smith. the 0-2. left side, swanson to first. the braves are world champions! >> first time since 1995, the atlanta braves win the world series. what an unlikely team to win. also, they were under .500 much of the year. they ended up with 88 wins. that was it. they came from the weakest division in baseball, the n.l. east, considered a joke throughout the entire year. but, man, willie geist, there was one moment from the game last night, a home run. i don't think i've seen anybody hit a ball this hard! >> wow. >> that's way out. how does that happen? >> the braves lead 3-0. >> willie, they're sitting in houston. >> wow. >> the debutantes in houston, baby. >> that thing left the stadium. >> can't hold a candle to that. holy cow! >> that left the soler, a trade deadline acquisition, hits it out of the stadium, and the braves win their first world series since the mid '90s. great night for long-suffering atlanta fans. great night for the braves. as you said, they were under .500 in early august. they had a 6% or 7% chance of making the playoffs. they lost their best player, and they made some incredible pickups around the trade deadline to say, "we're not sellers right now. we're still in this thing." boy, were they. they made a great run through the playoffs. world series champions. freddie freeman, the first baseman, caught the last out at first base. he's been with the team 11, 12 years. a career atlanta brave. he got his moment last night. >> he got his moment last night. very exciting for him. the face of the braves. a lot of people would say the face of baseball. just a great ambassador for baseball. but, willie, you know, it's interesting, we talk about the braves against the astros. we talk about the braves in 1995. i promise everybody, we will get to politics. >> that's kind of what we're here for. >> the houston astros are like the atlanta braves were in the 1990s. best team of the decade, without a doubt. at least the first half of the decade. now, the astros are slipping into the same thing. they win the series in '17. lose in the alcs in '18. lose the series in '19. lose in the alcs in '20. they lose in the world series in '21. sounds an awful lot like the atlanta braves of the 1990s. >> except the braves didn't have the trash cans working to their advantage, and they ran into the new york yankees dynasty. had a couple things in their way. jonathan lemire, incredible story. if we were talking about the atlanta braves winning the world series in early august, people would have thought we were crazy. they didn't look like they'd make the playoffs. >> fewest wins, 88, of any of the postseason teams this year. as you said, august 6th, they were under .500. they made smart moves, including getting soler from the royals. lights out bullpen. they had unlikely contributions from rosario and other players they picked up late in the season. the city of atlanta, joe, has had a tortured history with sports. the braves, just the one in '95. hawks never won in the nba. falcons collapsed in the super bowl to tom brady and the patriots. >> you don't have to bring that up. >> i'm contractually obligated to bring that up. >> don't talk about it. >> with us -- >> "sports illustrated" in '77 or '78, the cover of atlanta fulton county stadium and said, "loserville usa." as a lifelong hogs and falcons fan, that stings, mika. >> we'll talk all about it later. here in washington, we have former chairman of the republican national committee, michael steele. national affairs analyst, host and executive producer of showtime's "the circus," and "hell and high water" podcast, john heilemann. and msnbc contributor, journalist, and author of "the confidence code" series, katty kay joins us. >> time to go to the big board, mika. let's go to steve kornacki. >> what a night. >> steve, talk about a crazy night. >> here ya go. this is what the result is. as you say, the republican, glenn youngkin, pulling out the victory in virginia. a year ago at this time, we were talking about how virginia had gone blue, had gone for joe biden by double digits, by ten points. now, the republican by two points over terry mcauliffe. how did youngkin do it? simplest answer is he made everything a little bit less blue. he made everything a little bit more red. we can show you the results here compared to 2020. the more red it is, the bigger the bubble it is, the more republican improvement it is. pretty much everywhere here on the map, you have republican improvement. a couple areas jump out. number one, the hampton roads area, you look in virginia beach. we talked yesterday, this was the closest thing i think there was to a bellwether in the state. the city of virginia beach, this is the biggest independent city in virginia demographically. this is one of those places that's a pretty good sort of combination of every group in the state there. pretty good representation of the state. it's a place that joe biden had won. youngkin's campaign said they wanted to win it back. they won it back by eight points. same thing happened right next door in the city of chesapeake. these were bellwether areas. youngkin won them back by a solid margin. the other thing that glenn youngkin did, we talked about the suburbs of washington, d.c. could he make inroads, not necessarily win but could he win back on of the voters the republican party had abandoned in the suburbs of northern virginia, in the suburbs of virginia, during the trump presidency. here's fairfax county. it is the biggest one in the state on paper. youngkin got slaughtered in fairfax county. he did, losing by 30 points to terry mcauliffe. he didn't get slaughtered as much as donald trump did. this was a 42-point loss for donald trump last year in the biggest county in virginia, right outside of washington, d.c. youngkin was able to take that back 12 points. if you go back to the last election, pre-trump, when mitt romney was running, he was able to get closer to where romney ran. though he didn't -- you see he didn't actually get back to that romney number. so if he wasn't getting to romney numbers in the suburbs of northern virginia -- and, remember, romney lost statewide -- what was the other ingredient to this last night for youngkin? he made inroads in the suburbs. he won the bellwethers. then he met and then exceeded donald trump's total of the vote all throughout rural virginia. this was the other question mark because there are places we showed you yesterday morning. let's revisit it, it is a small one, but it's a story we see in the different, small red counties on the map. allegheny county, check out the story of the last couple election cycles here. back to 2012, this was a toss-up. mitt romney won this county by a couple points in 2012. along came donald trump. this is the kind of place rural, non-college educated voters, appalachia. donald trump did extremely well here. it was not guaranteed coming into this election that youngkin could do what trump had did. he did, and he bills a 50-point victory for youngkin in a county that, nine years ago, republicans were winning by three points. he locked in, youngkin did, the trump surge in rural virginia, in southwest virginia. he made inroads in the suburbs. as we say, he won the billion -- bellwethers. last year, the state was ten points for joe biden. now a republican win. >> let's talk about new jersey real quick. it's a very tight race. it does look like the votes outstanding are in murphy's cat category, but biden won this. democrats should be concerned it is this close this morning. >> talk about close in the tally. there it is. 61 votes at this hour separating jack ciattaciattarrelli, the republican challenger, against murphy, the inincumbent. new jersey hasn't gone republican in a presidential race since 1988. chris christie won the governors race twice. otherwise, there's not much to show for republicans in this state in this century. even republicans in new jersey the week before this campaign, they were not giving you much in terms of ciattarrelli's chances. they were saying, maybe we can keep it under ten and do okay in the state legislature. as you say, here's ciattarrelli now, leading in the vote tally. now, where are the remaining votes here? one thing we've been following, and i'm not sure when today -- we hope today we'll get this -- mercer county, where trenton is, the state capital, princeton. this is a democratic county. i can show you how democratic. it's the kind of county joe biden won by 40 points in 2020. what we are missing in mercer county is critical here, i think. it's the vote by mail. the mail ballots. the mail ballots in new jersey, if it is true in every state, we keep talking about this, heavily, overwhelmingly, like 80% democratic. so when you get the vote by mail in mercer county, i think there's an expectation that phil murphy is going to pad the lead he has in mercer county. that'd certainly give him the opportunity to leapfrog, to catapult in the statewide count. there are precincts from yesterday's election day vote in essex county. this is the biggest democratic vote-producing county in new jersey. some of the precincts within this county are extremely, extremely democratic. so if a few of those are still outstanding, again, there's a chance for murphy to net some votes there. we also think there may be some votes to come here in somerset county. this is jack ciattarrelli's home county. you see him leading in the tally now. again, we think there may be some early vote or mail vote. either way, that is a more democratic-friendly type of vote left here. so you can find pockets like this on this map, where it looks like murphy has opportunities to get ahead. you can see a path there for murphy. you can't find, comparably, pockets on the map now for ciattarrelli. the one thing i'd say, this is the one thing democrats and the republicans i talked to last night agreed on. in new jersey, they were both baffled with and frustrated by the vote reporting coming out of the counties. very, very unclear, even to these parties last night in new jersey, exactly where the remaining vote was. >> new jersey is too close to call. again, a state joe biden won by 16 points. steve, hop back to virginia and look at the issues out of the exit polling, what people voted on. glenn youngkin, who won the race, made it all about education. his rallies were called parents matter. he was speaking to the curriculum in the schools, the schools being closed over a year and the frustrations parents had. what did people vote on in virginia, steve? >> i'm seeing if i can bring it up. the graphic doesn't seem to be loading. we asked, what do you consider to be the most important issue in the exit poll, what is the most important issue? economy topped the list. but not far behind it, about a quarter of all voters, 24%, identified education as their top issue in this race. folks who picked education went for youngkin by a pretty solid margin. so, again, focal point of youngkin's campaign. that actually -- the county, you mentioned the rally, what he called the parents matter rally that youngkin closed his campaign with. his campaign thought loudoun county would be the epicenter of that, in particular. d.c. metro area. here you do, mcauliffe is winning this by 10 1/2 points. the youngkin campaign thought the education issue would have resonance in loudoun county and the suburbs. check this out. this was a 25-point massacre for joe biden and for the democrats a year ago. 25-point win. youngkin doesn't win it, but he brings it all the way down to basically ten points in loudoun county. again, one of the things he was trying to do, he was trying to rewind the clock. he was trying to get, youngkin was, get republicans back closer to where they were in the suburbs before donald trump came along. again, he did not get them all the way back. look at this, mitt romney was only four points behind in loudoun county when he was running. youngkin didn't get them all the way back there, but he got close enough. again, if you supplement the surge trump vote he was able to hold on to and build on, that's sort of a new combination. we've seen different candidates win virginia different ways in the past. here's one. youngkin didn't get the traditional kind of old school republican strength from the suburbs, but he got a little bit. then he supplemented it with strength they hadn't seen before, donald trump, in the rural parts of the state. that, in this case, is what adds up to this. >> wow. steve kornacki, we'll get to the other races in a little bit. but let's break down the two big races here, virginia and new jersey. talk about what happened and sort of the dual effect of glenn youngkin's win. was it a win for trump? >> it's a loss for trump. we'll get to that later. >> okay. >> i think, first, michael, you ran the rnc. let's talk to you first. i think the defining feature of american politics over, well, our adult lifetime, it's the constant ebb and flow, the back and forth of american politics. listen, this is not giving democrats a free pass because i'm the dialectic thinker. >> we'll be talking about that. >> two things at one time. >> the democratic party can be -- >> let's -- >> you're using big words. >> the democratic party can be a red hot mess. >> right. >> just an absolute mess. >> they are. >> at the same time, it can be true that we see this time and again. you look at what happened. obama wins a century-defining election. the new ascendant majority. things are forever changed. >> right. >> we're entering into the age of aquarius. then donald trump redefined politics forever. next year, youngkin wins. >> northam. >> northam, now biden, and then youngkin. even take huge figures in american politics. ronald reagan, 1980. had a disastrous '82. 49 states in '84. loses in '86. go to barack obama. massive win in 2008. 2010, of course, what happens? the tea party. then the tea party is running around town saying, "we own the future." then barack obama gets re-elected easily two years later. this is the ebb and flow of american politics. i'm not saying it's great. i'm just saying, this is the defining feature of our time, just like, you know, for large chunks of the 19th century we had really, really crappy presidents. >> there are a couple of things. steve really kind of points them up for us. the first is understanding that, you know, 2016 is -- and '20 are presidential cycles. in between, you have the local races. so you have this national phenomena, where everybody is focused on a big name for president. then it becomes very local, which is what these governors races really reflect. and what this race in virginia says, and i think that, you know, youngkin put it right when he says, "i want to change the trajectory of the commonwealth," and he is going to focus on the local issues to help do that. he's not springing in national issues. that's what mcauliffe tried to do. he tried to tie youngkin and trump together. he tried to create this national synergy of, you know, people not crazy about trump. youngkin said, look, you can talk about trump, but i'm going to talk about something closer to home, the economy and education. it's really that ebb and flow you're talking about, that dialectic nature of this process, really speaks to when the nation focuses on the big picture, president, and when citizens focus on things that are a little closer to home. >> 2009, the jobs. >> same thing. >> here, you have people saying -- and we need to talk about this around the table a bit, because democrats have to come to terms with wokism. people are saying, oh, he won based on something that's not real, that doesn't exist, crt or wokism, whatever you want to call it. i can tell you, i mean, that's all -- i mean, i've said this on the show before. people say, oh, it's because they're racist. no, they're lifelong democrats, and they're talking about what's going on on college campuses. people can get mad if they want to. don't shoot me, elton john said. i'm only the piano player. this is what we're hearing. all the time, wherever we go, when nobody is watching, when the cameras are off, when people aren't worried about people calling them bigots, it's happening. that played out last night in virginia. >> your first point, if people are going, you know, they're just using this and this is a cultural thing, it's not real, crt, okay, give you that. why don't you have a counter narrative? >> if they're making something up -- >> where is the counter narrative? >> if you're making something up that's not true, i'm going to just -- i'm going to chase you all over the state, mock and ridicule you, and people will be laughing at you. the fact that he kept springing this up, and terry didn't have an answer, other than to say parents shouldn't be involved in their kids' classrooms, oh, my god. this is real. if it's not real, that's just pure malpractice by democrats from coast to coast. >> terry's mistake about parents shouldn't been involved in the class classroom, probably the worst mistake of his political career. if mcauliffe had won last night, it would have been historic. it would have broken all the models. democrats can take some solace from that. >> we did that once, in fairness to him. >> in 2013, he did it. >> he was against a candidate who was unacceptable for a lot of virginians. it was different. youngkin was clearly acceptable. democrats have to find a way in the post-george floyd world, and as there is more wokeness on american campuses and in schools, democrats have to find a way to talk about it rather than just saying that it doesn't exist and it is not a problem. it's a problem that hurt them last night. so they have to find a way. >> it does exist, and it is all about white grievance. if that makes them feel good, awesome. you do you. i'll do me. but it's really hurting democratic candidates, and it will continue to. >> what happened last night, trump got 49% of white women voters in virginia. youngkin got 57%. that swing there is a lot of this issue that we're talking about because those are suburban mothers who have kids