't want to be sentenced, which now it's very clear he can pardon himself because the Supreme Court has made it clear he has broad power and likely he'll. So he's gotten out of that, right? Potentially. But how much power is he ceding to these oligarchs?
- [36:29]
Rachel Maddow
MSNBC presents Main Justice. Each week on their podcast, veteran lawyers Andrew Weissman and Mary McCord break down the latest developments inside the Trump administration's Department of Justice.
- [36:41]
Kristen Welker
The administration doesn't necessarily want to be questioned on any of its policy.
- [36:45]
Mike Waltz
I think what we are seeing is Project 2025 in action. This is it coming to fruition.
- [36:52]
Rachel Maddow
Main Justice. Subscribe to MSNBC Premium on Apple podcasts for ad, free listening and bonus content this week on Meet the Press. As President Trump focuses on his global agenda and questions grow about Elon Musk's role in reshaping the federal government. Kristen Welker sits down with National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Senator Andy Kim only on Meet the Press. Listen to the full episode now. Wherever you get your podcasts, stay up to date on the biggest issues of the day with the MSNBC Daily Newsletter. Each morning you'll get analysis by experts you trust, video highlights from your favorite shows.
- [37:30]
Lawrence O'Donnell
I do think it's worth being very clear eyed, very realistic about what's going on here.
- [37:35]
Rachel Maddow
Previews of our podcasts and documentaries, plus written perspectives from the newsmakers themselves, all sent directly to your inbox each morning. Get the best of MSNBC all in one place. Sign up for msnbc daily@msnbc.com.
- [37:55]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Let'S watch as Trump takes the stage in Palm Beach, Florida with former first lady Melania Trump, his wife at his side and his son Barron, his youngest child, dressing his supporters.
- [38:37]
Kristen Welker
From the lakes of Minnesota to the hills of Tennessee, across the plains of Texas from sea to standing sea, from Detroit down to Houston and New York to la well there's pride in every American heart and it's time we stand and say that I'm bound to be an American where at least I know I'm free and I won't forget the men who died who gave that life to me and I gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today the men who died who came that right to me Can I gladly stand up next to you and the members still today Cuz there ain't no doubt I love this God best for you. Thank you very much. Wow. Well, I want to thank you all very much. This is great. These are our friends. We have thousands of friends on this incredible movement. This was a movement like nobody's ever seen before. And frankly, this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time. There's never been anything like this in this country and maybe beyond. And now it's going to reach a new level of importance because we're going to help our country heal. We're going to help our country heal. We have a country that needs help and it needs help very badly. We're going to fix our borders. We're going to fix everything about our country. We made history for a reason tonight and the reason is going to be just that. We overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible. And it is now clear that we've achieved the most incredible political thing. Look what happened. Is this crazy? But it's a political victory that our country has never seen before. Nothing like this. I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected your 47th president and your 45th president. And to every citizen, I will fight for you, for your family and your future. Every single day, I will be fighting for you. And with every breath in my body, I will not rest until we have delivered the strong, safe, and prosperous America that our children deserve and that you deserve. This will truly be the golden age of America. That's what we have to have. This is a magnificent victory for the American people that will allow us to make America great again. And in addition to having won the battleground states of North Carolina, I love these places. Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, we are now winning in Michigan, Arizona, Nevada and Alaska, which would result in us carrying at least 315 electoral votes. But that. But it's much easier doing what the networks did, or whoever called it, because there was no other path. There was no other path to victory. We also have won the popular vote. That was great. Thank you. Thank you very much. Winning the popular vote was very nice. Very nice. I will tell you, it's a great. A great feeling of love. We have a great feeling of love in this very large room with unbelievable, believable people standing by my side. These people have been incredible. They've made the journey with me. And we're going to make you very happy. We're going to make you very proud of your vote. I hope that you're going to be looking back someday and say that was one of the truly important moments of my life when I