2016 as well. that s what voters are looking for. bernie sanders resonated on that store. i think that that s another big question. if he s still coming across as the most authentic of the candidate in the race c that s going to work in his favor. and policy, they re talking about a lot of the things he first brought up. medicare for all. paying for four-year college. hillary clinton would say those are pipe dream plans. voters didn t want to hear that in 2016. the first question at this politics and eggs event i m covering was about the national debt. i m interested to see how that kind of conversation plays out here. and i m also interested to see if sanders and his campaign learned any of the lessons from 2016. obviously he lost the primary, and the reason he lost was african american voters in those southern states that are so important to this primary process for democrats, and i m interested to see where he decide he s going to go at first, if that sends a message
presidents going into their first midterm, it doesn t necessarily bode well for the republicans. no. when obama and bush and clinton have had similar results, similar nights, it has meant a blood bath in terms of the loss of house seats. one thing president trump has going for him above and beyond anything else is the fact that the math for the senate is so difficult for democrats. they re playing defense in so many of those seats but on the house side, republicans are playing defense and these numbers, if they hold up, if they continue, show that president trump will be an albatross around the necks of many republicans. as you and david chalian point out, preliminary numbers. very preliminary. jake, thank you very much. obviously, there is a lot we do not know. a lot of people thought they knew what was going to happen in 2016. obviously, were surprised. who knows exactly what s going to happen tonight. stay tuned. david gergen getting an early
agreement when you were with the trump campaign in 2016. not sure you abide by it, but you did sign it. i want to ask you about this kentucky race. it s going to be one of the first ones we see the results from. andy barr against amy mcgrath. it s a district president trump won by 16 points in 2016. obviously a bellwether. one of the things we were talking about during the break is the democrats and i know this is much to your chagrin the democrats have done a pretty good job when it comes to candidate recruitment. democrats have done a phenomenal job. look this is the kind of war going on inside the democratic party. this new congress, if they do take over, is going to have a pretty interesting mix. it will be a battle, but the democrats have done a phenomenal job of getting great candidates. i m sure you disagree. right, i do.
observed from talking to voters. the democrats we talked to are incredibly fired up. they are treating this more like a presidential election. they are saying this is the most important time for them to vote. that is something that s a little bit different in many ways from 2016. obviously, hillary clinton had her core supporters but i covered that campaign in its final weeks and the vibe was entirely different. democrats are definitely fired up. on the republican side, i do think that, you know, to a certain extent the president s strategy ever making those voters feel an additional urgency to go to the polls is something he needs. they are seeing that in their numbers. i do talk to republican voters that say immigration is the top issue for them, not something you hear from democrats or from independents. i do think it s, obviously just a balance between whether or not those democrats are excited enough and i think that core question of people that could swing back and forth or perha
these swing districts. there s a big difference between 2016. obviously, one thing is that a lot of people in our profession didn t take trump seriously. didn t believe he could ever win. he got a lot of scrutiny but this is true not just in the media but a lot of voters. we look at what happened comey didn t think he was going to win. a lot of democrats looked at hillary clinton and found her uninspiring and just said i m going to stay home because they assumed eventually she d win anyway and then they looked up and went, wait a minute. her defects are minor compared to his. the huge difference to 2016, you look at this closing period. people forget how in those closing days of 2016, after comey flipped the narrative and made it about hillary clinton again, how in an extraordinary moment, i mean extraordinarily rare, donald trump was really disciplined the last 12 dhafays that campaign. he talked about building the wall. he talked about change. he talked about draining the