in schools, and they're worried about this issue. of course they're worried about gas prices. i spend a lot of time in virginia. it costs a lot of money. i spend -- a month ago, a neighbor of mine who had a biden sign switched to a youngkin sign. that was the moment i realized things are changing. >> i could see it. i was traveling across virginia the past few weeks, and i really saw it. john heilemann, now to you. democrats are facing hell and high water. what do you say? >> well, i mean, look, critical race theory exists. wokism exists. it's not caught in a virginia school. the youngkin campaign was asked about it a hundred times by reporters, and they couldn't come up with an example of a school in the state of virginia that taught crt as part of the curriculum. >> hold on. you understand -- >> i do. i do but -- >> political correctness, wokism -- >> i do. >> that's what people are saying to make themselves feel better. >> i thought terry did a bad job on this, how you win this issue. there is a different way of how wokism plays out on college campuses. your friends who go to -- kids' friends who are dealing with -- on liberal college campuses, we can have that conversation. that wasn't what was happening in virginia. there was a discussion about whether critical race theory was being taught in schools. the youngkin campaign didn't have an example where it was being taught. i thought terry's handling of it was malpractice. in a situation where youngkin was trying to take an issue, education, which, in my experience, had never been the number two issue in a statewide race, never seen that before. as soon as that came out from the exit poll, before they started doing numbers, i was like, terry is in trouble. mcauliffe is in trouble. youngkin spent six months trying to make that issue central and was taking the anger and resentment -- some is anger. some people mad at joe biden. a lot of -- >> masks in schools. >> vaccine mandates. there were a lot of angry -- >> a catch phrase. >> there were a lot of angry parents, and youngkin found that. the brilliance of the youngkin campaign. a senior democrat said yesterday they thought glenn youngkin ran a perfect campaign. in the sense he had to figure out a way to animate the trump base to turn out. steve's numbers show they did. and to not have suburban republican women -- >> can you believe the split between youngkin and trump? youngkin plus 13 over trump. >> right. >> i said early on in passing, last night was a very bad night for donald trump. a guy who kept him in a locked box. he has favorability plus 13 over trump. people are saying, we have to keep trump in mar-a-lago behind the gates. when he stays away, we can get the coalition back. >> this democrat said youngkin ran a perfect campaign. terry did not. think about six months of trying to make headway on this issue, trying to make education a top issue, some capitalizing on forms of anger, in the second gubernatorial debate, it is a classic gaffe in the history of american politics. terry was up five points in the state the end of september. he says, just to get it on the record, he didn't say they shouldn't be involved in the classrooms, he said, "i don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach." now, he was trying to say, and if he said it the right way, i don't think mobs of parents shouldn't be banning books. >> he didn't say that. >> i agree. the moment when the youngkin campaign was most trying to get this issue into the bloodstream, he handed them the ultimate ammunition. you saw in the next month in the monmouth poll that had him up five in september, on october 20th, the poll came out that had the race tied. terry had lost 18 points with independents. swung from plus 9 to negative 9 and dropped with women. that's the last month of the race where mcauliffe is on defense, talking about an issue he doesn't want to talk about. youngkin is on offense. >> white grievance. >> a lot of trump voters had that. >> a lot of white grievance out there. totally get that. at the same time -- >> it's not the only thing. >> -- because we're dialectic -- >> this is really good. >> -- willie, this is a state that voted for barack obama overwhelmingly. a state that voted for kamala harris overwhelmingly a year ago. this state didn't turn into an enlightened blue state to a racist state overnight. this reminds me of 2008, when some people, every time barack obama won a primary, it was the most enlightened state ever. every time hillary clinton won, they'd literally start with, "racism rears its ugly head in kentucky tonight as hillary rodham clinton" blah, blah, blah. that's how losers talk. that's how losers think the morning after the election. you call voters racist, even though they voted for barack obama and kamala harris. >> they voted last night for a new lieutenant governor. historic jamaican immigrant, a united states marine, who will be the lieutenant governor of that state as well. a jamaican-american woman. jonathan lemire, let's talk about the man you cover every day, president biden. he had to be feeling as he got off the steps of air force one coming home from the long trip with his big piece of legislation in front of him. if you're a moderate considering whether or not to vote for the package, what are you thinking, after you watched not just virginia, by the way. new jersey down ballot, on long island, all over the place, democrats losing. what is he thinking about the future of that legislation? also, this vote nine months into his first term as a commentary on his presidency. >> two different images of joe biden yesterday. he had a news conference before leaving scotland at the conclusion of the climate change summit. he was asked about how mcauliffe and murphy would do, and he predicted victory for both. we saw him approach the white house, step in after 1:00 in the morning. he declined to comment when reporters shouted questions at that moment when mcauliffe had lost. this is something the white house feared would come. they knew the race would be close. they hoped that mcauliffe would have the organizational structure to pull out a victory. obviously, the enthusiasm at the end of the day came with youngkin. they're worried about what wake-up call might this send. will this be, as some hope, a warning to dems, you need to get your act together. get this done. you need to get this legislation done, passed, both pieces of it, not only to bolster the president, but also to give them something to run on for next year's midterms. conversely, some moderates are probably going, is this a signal the democrats went too big, too far? i got the text last night, i'm sure people on this set did, moderate dems saying, look, don't make biden fdr, lbj. he ran as a more moderate democrat, and he's gone too big, trying to expand too much. the $1.75 trillion social services program. others will say, no, this is still our one chance to do something because they look at the midterms next year and see, more than likely, at least one house of congress slipping away. the pressure going to be on now to try to get this resolved one way or the other. i know there's some talk of a vote this week. there is a sense that could slip later in november, to get the legislation done. there are historical trends. the virginia governor's race tends to go to the other party rather than the one it has in the white house. still, we've seen it continues a little bit of a losing streak, if nothing else, for the president, whose poll numbers slipped in the wake of the delta variant, afghanistan, and legislative gridlock this fall. >> in the exit poll, virginia voters didn't mention joe biden, but that democratic legislation captures all of that. joe, i heard from one member of congress from new jersey who replied with a text of, oh, boy. this was a democrat who was thinking about the midterm elections in 2022, a moderate democrat, by the way, who was watching what was happening with phil murphy, watching what was happening again, as i said, down ballot. you have people who have been comfortably in their seats for 30 years suddenly threatened or losing. this was happening all over the place last night. >> you know, the thing is, this is, for democrats waking up this morning and shocked, stunned, and deeply saddened, this is really a blessing. it really is. this is the canary in the coal mine. you have your elections next year. much better for democrats that this happened in a couple of states than it happens across the united states next year during the midterms. but they have a lot to adjust on, they do. before we go to break here, i've got a couple of things that we can talk about. >> okay. >> this is just a -- >> well, we could wait and talk after the break. >> dialectical -- >> no, no. i want to ask, would you all like to talk about how badly the prodepressivgressives did from y to minneapolis. >> hold on that. >> or talk about the economy, the economy, the economy, and inflation, as well as empty grocery stores? >> huge issues. >> inflation, big issue. gas prices, big issue. >> let's talk about that. we're talking about social issues. critical race theory, whatever. that's encapsulaing these days. the end of the day, inflation is going up. >> we have -- >> katty sets it up perfectly. >> just helping. >> so you have inflation. >> yeah. >> in virginia. youngkin was talking about taking, what, sales tax? >> hiking the sales tax on groceries. >> in the run-up to thanksgiving. >> yeah. >> you have empty shelves, something we've never seen in our lifetimes in america. empty shelves whether you're going to electronics stores, grocery stores. katty, people are going, what the hell is going on? >> people have been hearing from the administration that this is temporary. temporary doesn't seem to be going away. >> feels like forever. >> that is disconcerting. we thought the end of the summer, this is what the white house was saying earlier in the year, it'll sort itself out as we get through covid and, of course, delta hits. it doesn't sort out. now supply chain issues will not be resolved until the middle of next year. the inflation thing is huge. you have the economy, number one issue on what people were paying at the gas prices and grocery stores, and then you have the social issues which were lumped into education. education became the catch phrase for mask mandates, vaccines, freedoms. they call it education, and schools became the front line, but it was all those issues. >> it's how people feel empowered. education is the one thing people think they can have say and control over. with my kids, how i educate and inform them. to katty's point, that translates across a whole host of other issues. when you layer on supply chain issues, gas prices going up, a loaf of bread going up, you know, those suburban white women who were a big difference in northern virginia begin to take that out on the one thing they see standing in their way. that's the kind of narrative that you saw play out. say what you want. in many respects, the crt discussion for mcauliffe was just like defund the police was for democrats broadly written in the last election. >> so glad you said that. we'll talk to steve rattner next block about the fact that we had the largest gap between republicans and democrats on who handles the economy better. in the nbc poll this past weekend. joe biden never talks about it. you never see him going to a small business. you never see him talking about it. he'll have a supply chain meeting generally because somebody said, "you better have a supply chain meeting," but they've got to talk about it. economics, economics,economics. john, i want to talk the you real quickly before we go to break. >> really quickly. >> and alex tears off my earpiece. >> he will. >> the fact that democrats -- we're talking about critical race theory, whatever that is. wokism, it's a catch-all now. >> yeah. >> democrats should have been able to push back, especially if it was a bogus issue. they didn't. it was horrible. we were saying the same thing, though, a year ago, about defund the police. every democrat said, we want to fund the police. we want more police. nancy pelosi didn't want it. you do through it, jim clyburn. >> joe biden. >> joe biden, everybody said it. the question is, what's it going to be next year, and when are democrats going to realize that they can't just scoff at these culture issues? it's like michael dukakis in '88. people are smarter than that. no, they weren't. when are democrats going to learn to fight hard on culture issues? >> if they don't learn it soon, they'll lose a lot of races. you know, i think there's a -- we see democrats say this all the time. people like jim clyburn and other people banging the drum all day long about how democrats, even when they agree on the principles, that many people who espouse woke views, what they want to accomplish in terms of equity, diversity, other things, the way they talk about it sounds like they're talking from a liberal elite faculty lounge. for ordinary voters, it is off-putting. we know from the beginning of the trump phenomenon, people hate political correctness. they hate being told what to think. they hate being scolded for thinking the wrong thing. >> remember david -- sorry. he says that even white woke people are more progressive on, quote, racial justice than people of color. >> well, yes. that's one of those things. a lot of statistics. you had a lot of african-americans who thought that defund the police made no sense because they understood how important the police were in the neighborhoods. they didn't like the police misconduct, but they understood that most police were not engaged in that misconduct. horrified by the violence. horrified by the shootings. >> they're on the front line. they're the first too often. >> needing safety in the communities and wanting to figure out a way to fix it and not just announce it. democrats have to figure this out. it's not -- you know, it's been a problem. as you say, it's been a problem for democrats handling issues, especially because it allows republicans to -- in addition to sounding elite and out of touch, it also allows republicans to portray them as elite and out of touch. it is a combo platter of badness for democrats, when they can't get their heads around this. and this couples back to your economy point, right? you think about the whole theory of the case for the biden administration. if we can get a handle on covid, the economy will improve. the economy right now is -- for all the problems, and i travel around the country. i hear people talk about inflation. people are like a gallon of gas costs $5. i'm trying to get the christmas presents for kids, and amazon is saying they won't be here in december. they're freaking out in a way people haven't freaked out in a long time. you young ladies don't remember when inflation was an issue in american politics. some of the old men at the table do. >> we're good. >> it's like, yeah, that's a huge issue. on the other hand, is the economy better today than it was last november? it obviously is. >> it's the here and now. >> democrats are making the argument that we have covid under control. the economy has problems, but it is getting better. they'd be in a better position because the economy is an issue they should be able to win on. youngkin was better on the economy, the top issue, and he won on the education issue. if you're losing on the cultural issues and you're losing or not making the case you could make on the economic issues and their connection. covid, the number three issue, was ten points less important than education in virginia. covid was the dominant factor of our lives the past two years, and people in virginia are moving on. if democrats can't make the argument that they tamed the pandemic and the economy, though still having problems, is coming back, if they can't make that case, and they're on the wrong side of the cultural issues, they'll get wiped out next year. >> hard to run on it. >> we'll talk more about the economy with steve rattner coming up. still ahead on "morning joe," we have a lot more to cover from election night, including eric adams. projected to win in new york city's mayoral race. he'll be our guest in about a half an hour. also ahead, with the approval from cdc director, children ages 5 to 11 could begin receiving coronavirus vaccinations as soon as today. we'll talk about that development. and what former vice president mike pence is saying about his decision to buck president trump's plans and certify the 2020 election result s. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. this is the new world of work. each day looks different than the last. but whatever work becomes... the servicenow platform will make it just, flow. whether it's finding ways to help you serve your customers, orchestrating a safe return to the office... wait. an office? what's an office? or solving a workplace challenge that's yet to come. whatever the new world of work takes your business, the world works with servicenow. ♪ feel stuck and need a loan? ♪ move to a sofi personal loan. earn $10 just for viewing your rate — and feel what it's like to get your money right. bogeys on your six, limu. earn $10 just for viewing your rate — they need customized car insurance from liberty mutual so they only pay for what they need. woooooooooooooo... we are not getting you a helicopter. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ with voltaren arthritis pain gel. my husband's got his moves back. an alternative to pills, voltaren is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory gel for powerful arthritis pain relief. voltaren, the joy of movement. 