Ahead, we are joined by the chief Congressional Correspondent from the Washington Examiner, great to have you with us. Guest good morning. Host lets leap ahead to january and the two runoff races in georgia, the race against the incumbent senator david perdue any other race with senator Kelly Loeffler. Have we ever seen to Senate Runoff races in any state before . Guest not my history of covering congress. Its really unusual. Its also unusual in georgia that the race has ended up in runoff territory. Georgia had been traditionally a very red state where republicans could usually count on an easy win in the statewide races. That was the last few election cycles. There has been a shift in the electorate in georgia over the areas ande the urban their suburban surroundings have gotten more blue, more democratic in their electorate. That has led to some close races where republicans cannot be assured of an easy win. Thats one reason you are seeing runoffs. I think people had thought david perdue would pull off a victory without a runoff. Be aler was more likely to runoff because she was also facing a strong republican opponent named doug collins, a congressman from the house, who won its win that race as well. He took away a lot of her votes. It kept everybody under the 50 threshold because a runoff only happens in this state if you dont get above the 50 and thats what has happened here with these two candidates and we have an extremely unusual situation where both seats are now on the line and we wont know the winner until january. Very intense a focus on georgia in those two seats, not only because the individuals who want to win those races but because the majority of the senate entirely hinges on who wins. In this instant, the senate has been closed for years in the past session, its been 5347. Right now, its 5248 because ,hey lost two seats in arizona and now they need to have at least 51 republicans to hang onto the majority. If they dont, they were and up potentially with a tied situation. The two republicans in georgia, if they lose, then we have two coming into congress. We have a 5050 senate which is not happened in a really long time. Lastnk it was in 2002 the time they had a tied to senate so its been a long time. In this instance, if it was a 5050 senate, the tying race with the vote of the Vice President of the United States with this point appears to be kamala bidenharrishe ticket. They have won the president ial election and she will be the deciding vote. That would give the Senate Majority to the democrats although it wouldnt be an outright majority. There is supposed to be some cooperation between the two parties when they have a 5050 split. Mentioned a 5248 is where it stands now. The alaska races yet to be called, thom tillis in North Carolina. Assuming that happens, and you correctly pointed out that the focus will be on georgia. I read over the weekend that the special election in georgia, 1 out ofof only one seven in that state since 1967. How do you expect that to be directed at georgia . What will Chuck Schumer be focusing on so the message resonates in georgia . Guest there will be a hyperfocus on the georgia race. Clear thatill make the ability to move an agenda rests on that race. Here is why. The houses controlled by democrats. It will stay that way although democrats lost many seats. They maintain the majority. That will not change. We dont know about the senate, its in republican control now. The white house is going to be run by democrats. Factor,et that third the senate, you have the house, the senate and the white house all under one party control. That is the green light. They can pass things without any opposition in many cases. They will be able to move legislation more easily than if the republicans maintain control. One thing to keep in mind is that the senate has the filibuster which means they cannot just pass legislation with the majority. They need to get some cooperation from the minority. Things are not guaranteed to move quickly. I think what will happen is that Chuck Schumer who is the minority leader from new york, a democrat, he will be hyper focused along with other members of the leadership and he already is. He is very focused on that and has made public statements about the race, that everything now rests on georgia. They need to win georgia so you will see a lot of money, a lot of people on the ground, a lot of messaging in georgia, obviously, to try to swing those seats. Its good to keep in mind that the people who turn out for runoffs are, generally speaking, not the same group of people who turn out for general elections. General elections can get enormous population turning into vote. This year it was record numbers in many states. Pull aelections usually Smaller Group of voters. That can bode well for the party in power. The georgia electorate generally favors republicans. This will be a baffle, a get out the vote battle in georgia. All bets are off and tombs in terms of who could end up coming out ahead. Normally you would favor republicans. They may come out ahead on this but i think its all New Territory because of what we just discussed. The stakes are high for both parties. Host susan has been covering congress for some time and is the chief Congressional Correspondent for the Washington Examiner and we welcome your calls and comments. We will get to your calls in a moment. Put on your analyst hat for a second on the race, the david perdue race. Why didnt he win . He is the incumbent senator. What happened there . Guest as i was saying earlier,. Eorgia has been changing its not the same electorate as even five years ago