voted for this group of people beyond the President, this group of great people. America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate. We have taken back control of the Senate. Wow, that's good. And the Senate races in Montana, Nevada, Texas, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania were all won by the MAGA movement. They helped so much. And in those cases, every one of them, we worked with the senators. They were tough races. And I mean, the number of victories that the Senate was absolutely incredible. And we did tele rallies. We did tele rallies with each one of them. And sometimes we did two or three for. And it was amazing to look at all of those victories. Nobody expected that. Nobody. So I just wanted to thank you very much for that. And we have. You have some great senators and some great new senators. And it also looks like we'll be keeping control of the House of Representatives. Representative. And I want to thank Mike Johnson. I think he's doing a terrific job. Terrific job. I want to also thank my beautiful wife, Melania, first lady who has the number one best selling book in the country. Can you believe that? Oh, no. She's done a great job. Works very hard, works very hard to help people. So I just want to thank her. But I want to thank my whole family, my amazing children. And they are amazing children. Now we all think our children are amazing. Everybody here thinks their children are amazing. But that's a good thing when you think they are. But Don, Eric, Ivanka, Tiffany, Barron, Laura, Jared, Kimberly, Michael, thank you all. What a help. My father in law, Victor is tremendous. And we miss very much Melania's mother, Amalia. We miss Amalia, don't we, huh? She would be very happy right now standing on this stage. She'd be so proud. She was a great woman, that one. Beautiful inside and out. She was a great woman. I want to be the first to congratulations, congratulate our great. Now I can say Vice President Elect of the United States and his absolutely remarkable and beautiful wife, Usher Bez. And he is a feisty guy, isn't he? You know, I've said go into the enemy camp and you know, the enemy camp is certain networks and a lot of people don't like, sir, do I have to do that? He just goes, okay, which one? Cnn? Msdnc. He'll say, all right, thank you very much. He actually looks like he's like the only guy I've ever seen. He really looks forward to it. And then he just goes in and absolutely obliterates them. Say a couple of words. Wow.
- [48:59]
Mike Waltz
Well, Mr. President, I appreciate you allowing.
- [49:03]
Kristen Welker
Me to join you on this incredible journey.
- [49:05]
Mike Waltz
I thank you for the trust that.
- [49:06]
Kristen Welker
You placed in me. And I think that we just witnessed.
- [49:10]
Vaughn Hilliard
The greatest political comeback in the history.
- [49:12]
Kristen Welker
Of the United States of America.
- [49:21]
Mike Waltz
And under President Trump's leadership, we're never.
- [49:23]
Vaughn Hilliard
Going to stop fighting for you, for your dreams, for the future of your children.
- [49:28]
Mike Waltz
And after the greatest political comeback in.
- [49:31]
Vaughn Hilliard
American history, we're going to lead the.
- [49:33]
Mike Waltz
Greatest economic comeback in American history under Donald Trump's leadership.
- [49:45]
Kristen Welker
Thank you very much. He said he's turned out to be a good choice. I took a little heat at the beginning, but he was, I knew, I knew the brain was a good one. About as good as it gets. And we love the family and we're going to have a great four years and we're going to turn our country around, make it something very special. It lost that. Lost that little. And lost that little. That little thing called special. We have to make it so we're going to make this so great. It's going to. It's the greatest country and potentially the greatest country in the world by far. And right now we're going to just work very hard to get all of that back. We're going to make it the best it's ever been. We can do that. We just. If we had to wait longer, I don't know, it was going bad and it was going bad fast. We're going to have to seal up those borders and we're going to have to let people come into our country. We want people to come back in, but we have to. We have to let them come back in, but they have to come in legally. They have to come in legally. Let me also express my tremendous appreciation for Susie and Chris, the job you did. Susie, come. Susie, come here. Come here, Sus. Chris, come here, Chris. Susie likes to stay sort of in the back. Let me tell you. The ice maiden. We call her the ice baby. Come on, Chris. Come here, Chris. Susie likes to stay in the background. She's not in the background. This wasn't expected, but.
- [51:35]
Joy Reid
But I just want to thank, obviously.
- [51:37]
Steve Kornacki
President Trump for this journey.
- [51:39]
Joy Reid
It was a great one and he's.
- [51:40]
Steve Kornacki
A hell of a candidate and he's going to be a hell of a great 47th president.
- [51:44]
Kristen Welker
And this team that we had, the.