43 past the hour. we've got former treasury official and "morning joe" economic analyst steve rattner. steve is going to talk about how the troubles that terry faced in virginia underscored the challenges democrats face big time. >> big time. big time. let's talk about a big-time sweep though. we haven't even talked about the scale of the landslide for republicans in virginia, john. >> i mean, it's the governorship, lieutenant governorship, the lieutenant general's office, and i think it may still be slightly, not totally certified, but i think the house delegates is going republican. this is a state that hasn't had a statewide republican since 2009. senate level, gubernatorial level, the state was bright blue yesterday. now, as of next january, it'll be entirely under the control of the republicans. that's a bloodbath. it's a state that democrats have dominated, dominated for the past decade. >> right. willie, that is the caveat to my ebb and flow explanation about how, you know, republicans win, democrats win. that has been the back and forth. here in virginia, we had something much more than that. a state where republicans had been shut out for 12 years. they won everything last night, other than the senate. it was a massive sweep. then you look at what happened in new jersey. a race that, just last year, they won by 16 points. man, it's going down to the wire there. so this isn't your typical sort of off-year election. it's worse for democrats than that. >> no question. when you look, john laid it out pretty well, all the seats that flipped overnight to republican. it was a big fear of democrats that it might happen. i don't think they expected to lose all of them, including the house of delegates. looks like they've lost that too. if you just get back to glenn youngkin and look how he won, he flipped back many of the suburban women. he dominated in rural areas. this is a guy who is worth, like, $500 million. ceo of the carlisle group appealing to the voters in virginia. he did it in many ways. he came in and -- i think, jonathan lemire, we were talking, the voters in virginia didn't buy the argument, by and large, that he is donald trump. they looked at him, looked up close. yes, he kept donald trump close. yes, he spoke to him. yes, he allowed donald trump to sort of have his way in the race without appearing publicly with him. but the voters didn't see donald trump when they looked at glenn youngkin. >> no. the parallel here is last year's presidential election. when republican efforts, namely trump's efforts, to paint joe biden as, like, this scary socialist who is going to -- it didn't work. people knew joe biden. it didn't track. joe biden was a moderate democrat. that's what we're seeing here too. mcauliffe acknowledged himself the night before the election that maybe there had been too much talk about trump. as much as trump looms as an existential threat, democrats believe, to the democracy, and certainly we'll see in 2024, that it was too much. voters were turned off. they didn't buy the argument that youngkin was trump. youngkin did a good job keeping trump at arm's length, joe. i was talking to a republican strategist last night who said the best thing that can happen for any republican who is paid to win an election, and certainly in a swing district, is that donald trump is off twitter. he doesn't dominate the conversation like he used to. if you can keep him off stage, even a little, that can be a playbook for 2022 and beyond. >> you talk about the law of unintended consequences coming through. i talked to republicans over the past couple days. they were like, thank god trump is off of twitter. democrats saying, wish trump was on twitter. it was a reminder every two minutes of just how toxic his personality was. actually, him being banned from twitter, him being banned from facebook, him being banned from social media is a huge windfall for republicans. jonathan made a great point, mika. everybody tried to call joe biden a scarymarxist, and america collectively yawned. same thing that happened in virginia last night. the fleece wearing dude, you know, like you say, john, the worst thing obama could say about him was he wore fleece or whatever. he was not donald trump. >> it's hard to turn -- like he pulled off the balancing act well. he was -- he, in the primary, questioned the election results of 2020, did all that. then he made the pivot. again, it goes back to a little of the malpractice point. you know, there was a lot of material that democrats had to work with on here, and they did not prosecute the case well. i think in addition to the debate, mcauliffe didn't prosecute the case as well as he could have. again, if you can't make the case, if you can't win in a state that joe biden won by ten points a year ago and you're terry mcauliffe. the biggest thing in the end is that everyone knew this was going to be a change election. that's all we have now is change elections, right? doug wilder, the first african-american governor of virginia, first african-american governor in the country since reconstruction, he sat there and said, when the primary happened, do we really want a re-tread candidate? someone who is a familiar guy who ran in 2013, or do we want a fresh face. a young african-american candidate? he was against mcauliffe for that reason. he thought that, in a change election, terry was the worst person to have at the top of the ticket. >> can i say something? >> i'll say, look, that looks prophetic at this point. it is hard for terry mcauliffe to look like change. you know, with all his money, all this familiarity, endorsements, his machine, he crushed everyone in the primary. >> the counterargument is, look, we won with biden. if trump is the defining factor, we'll try it again. the trouble is people don't vote on the fact. trump is not there anyone. >> everyone wants change as soon as you vote somebody in. vote biden in. now you want change from biden. >> four years in, when i was four years into congress, if i was running for re-election and trying to paint my opponent as somebody else, instead of saying, "hey, let me tell you what i've done, this, this, this, and this, and it's great. i know you like that. but guess what? i'll do this the next four years for you. we've had a great ride the last four years. imagine what we'll do the next four years." terry didn't talk that way. he was talking about trump, trump, trump, trump, trump. what the hell does he do the first four years? if he did something great, let the people know that. make that the centerpiece of your campaign. but let's talk about economics. everybody is talking about social issues and cultural issues. we brought it up. it played a huge role. talk about economics also playing a massive role in this race. >> sure. well, first, i'll show you a couple charts if you want. >> we love the charts. >> mom, dad. pick up the kids. wake up the kids before they get shipped off to school to be caught critical race theory. this is where they learn the good stuff. get to the charts. >> the first one i know you covered, but what happened in the polls in virginia on the issues. the education went from the third issue back in september to the first issue in october. i know the exit poll showed it might be second, tied with the economy. i don't know about you, john, i can't remember a campaign which education was the number one issue. so we all know what happened with that. secondly, you guys have talked about progressives and reactions to progressives. let's look at how governments think about -- americans think about government over the years. so what you can see here is that, historically, really going all the way back to reagan, maybe well before, the american people have been in favor of less government versus more. that has simply been the trend in american thought. if you look at the democratic administrations, like clinton, americans in those administrations were most saying that government should lean out rather than in. during the bush administrations, lean in more. except for 9/11, which you can see in the mismatch, until biden was elected, just before biden was elected, there's never been a time in modern history when people thought government should lean in. then you had the pandemic. then you had biden. people thought he should lean in. the public opinion was in favor of him leaning in, but it just reversed. it reversed a couple months ago. >> pretty massively. >> right back where it was. you can say that's because of the performance of the biden administration. you can say because of the pandemic may have passed. whatever reason you want. the point is, mcauliffe was going in -- and phil murphy in new jersey, all these guys were going into a race in which public opinion had swung back the other way. basically saying, we want government to lean out. >> again, the poll, if you're looking at it at home, you see the massive swing of americans going from wanting government to do more to americans going back to wanting their federal government to do less in the first several months of the biden administration. >> can i ask you a question, the two of you. americans suddenly want government to do more. biden says, i'll do more. i'll announce this very sweeping, ambitious, domestic agenda. back in april, he said, you know, fdr and lbj. >> thought he had it. >> the sudden shift, as soon as baden says, "okay, i'll do more because you want more," is that what causes, do you think, the swing back in the other direction? people go, oh, my god, that's not what i meant? >> not sure. let's look at the third chart. >> let me get to that quickly, then we'll go -- >> i think they might. americans are conservative, with a small "c. what did lbj do in '65? republicans had a better '66. better election in the off year than they had had in years. that led to a guy named ronald reagan starting his political campaign out in california. you can see the same thing with obamacare. obamacare passes and, yes, americans love it now, but the reaction to that was harsh. obamacare brought us the tea party. we're seeing it again here. but your analysis -- >> your analysis -- >> people wanted action after covid. they wanted action after 9/11. then those numbers went back to what americans are, again, conservative with a small "c." >> suggests that biden misread the demand for more government due to the pandemic. >> or is it that programs work, so people's lives felt better and, therefore, didn't want as much spending going forward? >> um, no. >> no. >> i'll show you a chart. >> he has the chance in chart three. >> i'll show you the answer in chart three, which is, in fact, american's lives aren't better, necessarily. when you look on the left here, this shows what happens to real wages. wages after adjustment for inflation. you can see the dotted line is the trend line. real wages after inflation actually jumped up during the pandemic. mostly because prices went down. what's happened since then, this is inflation. this is what the american people are really unhappy about. inflation for the first time in a long time is polling number one, broadly speaking, across the nation as the issue. you can see, in fact, the pink area. it shows you the gap between the trend line, where wages were supposed to be going, and where real wages after adjustment of inflation are actually going. americans are losing. for all you read about wage increases, amazon and this and so on, americans' wages are actually going down at the moment in real terms after inflation. >> because of inflation. >> gas is $3.40 across the nation. that was the highest since 2014. there was a poll in october in which 89% of americans said they were very concerned about the economy. there was a poll in october also that said that half the americans expect the economy to get worse, not better. you can see it in the chart on the right, which compares sentiment about jobs to just general sentiment. you can see they track closely, closely, and suddenly they diverge. why do they diverge? americans know there are jobs, but they're unhappy about the economy, because of inflation and purchasing power. >> so in real life situation on the hill right behind us here, so joe manchin has been going around for the past couple weeks going, "i'm worried about inflation." you want to throw $3.5 trillion on. i'm worried about inflation. i'm worried about inflation with $1.75 trillion plus $1.25 trillion, close to $3 trillion. least been mocked, ridiculed, abused, from people in his party and also on twitter. do these charts suggest to you, and let's just say, you and i have been warning about inflation and debt for 125 years and nothing has happened, so maybe we're not the fairest people on this issue, but do you, does manchin have a point? >> now something is happening. inflation is going up. by any measure, inflation is going up. again, you know, i sat next to a congressman from upstate new york at a dinner last night. he said constituents are worried about gas prices. they drive long distances in rural areas. gas is high. wages went up a little but not enough to pay for that. the point is that bidenism seems to have failed with the american people in terms of their perception that it's helped them in their ordinary, everyday lives. >> that's the key thing. this goes back to the whole difference between running a national campaign for governor versus running a local campaign for governor, where you begin to address these issues that real americans, everyday folks, whether they live in the suburbs or the city, are being impacted by what's going on. because that's what they know. >> by the way, forgive me for bringing up my past. >> were you a congressman once? >> yes. >> i was. >> guys, i had some dim memory of that. >> vaguely familiar. >> i could bring up my time as a football coach if you'd like me to do. >> he was a great coach. >> this might be more appropriate. you talk about politics being local. when i ran, i couldn't breakthrough. i ran a tax revolt against city hall when they raised taxes like 75%. it just so happened at that time in '94, all across animy -- my district, everybody is raising taxes. all the local governments. so it took -- with a little bit of money i had, full page ad, just had my picture at the podium. >> that's it. >> it said, "tax killer." >> that's it. >> everybody would come up to me and go, you know those are local tax increases. i do, i don't care. i'll do the same thing in washington. it broke through. the local issues. education, you say you haven't heard education. i talked about education all the time. that's where people live. >> and -- >> they don't speak to that. >> i know virginians who are stockpiling frozen turkeys because they're worried the price is going to go up between now and thanksgiving. >> how long has it been since inflation was a real fact of life in america? >> 40 years. >> that's how long it's been since inflation was a major political factor. everybody is going to have a history lesson, when inflation becomes a driving factor. >> look up the name paul volker. >> steve rattner, thank you very much. >> always fun. >> great to see you in person. coming up on "morning joe" -- >> we tape this show around 5:30 in the afternoon, which is before the polls close. so we don't know who won. congratulations, eric adams. >> it was a pretty safe prediction. eric adams joins us live in just a few minutes. >> curtis did take a cat to the polling puth. >> -- booth. >> that was good. he has 17 cats. we'll be right back with much more on "morning joe." this is the new world of work. each day looks different than the last. but whatever work becomes... the servicenow platform will make it just, flow. whether it's finding ways to help you serve your customers, orchestrating a safe return to the office... wait. an office? what's an office? or solving a workplace challenge that's yet to come. whatever the new world of work takes your business, the world works with servicenow. hold on. >> please leave. >> heilemann. >> welcome back to "morning joe." >> not leaving. >> so needy. >> november 3rd. michael steele and katty kay are still with us, and john heilemann has finally left. >> left the building. >> with us, we have the host of msnbc's "politics nation" and president of the national action network, reverend al sharpton. >> this is big. >> former u.s. senator, now an nbc news and msnbc political analyst, claire mccaskill joins us. and ceo of the massena group, jim massena. deputy chief of staff to president obama and ran his 2012 re-election campaign. >> if you're waking up just now, and we're watching baseball last night, willie, real quick summation, then we'll be get to the guests. bad night for democrats. >> bad night for democrats. good night if you're an atlanta braves fan. the atlanta braves won the world series last night. they beat the hated houston astros. blew them out, actually, in game six in houston. great moment. first title in 26 years for the atlanta braves. i would point out, we didn't talk about this earlier, in the same year, the late great hank aaron passed away, the atlanta braves, an american icon. braves got it done last night, joe. they were under .500 back in august. nobody thought they'd be in the playoffs, let alone making a run through october and into early november. freddie freeman catching the last out. he's been a career atlanta brave. the face of that franchise for a decade. the face of baseball in many ways, beloved guy. he got to put that historic ball in his back pocket, as the braves won the world series last night. >> let's say, also, willie, the year that the atlanta fans got the all-star game yanked away from them, even though stacey abrams and others were asking mlb to actually read the bill and allow the game to continue to be played in atlanta. did not. they lost it. but they won last night in a big way. >> they did. it was a great night for atlanta. got so many friends down there. i know you do, joe, too. they've been long-suffering. 