and not 10 years ago. You are seeing an influx of new voters, younger voters, people from the northeast who are migrating down to the south to areas in the atlanta and suburban areas. They have shifted the electorate to make it possible for democrats to win. You might recall a couple of years ago, the governors race was very close, there was a recount. Stacey abrams, very dynamic candidate in georgia versus brian kemp. That was a close race and people would initially say how is that possible in georgia . Its because the electorate is changing. By the way, that same effect is taking place in other states, North Carolina, south carolina, florida. There has been a migration south and a lot of the people coming there from the northeast. They are bringing their voting habits with them and its changing who can win in places. I predict there will be more and more close races and if the trend continues, there will be a time when democrats are winning in the south. Larrylets hear from first on the independent line in petersburg, illinois. Caller yes, good morning. I have watched you on your reporting and i think you shoot down the middle on things. I kind of like your opinion on some concerns i have. There is a large part of the population now that really are upset and questioning whether their votes have been treated think that the biden people would come out and say lets open the books, lets show that there is nothing wrong here, that would help a lot to do that. We dont want more civil unrest in this country. Comes inhe vote georgia, very serious votes to determine the senate, they will need to do that in order to make people feel confident that everything is on the up and up, thank you very much. Guest thats an important perspective stop there are many people who have been reading stories and hearing about abnormalities in the voting and some of the swing states. I know it happens. I was in florida covering the recount in 2000 and i was watching them recount and deal with the abnormalities. They exist. They can swing elections and these are concerns that many in the public have and you see the typical dynamic playing out where the party challenging, and this case present trump, want to make sure all the ballots are counted. The other parties saying lets move on and its a fairly typical dynamic. Important here is what the caller mentioned about who voted for trump or are concerned about the outcome. This was a different year. People did not all go and vote in person. For the first time, many people mailin ballots in many states dealt with an influx of male in dallas they have never dealt with before. Arecally, there abnormalities with voting machines, we have heard about that. In a country as divided as it has been over the selection, it makes sense that people would be very concerned about some of these votes and ballots and whether there needs to be a more careful counting. There are instances where republicans want a look at the ballots and they are not being allowed to examine them and each day has different in each state has different rules for that. You wonder if the outcome of this will be people believing that this was not a fair race. That certainly happened in 2000. People kept saying they believed bush should not of one, that al gore should have one. That will continue. I expect people will continue to feel uneasy about this. Thats because of some of the abnormalities we know have happened so far. The president s statements over the weekend about the challenges and the counts going on in several states we hear from Vice President mike pence on the pandemic, do you expect there is any chance that a relief package or economic package will pass before the end of the year and if not, what might happen in the new congress . Guest the same dynamic that existed before the election is there now which is that republicans want to spend a certain amount of money somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 billion to may be a maximum of 1 trillion. Democrats want to go further and they want to spend anywhere between 2 trillion and 3. 7 trillion dollars. There is a very big gap between the two parties. There is a bigger problem that money is whats in the bill. In the senate, they dont want to pick up anything unless it has lawsuit Liability Protections for businesses and democrats dont want anything to do with that. Then there is the question of how much money to give state and local governments. I think they have already received 132 billion and democrats want to as add 500 billions to that and republicans are saying maybe we will give some money to the states that we want to target it to the states and go through a list. There and gap right how has the election change that . I dont know, democrats can say when it we just wait this out and in january, if we gain control, we will have more leverage in the senate and when joe biden is sworn in and we can get a bigger package. On the other hand, the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, is a democrat of california and has said i want a clean slate for a President Biden in other words, i want to get something done in the lameduck which is coming up this month. Can startoe biden fresh with his agenda when he gets into the white house in january. The big question rests on the senate. The uncertainty of the senate kind of leaves things in a status quo situation for the democrats and republicans right now. They are sort of stuck in that gap i just talked about. That is the real problem and now that we have an important new factor. The vaccine and housing that comes out means immunity, it means reopening