- [51:47]
Joy Reid
Best team and of course, even my boss, Susie Wiles, the best. Thank you.
- [51:57]
Kristen Welker
Thank you. And thank you, Susie. Look at her. I've never seen her be shy before. Susie. They've been. They're great. Everybody up here is great. Everybody up here is very special. But the Trump who did you say, oh, let me tell you, we have a new star. A star is born. Elon. Now he is now. He's an amazing guy. We were sitting together tonight. You know, he spent two weeks in Philadelphia and different parts of Pennsylvania campaigning. You know, he sent the rocket up two weeks ago. And I saw that rocket and I saw it coming down. I saw it. It was. When it left, it was beautiful, shiny white. When it came down, it didn't look so pretty. It was going 10,000 miles an hour and it was burning like hell. I said, what happened to your paint job? He said, we've never made a paint that could withstand that kind of heat and. But I saw it come down and turn around and it was, you know, it's like 22 stories tall, by the way. It looks a little smaller than that, but it's big. And it came down and down. And you saw that fire burning. And I'm saying, only Elon can do this. It must be an Elon. And I tell the story. I told it last night. I had a man on the phone, I had the screen muted, no sound. I was talking to a very important man, happens to be here. And that very important guy, one of the most important people in, I would say, the country, actually. But, you know, I was president, and now it looks like I was going to be maybe president again. So I figured I could ask him to hold. So I asked him to hold. And because, especially because you going to be president again, they pulled. So I took the phone down and I'm looking at the screen, I'm seeing this crazy thing that's going around and coming down. It looks like it's going to crash into the gantry. And I said, oh, no. And I said, do me a favor. Do you mind holding for a couple of minutes? I want to see this. I thought it was a space age movie or something. I put the phone down. Bad boy. I didn't pick it up for 45 minutes. And he was holding. But this spaceship came down and I saw those engines firing and it looked like it was over, was going to smash. And then I saw the fire pour out from the left side and I put it straight and it came down so gently. And then it wrapped those arms around it and it held it. And just like you hold your baby at night, your little baby. And it was a beautiful thing to see. And I called Elon. I said, elon, was that you? He said, yes, it was. I said, who else can do that? Can Russia do it? No. Can China do it? No. Can the United States do it? Other than you? No. Nobody can do that. I said, that's why I love you, Elon. That's great. And you know, when we had the tragic Hurricane Helene and it hit particulate, hit North Carolina, they were really devastated. The water, this was a big water, as big as we've ever seen water hurricane. It built lakes out of nothing. Fields became lakes, and the danger was unbelievable. And the people from North Carolina came to me and they said, would it be possible at all possible for you to speak to Elon Musk? We need Starlink. I said, what's Starlink? It's a form of communication. So I called Elon and I'll tell you what he had. And it was very dangerous. People would die. They had no communication. All the wires were down. I called Elon Musk. I said, elon, you have something called Starlink, Is that right? Yes, I do. What the hell is it? He said, it's a communication system that's very good. I said, elon, they need it really, really badly in North Carolina. Can you get it? He had that there so fast. It was incredible. So. And it was great. It saved a lot of lives. He saved a lot of lives, but he's a character. He's a special guy. He's a super genius. We have to protect our geniuses. We don't have that many of them. We have to protect our super geniuses. I want to thank some of the guys, you know, we have up here today, the U.S. open champion. He's fantastic. Alfie slightly longer than me. It's a ball. A little bit longer than me. Just a little bit. Bryson DeChambeau is up here someplace. What happened to Bryson? Where is he? Bryson. Oh, here we shot. He's hitting balls. Oh, he's on the way. He's hitting balls. Bryson. Oh, look at him. He had a great. He's got a great career going. Great U.S. open. Bryson, that's a fantastic job. And we also have a man, Dana White, who has done some good. He's that tough guy. So Dana started UFC and came to me. Do you mind if I use your. Nobody wanted to give him a rings because they said it's a rough sport. A little rough. And I helped him out a little bit, and I went and they said, this is the roughest sport I've ever seen. But I began to like it, and he loved it, and nobody's done a better job in sports. And, you know, he's very motivational kind of a guy. What he does, he gets these fighters and they. They really go at it. And it's become one of the most successful sports enterprises anywhere at any time. It's doing so well. I'd like to ask Danny just to say a couple of words, because people love to hear from him. Nobody deserves this more than him, and nobody deserves this more than his family does. This is what happens when the machine comes after you.