1995 was the last time they won it all with the great teams of maddox and smoltz. unlikely team. unlike the teams in the '90s that were dominant. there's one of the longest home runs in the history of the world series by soler. hitting it literally out of the stadium. symbolic in the big win. let's turn to politics. nbc news projects republican glenn youngkin is the winner of republican's high-profile race for governor, with 99% of the expected vote in. youngkin leads democrat terry mcauliffe by about 72,000 votes. and in new jersey, the governor's race there is still too close to call. incumbent democrat phil murphy and his republican challenger jack ciattarrelli are tied at 49.6%. let's do right to the big board and national political correspondent for nbc news and msnbc, steve kornacki. steve, break down what happened in virginia. >> well, here you go. glenn youngkin, the republican, a state last year that biden carried by double digits. youngkin gets it by two points. what happened? a lot of ways to break this down. one is to think about this regionally. we talked so much coming into yesterday's election about northern virginia. basically the area i'm circling on the map right here, right outside of washington, d.c. it's the most population rich, population tense part of the state. it also, over the last two decades, really has been trending dramatically away from the republican party, especially with donald trump in 2016 and donald trump in 2020. it'd really accelerated the movement away from the republican party. how youngkin turned it around, a lot of the suburb here he made inroads. he won back some, not all, of what republicans lost. last year in the presidential race, joe biden won this region i circled by 38 points last year. last night, terry mcauliffe won again, but this time it was 38 down to 26 points for the margin. youngkin made inroads in the democratic-trending suburbs. won back some of the voters i think the party had been losing there. he did something else too. we talk about the geographically small, population-dense northern virginia. also look at southwest virginia. here, this is a lot more of a rural area down here. population wise, it doesn't really compare to what you have in northern virginia. what's interesting here is this is the trump surge in virginia. it is the mirror image, the opposite of northern virginia. there had been a long term trend away from the democratic party in southwest virginia. that trend accelerated with donald trump. he actually did better here than republicans have been doing. now, check this out. donald trump won this region. it was a massive number historically for a republican. trump won southwest virginia by 45 points last year. last night, glenn youngkin won this region by 54 points. so that's the combination. kind of a one-two punch here. this had been a trade-off that had been dooming republicans in virginia for a long time nw. they'd lost too many suburban voters where there is high population. they were adding new voters down here, but they weren't adding nearly enough to make up for the losses here. now the math has changed a little bit. when you can get the losses down here to 26 instead of 38, and you can increase your vote down here even, now the math starts to look different. this is less of a trade-off that's going to doom them. in fact, last night, it is a trade-off that allowed glenn youngkin to win this election. >> fantastic. thank you so much, steve kornacki. nbc news is projecting, mika, victory for eric adams. >> that's good. >> new york city race for mayor. >> former nypd captain and brooklyner beat out curtis sliwa. he joins us now, mr. mayor, congratulations. a big night for you. i'll tell ya what, new york city, obviously, faced so many challenges over the past couple years because of covid. now you know you're going to be new york city's next mayor, what's your first focus going to be? >> well, first, i want to say these are difficult times, you know, in the game of political sports in this city. we're having tough times. but winners want the ball when the game is on the line. i want this ball right now. i had the ball in the mid '80s and early '90s when crime was high. i wore the bulletproof vest to protect our city. this is a moment. this is when you want to be at pat. you want to be at the plate. we need to move now to make sure we create a safe environment for our city. on that foundation, we can build upon it. >> let's ask you about the safe environment. will the mask mandates and vaccine mandates especially, the vaccine mandates among city employees, police and fire, will they continue? >> well, the mask mandates we should keep in place because we're doing an amazing job moving forward. excited about that. we need to revisit how we are going to address the vaccine mandates. i stated i did not want to monday morning quarterback the mayor. this is his time to be the mayor, and he has to make the decisions. but what i am going to encourage him to do is to sit down with the unions. we can work this out. this is a very difficult moment, but there is an opportunity to sit down with the unions. i communicated with some of the union leaders yesterday, and they are open to sit down. this is a good idea to do so. i'm going to encourage him to make that happen. >> mr. mayor elect, good morning. congratulations. it is willie geist. we're going to talk about a bunch of issues. a lot of people want to ask you questions. personally now, you can exhale and drink in this victory, as someone who grew up very poor in brooklyn, in queens, the son of a housekeeper and a butcher, to now see yourself as the mayor of the city where you grew up. what does it feel like today? >> you know, it is the subtext that many people are missing. i talked about it last night when i gave my victory speech. what is that saying to the dishwasher in the restaurant? where you are is not who you are. you continue to tell in this amazing country, say it to a person in a holding cell. i sat in a holding cell, and now i'll be in charge of the entire police department. what does it say to a young person with a learning disability? i have dyslexia. did not get it properly identified until i was in college. now that third grade student who is dyslexic can look and say, wait a minute, this is not the end of the road for me. it's just the beginning. so that subtext is really pumping me up. new york is going to start believing in themselves, no matter who they are, and i'm excited about that. >> eric, al sharpton. first of all, congratulations. you and i go way back 35 years. you know i'm happy with your win. my daughter is still at your victory party, and she was one of your big surrogates. even though the victory party was over three hours ago, i don't think she realizes it. as you and i talked about on the show, you were a founding member of national action network. you spoke at our 30th anniversary with the vice president. but at the same time, you know we're going to be holding you accountable. we're going to be pushing you. mandela said when he won the presidency of south africa, "now i have to govern. part of governing is even your friends and your foes are going to be holding you accountable," which you told everyone, "hold me accountable." how are you going to deal with homelessness, which is a real problem? how are you going to deal with policing, which is a real problem? because you've had to balance being one that would handle the left and the right. now, you're the man. we expect from day one that the celebration will be over, even for my daughter in a minute. now we get down to business. we need to know, where are we going? we have a real problem with homelessness. we still have a problem with policing and gun violence at the same time. >> thank you. you know what, rev, you should be excited about this because these victories are a part of the legacy from years of working together with you, watching just those items you talked about. on the ground, we have been ignoring people. let's be clear on this, you talk about homelessness, when you talk about lack of education, when you talk about crime, when you talk about affordable housing, it's all the same thing. our city is dysfunctional. our country is dysfunctional. we have self-inflicted wounds that we create these crises because of the dysfunctionalty. cities are made up of agencies. i don't care how much tax dollars you collect from citizens. if you are putting the dollars into a dysfunction until agency throughout the city that are siloed, you're never going to solve the crisis. homeless, number one. let's get out of the business of nearly building shelters and start focusing on affordable housing. partnering with great organizations like fountain house. 85% stability rate for those with illnesses. same thing with policing. our police department, we must rebuild trust between the community and the men and women who wear the uniforms. i'm going to tell them i have their backs. do their jobs. if you believe you're going to take down the nobility of public protection by being abusive, you'll leave my department. it is not going to take four years. it's about turning our agencies around and putting people in charge that are not only academically smart, we need emotionally intelligent people that understand what's on the ground that's impacting the people. >> mr. mayor elect, this is michael steele here in washington. congratulations, my friend. it's exciting to see you in space, as they say, as the new leadership of new york city. one of the interesting little footnotes to last night's election, and i'm curious as to how you're looking at it, a lot of folks that don't realize that republicans picked up four seats on the new york city council last night. so there is an opportunity here for you and your leadership to create some new lanes and bridges. yes, a big night for the democrats. you know, everybody thought it was a foregone conclusion. but you have a unique relationship with republicans, working in the past. how do you see that as a bridge-building opportunity for all of new yorkers to recognize that there may be some ideas from some of those new republican members of the city council that are worth looking at and working with as part of your leadership? >> that's a great question. i concur with you. let's be clear here, we have a perpetual state of fighting. we're like the hatfields and mccoys. election is over. we can get this the purpose of the election is so we can start governing. we're all a part of the same team of moving our city forward. so i am saying january 1st, we take off to intramural jerseys and one-on-one jersey for team new york. i want to reach out to every elected official in the city and indicate and talk to them and say, "how do we move our city forward?" for someone to discharge a bullet, cause a death in our community, no one is asking, "is he a republican or democrat?" no, we need to focus on real issues and come together. that's my goal. i'm going to build those bridges and not blow the bridges up. >> mr. adams, katty kay. congratulations on your win. you had a very good night. a good campaign up there in new york. you ran as a centrist. i want to ask you, since you're up in new york, a little bit about what happened in virginia and what you think the democratic party nationwide, as it looks for candidates in next year and 2024, needs to take away what happened in virginia that's different from your experience. you're a democrat. you'll won in new york. you won the primary by running as a centrist. when it comes to the cultural issues we've been talking about on this program this morning, what is your advice to democrats on how they should run on those issues? >> it is interesting. when people do an analysis on my 100 steps forward for new york city, they say, wow, these are progressive policies. because what we must understand in the city, state, and country, is that practical is progressive. that's what progressive is. you were just talking about closing the building of rikers island. that's not progreprogressive. close the pipeline that feeds it. 55% of the men and women there have learning disabilities. you're not talking about stopping that pipeline, going back to an educational system that we are putting $38 billion in, yet we continue to produce an inferior product. 65% of black and brown children never reach proficiency in our city. you have to be progressive. you have to close the problem that built the tunnel. i am practical and progressive. we allowed the term to be hijacked, and i'm going to allow anyone to tell me my policies are not progressive to deal with housing, deal with health care, and these important issues that we are facing. but that's what i say to my colleagues across this country. we need real issues to solve real problems to everyday people in this country. >> mr. mayor, i just want to say, you actually are sounding a lot like a column i read this week from john cwarner, a guy going, let's not be obsessed on the wokism stuff. we start obsessing about what everybody is called, what everybody says, and guarding every word. suddenly, we're doing a whole lot of virtue signaling. that makes people think, i've done that so i don't have to do the hard work of making sure that disadvantaged kids get the same break that rich kids get in the suburbs of new york city. or that people that are living in the most dangerous neighborhoods get the same kind of protection that the rich people get on the upper east side. i'm just talking about it, makes me feel self-righteous on twitter. i've done my job. my hands are clean. hell with it. i love what you're saying here. you're progressive, and you're practical. as ross perot would say, you're talking about where the rubber hits the road. >> that's right. you know, government is not supposed to preach to the citizenry. it's supposed to provide. we have abandoned the citizenry of this city, and i believe, of this country. my unique experience of being on the ground 22 years as a police officer, i walked into those public housing developments. i witnessed children sleeping in the kitchen on grates. i know what it is to be in a domestic violence situation when you can't get assistance from the government. i know what it is to see a young person arrested at 11 for robbery, his third robbery, just to learn that his dad is in jail and his mother is on crack and he has not been to school in six months. listen, you can be as philosophical as you want. i'm not going to be a philosophical man. i'll be a gsd mayor, get stuff done. help people in the life they're living now. i'll be damned if people continue to live this way in my city. >> mr. mayor, eric adams, thank you for being with us. >> wow. >> congratulations. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> rev, i love the line he says, rev. it sounds like you. he said, "we're not to preach to our constituents. we are to provide to our constituents." going back to the op-ed, it's like, stop with all the wokism. stop with all the virtue signaling. get stuff done. it's not enough to virtue signal. it's not enough to obsess over words. it's not enough to be language police. get things done. >> it is what you and i always talk about, and that's the latte liberals. what i challenge people, and eric and i have come through this together, as he said, for decades, is to be woke is insignificant if you wake up and don't get up and get something done. just laying in the bed woke, talking about how woke you are, is not helping anybody. once you wake up in the morning, you get up, then you clean up, and you go and do somethingment -- something. too many people got woke, laid in the bed, never cleaned up, and never got anything done. that's the epitome of self-indulgence. means nothing to anybody else. >> let's remember who just won, a 24 year vet of the new york city police department, elected mayor of the city in this moment in time. claire, virginia, new jersey, everything that happened that we've been talking about this morning, what should progressives learn? what should democrats take away from the fact that they were effectively wiped out in the state of virginia? >> well, the one thing that we can't afford to do right now is to play weeks of blame game. whose fault was it? why did it happen? let's call somebody out and blame them. was it biden? was it manchin? was it aoc? we have to pivot and punch. there's this little smoldering fire inside the house. we have to put it out because there's a blazing inferno outside the door. that is what virginia represented last night, was the blazing inferno outside the door. very little talk about one of the major things that happened yesterday, and that was a deal on prescription drugs. >> right. >> that is a huge accomplishment. if they can land that, which actually says to every senior in america over 65 years old, you ever never pay more than $2,000 a year out of pocket for your drugs. the thought they could get that done? forget about everything else people want to talk about, the top line number or what got left on the side. think about what's in this thing and how big it would be for american families. that's what they should talk about. that's what they should get done. i think we'll have a different economic situation next year that will greatly help in the midterms. if they don't start doing that, talking about what they can do and how they can do it, then we're going to have the same kind of midterm next year that barack obama had in 2010. >> yeah. jim, man, i don't know where to begin with the democrats. i mean, first of all, obviously, afghanistan punctured a hole in the competence argument. you look at the infighting on capitol hill. you've got democrats that knew all along. we have the votes. we don't need republicans for thosenegotiating and attacking each other in front of cameras, in front of reporters, and it's just a complete circus there. and they let republicans define them for defunding the police last year. let republicans define them this year for critical race theory. i mean, i love what claire just said, pivot, punch. i haven't seen a democrat that knew how to punch on a campaign trail since barack obama. what does the party have to do? >> well, look, couple things. one, i would agree with claire. you step back for a second, joe biden won the presidency because he was going to be the stability president who could address this, the slides you showed, and get some stuff done. what have we had? month after month of