I spent an extraordinary 12 months in american politics. Twice impeached president is facing multiple criminal investigations, civil and praise across jurisdictions. Its antisemitic in some cases and the platform. As the conservative Supreme Court and the 50 real constitutional right to an abortion. We get all that and more tonight but we begin at the end of this year with historic results with the Midterm Election or democrats came to see in the senate and republicans managed to have defeat from the victory and historically the elections had been a disaster for a first term president in the party in power. As and as nbc noted democratic president s in their first midterms have seen the party lose an average of 40 have seats in five senate seats so watergate i look even worse for the party. Democratic president s in the first midterm at cnn part of those an average of 44 house seats and six senate seats. Many political observers had a bloodbath on the level of 1994 republican evolution for instance. One democrats lost out seats during bill clintons first, term or the 2020 pretty wave. The democrats lost a whopping seat senate broke obamas term. Especially fox news, a red wave was a sure thing. Does it feel like a red wave . It feels like a red wave. Brian the predictions of a red river active. Red wave rising. That red wave is coming. The guaranteed a red wave in pennsylvania. Probably hear the rally in the background right now. Its a big red wave of michigan. Prepping for the worstcase scenario. We are on a red tsunami watch. We are going to see a red tsunami grow. That means a red tsunami. Were not just because a red wave, were gonna see a red tsunami. Crazy gender ideology. Were gonna see a red tsunami. Prediction for tonight . I think its gonna be maybe bigger than anybody thought. On tuesday itll be a big red wave. Enough is enough. Massive red wave. You are about to see a red wave that makes the efforts more like nothing. Thats gonna be responsible for the red wave. I think the way this coming is gonna be like the Elevator Doors with blood pouring of the elevator. The elevators opening up in the shining. That is correct. But its not gonna mean elevators, little more like deep impact colored red. Remember that tail, deep impact disaster money. That is the Red Wave Tsunami that will come. Itll be a brutal week for the democrats. Its beginning on tuesday. Ive already dvrd. Im not gonna, watch or just 100 the tears post red tsunami. What happened to the Red Wave Congresswoman . What happened to the red wave . Once the votes were counted they lost House Majority pleasingly nine seats. They flipped it by leaving John Fetterman to pennsylvania. One chance republicans are trying to claw back. Georgia senate race and trump back republican Herschel Walker headed to a runoff. Once again, fox news was bullish about the republican chances. Herschel walker for senate, i like the ring of that. Ive been to be very fond of him. Im hoping you consider running for high office in georgia. Do i run for governor or senator . Crop of 2022, i got a lot stronger tonight when this is jumping into the georgia gop senator. Today georgia seems to be through the roof. Its in your hands, your country needs you. Herschel, Walker Lindsey graham are live in georgia. This will change the party. Tim herschel. Com team herschel. Com. Team herschel. Com. Tim herschel. Com. Team herschel. Com. You havent lost in Overtime Game in your life . Senatorelect. You went hands down. Herschel walker, congratulations. Or just after the polls closed, nbc news called it and he was one of the weakest candidates. I know he lost to senator. Antagonist on rushing Midterm Election result. So the rights attorney been called as a Senior Reporter for nbc news. What ends up happening is there are tons of focus on the run up, and then there was a shock afterwards. You will process it and then move on. The reason im not, not just because i found it gratifying from the perspective of the vibrancy and resilience of democracy. It is generally one of the most stunning political surprises in turn about in my life. In covering politics i think we forgot they are not all apocalyptic and then there was the one closer than expected in 2020. A lot of political observers said that they can only be off in one direction. You know, its why you saw so many people dismissing their own poll results that actually showed the democrats run okay position. It was also the barrage of catastrophes we have endured of the last five or six years. The idea that something could turn out from the democrats Point Of View much better food you would hope. But its a reminder that the arc of history towards justice. It was an exaggeration, things dont work in that linear way. Things dont work in that linear were not on a sort of endless decline. Thats an important point. That fundamental point weve had a series of shocks to the system and surprise us. The wherein ukraine, the pandemic, they dont just come in one flavor. Things dont always just surprise you for the waist. Yes. And everything you say is true, but we also cant ignore the fact that we had dobbs. Absolutely. It was literally top two issues for most voters. And in addition to that, the electorate has changed. It is changed and a profound and important way, and that doesnt make it the damani Party Electorate yet, but the kids are okay. The kids are okay, but theyre also the most diverse, and when they show up, which they did in the midterms, theyve also demonstrated with the future electorate looks like. We just respond to that point. You cant talk about the midterms without it. And if you were to say, whats the one factor that produce the surprise . I think thats the factor. But it also is the case, i think, to me, as i thought about dobbs in the first half of the year, i knew they were gonna