- [58:12]
Mike Waltz
What you've seen over the last several years. This is what it looks like. Couldn't stop him.
- [58:17]
Kristen Welker
He keeps going forward.
- [58:18]
Mike Waltz
He doesn't quit. He's the most resilient, hardworking man I've.
- [58:22]
Kristen Welker
Ever met in my life. His family are incredible people.
- [58:24]
Mike Waltz
This is karma, ladies and gentlemen.
- [58:26]
Kristen Welker
He deserves this. They deserve it as a family. I want to thank some people Real quick. I want to thank the Nelt boys.
- [58:35]
Mike Waltz
Aiden Ross, Theo Vaughan, Busting with the boys.
- [58:39]
Kristen Welker
And last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan.
- [58:46]
Mike Waltz
And thank you, America.
- [58:48]
Kristen Welker
Thank you.
- [58:48]
Mike Waltz
Have a good night.
- [58:54]
Kristen Welker
That is a piece of work. Now, he's an amazing. He's really an amazing guy. But most of all, I want to thank the millions of hardworking Americans across the nation who have always been the heart and soul of this really great movement. We've been through so much together, and today you showed up in record numbers to deliver a victory like really probably like no other. This was something. This was something special. And we're going to. We're going to pay you back. We are going to do the best job. We're going to. We're going to turn it around. It's got to be turned around. It's got to be turned around fast. And we're going to turn it around. We're going to do it in every way. So many ways, but we're going to do it in every way. This will forever be remembered as the day the American people regained control of their country. So I just want to say that on behalf of this great group of people, these are hardworking people. These are fantastic people. And we can add a few names, like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He came in and he's going to help make America healthy again. And now he's a great guy, and he really means it. He wants to do some things, and we're going to let him go to it. I just said, but, Bobby, leave the oil to me. We have more liquid gold, oil and gas. We have more liquid gold than any country in the world. More than Saudi Arabia. We have more than Russia. Bobby, stay away from the liquid gold. Other than that, go have a good time. Bobby. We're going to be paying down debt. We're going to be reducing taxes. We have. We can do things that nobody else can do. Nobody else is going to be able to do it. China doesn't have what we have. Nobody has what we have. But we have the greatest people also. Maybe that's the most important thing. This campaign. This campaign has been so, so historic in so many ways. We've built the biggest, the broadest, the most unified coalition. They've never seen anything like it in all of American history. They've never seen any young and old men and women, rural and urban. And we had them all helping us tonight. When you think. I mean, I was looking at it, I was watching it. They had some great analysis of the people that voted for us, nobody's ever seen anything like that. They came from all union, non union, African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, Arab American, Muslim American. We had everybody and it was beautiful. It was a historic realignment uniting citizens of all backgrounds around a common core of common sense. You know, we're the party of common sense. We want to have borders, we want to have security, we want to have things be good, safe. We want great education, we want a strong and powerful military. And ideally we don't have to use it. You know, we had no wars. Four years we had no wars except we defeated isis. We defeated ISIS in record time, but we had no wars. They said, said he will start a war. I'm not going to start a war. I'm going to stop wars. But this is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom. Together we're going to unlock America's glorious destiny and we're going to achieve the most incredible future for our people. Yesterday, as I stood at my last stop on the campaign trail, I'll never be doing a rally again. Can you believe it? I think we've done 9, 900 rallies approximately from the. Can you imagine? 900, 901 something. A lot of rallies. And it was sad. Everybody was sad, many people. I said, this is our last rally. But now we're going on to something that's far more important. Because the rallies were used for us to put, be put in this position where we can really help our country. That's what we're going to do. We're going to make our country better than it ever has been. And I said that. Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason. And that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness. And now we are going to fulfill that mission together. We're going to fulfill that mission. The task before us will not be easy. But I will bring every ounce of energy, spirit and fight that I have in my soul to the job that you've entrusted to me. This is a great job. There's no job like this. This is the most important job in the world. Just as I did in my first term. We had a great first term. A great, great first term. I will govern by a simple. Promises made, promises kept. We're going to keep our promises. Nothing will stop me from keeping my word to you, the people. We will make America safe, strong, prosperous, powerful and free again. And I'm asking everybody, citizen, all across our land to join me in this noble and righteous endeavor. That's what it is. It's time to put the divisions of the past four years behind us. It's time to unite. And we're going to try. We're going to try. We have to try and it's going to happen. Success will bring us together. I've seen that. I've seen that. I saw that in the first term when we became more and more successful, people started coming together. Success is going to bring us together. And we are going to start by all putting America first. We have to put our country first for at least a period of time. We have to fix it, because together we can truly make America great again for all Americans. So I want to just tell you what a great honor this is. I want to thank you. I will not let you down. America's future will be bigger, better, bolder, richer, safer and stronger than it has ever been before. God bless you and God bless America. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much.
