Transcripts For MSNBCW Georgia Runoffs Fight For The Senate 20210106

It is midnight on the east coast. Polls have been closed in georgia for five hours and heres where we stand. In the Georgia Senate runoff between incumbent republican senator dave uld perdue and democratic challenger jon ossoff, its 5050. This race is officially too close to call per nbc news. There are very few votes between those two candidates again 50. 0 to 50. 0. This is too close to call although warnock leads. Hes at 50. 4 to loefflers 49. 6 . There are a difference of just over 30,000 votes between those two candidates. Again, the numbers here are astonishing in terms of their closeness. There are remaining votes still due to be reported. Were at 98 in. Were watching closely the counties that remain that remain on our board with votes outstanding. Joy reid, watching what we have seen over these past 5. 5 hours since weve been here, the 5 hours since the polls closed, its been a nailbiter. I have no nails left. I didnt start with very many, but i have no nails left. Obviously Raphael Warnock supportvers to be pleased with their position right now. Neither warnock or ossoff supporters can be happy tied at 5050. The reality of the way american elections work is that the black towns come last. They come in last. You know, africanamericans tend to live in cities, big settees, and in states like georgia they tend to have, you know, sort of the older machines, the sort of theyre not given like the top equipment. Its difficult, right . Every sort of, you know, hurdle is sort of put before africanamerican voters and then you tend to see the votes from cities that are very diverse come in late. So that looks good in an election like this because youre waiting on whats finealy out there, youre waiting on the cities that at least have pluralities of nonwhite people in them. And thats usually good for democrats. The democrats im texting with feel very good about where even ossoff stands. They feel very confident. And ill read you one text from a georgia politico they sent me. If you think about the way warnock versus ossoff are running, the point is warnock is running against an appointed senator says politico whos not distinguished herself in any positive way. I will add also attacked Ebenezer Baptist church and the black church more generally. Perdue is an incumbent whose cousin was governor for 8 years. And black voters are powering the race, and also warnock is a historic figure. If you go through it theres only been three black historic senators from the south. Reynolds and bruce and tim scott. Only three from the south. So warnock represented this opportunity to make history and, you know, Kelly Loeffler is not really a georgian person whereas, you know, perdue is harder to beat, you know . His cousin is the secretary of agriculture to donald trump. And sunny perdue is a very wellknown politician whos a former governor. So perdue is a hard person to beat. I think also it was interesting that perdue and loeffler for all the differences between them including those important ones you were talking about there, they both worked hard with the same brush for these twin runoffs with corruption problems. Both of them very, very wealthy. Both of them fairly credibly and substantively accused having used their pgsz in the senate to make themselves richer, the people who they knew richer. The allegations against perdue in particular essentially Insider Trading using nonpublic information he got access to as a senator to make money for himself in to stock market, while some of them have been litigated and theyve been the subject of ethics complaints and everything, i think those stuck to him. And its a credit to the Ossoff Campaign i think that ossoff was able to get those things to stick to david perdue because they werent new. Those allegations against perdue have been kicking around for a long time now, but ossoff was able to get traction with them. I think through a fairly disciplined campaign. And theres been a lot of criticism we heard a lot of it tonight how negative the campaign ads were and how negative they were by both candidates on both sides. But sticking some of this stuff to perdue who as you say really was republican royalty in georgia was no small feat. When he ran in georgias sixth district which this is new gingrichs old district and he lost lucy mcbath, africanamerican woman now represents that district. He didnt seem as effective as just a candidate. The way that he took perdue apart in that first debate so badly that perdue wouldnt debate him again, like not only would he not debate him again in the election proper, in this runoff he wouldnt debate him at all. There was like an empty chair because he just destroyed the guy in the debate. So hes just become this outstanding debater. And i think the buddy act between warnock and ossoff, they defend each other, they have each others back and they ran as sort of paunch and john maybe im aging myself. You know what im saying. It worked. Warnock is in a better position right now than ossoff is. That may be because of the relative strength of perdue versus loeffler. It may be because of the relative strength of warnock and ossoff and the kind of georgia roots youre talking about. But theres less suspense tonight right now in terms of whats going to happen in the warnock, loeffler race. Theres less suspense in that 5050 race were seeing between ossoff and perdue. I want to bring into the conversation now our colleague Lawrence Odonnell. Lawrence, i have a question for you, lawrence, about whether there is a substantive and meaningful difference in the senate if the senate is divided 4951, a normal split that doesnt require a tie break versus a senate that is 5050 with the Vice President tie breaking. Theres not a