argue this, and i thought pretty clearly the Supreme Court was gonna overturn roe, and the opinion leaked, then the actual opinion came down, and i thought, and i hoped, and i prayed that this would sort of be this wake up call, shock to the system, political activation. And it was. Then, i just worried about the short Attention Span of society. Really. The way all things function in the news cycle, which is something ceasar airy, that its not. How do we end up on ukraine . Where are we on that . Obviously, your bodily autonomy is different from that. But it wasnt necessarily, to me, baked in that would be there in november but for all the work that people put in, and the fact that candidates continued to hammer on it and didnt go away from it. Didnt go away from it, but also linked to the threats that were absolutely. Liberties. Thats my point about the kids, right . They knew it was trans rights. They knew it was whether they get to learn about history in schools. They knew it was about whether it was gonna be about student debt. They knew it was gonna be about who you can live. Because that was explicit in how they overruled roe, and the tremendous efforts that Grassroots Organizations put in to making sure that people knew how to show up despite the efforts. Yes. I think thats exactly right. It was sort of both. It was necessary but not sufficient. So, its impressive, i think, its a political accomplishment for all the people who made it that. In november, you mentioned trans rights and trans issues, and one of the most gratifying lessons, right, as i watched the world of the sort of farthest reaches of the rightwing, which are very obsessed, in a very, i think, unnerving way, with trans folks in their bodies, and what their pronouns are, and how theyre living their lives, and they want to isolate them, they want to ostracize them, and in some places i want to legislate them out of existence, basically. And the degree to which that played as a central theme, i mean, i definitely watched someone live covering the big michigan, like, day before Election Rally for the statewide republican slate, where the Big Star Speaker was like, the swimmer whos annoyed about trans folks swimming. And i was like, wow, thats quite a closing argument. I was also like, i dont know . Im not the target for this. This seems weird to me, honestly, to be your closing argument. And it was so gratifying then, as someone who covers the world in which this sort of obsession percolates, it didnt seem to really register. No, it really didnt. In fact, i think the opposite happened. I think maya made a very good point here. I didnt hear this with anyone except for maybe josh shapiro towards the end, the for a while, a lot of people, this was about rights and liberties. The democrats didnt really run on this. I dont think they really put the sense of this one big omnibus thing. Josh shapiro josh appear, yes, but its sort of seems retroactive now. Thats what was happening. The right was hammering home, lets take some books off the shelves, at least in florida, at least where right now, the most popular republican candidate for 2024, at least thats what he was running on. But you know, the people around him are running on. Lets bring down some books about gender ideology, the true history of america, basically, and lets try as hard as we can to legislate trans people out of existence. Or at least try to make it so that there is a cap on the number of them, somehow. Its really what is going on there. So, the democrats accidentally ran this campaign of, no, you can be what you want to be. You can love who you want to love. And, you know, you have rights as a woman to have bodily autonomy. And i think they actually put it together until the end, though. When i think that they wound up in this position of, wait, where the american position here. Right. And i think liberty, freedom, and democracy, which are the most cliche things to run on, ends up being a huge part of what democrats did run on. Which, again, and you can vote and your vote matters. In some ways, florida is kind of a test case because somewhat the one thing ron desantis ran entirely on, both opposition to covid and opposition to trans people, but we didnt have is the antiabortion piece. Because they only have a 15 week ban in florida. And without those three things without that part of it, i mean, these things are all over determined. But he didnt see the kind of democratic backlash that you saw on so many other states. And i should not, that 15 week ban, he literally would run away from microphones when asked about it. About whether theyre gonna do anything. And after the big victory, a bunch of republicans did say, oh, were not gonna just leave it at a 15week ban. Were definitely going to stick around, because i want to talk about the open extremism, the antisemitism, the anti democratic sentiment that were seeing across the rightwing infiltrating Republican Party. From the top down, thats next. If you think all pads are exactly the same. Think again. This always ultra thin is our best yet. It wicks gushes 90 faster and absorbs even more. For up to 100 leakfree and odorfree comfort. This is triple protection from always. Id like to thank our sponsor Liberty Mutual. They customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. Contestants ready . Go only pay for what you need. Jingle liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Classical Piano Music only pay for what you need. [reporter] one of the deadliest Mass Shootings in us history at Pulse Nightclub in orlando. [barbara] walking into the building for the first time after the shooting, it was crippling, but it had to be preserved. If you are an ally of this community, speak out. There are more of us together than apart. It is the power of love in its rawest form. Classical