- [65:52]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Former President Donald Trump speaking to supporters in West Palm Beach, Florida. I should tell you that while he was speaking, we did have a little bit of news to make. NBC News can make a projection for the presidential race in the great state of Minnesota. And NBC News projects that Minnesota has been won by Vice President Kamala Harris. So, so Donald Trump at this hour. Donald Trump has 266 electoral votes. Kamala Harris has two hundred and four electoral votes. The speech that Donald Trump just gave was essentially a victory speech at this point. NBC News has not projected a winner in this race. Obviously a commanding lead for Donald Trump with victories in the swing states of Georgia and North Carolina and Pennsylvania. But he does not have two hundred and seventy electoral votes. As I just mentioned, Minnesota has just been called for Kamala Harris and we continue to watch the still outstanding swing states and a few other non swing states that remain outstanding. May I check in with Steve Kornacki at this moment or am I not allowed to check in with Steve Kornacki at this moment? Am I allowed to check in with you?
- [67:05]
Mike Waltz
Let's go.
- [67:06]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Great. What do you have for us in Michigan?
- [67:08]
Mike Waltz
Yeah, so I was just checking this out. See statewide, 80% of the vote is in here. Trump with a seven point advantage. More than 300,000 votes. Is the plurality. A couple of things a lot still to come in Wayne county, you know, the big core Democratic county, like a quarter of the vote in the state comes out of here. About a third of the vote is in. But again, as a benchmark here now, Wayne is Detroit, but it's a lot more than Detroit as a Benchmark, though. Overall, this was a county Biden won by 38 points. A 330,000 vote margin here in 2020. Currently with what's in in Wayne County. Again, this will vary by the cities that report, but the Democratic number needs to get up, you know, to that Biden level and above because of what I'm about to show you. What I wanted to show you in Michigan was, we said at the start of the night, one of the key tests for how the state was going to go would be a tale of two counties. The counties are Oakland county, the big, gigantic, enormous, any adjective you can think of, suburban county, high income, high concentration of college degrees, Democratic growth area. So we got Oakland county in right now and Harris wins this thing by about ten and a half points. How does that compare to 2020? Well, that's down from what Joe Biden was able to do in Oakland county in 2020. He was able to win it by 14. It comes down, you know, by about three and a half points. Now, we said at the start of the night the test would be Oakland, the margin Democrats get out of Oakland county, would it vastly exceed the margin Trump gets out of Macomb County? That's what happened in 2020 when Democrats won the state. Or would it basically be canceled out by Macomb county, which is the big blue collar suburban county right next door to Oakland? That's what happened when Donald Trump won the state in 2016. So keep your eye there, 81,000 votes with Oakland in. That's the margin that Harris gets out of Oakland. Now take a look in big blue collar suburbia in Macomb county. Still more to come. But look at this. Donald Trump's winning this currently by almost 70,000 votes with more to come. So the possibility exists here, the very distinct possibility exists here that Donald Trump's margin out of Macomb county, the extreme likelihood isn't just going to almost cancel out Oakland county, it's going to blow it away. Trump's going to get far more out of Macomb, somewhat smaller county potentially than Harris gets out of Oakland county. Now, again, 77%. This is almost an 18 point margin for Trump. Just to put this in some perspective, this was eight in 2020. This was 11 and a half for Trump in 2016. And if you went back one election farther, this was in Obama County. Again, the Midwest, northern Tierra battleground states, they are filled with counties like this. Maybe not quite this big, but big blue collar suburbs, a lot of blue collar