1 00:00:01,300 --> 00:00:03,266 GEOFF BENNETT: For more analysis now of Democrats' 2 00:00:03,266 --> 00:00:06,533 losses in last week's election and the new Trump team that's taking shape, 3 00:00:06,533 --> 00:00:10,866 we're joined now by our Political Stakes duo - - I almost said Politics Monday -- that's 4 00:00:10,866 --> 00:00:15,500 Amy Walter from The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith from NPR. 5 00:00:15,500 --> 00:00:16,933 It's good to see you. 6 00:00:16,933 --> 00:00:19,000 TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: Good to be here. 7 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:21,166 GEOFF BENNETT: So Democrats are working to regroup and figure out what went wrong 8 00:00:21,166 --> 00:00:25,066 in last week's election. Here's some of what Democrats said yesterday on the Sunday shows. 9 00:00:27,300 --> 00:00:29,166 SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Bottom line, if you're an average working person out there, 10 00:00:29,166 --> 00:00:32,933 do you really think that the Democratic Party is going to the mats, taking on 11 00:00:32,933 --> 00:00:37,933 powerful special interest and fighting for you? I think the overwhelming answer is no. 12 00:00:40,233 --> 00:00:42,500 REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): The reason we didn't win ultimately is we didn't listen enough to people on 13 00:00:42,500 --> 00:00:46,433 the ground, people like Chris Deluzio, Pat Ryan, who were saying, talk about the economy, talk 14 00:00:46,433 --> 00:00:51,400 about people's economic struggles, convince people you have the better policies and better vision. 15 00:00:53,333 --> 00:00:55,466 REP. DEAN PHILLIPS (D-MN): We have used condemnation of Donald Trump versus 16 00:00:55,466 --> 00:00:59,166 invitation to Donald Trump supporters. I have never known any industry, 17 00:00:59,166 --> 00:01:04,133 political or professional, in which a strategy of condemnation works better than invitation. 18 00:01:06,100 --> 00:01:08,066 GEOFF BENNETT: So, Tam, how are Democrats coming to terms with this? Because there 19 00:01:08,066 --> 00:01:10,466 are still Harris campaign aides who say they outlined policy after policy that 20 00:01:10,466 --> 00:01:14,400 was targeted to working-class voters, and they did make this outreach to Republicans, 21 00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:18,100 and yet Donald Trump won all of the battleground states. 22 00:01:18,100 --> 00:01:20,133 TAMARA KEITH: Right. 23 00:01:20,133 --> 00:01:23,833 I think that what you're seeing is there are a lot of Democrats pointing at a lot of 24 00:01:25,933 --> 00:01:28,133 different things, and a lot of the things that they're pointing at confirm their priors. So, 25 00:01:28,133 --> 00:01:32,066 if they're progressive, then they believe that trying to win over Liz Cheney voters 26 00:01:32,066 --> 00:01:37,066 was a fool's errand and that simply the Harris campaign was too moderate. 27 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:42,466 And if they're moderate, then they think that they went way too far to the left, 28 00:01:42,466 --> 00:01:47,233 and that wokeness is taking down the Democratic Party. The reality is that 29 00:01:47,233 --> 00:01:52,200 this is going to be an argument that is going to continue to be argued for years. 30 00:01:54,333 --> 00:01:57,233 If you remember, after 2012 when Mitt Romney lost in the -- and former President Obama was 31 00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:03,200 reelected, they did that autopsy report, the RNC did. And they said they need to do a better job 32 00:02:05,166 --> 00:02:09,400 of winning over Latino voters, and they need to be more sensitive on immigration policy. 33 00:02:11,533 --> 00:02:14,800 Well, then Donald Trump came down the golden escalator, and he became the party's nominee. 34 00:02:17,066 --> 00:02:19,866 He set the party's policy. In essence, the way this will be decided is by the next Democratic 35 00:02:21,966 --> 00:02:26,233 nominee who Democratic voters choose, and if that person wins. Of course, if that person loses, 36 00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:31,900 then there will be a whole new round of this sort of finger-pointing and reckoning, really. 