Piano Music yall wayfair has just what you need for your home. Is that glitter . This table is on its last leg. Yall need this. Youre Kelly Clarkson a whole new look for a whole lot less. Ahhh youre Kelly Clarkson i am. And you need this. I love it are we in a wayfair commercial . Maybe. Personal sauna. Ok i need that. Ahhhhh wayfair, youve got just what i need this was a year in which many prominent republicans openly embraced their very worst instincts. From the sitting congresswoman warmly greeeting a White Supremacist conference, to the grotesque Conspiracy Theories after a violent attack against the speaker of the house and her family, the calls from the ex president determinate the United States constitution and overcome his election loss. Still here at the table with me the sort of notion of extremism in the gop has been, obviously, much covered and much discussed, its always hard to sort of track the trajectory of it. Obviously, the top of that is donald trump. And we didnt get to talk about in the last block his role in the Midterm Election, which was clearly formidable, and also, i think, for a bunch of reasons one is that hes just profoundly unpopular. One of the least popular public figures in american life. But also because i think hes come to represent extremism in a way thats actually quite different from 2016, when polls showed voters showed him as more moderate than hillary clinton. Which is striking. And very funny exchange with more mcdaniel, is the head of the rnc, and continues to be about trump, where she just cant say the obvious thing. Take a listen. Would you publicly say that donald trump bears any responsibility for some of the losses in the Midterm Elections . When you say that . You know, i dont like this. I dont like these Parcelling Out heres the one thing that i think people should be talking about. The amount of ticket splitting. The amount of republicans that went out and voted for republican at the top of the ticket look at arizona, the top vote getter is a republican. Look at georgia. We had eight of nine statewide races won by republicans. But why are republicans going in voting for one republican and not the other . We have to work hard to bring those is that not an answer . The answer is trump, isnt it . Im not into the blame game right now. [laughter] i love it. Because she perfectly sets it up. Edges right up to it. Why, what can it be . Yeah, that staring you in the face. And i do think that, again, him as an actual person, but him as a symbol of extremism and the median voter doesnt actually like extremism in the wake of the election losses, even ronna mcdaniel, who doesnt want to say, it is articulating the clear logic that that is the problem. Right. And i think to go back to the conversation were having, whats so heartening is that we didnt have this repudiation of trump, obviously, in 2016 as people expected. It was kind of ambiguous in 2020, because it was so close, because republicans did better than expected. This was finally the moment where kind of everybody said, oh, people really hate this. Right . People really dont want to go in this direction. But at the same time, you know, the party, as it becomes smaller, as the Republican Party has in many ways, doesnt necessarily become more moderate. Because no, right . Moderates are the ones that killed off, and the hardcore as left, and they gain even more power. Now, its like a demi for four hours. All the moderates get boiled off. Its like the thickest thing there at the bottom of the pot, you know . The more you chase people away. Thats what you end up with Marjorie Taylor greene being a central figure in the Republican Party. Yeah. I mean so what is so stunning, we at the Leadership Conference did a civil rights monitor poll. And one of the things that was striking, of course, is that everyone was saying across our poll what we know. Its people were desperate to save democracy. And understand that hate and bias and the divisions that we are too often hearing from trumpism in explicit and disturbing ways is a big part of that problem. And we even had conservatives in our poll. Right . Going, this is a problem. And so, i say that because part of the hope is that theres a majority in this country that actually just cares about rights. Cares about justice. Thinks we shouldnt be divided. The explicitness of it as hate driven antisemitic, antiblack, antitrans, antiantianti. Fearmongering has had a huge impact. In a good way, because we are the majority. And it also feels to me and again, this is one layer more abstract than the specific rights, antibigotry side of thing. Just generally, in the 20 years ive covered politics, you generally want to be the moderate versus the extreme. And sometimes, that works to the benefit of conservatives against people on the left whose ideas i like, right . Who might be viewed as extreme. But generally, what you want to do there are these laps you can take. For instance, you could just condemn, like, outright nazis. Like, guys like nick fuentes, who do joking things about, were all these people actually killed in the holocaust . But then you cant meet with them. Thats my point. The easiest way up in the world, its amazing to me that this unbelievable judgment comes down from the American People on precisely what youre saying. We dont like this, this is gross an extremist, and then, like, nick fuentes is a white nationalist, and kanye, whos on this insane antisemitic bender, show up to have dinner with the guy whos the leader of the party. Yes. The wory is, and i hate to add another cooking analogy to this, but the way is donald Trump Realizes this is baked into the cake of his base now. And its years and years too late to just slough it off the top. Especially when theyre making it all the Talking Points in the means for him that