democrats on democrats, circular firing squad. the voters hate the sauce saj -- sausage making of laws. they want things to get done. we contested a law on trump and the abortion. what we didn't talk about was the economy. economic voters, we win elections as democrats when we persecute the economic argument. when we go at the economy and say, "we're going to make your lives better." instead, we're having month after month of debate about how big the number is. who cares? what does that mean for average voters? sell this thing you passed last night on prescription drugs. we've been through this before. i'm old. i remember these things. in 2009, we lost ted kennedy's, you know, incredibly blue senate seat in massachusetts. we went back and said, "okay, we have to pass obamacare right now and get this thing done and go sell it." so we need to wrap up these negotiations, and we need to go out there and say, "this is what we just did to make your life better. this is the difference between us and them." if we don't, we'll get our butts kicked in the midterm elections. >> jim, let me ask ya, what do democrats do, though, today? of course, you all did get your butts kicked in the 2010 midterm election after mcdonald won in '09, after brown won that seat. what do democrats need to do? this is really a blessing for them in disguise, if they learn the lessons of yesterday. because this wasn't just about virginia. it's new jersey. it's a plus 16 state. you've got a governor, incumbent, fighting for his life there. you look at minneapolis. voters say, oh, get rid of the police? no, thank you. no, thank you. you look at buffalo. the hero of progressives going to be beaten by a write-in candidate. you look all over the board. progressivism did not sell yesterday. i'm not saying it won't ever sell, but it sure as hell didn't sell yesterday. what do they do? by the way, that minneapolis proposal lost by double digits, thank god. what do democrats need to do over the next year to make sure they don't get wiped out in 2022? >> look, we learned this lesson in 2010. we didn't go sell. we didn't go out there and make the case to the american public of what we had just done. so what democrats need to do is wrap up these negotiations yesterday, pass these bills, and spend the next year talking about -- >> we lost -- oh, got him back and lost him at the same time. claire mccaskill, let's jump on what jim was saying. had the bills gotten through, would anything be different today? >> well, it couldn't be worse. let's put it that way. it could not be worse. >> that is a great bumper sticker. >> yeah, i think it would have been better. i think that people need to realize that this suburban vote -- majorities don't run through bright blue or bright red places. i say this over and over again. the discipline of message is important. majorities are built in places where either party can win. that's where majorities are built. to get those voters, to get those suburban voters back, to get those women back, yesterday i think terry mcauliffe thought he had to talk about apportion rights and the women would fall into line. women are really concerned about their children's education. they are really concerned about whether or not they can find quality day care. they're really concerned about gas prices. they're really concerned about everyday things that are kitchen table issues. my dear friend barbara used to preach on this in democratic meetings. if we don't get the macaroni and cheese right, nobody cares about the macro economics. we have to make it the full plate. losing women like we did in virginia yesterday, that should be the most frightening part of what happened in virginia. we had a 15-point swing with women voters. democrats can't win if we don't have the women. >> that is correct. >> katty, again, as everybody is saying here, democrats on the hill have to shut up. stop talking numbers. stop talking to the press. i won't make people in our business happy by that. go into a closed door and negotiate. when they come out, don't talk about numbers. go, "we have just provided for working moms and working dads universal pre-k. we've just provided a deal on prescription drugs for the first time. we aren't going to allow big pharma to rig prices for prescription drugs. we're going to make them compete because we like free market competition." like, they need to go out and just talk specifics. these are items that suburban voters will like. >> yeah, there's a lot in these packages that women, in particular, would like, right? the child care issues, the paid family leave if they can get it, issues women will really like. but they didn't give terry mcauliffe something to sell. i'm not sure it would have made difference if they passed it last year. virginia voters had been voting since september. too late. but they have to have a platform to run on that is not just trump and is not just the cultural issues -- >> i think it would have helped. >> -- saying that everyone else is racist if they don't sign up for what we're believing in. they have to find the language and the policies to sell. it's two things. >> about that, katty, i believe that had they come out and passed -- they had 19 republican senators give them the bill. right? you have 19 -- >> insane. >> -- republican senators since the summer, they could have done that. >> since the summer. >> you'd be running into the fall. >> you're talking about this historic bipartisan infrastructure bill. >> exactly. you needed ten. you got 19. how come you can't win on that? >> thank you. >> second thing, if you start the conversation the way katty and you described, where you're putting these issues out there. you're saying, "we just put on the table prescription drugs. we've now got a plan for you to deal with pre-k issues in your community," guess what it does on the other side? it forces republicans to now pivot off of the culture wars and the very narrowly-tailored focus conversation around something that doesn't matter, and now makes them -- goes for those suburban white women to say, we have a plan too. what is it? it changes the dynamic of the conversation around real kitchen table issues. >> right. >> which we're not talking about. >> then it allows you, michael, to go out in virginia, if they passed this stuff, and say, "listen, glenn is talking about us teaching something in schools we don't even teach. you know what we did? gave you universal pre-k, mom, dad." >> would have made a huge difference. >> "glenn is talking about us wanting to defund the police. oh, no. black people are coming into your suburban neighborhood." >> we're already here. >> save the race baiting. i'll tell you what, we're not going to do it. i'll tell you what we did do. we just made the largest pharmaceutical companies, the multi-national corporations that make billions and billions of dollars a year, pay no taxes, we're making them compete now. >> that's real. >> for our business. >> we have it. >> if you want that, you can have that. invite your crazy uncle over for thanksgiving, you'll get that. but if you get us, we're going to give you cheaper prescription drugs. we're going to give you better broadband. we're going to give you better roads and bridges. we're going to make sure that your airport is safer than it has ever been before. we're going to actually improve your life. instead of being crazy uncle over here. listen, that is a message that wins every time. >> every time. >> every damn time. but for democrats to do it, katty, they have to pass something. >> all those are economic issue. all those save virginia voters money. give them free child care? they're spending 40%, 50% of income on child care. that is a hell of a hit on the income. free child care, that's an economic issue. what was the number one issue in virginia last night? economy. >> it was the economy followed by education, rev, as you look at the exit polling. we were talking about the state of new jersey, what's happening there, even down ballot. too close to call for governor murphy and ciattarrelli. something is happening that democrats are worried about for the midterms next year. strategically, what should democrats be thinking about as they wake up this morning? >> strategically,energizes the . the good part of last night is if the democrats follow up right, what happened last night is a reality check to a lot of voters. we could lose it all. while we're trying to gain everything, maybe we need to deal with some of the things we can win. because we risk losing it all. the republicans will take advantage. i hope that a lot of my fellow progressives will see that demanding more than we can get sometimes means you lose the game. that's one of the things that happened. the other thing that happened is that youngkin proved to us that you can do a manicured big lie, and it helps you get vote. he made a big deal in education about critical race theory that does not even exist in the schools in virginia. that was as big a lie as the election thing. but we played into it in the democratic side. i think that the sub-loser that no one mentions from last night, these small losers, small "l," was donald trump. youngkin proved that if you keep your distance from donald trump, which is the last thing donald trump wants, is not to be part of the conversation, you can win. so i think we took a big beating last night. by only consolation is that donald trump is having a bad morning because he's become irrelevant with the virginia win. >> he may not know it. he put out statements last night declaing victory, saying he had a big hand in it. youngkin wouldn't be seen in public with donald trump. glenn youngkin worked a master class, frankly, in having it both ways. he kept donald trump's base. he let donald trump think he had a hand in the victory while ignoring him in public. >> he definitely did not help him. he was in this lock box. >> lock box. >> it was like a little voice coming out of it. claire mccaskill, building on michael steele's point, and you served in the senate, might it have helped, had your fellow, your former colleagues produced something? should joe biden be very, very, very pissed off this morning? >> well, i don't think joe biden should be angry at this point. i think joe biden needs to stick to his knitting and get this thing across the finish line. i think this will light a fire under everyone to, you know, land the plane and begin spinning a disciplined, significant period of time, making sure everybody in america understands exactly what they've accomplished, which will be -- it really will be historic. i think this whole thing that got off the track with fdr and bernie and $6.5 trillion, and now i think they've got something -- if we were passing this package when i was in the senate, i would have been incredibly happy. we had many more than just 50 for most of the time that i was in the senate. so i think that with really narrow margins, this is a big deal. i also want to circle back to this trump thing. will he let the republicans get away with this? will trump let this go on? will trump take the fact we know the only reason youngkin won was because he didn't want to be seen with donald trump? i mean, this is not something that's going to sit well with the big guy down in mar-a-lago. i mean, he wants everybody to kiss -- as my friend david said last night -- his ample behind. the fact that youngkin did this without doing that, it should free up some votes in the senate for people from difficult states that are republicans. because they've been walking around in mortal fear of what donald trump is going to say. they just watched a guy get away with it. is this the new normal now? will donald trump take it? i don't know. stay tuned. >> jim massena, listening to what michael steele said, about the fact they had a historic infrastructure bill that has been sitting, waiting to be passed with, what, 19 republicans? >> 19. >> with 19 republican votes. they could have passed that months ago, but they've just been sitting there. again, having a heated debate in front of reporters for the past couple months. it really does seem like political malpractice on the hill, and they need to cut it out. they need to pass the bill, then negotiate on the next bill. how does joe biden, how do nancy pelosi, how do they get that message across to the purity caucus? which, by the way, i was a member of it on the right, so i know of which i speak. to the purity caucus, that they're driving this party into the ground? >> if last night doesn't do it, i don't know what will. new jersey should do it. the fact we have a plus 16 state, and we might lose it? i mean, we've got to go sell these things. we've got to get this done. we made a mistake not passing the infrastructure bill bipartisan. instead, we decided to have a circular firing squad and allow, you know, a part of the party to say, "no, no, you can't pass that until you pass the bigger thing." why? who cares? let's go pass this thing and go sell it to the american public and say, "hey, we can govern. this is what we're going to do." i think a lot of lessons were learned last night. it allows joe biden to go to his -- to both sides of his party and say, "enough. let's pass these things and sell it. if you don't, you people will lose your elections." >> jim massena, reverend al sharpton, thank you both for being on this morning. still ahead on "morning joe," the white house calls it a turning point in the fight against covid. children ages 5 to 11 are now eligible for pfizer's coronavirus vaccine. plus, before leaving for europe last week, president biden hoped to unite democrats behind a new social spending framework. but after six days abroad, there are still major divisions. we'll speak to senator chris coons about that, as well as what the president did accomplish while 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the barnes firm injury attorneys ♪ ♪ call one eight hundred, eight million ♪ 44 past the hour. welcome back to "morning joe. "the cdc officially approved the pfizer covid vaccine for children aged 5 to 11. the agency's director gave the final sign-off last night, making 28 million children eligible to get their shots starting today. the white house released a statement shortly after the approval, which reads in part, quote, we have received a -- we have reached a turning point in our battle against covid-19. authorization of a safe, effective vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. it will allow parents to end months of anxious worrying about their kids and reduce the extent to which children spread the virus to others. it is a major step forward for our nation in the fight to defeat the virus. >> really good news for a lot of parents, worried about sending their kids to school. what the kids pick up. >> that's how adults get it. kids bring it home. >> right. you know, in the 1918/1919 pandemic, a lot of that was spread. >> yeah. >> by schools opening. i mean, that's how a lot of things get spread around that way. this will be good news. >> this could be the game-changer if parents go for it. >> let's hope. now this, former vice president mike pence is answering for his role in what transpired in the months after donald trump lost the presidential election in 2020. listen to this exchange at the university of iowa earlier this week. >> on the night of the 5th or the morning of the 6th, someone in the white house convinced you that it would destroy your hopes of becoming president if you sent it back to the states. my question is, what is the name of the person who told you to buck president trump's plan and certify the votes? >> james madison. [ applause ] virtually everything you recited relative to me is false. [ applause ] i said earlier, psalm 15 says he who keeps his oath even when it hurts. on that day in january, i wrote a letter to the congress. i'd recommend anybody here read it. i express mid concern about irregularities that took place in the election and in a number of states. i continue to show those concerns, and i support efforts in states to improve voter integrity, as has been done in places like georgia and arizona and elsewhere. >> all right. so on the james madison answer, something i haven't done in a while. >> slow clap standing up. >> slow clap. >> the slow clap. who told you to do that? >> smart move. >> james madison. >> james madison, baby. >> correct answer! oh, my god. just look at this. conservative, boom. >> where did he get that? >> from the united states constitution. >> i know. but he usually says a sunny day? january, don't worry about it. >> no, he actually -- >> he said that. >> i do think, you know, one of the interesting moments that we've heard was -- i think it was a woodward/costa book, where he called former vice president dan quayle and said, what do i do? >> he said, you do what the constitution tells you to do. >> willie, that was a heck of an answer by mike pence. again, you know, this is the correct answer. it's just with constitutional norms shattered and disregarded over the past four or five years, yes, maybe the bar is low, but, baby, i will applaud anybody who steps over it. when you quote james madison when somebody is begging you to follow conspiracy theories down a trail, that's a good da for america. >> yeah. >> the bar is low here. depending on where he is, he seems to say something different. when he was on fox news, he said, "oh, the media, the country, they're obsessed with another day in january. one day in january." whatever he called it. but the fact remains, to your point, joe, for i'm sure the way our audience feels, and many americans feel about mike pence, he did the thing in that moment that he had to do. it was the right thing. it was the obvious thing to most people, but he was under a lot of pressure to do something else. he did the thing he had to do on that date. he's just all over the place now when out in public talking about it, but he did the thing. >> we'll take it. >> it is a baptist in me. i constantly believe, i believe that anybody is capable