white voters here. But there's A lot of diversity here too. There's a sizable non white population as well. These are. And Macomb, if you really want to zoom out, and you're a political history nerd, you ever heard the term Reagan Democrat? The blue collar voters who flocked to Ronald REAGAN in the 1980s, that term came about because of Macomb County. There was a study of Macomb County, Michigan. They said this is the backbone of Ronald Reagan's working class coalition that he's put together here. So the talk when Obama came along in 2008 and was reelected in 12 was the Democrats had finally just broken down the Reagan Democrat areas and brought them back into the fold. Trump comes along, goes up double digits, takes a step back in 2020, and now look at this. We just took a big jump in Macomb County. 84% in. That Trump margin has gone up further. This is just an overwhelm. He's up almost 80,000 votes now in Macomb County. 80,000 for Trump there. And in the economically upscale Oakland county, it's 81,000. Trump is now getting more out of Macomb county than the Democrats got out of Oakland County. We thought in a good night for Trump, potentially, he gets close, he's gone past it. That's very significant. There's also two, we said tonight, two kind of big swing counties. One of them is Saginaw county. We now got Saginaw county in. And again, this is one that Joe Biden won narrowly in 2020. Good night. We said Trump would win it. Trump is winning it by three points. And the other one here is just north, is just on the, on the coast there. Muskegon county, about half is in. And again, this was a very narrow Joe Biden win. And currently, you know, Trump is ahead by 16 points there. Take a look at Genesee County. This is where Flint is. This is very significant as well. Again, this is a diverse, blue collar, enormous county here. Joe Biden won this by about 9 points in 2016. Clinton won this by 10 points. You go a step further back. Look, Obama had that blue collar coalition still intact, largely in 2012. He won here by almost 30 points. Coming into tonight, the Trump folks were saying they could take another big step forward in a place like Genesee County. Looks like they have four and a half points cutting this in half from 2020. They wanted to make gains in places like that. So again, we are waiting on, you know, still a lot of vote to come out of Wayne County. And as we really sort of slice and dice the Wayne county vote, we'll be looking at Dearborn. There's some indications in the returns Dearborn, large Muslim American population, large Arab American population. Indications that Kamala Harris may be significantly underperforming what Democrats want out of a place like Dearborn. We'll be analyzing that and getting more of that vote coming in. But you can just see around the state the reason why with 80% of the vote counted, Donald Trump is more than 313,000 votes ahead. It's not just because we're waiting on Wayne County. It's because some of that significant movement taking it through right there.
- [72:49]
Rachel Maddow
The last thing you want to hear when you need your auto insurance most is a robot with countless irrelevant menu options. Which is why with USA Auto insurance, you'll get great service that is easy and reliable, all at the touch of a button. Get a quote today, restrictions apply. MSNBC presents Main Justice. Each week on their podcast, veteran lawyers Andrew Weissman and Mary McCoy break down the latest developments inside the Trump administration's Department of Justice.
- [73:16]
Kristen Welker
The administration doesn't necessarily want to be questioned on an evens policy.
- [73:20]
Mike Waltz
I think what we are seeing is Project 2025 in action. This is it coming to fruition.
- [73:27]
Rachel Maddow
Main Justice. Subscribe to MSNBC Premium on Apple podcasts for ad free listening and bonus content. This week on Meet the Press. As President Trump focuses on his global agenda and questions grow about Elon Musk's role in reshaping the federal government. Kristen Welker sits down with National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Senator Andy Kim only on Meet the Press. Listen to the full episode now wherever you get your podcasts.