functional difference in terms of Committee Assignments or rules or the way that the majority can wield its power. Now, theres no real functional difference. However, rachel, there becomes a huge suspense difference because it becomes possible in this environment if there are say 51 republicans, 49 democrats by the time the dust clears here for anyone one of the republicans to walk across the aisle and say im going to vote for Chuck Schumer for majority leader. And weve seen it happen before. June jeffards did it in 2001, and the reason he left the Republican Party and went over and sided with the democrats seems quaint today in a way thats unbelievable. He was he was objecting to the size the size of the bush tax cuts. Not that they were tax cuts, but they were too big and too irresponsible. And that was the straw that broke his back and made him cross the aisle. And weve seen it once or twice once since then actually that moved the democrats up closer to 60 votes. But thats the interesting suspenseful pressure that could occur if you only get one victory in georgia tonight. But you would look at could could Susan Collins follow in the jim jeffards shoes . Thats probably doubtful. Its hard to see who that person might be on the republican side, but whether the you control the senate with 50 senators plus the Vice President or 51 elected senators, you get all the same powers of the majority. Lets find out from Steve Kornacki if we are any closer to figuring out which of those scenarios it is going to be. Steve, we are still waiting for those same votes to come in, right . Yeah, were trying to get a sense here exactly what is left. And i was just talking to our decision desk. Theyre trying to track down exactly what is left, exactly where it is left, how much is left and what type of vote were talking about here. Were look at a situation where for this race right here david perdue, 1,088 votes statewide for jon ossoff. And the other state here Raphael Warnock 35,132. Hes been running consistently ahead of ossoff. Its more than 35,000 vote difference between those two. What are the major outstanding votes we know of right now the number one is Dekalb County. We think there are about 20,000 votes left to come in Dekalb County. We do not know were trying to find out. We do not know if were going to get those remaining 20,000 votes, some of them, all of them, none of them, we dont know if were going to get that tonight. But the 20,000 votes to come from Dekalb County, we saw this earlier when we got that big batch of votes its going to be overwhelmingly democratic. 79, 81, 83 but overwhelmingly democratic when it comes in. About 20,000 votes there. Ossoff going to get the lion share and warnock is going to get the lion share of them certainly and you can see that alone would move the statewide lead. Fulton county, what are we waiting on in Fulton County . Were trying to get an exact sense what were waiting on. One thing we know weve talked about this a little bit, the mail votes that arrived today, the ones that were dropped off. They have those drop off boxes you can take your ballot on election day, put it in the box. People who did that on election day, that still needs to be processed, tabulated, reported out. Is that something thats going to happen tonight partially, entirely . If it happens tonight we get indications i think its going to be a while on that. How many votes are there . Were not sure. 5,000, 10,000, could it be somewhere in that range, not exactly sure. But thats mail vote in Fulton County that is expected to be heavily democratic vote. Also the saga of Chatham County where savannah is, we have had theyre going to leave 20,000 votes, theyre going to report them all out. Theres still some votes, we think mail votes probably 3,000 call up the results we have from Chatham County. There are about 3,000 mail votes left in Chatham County they are not going to count tonight. So we got a big release from Chatham County earlier. We thought that might be all of the votes. It is almost all of the votes, but you can expect 3,000 more mail ballots. This is savannah area, so again mail ballots, democratic. You can expect democrats to make gains there. So dekalb, fulton and Chatham County, savannah, those are the biggest sources of outstanding vote. Were trying to get the exact counting because there are scatterings in these different republican counties have some outstanding vote. But also what it looks like in these even republican counties where youre looking at outstanding vote right now, looks like youre generally looking at mail vote, early vote mail, not the election day vote. The election day vote is the most overwhelmingly republican in any county youre in. The election day vote is the most overwhelmingly republican to the extent were waiting on a little bit from here, a little bit from there, youre going to be looking at the least republican vote from those counties. Again, were trying to get our decision desk exact counting of which counties there are there, how many votes. Again, these are small numbers. Even if you add them together dekalb is going to be your biggest. Fulton, chatham, scattering provisional ballots. Thats not something were going to get to tonight, but there were 10,000 provisional ballots back in the november election. So, you know, what are they going to be for this election . 