of conversion at any point along the line. >> okay. joining us now -- >> i'll celebrate right now, the sanctification, the constitutional sanctification of mike pence. >> joining us now, member of the judiciary and foreign relations committees, democratic senator chris coons of delaware. great to have you here. >> he is very happy. he is a chipper guy. >> i'm the optimistic guy. >> what's the bright side of what happened last night? >> well, two things. i think there's a lot of doom and gloom this morning after the elections last night in virginia and -- >> you're optimistic? >> yes. >> i'm optimistic. what the candidates who run on, if we deliver big results, if we deliver big things president trump talked about for four years but never addressed, infrastructure and prescription drug prices, and we add on top of that combating climate change, providing universal pre-k, investing in day care. >> let's start with -- >> we have something to run on. >> let's keep in simple and start with those first two things. donald trump alwaysthings. donald trump always talked about infrastructure. never followed through. always talked about prescription drugs, never followed through. >> democrats can pass both of those in historic passion next week. >> they can do it next month. >> in the next couple of weeks. but it seems like, isn't it malpractice how long the house has been sitting around waiting to pass an infrastructure bill? >> we have been circling the landing for a long time. now it's time to stick the landing. the focus is it is on cases of taxes, schools frustration, how long the pandemic has gone on. if glenn youngkin had run all over virginia doing rallies and doing tv ads i'd be worried, but he did neither. there's a republican senator in the home state of vermont. there's a democratic governor in mitch mcconnell's home state of kentucky. it doesn't really predict much in the presidential. >> this one as well. but you look at statewide. republicans haven't won statewide since 2009. they won everything last night. you look at jersey. >> very close. >> huge. huge margin for biden. but still very close there. so something's wrong right now. whether it's the policy or the message, something's off with the democrats. what is it? >> i think it's simple, we need to deliver. we have to show that it made a difference in people's lives that democrats control the congress in the white house. and we have obvious razor thin margins in both the white house and senate but we passed with a big bipartisan margin the infrastructure bill months ago. >> yes. >> now, we need to get to the president's desk and this close to passing a historic build back better bill. >> yeah. >> president biden is doing his job in europe, with leaders, isn't glasgow on climate. we in congress need to do our jobs. if anyone is thinking maybe we shouldn't move forward. that is the only path forward is to deliver these two bills to president biden's desk. we do that, it look very different. >> senator coons, it's willie geist. good morning. some centrists watched the results and maybe the message is we've swung too far to the left here. now heim hesitant of voting for a $1.75 trillion bill. i'm up for reelection, what do you say to them this morning? >> i'd say to the extent you're worried about inflation, one of the reasons my friend and colleague senator manchin has cited for hesitation about the build back better bill, it's designed to address not far-left priorities but things that matter to the average working family. reducing the cost of day care, reducing the cost of elder care and reducing the prescription drug costs and it's paid for. the build back better bill as crafted in the senate and house is going to meet the needs of working families, reduce their cost, and combat inflation in a positive way. i'd urge them to step forward and vote for it because then we would have something real to run on in the 2022 election. >> good morning, chris. good to see you. >> good morning, claire. >> so, let's talk a little bit about something we have not discussed enough about and that is candidate recruitment. >> uh-huh. >> you know, we've got a chance next year to take back wisconsin. >> yes. >> to take back pennsylvania. to absolutely win in ohio. >> yes. >> we have a chance to win in north carolina. we have an amazing candidate in florida that will do great. give me a former police chief that rides motorcycles that's a black woman that is incredibly smart and articulate and that is a terrific candidate. how is the candidate recruitment going? and does everyone understand that those places, if we just focus on some of the far -- the cultural rhetoric, that that's not going to get it done, in terms of getting to the point where every single senator has the power to veto important legislation? >> look, claire, as you know well, serving in the senate when you've got a democrat in the white house is a great chance to have a central role in shaping the future of the country. and i think candidate recruitment is going well. i think we're likely to have very strong candidates as you mentioned in florida, in ohio. and we need to make sure that we end up putting forward candidates who can win statewide. and who can contribute to our majority in states like wisconsin and pennsylvania and north carolina. but these are not deep blue states. these are purple states. these are states that have narrowly elected both republicans and democrats in recent senatorial elections. no one can recruit great candidates like joe biden. our president when he rolls up his sleeves and gets personally involved helps bring things home. and i expect he'll have an active role in recruiting great candidates so we have a majority in the senate in 2023 and 2024. >> good morning, it's jonathan lemire. the president has returned to the white house after six days in italy and then in scotland. we know the president had some work to do over there. match up relationships with france. rye to re-establish united states' moral issues of climate change, even offer an apology for the country pulling out of the paris climate accord. give us an assessment of howl he did, particularly on climate, where at least so far he doesn't have the new provisions in the reconciliation package to talk about climate change. also he went there with some of the world's biggest polluters namely, china, weren't even there? >> that's right. what president biden helped to do is focus the absence of china and russia as positive leaders. these are negative forces in the world and i think president biden had the opportunity in g20 and cop26 to show what america's engaged leadership looks like. last night i was with the british and german and french ambassadors at an event. they are looking for our partnership at close and longtime nato allies and so far president biden has been delivering, but we in the senate need to back him up. we need to pass and send to his desk from congress a build back better bill and infrastructure bill that between them would invest $1 trillion in climate change. i'm leading a congressional delegation to cop26 this coming weekend, and if we can deliver results we can show the world what the real world looks like in standing up to the existential change. >> senator coons, thank you so much. >> claire mccaskill -- >> and he's coming next to talk about the houston astros. claire, thank you. coming up, we've heard from jim messina. and still ahead, three more veterans of the obama years. former press secretary robert gibbs, julian castro and jen palmieri, what they make 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an increased risk of death or stroke. call your doctor about fever, stiff muscles, and confusion, as these may be life threatening... ...or uncontrollable muscle movements, as these may be permanent. these are not all the serious side effects. now i'm back where i belong. ask your doctor about latuda and pay as little as $0 for your first prescription. my fellow virginians. we stand here this morning at this defining moment, a defining moment that, yes, started with two people on a walk. and a defining moment that is now millions of virginians walking together. together. together, we will change the trajectory of this commonwealth. >> it is the big story of the morning, nbc news projects republican glenn youngkin the winner of virginia's high-profile race for governor. with 99% of the expected vote in youngkin leads terry mcauliffe with about 72,000 votes. and in new jersey, the governor's race there is too close to call between incumbent democrat phil murphy and his republican challenger, jack ciattarelli. jonathan lemire and michael steele is with us. and joining the conversation, robert gibbs. former chief staff, adrian elrod, she was senior aide to hillary clinton and biden presidential campaigns. adrienne, get ready to plain this all this morning. and former secretary of housing and urban development for the obama administration julian castro joins us. great to have you on board. first, let's look at the numbers. let's get to the national political correspondent for nbc news and msnbc, steve kornacki at the big board. steve, break it down. >> yeah, mika, we've been keeping an eye here in new jersey. there is movement in the last 15 minutes you can see the democratic governor phil murphy has taken a very small, but taken the lead over his republican opponent jack ciattarelli, 1607 votes. the lead for murphy over ciattarelli statewide. what just happened, hudson county, a big democratic county here across from new york city, they reported more of their election day, most of the votes cast at the election precincts. murphy netted a couple thousand votes from that. enough to put him in the lead statewide. as we shows you, 1667. new jersey is particular, one is mercer county. a state capital, typically a blue county. we believe there is report by mail to be reported here. thousands of votes cast by mail, those typically favor murphy and the democrats overwhelmingly. we believe that but we are trying to track down how many are outstanding there. and it's not 100% clear. we also believe there's absentee votes to come in somerset county. absentee vote, that's the vote that typically faces democrats. again, we're trying to nail down exactly what type. we believe as well that there's votes still to come in, in camden county, another core democratic county right across from philadelphia, we can point to some areas, essex county, biggest democratic producing area in the area. and it's the new york area, a couple dozen precincts we don't have yet. you can look at the outstanding pieces that we think are there to varying degrees of confidence. each one of them will provide murphy with more and more of a pad on that lead. again, what's confusing about all of this, this has been true almost county to county throughout new jersey since last night. it has been very, very unclear, trying to track down from these counties exactly how much vote is left. exactly what type of vote has been counted. and what type of vote is not counted. as we talk about the different types of votes matter so much, one of them, the vote by mail is so democratic. and that's been the issue there in new jersey but you could find pockets here that could point to murphy opening up a bit of a lead. you can't now see pockets for ciattarelli to do the same. i just caution there's a little bit of confusion. i give one other note here on new jersey this is shocking in new jersey politics. this incredibly strong showing by ciattarelli, the republican, whether he wins or lose, the president of the state senate in new jersey, a democrat steve sweeney is a titanic force in politics. he's closely aligned with george norcross, he's in serious, serious danger of losing his election race to an opponent who spent $150 on this campaign. no one thought this was any race in new jersey he's a major figure in new jersey, one of the top ones in the state. that's what happens when you get a statewide race like this. >> sweeney has been there 30 some years. and his opponent didn't run a campaign. effectively had a facebook page. and he might beat him. steve, by the way, you're not alone in the frustration the way the votes are being reported out of new jersey. the campaigns don't feel like they have a clear picture of who is winning that's why you haven't seen a declaration of victory or concession. as of this morning, according to the numbers we have, it's too close to call, murphy with a slight advantage. steve, let me swing it back to virginia. glenn youngkin winning in virginia. the ceo of the carlisle group beating terry mcauliffe. how did he do it? >> yeah, youngkin, again, a bunch of things went right for youngkin. he made gains where donald trump performed last year. he made gains throughout the state. again, i keep talking about this. i think it's interesting in northern virginia, outside of washington, d.c., very high population there, you still see it's blue on the map, what youngkin did, he made it less blue. take a look at loudon county here, this is a big one, a lot of the school issues had to do with louden county. republicans were very much in the game in loudoun county. what youngkin did, he didn't take republicans all the way back to the pretrump standing in loudoun county, but he's going to lose this by ten points. he loses less than trump did in suburbs outside of washington, d.c. but also he didn't do as well as mitt romney did in 2012. even doing better than youngkin in 2012 in the suburbs was not enough to lift mitt romney in virginia. he lost by four points. it wasn't just that youngkin got improvement around the suburbs around richmond, in southwest, virginia, shenandoah valley, he just drove up, he took counties where trump was getting 70% of the votes, he won 75%. where trump was getting 80, he won 85% of the votes. it's the other story in virginia. we talked so much over the years how blue virginia had been becoming because of the suburbs there were smaller rural areas in the state becoming redder at the same time but they were dwarfed in population by the d.c. suburbs by the richmond suburbs and by the hampton roads. what youngkin has succeeded in dented the big metropolitan suburban gains and added to that, that divide between rural and suburban virginia is still very much a thing. he just didn't get blown out in the suburbs like trump did. >> steve kornacki, thank you for the rundown, absolutely fascinating. let's go to robert gibbs. robert, you went through something remarkably similar to this in obama white house. 2008, the election to end all elections. the end of history, the ascended coalition forever and forever. in 2009, you had bob mcdonald win a huge election in virginia. you had chris christie shock jon corzine in new jersey. then in january, a man take over the white house the night after scott brown took ted kennedy's seat. it was like say morgue over there. so, here's my question. if you can have a redo, and go back to, let's just say, go back to that day that scott brown won on -- i have it here -- january 19th, 2010. what would you have done between then and the midterm elections when the tea party swept into power? because you guy has a couple of huge warnings, tea party still won. what would you have done differently? what do democrats need to do now in preparation for next year's election? >> yeah, that's a great question, thanks, for highlighting all of the days of the 2009 and 2010. >> it's important, robert, too, this is a shift of politics, of course, because barack obama two years later won handedly in an election. >> i rather enjoyed it myself. >> he says he enjoyed. >> the scott brown twist was -- that was really good. >> yes, how do the democrats stop that ebb and flow? >> it is a good question. look, i think we have to understand -- look, i think 2009 and 2010 are kind of less instructive because we were in the midst of a huge economic mess. quite frankly, we knew that we weren't coming back from in two years. david axelrod told president obama before we were inaugurated that we were almost certainly going to lose the house and senate. i don't think that's the death knell today. with the siren. where persons are living talking about middle class economics. we have to understand with campaigns and candidates that donald trump alone isn't going to win us an election right? let's run future -- elections based on the future. let's talk about what's happening in people's lives. give glenn youngkin the credit for the campaign message he ran around economics. around the grocery tax. around something that looked forward. so, i think that's a lot of what democrats have to be searching through these results and looking for. you know, we've got to do things differently than we have done. again, i think the really important thing is donald trump is going to be there. he's going to have his eruptions. but if we think alone that we're able to walk on a stage and say candidate "x" is not donald trump, or the republican candidate is donald trump and we're not going to be donald trump, that's going to win us an election, those days are almost certainly over. we've got to have a good forward agenda. i think democrats have do get their act together on capitol hill and get this bill passed but i also want to make sure people understand the hard work then just begins. yes, there are planks, every bit of this bill is popular with the electorate. the problem is nobody knows what's in this bill, right? the hard work and story telling and grit and grind and quite frankly a massive paid advertising campaign has to follow passage of this to let people know what's in it. this isn't going to be go to the day care center and do a press event, right? that's all good and well. there's got to be a real drive here to get a different message out and let people understand that democrats know what's going on in their lives. they get that inflation is high. they get that prices are going up. that gas is too high. they're going to work to do something about the economy and get covid back under