government, reopening schools without having to worry about some of the costs you would need to provide the Safety Measures if it was still contagious. That will factor into that. I think when the senate returns, some of the things i will as senators is how does that factor into your thoughts . That was a really important point that was made. Host south bend, indiana on the republican line. Hi there. Guest good morning. Caller i dont want to talk politics. Now what i want to talk about is the most important thing that i think we need. Its when President Trump did that trade deal with china. He said [indiscernible] we have to continue that because that, wenot continue doing. Doing what they what i want to say is joe biden then the president made sure that i add to the culture. Host any comment on that . Guest i had a hard time understanding what she was asking. Mike ints go to chatham, new jersey, democrats line. Caller good morning and thanks for taking my call. A couple of quick questions about statistics. As i understand the Georgia Senate race, its the two leading candidates facing off against each other and all the other candidates are eliminated. Right now, you have a situation where its kind of david purdue in the lead and Kelly Loeffler with is in the lead. The critical question i have come with these other minority candidates, the libertarian candidate in georgia garnered about one or 2 of the vote. Assertf all, i would that chances are they will either stay home or probably vote republican. I think that is a reasonable assumption. If you take that logic further and you look at some of these , etc. ,tates, michigan bidens marjorie victory margin of victory was largely determined by the libertarian party. , is my my question is assumption correct that this election in georgia will be swung by libertarians who either arede not to vote for unlikely to vote on the republican line . What givesepends Kelly Loeffler an upper hand. Took away mostho of her votes was republican. His name is doug collins of georgia and he has dropped out now. He is a house member and had been a house member and ran against her and really wanted that c. He was defeated. He has gotten behind her and his votes will matter. I think its an interesting point you make about the libertarian candidate. It depends on the state and the race. There can be a Green Party Candidate who takes away votes from democrats. That certainly can be the case. In maine, for example, Susan Collins pulled out a win over sarah gideon who is a democrat but there were other ballot candidates who drew away from that and they were opposed to each other. They were not similar at all, they had a Green Party Candidate and another libertarian candidate so they took away several Percentage Points from the two leaders. Thats how you get into these runoff situations or in the case of maine, they have a ranked choice but Susan Collins got above the 50 . People look at florida back in 2000 and say ralph nader cost that state and cost him the presidency. Advocate andumer he ran as an independent in florida. He pulled away several Percentage Points that could have gone and you can also look at the clintonbush race and 92 and ross perot and how much he took away was double digits potentially from george h w bush. Thirdparty candidates are big factors in president ial elections. We dont talk it very we dont talk about it very much in his races but they are a big factor here. There is an argument we need to broaden parties and more than just a democrat and republican, they need to be other options. I think we will see more of that going forward, more people on the ballot and tighter races. Host here is the headline from Election Night jamie is in farmington, independent line. Caller good morning, susan. I am a former defense professional. Counterterrorism and guerrilla warfare in 1993 following the World Trade Center bombing. Asked to work with researchers developing a chemical weapons census so we didnt have a repeat of the gulf war syndrome effect. Concerned about how these elections are going and how republicans are challenging them. With this information and 2000 tolike the used in claim that these hanging chads in some way invalidated the votes of those who cast them. I think that it is hurting us, our defense and intelligence communities. Myself, when i realized that the Bush Administration was coming into power, and thought they would invade iraq, i decided my services were no as i sawing utilized ethically. Im concerned and im not the only one i am sure who left service for that reason. Still overconcerns the election process. Caller i think there is good reason to be concerned over the election process because you have the worst of all worlds here. You have people who are highly motivated for their own candidate and then you have some problems and some abnormalities, clearly, and how people voted. I think this year is particularly bad because the brandnew format of mass mailin depends, people have different views about this. People who support President Trump or who are suspicious of this in general point out that , there iseive ballots no uniformity amongst the states. Elections are run by states and the federal government does not have general control over the elections. Each state had a different format stepson of them mailed ballots to people. Many times you had to request a pallet which was considered a safer way to ensure the right to get a ballot. There are a lot of questions and some of these states, it was critical how they conducted the mailin ballot thing. President hase been critical of the mailin ballot thing which came about because