hello and welcome to inside politics. i m john king in washington. thank you for sharing your day with us. democrats seized the final prize as georgia drops the curtain on a dramatic ph.d term year. herschel walker s loss marks another big rebuke of donald trump. the runoff victory gives democrats some important senate space and it gives raphael warnock a six-year term and a very powerful american dream moment. she grew up in the 1950s in georgia picking somebody else s cotton and somebody else s tobacco, but tonight she helped pick her youngest son to be a united states senator. [ cheers and applause ] plus, donald trump suffers defeat of a different kind, subpoenas, a guilty verdict in new york, criminal referrals here in washington, an onslaught
he said i said do you agree with senator john thune? he said, no, he said trump was not the problem and the chairman of the republican senatorial committee rick scott said he defended his decision not to engage in republican primaries saying it is up to republican voters to choose those candidates even as top republican leaders want to take a more assertive role in the next election cycle so a lot of back and forth, john, but no unanimity about what they should do going forward. the results are clear, the debate continues. manu raju, thank you. warnock s victory does that, 51-49 in the senate, end of a midterm year where republicans thought they would take the majority. pop back to last night and a closer look. let s take a look now, tee up how senator warnock got his victory, it s a narrow victory for all the baggage that herschel walker had himself and with donald trump s endorsement it is a narrow win so they can celebrate but have lessons to learn about georgia. 51-49. if you
chambers. it is without a doubt that the trump brand and then walker s baggage on top of that, if you look at the suburbs and move out to the exurbs, republicans want every statewide election in georgia. it was a good year except for this race. why? in part because of what you just laid out, the trump brand continues to be toxic. you have to remember that the republicans who won at the state level including the governor had campaigned against the idea of the big lie, against the idea that trump should be the leader of the party and so even as they tried to rescue herschel walker, it was too far gone as being an acolyte of donald trump, sort of picked out of obscurity to be a senator by donald trump. while it s important to know trump s brand continues to be toxic for a number of suburban voters raphael warnock did campaign in a number of these exurb and even rural communities and try to tighten those margins even though he lost a number of
or at least don t turn hard right would be more appropriate, a more appropriate thing to do. we want to get things done and if we can get some bipartisan things done, it will, of course, be better for the country. let s start on capitol hill with manu raju. an important morning after for leader schumer. what next? reporter: a lot of soul searching, belly aching, finger-pointing among republicans today who thought they would be in the senate majority. they did not even fathom they could lose a seat being 51-49 and now deciding what they should change going forward. i ve been speaking to republicans up and down the line. there has been plame about their failure to get the early vote out, criticism of donald trump, his presence on the campaign trail defending donald trump, the decision of the national republican senatorial committee not to intervene in primary, all these issues coming back to the
basic fact, basic criticism from a number of republicans that they need better candidates according to roy blunt a member of the republican leadership saying, quote, we need better candidates. the number two republican john thune indicated it was donald trump s presence late in the campaign season that gave democrats an opportunity to shift the focus away from joe biden and his policies and make it a contrast election and he also had a message for republican candidates who embrace the bogus notion of the 2020 election being stolen saying, independent voters weren t having it. it all starts with good quality candidates. there s no substitute for that. in an election year when it should have been a referendum on the current administration and their policies the democrats in many cases were able to turn it into a choice election because of trump s presence out there, so, you know, was he a factor? i don t think there s any question about that. when i asked senator lindsey graham a sta