37 00:02:32,966 --> 00:02:34,366 GEOFF BENNETT: Yes. 38 00:02:34,366 --> 00:02:37,466 Amy, when you look at the data, what do you see? 39 00:02:37,466 --> 00:02:41,300 AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: You know, the Harris campaign and her allies 40 00:02:41,300 --> 00:02:46,300 spent a lot of money, hundreds of millions of dollars with many of those messages that 41 00:02:48,100 --> 00:02:52,233 the critics that you played in that clip are accusing her of not doing. 42 00:02:54,333 --> 00:02:59,200 And I do think -- I agree with Tam that this idea of she moved too far to the left or 43 00:03:01,133 --> 00:03:04,600 she needed to move from the center to talk to working-class voters is going 44 00:03:04,600 --> 00:03:07,866 to be a central part of the debate going forward. 45 00:03:07,866 --> 00:03:12,866 But I think, at its very core, the thing that was hurting Harris, the campaign, 46 00:03:14,933 --> 00:03:17,900 the most was the one thing she had absolutely no control over, which was inflation itself 47 00:03:20,033 --> 00:03:23,466 and the frustration that voters had with the very issue that was impacting them day in and day out. 48 00:03:25,533 --> 00:03:29,400 You can put all the plans you want forward. You can talk about a positive message. But at 49 00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:34,400 the end of the day, what voters knew was that she was in the White House when inflation went 50 00:03:36,500 --> 00:03:39,500 up and Donald Trump wasn't. And when he was in the White House, lower inflation was the norm. 51 00:03:41,300 --> 00:03:43,300 GEOFF BENNETT: Amy, Democrat -- or, rather, 52 00:03:43,300 --> 00:03:46,933 Republicans -- Donald Trump won across the map, improving his margins nearly 53 00:03:46,933 --> 00:03:51,933 everywhere. He delivered on his promise to win over more nonwhite voters. How daunting 54 00:03:53,966 --> 00:03:57,100 a picture is this for Democrats with their national coalition really fractured now? 55 00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:07,800 AMY WALTER: Yes, when I look at where Donald Trump was most successful, you're right. He basically 56 00:04:09,900 --> 00:04:12,900 broke up what was known as -- at the time of the Obama era the coalition of the ascendant, 57 00:04:14,900 --> 00:04:19,866 younger voters, voters of color, this growing group of folks in the population. 58 00:04:21,666 --> 00:04:26,500 And where Trump did best was younger voters and Latino voters. But I think 59 00:04:26,500 --> 00:04:31,500 what's also important to appreciate is that, in the states where, say, Harris struggled 60 00:04:33,566 --> 00:04:37,800 the most or Trump gained the most, Democrats also either held on or picked up some seats. 61 00:04:40,133 --> 00:04:43,833 So in a state like Nevada, Arizona, where you have Senate candidates, Democratic Senate candidates 62 00:04:46,200 --> 00:04:51,200 who were able to outrun the Harris campaign, or, in some cases, we're seeing Republicans who were 63 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:58,233 unable to match Trump numbers. So I think we're going to talk about that for a while. 64 00:04:58,233 --> 00:05:03,233 The other piece that really did hurt Democrats, especially Latino voters, was being on offense. 65 00:05:05,633 --> 00:05:10,233 In place like California, where they were hoping to pick up multiple seats in districts that are 66 00:05:12,500 --> 00:05:15,800 overwhelmingly Latino, it looks like they're going to come up short in all but maybe one of them. 67 00:05:17,700 --> 00:05:20,466 GEOFF BENNETT: Tam, meantime, Mr. Trump is starting to assemble his team, 68 00:05:20,466 --> 00:05:24,600 as Laura Barron-Lopez was reporting on this broadcast earlier. For any presidential 69 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:29,433 administration, personnel is policy. That's especially true when it comes to Donald Trump. 