- [74:01]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Steve, while you have been covering those results in Michigan, we did get a little bit more news. NBC News does have a projection to make in one additional presidential race, this time in the state of New Jersey. NBC News projects that the winner of the presidential race in New Jersey is Democratic vice presidential candidate, excuse me, Democratic candidate and vice President Kamala Harris. New Jersey, believe it or not, was one of the states that the Trump campaign was sort of bragging on. Were they able to expand the map? They said that New Jersey, Jersey is one of those states they'd be able to win. They said the same thing about Virginia that they said the same thing about Minnesota. They have not been able to expand the map, but they have won important swing states already that have put them on the precipice. 266 electoral votes right now for Trump, 218 for Kamala Harris.
- [74:51]
Joy Reid
Lawrence, you know the Trump speech had about 12 minutes of teleprompter written speech in there and then another, I don't know, 15 of rambling and inviting other people up to the microphone speak. In the 12 minutes that they put in the teleprompter, it was a very modest and non Trumpian speech that had only two words of policy. And those two words were reducing taxes. There was not another word of policy. Nothing about mass deportation, nothing about trying to jail his opponents, which he cannot do and will not be doing. None of that kind of political terrorism language that he was including in his rall. That's gone from the person who stepped up to that microphone tonight. And remember, that's a staff written speech. That's a consensus group written speech. And in the middle of it, there's the understanding you're going to talk about a golf guy and you're going to talk about some guy who runs a fighting show and then you're going to bring, you're going to bring your campaign manager up to say something and you can let the vice president elect say about three words. But it's an extremely modest speech. That's the state of the Trump policy going forward. And I think it's probably extremely accurate.
- [76:14]
Mike Waltz
20. Good night. We said Trump would win it. Trump is winning it by three points. And the other one here is just north, is just on the coast there. Muskegon county, about half is in. And again, this was a very narrow Joe Biden win. And currently Trump is ahead by 16 points there. Take a look at Genesee County. This is where Flint is. This is very significant as well. Again, this is a diverse, blue collar enormous county here. Joe Biden won this by about 9 points in 2016. Clinton won this by 10 points. You go a step further back. Look, Obama had that blue collar coalition still intact largely in 2012. He won here by almost 30 points. Coming into tonight, the Trump folks were saying they could take another big step forward in a place like Genesee County. Looks like they have four and a half points cutting this in half from 2020. They wanted to make gains in places like that. So again, we are waiting on, you know, still a lot of vote to come out of Wayne County. And as we really sort of slice and dice the Wayne county vote, we'll be looking at Dearborn. There's some indications in the returns. Dearborn, large Muslim American population, large Arab American population. Indications that Kamala Harris may be significantly underperforming what Democrats want out of a place like Dearborn. We'll be analyzing that and getting more of that vote coming in. But you can just see around the reason why. With 80% of the vote counted, Donald Trump is more than 313,000 votes ahead. It's not just because we're waiting on Wayne County. It's because some of that significant movement taking you through right there.
- [77:45]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Steve, while you have been covering those results in Michigan, we did get a little bit more news. NBC News does have a projection to make in one additional presidential race, this time in the state of New Jersey. NBC News projects that the winner of the presidential race in New Jersey is Democratic vice presidential candidate, excuse me, Democrat Democratic candidate and vice president Kamala Harris. New Jersey, believe it or not, was one of the states that the Trump campaign was sort of bragging on. Were they able to expand the map? They said that New Jersey was one of those states they'd be able to win. They said the same thing about Virginia, that they said the same thing about Minnesota. They have not been able to expand, expand the map, but they have won important swing states already that have put them on the precipice. 266 electoral votes right now for Trump, 218 for Kamala Harris.
- [78:36]
Joy Reid
Lawrence, you know, the Trump speech had about 12 minutes of teleprompter written speech in there and then another, I don't know, 15 of rambling and inviting other people up to the microphone to speak. In the 12 minutes that they put in the teleprompter, it was a very modest and non Trumpian speech that had only two words of policy, and those two words were reducing taxes. There was not another word of policy, nothing about mass deportation, nothing about trying to jail his opponents, which he cannot do and will not be doing. None of that kind of political terrorism language that he was including in his rallies. That's gone from the person who stepped up to that microphone tonight. And remember, that's a staff written speech. That's a consensus group written speech. And in the middle of it, there's the understanding you're going to talk about a golf guy and you're going to talk about some guy who runs a fighting show. And then you're going to bring your campaign manager up to say, and you can let the vice president elect say about three words. But it's an extremely modest speech. That's the state of the Trump policy going forward. And I think it's probably extremely accurate that like the first term that he was president, reducing taxes was literally the only thing he did.