of the coronavirus pandemic. It was kind of lastminute and the ability of the Postal Service to get those ballots on time to the voting Elections Offices. Host do you think mailin ballot thing is here to stay . Guest that is a great question. Democrats i think the will push very hard. They wanted mailin ballot he for a long time. There is a great reason for that, why wouldnt they . The majority of people who participate in that are democrats. That raises potentially their participation in elections. Elections are all about turnout. If you get your side to commit greater numbers, you will win. Democrats are looking at them at that and they wanted. Politically, its advantageous to democrats. Host lets take a call from georgia, democrats line. Caller thank you for taking my call. Im sure you are more educated about elections and how they are conducted, much more so than i am, yet you sit here this morning and put out innuendo over the airwaves to act as though there is a question about whats going on with the selection. You know mailin ballots are valid ballots and there is one vote. You can vote male in or in person. People cannot do it multiple times because theres an id number assigned to each ballot mailed in. Whyknow that the reason there were more mailin ballots for biden over trump was because trump demonized mailin ballots and requested his voters not participate and told them to show up on election day instead. So why are we surprised the bulk of the mailin voting was for biden . Today, you know there was bipartisan people in the room everywhere. You know there were republicans and democrats, yet you question. You know theres cameras recording these counts, that the count is secure. So why are you sitting here and participating in the ridiculousness of refusing to accept an election in america . Host we will get a response from our guest. Guest you made a good point about the president demonizing mailin ballot in. He, from the beginning said mailin ballot in creates the potential for fraud. So as the attorney general, bill barr. Sometimes people get ballots should not have them. Theres not a lot of in some states it may be tracks better than others, but there are questions about where these ballots are. Some of them never made it to where they were set to go. Coveringow from elections their abnormalities and i know from covering this election that republicans have not really always been able to monitor the scrutiny of these ballots. Theyve been shot out or kept at a far distance that they cant even see whats going on. So there are legitimate claims being made by republicans. I dont make the case that one side of the other will prevail. Or that this even should be occurring. Its something typical. In your own state of georgia in 2018, it was the democratic candidate who wanted the recount. Who said she thought there were abnormalities and wants to look at those ballots. So both parties do this if they see an avenue for winning. And i think both parties know that there are problems with ballots and there are things you need to look at closely. Its one of the reasons why everything are recounted in florida. There were abnormalities. Ballots and i could see why you are quite shoe sure who was voting for who. And an imperfect process thats what leads to what we are seeing today. What do you think the makeup of the tone of the new senate will be like . Some pretty prominent people elected. John hickenlooper being cory gardner, the former alabama coach, to prevail winning that race against doug jones. And then astronaut mark kelly upsetting incumbent martha mcsally. As you pointed out, Susan Collins wins six more years from and Lisa Murkowski supporting the president elect joe biden. What is the shape of the conferences in the senate look like . Guest thats a really great question. Not the turnout did was not as positive as democrats had hoped it would be and as the polls suggested, i dont think there will they will be as emboldened even though the majority in the house stays democrat and in the senate potentially you could have a tie with a tiebreaker by kamala harris. Where democrats would technically be in the majority. I think thats less likely actually. If i were to say what i think was cannot happen, i suspect the majority will remain in gop hands. But its a slim majority. At best they will only have 52 seats. They had 53. That does not give them room to do anything. Secondly, they dont have anything pat any power to pass things. We have divided government government for potentially two years. That dictates the mood entirely. Say there have been a big win by democrats in the house and senate and then you had a biden presidency. I think the mood would be different. They would be talking about how far they can go with the agenda. How far can i get it passed while having this unique situation of power in the house, senate and white house. Movenk we will see the pretty similar to what we were seeing the past two years. I think democrats will take a look and be introspective because theres been a lot of backlash within their own party to what people have said is too dramatic of the democratic liberal agenda that perhaps didnt resonate well with voters. Talking about eliminating Border Patrol officers, defunding the police. Eliminating the filibuster and packing the Supreme Court with additional justices with the democrats would choose. These are things perhaps democrats will take a harder look at or the socalled green new deal, which is more drastic Energy Policy that would eliminate fossil fuels and other things that may not be popular with the general public. They will take