70 00:05:29,433 --> 00:05:32,100 TAMARA KEITH: Right. GEOFF BENNETT: What will you be watching for? 71 00:05:32,100 --> 00:05:34,866 TAMARA KEITH: I'm certainly watching who those personnel are. 72 00:05:34,866 --> 00:05:39,833 Already, the picks that we have heard, all of them fall into the same category 73 00:05:39,833 --> 00:05:44,833 of people who've been incredibly loyal to Donald Trump. And I think that that is the 74 00:05:46,866 --> 00:05:49,933 key lesson that he learned from his last transition, when he was wowed by generals, 75 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:54,500 where he was persuaded by people who said, Oh, yes, you have got to give this guy a try. 76 00:05:54,500 --> 00:05:59,500 And he ultimately ended up with an administration full of people who did not agree with him on 77 00:06:01,833 --> 00:06:04,666 policy. This time, loyalty to Trump, agreement with him on policy is going to be the most key 78 00:06:07,100 --> 00:06:10,866 qualifier. And that's what you're seeing already with the people that he's named. 79 00:06:10,866 --> 00:06:14,733 The one thing that I will note is that, and it's very technical, 80 00:06:14,733 --> 00:06:19,733 but there are these memoranda of understanding that an incoming administration is supposed to 81 00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:25,433 sign with the current administration, essentially to give them the keys, 82 00:06:25,433 --> 00:06:30,433 so that they can look under the hood, they can have landing teams in place at various agencies, 83 00:06:32,466 --> 00:06:35,833 so that they can really hit the ground running. So far, Trump's team has not signed these. 84 00:06:37,900 --> 00:06:41,533 They also govern things like conflict of interest, allow background checks. A lot of 85 00:06:41,533 --> 00:06:46,533 different items come with these memoranda. They haven't been signed yet. This is a total break 86 00:06:48,633 --> 00:06:52,000 from precedent. Even in 2016, which is widely seen as a truly terrible transition because 87 00:06:54,066 --> 00:06:57,200 Trump's team threw out the plan two days after the election, back then, they did sign those. 88 00:06:58,900 --> 00:07:02,100 And so it's not clear at this point whether or not they will sign them. 89 00:07:02,100 --> 00:07:07,100 Trump will be sworn in on January 20 regardless. But people who watch 90 00:07:09,166 --> 00:07:12,400 this who say that transition is really the most perilous time in the U.S. government, 91 00:07:14,300 --> 00:07:17,766 they are worried about it, and they are raising -- they're sounding the alarm. 92 00:07:17,766 --> 00:07:20,866 GEOFF BENNETT: In the minute we have left, help us understand why he's focused on recess 93 00:07:20,866 --> 00:07:25,466 appointments, especially given the fact that he's going to have at least 53 -- a 53-seat 94 00:07:25,466 --> 00:07:29,500 majority in the Senate. He shouldn't have too much trouble getting his nominees through. 95 00:07:29,500 --> 00:07:31,833 TAMARA KEITH: He could have trouble with some of them, 96 00:07:31,833 --> 00:07:36,800 depending on how big that majority is in the Senate. Some of these people that have 97 00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:41,800 been extremely loyal to him are also extremely controversial and have a lot of controversial 98 00:07:43,800 --> 00:07:46,133 history and statements and all of these things that may make them hard to confirm. 99 00:07:46,133 --> 00:07:51,133 But also this is another one of these tests where Trump is trying to assert his power 100 00:07:53,166 --> 00:07:56,400 over the Congress, where he is trying to have ultimate power and trying to get the 101 00:07:58,566 --> 00:08:02,266 potential leaders of the Republicans in the Senate to agree to this in advance. So that 102 00:08:04,533 --> 00:08:07,466 is as much as what it's about. It's a power that hasn't been used in a long time, in part because 103 00:08:09,700 --> 00:08:12,433 senators on both sides of the aisle have tried to prevent presidents from using this power. 104 00:08:12,433 --> 00:08:14,700 GEOFF BENNETT: Tamara Keith and Amy Walter, our thanks to you both. 105 00:08:14,700 --> 00:08:15,833 TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.