control. >> you know, i remember back in 2008, people attacking hillary clinton for talking about cutting the gas tax. it's a demagoguery. hillary understood. that's where people lived. bill clinton understood, that's where people lived. donald trump would freak out, by the way give donald trump credit for understanding that. when gas prices go up, it's time for you to freak out. if you're offended by that, if you're a politician and prices are going up in grocery stores it's time -- youngkin goes, hey, wait a second, why don't we cut sales tax for groceries and that's something that's like real in people's life. i couldn't agree more with what robert said, democrats' messaging has just been awful. what do they do let's say they pass the bills, what do they do the next year? >> i think he's just hit a home run on what he's said. i don't think we've messaged the build back better act effectively. in a send, i don't think it's the white house fault or congress' fault or outside group's fault? it 3.2 trillion, 1.75 trillion, who cares? what's in the bill. we don't have any points on the board yet, so congress has got to get this legislation passed. and we've got to start talking about how this legislation will impact the lives the american people. commanding the child tax credits. >> right. >> expanding pre-k for 3 to 4-year-olds. >> right. >> you know, creating better jobs, so much more in the bill, prescription drug costs that's going to improve the lives of american people. we've got to start talking about what this is going to do for them. i wonder if two weeks later if we actually pass infrastructure or the build back better act, two weeks from now, if the election in virginia were two weeks from now, perhaps terry would have won because we would have had some points on the board. >> and, again, instead of talking numbers, talk about the policies and you should they impact people's lives as old batty rooster w.d. childers used to say in northwest florida, you put the hay down where the goats can eat it. i don't know exactly what that means but it seems applicable here. it's got about highfalutin, your groceries cost too much, why don't we cut that sales tax on groceries, may help you out, ma, may help you out, dad. >> you need to publish a book wisdom from the red neck era. they're all great. mr. president, mr. secretary, i'll settle on one title, let me ask you what you thought as you watch the returns come in, it begins to settle, not just virginia, but much closer than you'd like it to be, looking downballot in new jersey, minnesota, seattle, what happened last night? >> obviously very sobering, unexpected. i didn't expect the night to go that badly for democrats. we're still waiting to see what happens in new jersey, but no matter what happens in new jersey, as you said, there was not a good night for democrats. there seems to be a gathering consensus of democrats need to get in gear, in d.c., get the build back better bill done, infrastructure done. i think the silver lining here is it's not like this is the first time we've seen these kind of losses in an off-year. and we still have one year until the november 2022 elections. bill clinton was called the comeback kid. but if you think about it there's been somebody who's been a comeback kid in politics over the last 50 years, it's been joe biden. it's been somebody who has overcome tremendous obstacles in politics and in his personal life to be president and have a much more successful term so far than donald trump ever had. you got to think with this experience, that he's going to be able to get folks together and get those things done in d.c. if they're able to do that, and connect all of that to people's lives, then i believe that this thing can be turned around. but last night, there's no way to sugarcoat it, last night was an awful night. >> if you're running for re-election one year from this week, midterm election as a member of congress or a senator, how does your message change based on what you saw last night? what should democrats be saying publicly that they haven't been saying enough? >> i think they should focus very much on what people feel that $300 a month check that comes into people's bank accounts. the fact that their 4-year-old child can now go and get pre-k that they couldn't get before. that they can afford to take care of their parent that needs elder care in a way they couldn't before. these things that they feel every single day in our lives they need to focus on that. before they can focus on it they need to actually deliver it. some of that has been delivered in the american rescue plan and the child tax credit but the build back better agenda would do that and more. >> let me piggyback on willie's question, he asked you what democrats would do. but then last night, glenn youngkin, he wasn't labeled agency the scary trumpist. and it appeals to voters who want nothing to do with donald trump. if that is the message, how do republicans combat this that they can't rely on scary trump on the horizon? >> there's a lot between here and there. most candidates are not glenn youngkin. most of these elections are going to draw trump acolytes. they're not wearing a fleece vest at a desk. a majority of republican candidates can not pull that off. for those who can, look, he created what could be a powerful blueprint for the november 2022 elections. what democrats have to do, we have to get much better at moving the playing field to our own issues. you notice the issue of abortion did not come up, even though glenn youngkin is pro-life. he's against abortion. there are other issues that i think democrats can create wedges on that they haven't really been as good at. and they have to be straightforward on these cultural war issues in a way i think we haven't been willing to touch or push back on. you need to make the argument. if you don't make the argument, you're going to lose it. that's what i hope democrats are going to do. in addition to that, as senator mccaskill was saying a while ago we have a long time for great democrat recruitment. democrats need to make sure we recruit great candidates. we also need to rethink what we think of an electable candidate. you need people who fire up the base. last night in part was a failure to fire up that base. and oftentimes, we think just because somebody is progressive, that they're not electable. we need to rethink that after last night. >> let me ask you quickly, michael steele, you talked about pushing back on the critical race argument in the state of virginia was that critical race theory is not being taught in virginia. i think technically, it's true. graduate level crt is not being taught in schools but parents are seeing many of its tenets show up in their schools. what would you say to those parents who say, no, i'm not racist because i voted for glenn youngkin, i'm frustrated with what's happening at the school because it was closed for a year and a half when it shouldn't have been. i don't like my kindergartner being told who he should be. how do you push back? >> you see the parents who appreciate those diversities, hoo understand the values of diverse classes who can explain that critical race theory is being created as a boogieman and it doesn't exist in the schools. and most importantly, willie, what's wrong with learning about the history of slavery in our country? what's wrong with understanding the obstacles that people of color have faced? i sometimes think, you know, that you have these politics that are -- have such low expectations, especially for white people, for white parents, and they're short changing them. and you need politicians that are willing to speak in a very clear and plain way and say i think we can have this conversation. because i actually believe that at the end of the day, you know, we can understand each other better. i don't think democrats do that. i think they try and run away from these issues too quickly. >> michael -- >> robert gibbs, i'd like to pivot off what my buddy julian just put on the table because he sets up what i think is going to be the longer term issue for democrats. and so someone who has looked at this up close and personal from both perspectives as an operative and inside the white house, how does president biden manage his progressive wing? and how does schumer and pelosi pivot and move inside the caucus to help progressives understand what really happened last night? this was not, you know, america saying give me what progressives are putting on the table. they are concerned about the issues around crt, as, you know, phony as some of the arguments may be, and i believe a lot of them are, it connects at a real way. so, how do you get through to help people understand, you got 19 senators, republican senators who are supporting the president's agenda on infrastructure, roads and bridges. you don't have any support on what is right now on the table that, you know, is required in order to get those 19 senate votes in the house. so how do you navigate that space? because the progressive agenda seems to have been rejected from buffalo to virginia. to minneapolis. >> well, you know, michael, one of the things i'd start with, remind joe biden that he beat bernie sanders, okay? i mean, this is -- we played this out in the democratic primary not in 2021, but in 2020. now, i think there's a reason why joe biden and not bernie sanders won that nomination. and i think we've got to understand, you know, we had a debate about whether we were going to spend $6 trillion or $10 trillion and those are numbers and figures that just worked the mind for regular people, for a lot of people. i think it's important, i will say, too, on critical race theory, i think if you talk to a lot is of suburban parents in virginia their angst around the schools, yeah, some of it is around of being taught, a lot of it was for 18 months the school were closed, right? and now we can't even -- you know, we've had problems with teachers and teachers unions. we now can't even get them to commit at least half of those unions to commit to even being vaccinated. so, look, i think it's time that democrats understand that if we're a left country, it's more of a center/left country. it's not a way, way liberal country. and we have to understand those things and we have to live, again, where people are. i don't think -- i think today, i would love to go to a focus group tonight of biden/youngkin voters. there aren't probably a huge number of them because of the electorate change but there are enough of them to talk to about what it is they heard over the past year for somebody running for governor that they haven't heard from democrats. what are the things that democrats need to be doing. what do we need to do to change the political environment? again, i think it's important to understand last night doesn't have to be what happens in a year, if we do and say things differently. but if we don't do and say things differently, to expect a different outcome is beyond insanity. and i think it's really important that the hard work of figuring out what exactly happened where last night, i'll be honest with you. in talking to republicans in the middle of last week, i'm not surprised by what happened in virginia, right? you talk to republicans two days ago, their biggest fear was that they peak too early. not that they weren't going to win this race. the real surprise and where it shows you just how big a bomb went off last night is everybody thought new jersey was fine. and when i say everybody thought new jersey was fine. i mean, as the polls were closing last night. everybody thought in the democratic party that new jersey was fine. the political environment shifted immensely in a short period of time. a plus 16 state for new jersey for joe biden a year later is a toss-up. this political environment would have us losing the house and senate comfortably. and let's remind us, in the senate, they're going to be in the sixth closest states in the presidential campaign in 2020 all have u.s. senate races, right? so, the idea that the far left agenda is going to win those races is just not going to happen. it's simply not going to happen. >> no, it's not going to happen. you know, again, it's also important for democrats, and i say this as a former republican so disregard it if you want to, but i say it as a former republican that i kind of like western-style democracy. i'm kind of attached to it so i'm sort of invested on democrats not turning washington over to trump republicans. but there's a problem with wokism. there's a problem with critical race theory. there's a problem with parents hearing from their kids when they come home from school. and people for some reason don't feel like they can talk about it because they'll be called racists if they talk about it so the conversation is never had. i love what julian said, let's have the conversation out in the open because two things can be true at once, right? the truth since 1619 need to be taught to our children the truths of 1776 need to be taught to our children. and, by the way, you can be part of that conversation if you're black, if you're hispanic, if you're white. the idea that white people can't say certain things in that conversation are also racists because they're white? let me tell you who disagrees with that, barack obama. he said this in 2019, adrienne, and i want you to comment only this. this idea of purity, and you're never compromised you're always prettily woke, and all of that stuff, mr. obama said you should get over that quickly. the world is messy. there are ambiguities, people who do really good stuff have flaws. people who are fighting may love your kids and share certain things with you. i do get a sense sometimes now among certain people, this is accelerated by social media, there is a sense that sometimes a way of remaking change is to be as judgmental as possible about other people and that's enough people. think about a tweet or hash tag how you didn't do something right or use the wrong verb, then i can sit back and feel pretty good about myself, because, man, you see how woke i was. i called you out. and then obama went on to say we can't tell someone because they're white, because they're a man that their opinion is less important in a debate because of the color of our skin because as president obama said, texas is in the exact opposite direction of where we want to go as a country regardless of somebody's skin color. >> that's right. >> what do democrats do? they talk to barack obama. that will be a really good place to start. >> exactly. exactly. i couldn't have said it better myself. i'm read glad you that read that this morning, joe. it's important for us to keep in mind it goes back to what we've been talking about the entire hour. we've got to get back to talking about the issues that affect the lives of everyday working families and that's what the biden agenda does. if we can get this thing passed, if we can focus more on the economy and job, health care. and the school choice issue is something that democrats have got to keep an eye on. parental choice is probably a better way to put it. >> right. >> youngkin ran on that. we know that school boards in key states to trend in that area. democrats have to get back on focusing on the big issues that matter to everyday families. when you talk about the big issues, joe, as you mentioned in barack obama speech, tweet, whatever it was, we distract from the issues that are affecting everyday lives. >> you're right. if somebody has a problem with that in school, talk to me in the town hall meeting. let's talk about it, let's figure it out. let's get people together. we're not sa afraid to talk about race in this country. we don't need to be afraid to talk about it. we can talk about slavery and what's happening in 1619. >> yeah. >> no, no, i'm saying we should be able, it should be able, two truths rest together. our founding fathers created a political system that is fed and freed more people than any government ever created by mankind, womankind, every kind. humankind, and they were slaveholders. let's talk about that. >> yeah, i think we have to be very clear about the difference between having the conversation, wanting to have the conversation, and being honest about that conversation. and i think for a lot of -- >> right. >> a lot of african americans, one of the great frustrations, and particularly, in critical race theory is sort of emblematic of why we're frustrated is no one wants to be honest about the thing that's in front of you, and why it is constructed the way it is. so, it's, you know, you take this theory, we're talking about a graduate level law school theory. >> right. >> and acting like fifth graders of sitting in their classrooms having this discussion. that's not being honest. >> huh-uh. >> and so, the fact of the matter is these issues are out there. and one of the other frustrations is now that black folks are finally talking their truth. >> right. >> whether it's through 1619 project. >> right. >> or the death of george floyd. why do americans oh, my lord, jesus, why are we having that conversation now? we got -- we re-elected barack obama. you know, we're in a good space. well, no, we're not because the conversation still needs to be had in an honest way. in which you recognize the truth of the institutions of this country. >> right. >> that have incalcated a philosophy that uses gentrification to put well established communities out. and it's why are we still talking about this? because it's the truth. we'red have to have those conversations. we've got to be honest about what we're saying. >> we need to have that conversation and white people need to get involved in that conversation as well. >> absolutely. >> and sit back and say, as i hear them say, students in colleges, we can't say anything. say the wrong thing in class. >> right. >> suddenly, on social media, we're shut down. our life at school is over. our career is over. >> that's coming from other white folks. that's not coming from black folks. black folks are putting the chill on, we want to engage. >> it's all white? >> no, i'm not saying all white. go to hbcu and have that conversation. but when you go to university of "x," that is the majority of white institution, that's where all of this wokeness seems to come into play, with shutting down within their own conversation the ability to talk about this. >> you talk about for instance, 1619, you're exactly right, 1619, it's been outrageous, i think there was something in promotional materials that everybody seized on to. saying, oh, this is wrong in the promotional materials. and then there was backtracking tweets here, tweets i believe, suddenly, it was used to completely just ignore everything. >> right, everything that was in it. >> then again in 1619, which, again, i've always said, i'm a 1776 guy. i am. guess what. i'm a 1619 guy, too. because i think that's one of the glories of our country. i've said it a million times. you can imagine this, that in 2020, at least this is the way i see things, western democracy, madisonian democracy, madisonian democracy, the slave guy, the slaveholder who wrote the constitution. it was literally saved, in my opinion by black women. >> absolutely. 