a look at that i think and that is what the mood is going to be. Im curious to know what their priorities will be. I think they will go for an infrastructure, which is very popular with the public. There will be coronavirus aid. They will be laser focused on the economy and jobs. Those dont sound like very liberal agenda items. Think there will be sustainable climate stuff in the infrastructure bill. I dont think it will go to radically to the left with their party. I think it will be gravitating towards the middle if the democrats are in the majority. I think the republicans will be in control and theres not a lot they can do because they dont have the white house and house. So that sort of the braking system if you will. So youll have biden and the democrats in the house and the senate republicans, Mitch Mcconnell blocking things. Thats what i predict. Host one more call here. Democrats line. Caller good morning. Little upset with this whole process from back when they slowed down the post office to the manipulation attempted manipulation of absentee ballots. I feel i governed the right to vote like every other american and dont like the fact they made too many moves to try and disallow my vote and they are still going after it. The same state legislature that caused the problem is trying to lay blame on the legislature that wasnt in power. Host ill let you go there. Guest there continue to be issues with people who are unable to vote because they show up in their name is not on the list and they think it should be or their absentee ballot, there is a signature mismatch or something that does not account quite right and there ballot is put in a provisional pile. Tois incredibly frustrating show up and be told you can vote but you thought you were able to do that. Again, its run by the states. Even more locally actually because counties run their elections. You can find situations where things are run very poorly by some counties and i know in florida there were a lot of instances of that over the years. This year they seem to be doing much better. Youd be surprised at just how bad things can turn out. These arent jobs everybody is dying to sign up for. Running your Elections Office or working on election day. There are problems clearly. People are very frustrated. Theres been a general call by democrats to sort of federalize elections and have a uniformity in place. Republicans do not like that. They have resisted it and resisted legislation that would do that that would somewhat federalize it at that level. Their view is it needs to be run their view is always less let the states and local governments handle it. Its a big divide between the two parties. Theres no telling whether federalization will make voting better or more accurate. You hear stories like this and it does the caller was telling us, theres so many problems here, what reforms can really happen so that people feel like their vote was counted or people feel like the election was not rigged in one direction or the other. Those are really valid questions. Her tonight, the president of the American Telemedicine Association talks about the growth of the telemedicine industry during the coronavirus pandemic. Coinedave a term we have called the telemedicine cliff. This is notans is an abstract notion. I am back seeing patients in the office at 40 of our previous volume. And when we get a little more cranked up, we will be at 75 and we wont go higher than that. In order to meet the demand for patient care, we have to have telehealth embedded in our workforce and if we cannot do it and all the sudden the Public Health emergency goes away and theres no way to fix some of these regulatory restrictions, then we will be in trouble and our patients will be an even more trouble. Thats tonight at 8 p. M. Eastern on the communicators on cspan2. This month, we are featuring American History tv programs as a preview of what is available every weekend on cspan3. Tonight, programs on the military. We will travel to northeastern france to tour to battlefields where american and French Forces fought in the spring of 1918 to stop a german offensive toward paris. That starts at 8 p. M. Eastern. Enjoy American History tv every. Eekend on cspan3 the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on the Affordable Care act in the case against texas v california and california v texas at 10 a. M. Eastern on cspan. Health care law was challenged in texas after a tax law eliminated the penalty for not having health care insurance. Oral arguments on cspan, on at cspan. Org Supreme Court or on the cspan radio app. Fbi Deputy Director Andrew Mccabe testifies before the Senate Judiciary committee on the crossfire hurricane case. Watch live coverage tuesday at 11 a. M. Eastern on cspan3. Stream live or ondemand at cspan. Org or listen on the cspan radio app. There are four senate races that remain undecided. Two of the races are in georgia which are headed toward a january runoff. Incumbent senator david perdue faces jon ossoff because neither candidate received 50 of the vote in last weeks election. The other georgia Runoff Election is between Kelly Leffler and democrat Rafael Warnock and that is where a special election Kelly Leffler was appointed to the seat after Johnny Isakson retired. Votes are still being counted in North Carolina and a lot of ballots still need to be counted in alaska where senator dan sullivan faces independent dell gross. We continue to bring Election Results here on cspan. Earlier today, president elect joe biden spoke about covid19 and a possible future vaccine
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