- [80:04]
Alex Wagner
And it's the reason that he was supported by so many billionaires. Look, at the end, if you studied enough Donald Trump. And unfortunately, having written a book about him, I studied more Donald Trump than I probably wanted to. The thing that he leads with this is neediness, his need for adulation, his need for adoration, his need, you know, it's the reason that he's enjoyed cultivating a sort of cult of personality. He needs the world to think of him as this amazingly powerful and smart and brilliant and whatever, that's what he wants. And so that speech said to me that this is a very needy elderly man who wants to be president because he believes that finally he will get the respect and love and adulation of the country and particularly of the very media elites that he used as a cudgel to get himself back in. And the threatening language. It's interesting that most of the threat that he made was directed squarely at Latinos, at people who the right fears will sort of out produce them in terms of children. But that is where he did the best. That's where he gained the most among the people who voted, despite having directly insulted them. And he held steady, it seems, with white American women, despite having really insulted them. And J.D. vance. So he didn't lose much for being insulting and cruel.
- [81:30]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Stephanie Roll.
- [81:31]
Stephanie Ruhle
Well, then I guess you know who he's going to be. We're going to see who he's going to choose because we noted his family members. We saw Dana White. I didn't actually see Stephen Miller up there. I didn't remember when the last time he won. We saw Steve Bannon up there. We saw Stephen Miller. So it'll be interesting to see who his cabinet choices are. Howard Lutnick, his new favorite transition head, the guy who runs Cantor Fitzgerald was there. So yes, for Trump it was quite moderate. But that only lasts so long. We'll see what we're in for.
- [82:00]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Alex.
- [82:00]
Chris Hayes
I mean, I just say to Donald Trump and the people around him, good luck having Bobby Kennedy as your HHS secretary and anti vaxxer running the country three years after a deadly pandemic that created mass death that you, Donald Trump, grossly mismanaged. Good luck doubling down on fossil fuels and a fossil fuel economy at the precise moment that the earth is heating up to historic proportions and monster storms supercharged by climate change are laying waste to red states. Side note, Democrats cannot control the weather. And good luck to you sir with your sales tax that's going to raise taxes, a tariff that's going to raise taxes on middle and working class income Americans. Good luck to you with all of it. It feels like the dog that caught the car.
- [82:44]
Joy Reid
The tariffs, by the way, were not in the speech. I don't think he's going to do those tariffs. I don't think that's going to happen.
- [82:51]
Steve Kornacki
He is monomaniac on that. Look, I have invoked this cliche before, but it's a central one, which is that the future is unwritten. And the thing that we often do analytically is we see a dot here and a dot here and we draw the line up through like that. And I have never felt more wide openness about what era we are entering into than I feel right now, even particularly watching that speech, because I don't know what we're about to step into. The only thing I'll say is that I do know that the country that existed before tonight is the country that we have right now. And that's what matters is all the other stuff that isn't Donald Trump and which group of his homies are up on stage at any given moment. And that's what we had on Tuesday and it's what we have now on Wednesday morning.
- [83:46]
Lawrence O'Donnell
And I would, you know, and to that point, Chris, I would just say that for all the Americans who looked at this election as a choice between different forms of government, between keeping the US System of government or keeping whatever it is that Trump is promising to do instead, and Trump is promising to turn us into instead, well, the way that you fought to keep the US System of government is that you fought to try to get the outcome that you wanted in this election. And now as this election comes to a close, you have to figure out how else you're going to fight because your country still needs you.
- [84:25]
Rachel Maddow
Auto insurance can all seem the same until it comes time to use it. So don't get stuck paying more for less coverage. Switch to USA auto insurance and you could start saving money in no time. Get a quote today, restrictions apply.