100%. >> if that's not an extraordinary story for the ages. i hope 400 years from now when this democracy survives, i want everybody to back to 2020 and everybody to see what black women did in south carolina in the primaries, what they did in wayne county, and in atlanta, georgia, what they did in philadelphia, i want people to see that the very people who had the greatest reason to turn their backs on this country said, you know what, hold my beer. i'm going to save american democracy, i'll be damned if they didn't do it. that's a great story to tell. >> it. they are the most reliable voting bloc we have on both sides, democrats and republicans. i will never forget, joe, those long lines especially in georgia when they felt like their vote had been disenfranchised being taken away in 2019. waiting in line for 10, 12 hours, a look of conviction saying i'm not getting out of line. i'm casting my vote for joe biden. they're always there as democrats and the most reliable voting bloc that we have. they always show up. >> wow, great conversation. robert gibbs, julian castro, thank you both very much. and coming up, michelle wu makes history as the first woman and person of color elected to be mayor of boston. plus, opening statements get under way in the trial of kyle rittenhouse. we'll break down what happened inside the courtroom just ahead on "morning joe." ance, so i only pay for what i need. how about a throwback? ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ such tree-mendous views. i'm at a moss for words. when a cough tries to steal dad's punchlines, he takes robitussin naturals powered by 100% drug-free ingredients. are you gonna leaf me hanging? soothe your cough naturally. this is the new world of work. each day looks different than the last. but, whatever work becomes, the world works with servicenow. brushing only reaches 25% of your mouth. listerine® cleans virtually 100%. helping to prevent gum disease and bad breath. never settle for 25%. always go for 100. bring out the bold™ ♪♪ welcome back to "morning joe." here's some other stories making headlines this morning. the ap projected democratic city counselor michelle wu to be boston's next mayor. >> this is really big news. >> it is. >> for old fat irish guys and then women -- >> for years. >> for the past 50 years, mind you. you know, come on now. this is big news. >> michelle wu is the daughter of taiwanese immigrants, will be the first woman and person of color elected to lead the city. >> so, one of my sons asked me the other night if boys can be elected mayor of boston. they have been. and they will again some day, but not tonight. >> not tonight. >> that's adorable. that's really nice. >> that is great. >> congratulations to her. very big change under way in boston. to kenosha, wisconsin where jurors in the trial of kyle rittenhouse heard starkly different portrayals of the 18-year-old. >> michael and i were talking, here's a great conversation, let's have a conversation about race. if this guy were black, michael, the second he walked up to a policeman with an ar-15 planted around his neck -- >> in the ground. >> in the ground. >> and in the opening statements at the trial yesterday, rittenhouse is charged with killing two men and wounding a third one last summer during a protest during race-based police violence. the prosecutor said rittenhouse set the bloodshed in motion when he initiated a confrontation with a man that night. and then killed him with a bullet to the back. but rittenhouse's attorney told the jury his client acted in self-defense after the man tried to grab rittenhouse's gun and others kicked the teen and clubbed him in the head with a skateboard. the first witness was domenic black who faces charges of buying the rifle for a then underage rittenhouse. he testified to being with the teenager right after the shooting. >> he wasn't really talking. he just said he had to do it, it was self-defense. people were trying to hurt him. >> did he ever say to you that someone was trying to attack him with a gun? >> no. >> did he ever say that someone was trying to attack him with a knife? >> no. >> did he ever say to you that anyone was trying to attack him with any sort of weapon? >> no. >> ar-15, skateboard. >> yeah. >> i mean, the fact that -- the fact that this trial -- i mean -- >> yeah. >> i'm surprised this hasn't been pled out yet. this is open and shut. >> well, apparently -- >> -- we'll see what the jury thinks. >> apparently those who died didn't. >> particularly those killed around victims, referred as rioters and looters. looting what? they weren't looting anything. they were there. the judge seems to think they can't be victims because this white kid came across state lines with an ar-15. and instigated a confrontation in which he shot a person not in the chest, but in the back. when means this individual, this victim was walking away from him. >> and should he even be able to have a gun at this age? i believe not, no, ar-15? >> an ar-15, he's driven across state lines. we go from castle doctrine where you're allowed to defend yourself in your home. >> uh-huh. >> to stand your ground, right. >> uh-huh. yeah. >> where you can shoot people. >> no, stand your ground, someone else. >> now, hey, ma, can you take me across state lines with an ar-15 wrapped around my neck? i'm just going to go around waving a gun and shooting people in the back. >> my god, so many questions. >> this reminds me so much, people who are like defending him reminds me so much of the same people who were defending george zimmerman. >> yeah. >> but george zimmerman went out of his way to make trouble and kill trayvon. >> there were all of these people, it was just gross. they went out and defending zimmerman. then we found out who zimmerman was, right? >> right. >> as if shooting trayvon wasn't enough, we find out over time, they slowly start peeling away. but this kid went across state lines shot a guy in the back and killed another guy with a skateboard. >> testimony resumes later today. still ahead, some of the most read opinion pages on the heels of election day. plus, the 97-year-old who just won a second term as mayor. keep it right here on "morning joe." every day in business brings something new. so get the flexibility of the new mobile service designed for your small business. introducing comcast business mobile. you get the most reliable network with nationwide 5g included. and you can get unlimited data for just $30 per line per month when you get four lines or mix and match data options. available now for comcast business internet customers with no line-activation fees or term contract required. see if you can save by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities. ♪♪ welcome back. one of the nation's oldest mayors has won a second term in tinton falls new jersey. 97-year-old vito perillo defeated two. >> see, honey, there's hope for me yet. >> there is. there is. his closest challenger was a 59-year-old retired school teacher. perriello is a world war ii veteran who spent his civilian career, and when asked what his secret is, he said i love my job, it keeps me alive, actually it keeps me going. he's necessary up for re-election at age kids. >> i think he'll win. >> do what you love. time for the must read opinion pages and there are few on the virginia results. the first is karen. >> she writes in part the governor elect, a nimble political newcomer achieved the delicate gravity defying balance it took to gin up the trumpian gop pace without alienating moderate and independent virginians who populate the suburbs. he indulged the corrosive lie that trump won the 2020 election and rode the wave of culture war issues animating the right, including critical race theory, but he still managed to project an upbeat image in his ads. he pushed a strong message on the economy and jobs, which exit polls indicate were the top concern of virginia voters. in doing so, youngkin offered a template for republicans in battlegrounds across the country going forward. >> this is what he did, he did the old texas two step. i'm going to go from wd to the old texas two step where he let fox news, he let right wing outlets carry the critical race theory thing. but for suburban voters, what do they see? they saw the 30-second ads which we thought didn't matter anymore. they did in this race buzz i'm glenn, i'm in a fleece vest. forget the fact i'm worth half a billion dollars like you and your family, and i just want them to be real, real comfortable. i mean, they were comfortable with him, and so, again, he had two things going at once, and those 30-second ads, they painted him as a reasonable rational guy. >> you know the old adage you never get a second chance to make a first impression. his first impression was i'm a different kind of republican. i'm not donald trump. i'm not out there saying crazy things, i'm not saying sexist things. he presented himself as a dad figure. an approachable, likable, relaxed kind of person that you don't have to be afraid of him at all. he had those ads running week after week on every freaking show. you saw it relentlessly before terry mcauliffe or anybody got a chance to lay a glove on him. he had positioned himself as that guy. >> and while the national media was talking about how 5-year-olds aren't being taught critical race theory, and he's pushing the big lie and we're having this conversation outside of virginia, inside of virginia people are actually working. people are actually buying groceries in virginia grocery stores. the virginia public schools, what are they doing? they're seeing these 30 second ads. they look up. they go, yeah, he seems like a good guy. >> to youngkin's credit, he ran a consistent message from the very beginning. he put a lot of money behind it, and he ran on school -- you know, parental choice, school choice from the very beginning. i think consistency paid off for him. >> all right, also with us former white house communications director under president obama and head of communications for hillary clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, jennifer palmieri. good to have you on the show as well. >> jen, you're real smart. what happened? >> what happened, well, you know, i think a lot of people are wondering is 2021 going to be like 2009, and the answer is yes, yes, it is. and you know, my frame -- my frame of reference is you leave the white house, right, that's where i spend a lot of time, so i've been thinking about if i work for joe biden, what would you want to do right now? and you know, democrats get hired to solve problems, so solve the problem. that means you call up nancy pelosi, chuck schumer and you say pass the infrastructure bill. pass what you can on bbb, build back better and the president leaves washington and he goes out and he sells those things, right? if build back better, they need a few more weeks to work that out, focus on the infrastructure bill. go out and sell that. go out and sell what's in the build back better bill, and then, you know, the other thing is supply chain. i would take, you know, i think basic deal with supply chain the way the white house has dealt with covid. do daily briefings on it. explain what's happening, what the log jam is literally and what the administration is doing to alleviate that. i think when you are shedding some light on the problem, what you're doing to solve it, you know, giving these kind of updates the way people did, you know, the way you do with covid, that's just -- you know, that's what democrats get hired to do, and you got to look at this moment from the white house's perspective as some kind of opportunity. okay, we are where we are. let's make the most of this moment. people are going to be paying attention. let's sell the infrastructure bill, sell the build back better bill, and prove that democrats can solve problems whether that's in congress or just as the leader in the administration. >> supply chain issue is huge, and it is not being treated like they're dealing with it, like this is -- i totally agree with jen on that. another must read from "the washington post," glenn youngkin just handed republicans their 2022 blueprint. the fact that parental rights and education became a central campaign issue that chose populism is still an essential element, and in the republican party, even with trump out of the white house, populism, not conservative remains the gop's principal identity. trump is to credit or blame, whichever you prefer for americans nationwide being recently sparked into action like a sports car, going from 0 to 60 in under five seconds. which can be impressive but dangerous, particularly with ew drivers behind the wheel. tuesday's result provides more evidence that biden's win last year had more to do with trump fatigue than a rejection of trumpian policies. willie. >> yeah, so jonathan lemire, we've been talking about this this morning, that glenn youngkin publicly kept his distance from donald trump, privately made sure he had donald trump's base and his voters locked up with some of his messaging, particularly in the primary, and then swung away for it. as joe was saying, virginia voters, many of them looked at the screen and they saw mitt romney, they didn't see donald trump. >> it point to shortcomings, that anyone with an r next to their name is the next coming of donald trump. that didn't work last year with republicans when they tried to paint joe biden as the scary socialist. people say no, he's not, he's joe biden. he's a moderate democrat. we're okay with that. i think there was a sense that terry mcauliffe was not a very exciting candidate for the dems and youngkin may have created a playbook that republicans in areas, battlegrounds where they may try to emulate. where they draw just enough for trump where they don't anger him but present a safer version. it's something i know democrats, moderately democrats are deeply concerned about going into the midterms. my phone like yours was blowing up last night. democrats deeply concerned about where things stand and the fate of biden's political coat tails. >> you're advising the dccc and helping them navigate the space. how do you assess for them steps forward in this new landscape that the democrats find themselves confronting with republicans who are more than willing to engage on this turf. >> listen, democrats need to run a no holds barred, take no prisoners approach going forward. they need to be proactive. they need to define the terrain. we have for too long let republicans define almost every bun of our issues from the green new deal, police reform, build back better. republicans are able to hijack these issues and paint them a certain way. i spend a lot of time in the country music world, a lot of concerts. the one theme i hear consistently that concerns me is most people in that world perceive democrats to be a party that's taking something from them. we need to get back to a party that's delivering for people, and we need to show and tell these people what we're going to do for them, not to them. >> you know, jen, it is an irony i read this yesterday. i forget exactly where i read it, but it struck me that americans are at a place now where they are more positive toward policies for working class americans whether it's higher wages or just go down the line. they're more populous now than they've been for a very long time, and yet so many of those voters have broken overwhelmingly to the republican party. how do they get them back? >> you actually have to -- you have to -- a lot of those -- a lot of the people say this all the time, the individual policies, they're in the build back better bill, whether that's universal pre-k, whether that's the child care tax credit. you know, their question about prescription drug coverage and bringing down prescription drug costs that will be included in the bill. these are the things that people really want, but what the country has been seeing and what voters in new jersey and virginia saw is democrats siding with each other and all they hear about is how much things cost, right? there's not a worse possible headwind for candidates to walk into in west virginia and new jersey. so there are answers. we have answers. we have actual solutions, and you know, in terms of the -- cultural issues, those issues take hold for republicans when democrats don't act, right? you should say for democrats are dealing with schools, yeah, parents should be partners here. my job is to make sure your kids have a good school to go to. my job is to make sure pre-k is delivered to your child. that is my job. and you take the sting out of these cultural issues, you drain the power of them. >> thank you all for being with us this morning, and that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. ♪♪ hi there, i'm stephanie ruhle live at