7 7,500, 8,000, Something Like that. The provisional ballots breaking about 21 for the democrats back in november. Again, that could be about 8,000 votes where the democrats are netting more than the republicans. So that is our sense right now, and were trying to refine it and im staying in touch with our decision desk here. But we see some significant sources of votes that remain on this map that are probably going to be favorable to democrats. We do not know if those places are going to report out tonight or going to be into tomorrow. So we dont know if were getting more votes, how many more were getting. And again the situation here is jon ossoff is trying to catch david perdue in this count here. And if he does or even if he doesnt, the issue here too if it falls, if the final result falls within half a percent, that could trigger a recount. And this one, warnock and loeffler, this race a bit different dynamic here where warnock up 35,000 votes already, also like ossoff is waiting on some of these places that promised to deliver good votes for democrats here in terms of whats left, warnock with an opportunity to build on that, and potentially we will see his goal right now certainly would be to land in a place where not only is he ahead of loeffler but out of that recount zone when it comes to that count with loeffler. Thats a lot of de25tail, bu it seems youre telling a coherent story here which you talk about the bulk of the vote still to come in. Dekalb county, that vote is going to lean democrat. Chatham county, savannah that vote is going to lean democrat. Provisional ballots ultimately those will likely lean democrat. And other than that there is a smattering of other vote likely to come in, but sort of just dregs, not ballots expected to come in in significant numbers even they do lean republican. That sounds like a very unbalanced future in terms of what the rels of the ballots are going to be . Yeah, the hesitation here is just i dont have an exact accounting of those smaller counties and exactly how many are left, so i would like to get sort of a cumulative total there to see exactly. But i think the expectation here is there arent major sources of outstanding vote here in big red counties. And especially to the extent you have outstanding vote ipthen th red counties, it doesnt look like its same day vote. Thats where you kind of hit the jackpot as a republican. There is one category i should point out there is one other category. Again, this is not one that comes into play tonight. There are military ballots as well, and were trying to get exactly what to expect in terms of the military ballots but there could be about 15,000 or so military ballots. That could also factor in. Not something that would happen tonight. Again, theres almost two different stories here. Look, will the democrats win both races . But given how limited theinable of votes are that are left in this thing, these races are kind of in different positions here. Warnock right now is trying to build a lead. Hes trying to see if he can almost run away from loeffler with the votes were talking about here. 35,000 already ahead. Ossoff is trying to leapfrog perdue and trying to land in a place where hed obviously like to be out of that recount zone, but if he finishes in front and ends up in a recount, he wants to be safely in front where he could survive a recount potentially, but thats where that difference comes in. Were going to take a quick break right now, steve, in part were expecting remarks tonight from Raphael Warnock. As steve said hes ahead and building a lead right now. We are told hell be speaking shortly. Well have that here for you live. Well be right back on the other side of this break. 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And other Money Managers dont understand why. Because our way works great for us but not for your clients. Thats why were a fiduciary, obligated to put clients first. So, what do you provide . Cookie cutter portfolios . Nope. We tailor portfolios to our clients needs. But you do sell investments that earn you high commissions, right . We dont have those. So, whats in it for you . Our fees are structured so we do better when you do better. At Fisher Investments were clearly different. We are back. We have come to no conclusions and have made no calls, but here is the situation. In this race among our two too close to call races warnock leads. You see the difference there. In the other race, the ossoffperdue race, closer difference there. Still, too close to call. Those are the two races were watching. And believe me, we are watching every incremental development. We are happy to be joined at this hour by the veteran democratic strategist and notable introvert james carville. James, welcome. What do you think of what you see tonight . Look, ive got to love anybody with a political iq above Room Temperature that thinks were going to win both of these races. So im very optimistic. I want to impart one thing, where trump went my friend pointed out to me that ossoff ran ever so slightly but better than biden ran, and the turnout was lower than the state average. He came, he spoke, and he lost. He couldnt even help him carry he had Whitfield County but he didnt help him one lick. This guy is a loser and hes done. Hell cause inconvenience, but thats it. Democrats are going to win both of these races and its a great night for the United States. If that indeed is the outcome, and i cant repeat enough times we have reached no such conclusions but this is just two guys talking, what will the lessons be to you . First of all, i think that the attack on warnock, church it backfired. I think when political archeologists unearth this, theyre going to see there was enhanced black turnout in nonmetro atlanta. And i grew up in rural louisiana. I have some idea of the importance that the black church plays in these communities, and i think that backfired on them and that contributed a good bit to the victory of both of these candidates. And my friend in georgia telling me the turnout was enhanced in those kind of counties and i guess it would be from like columbus to augusta what they call the black belt georgia where they dont carry a lot of these counties but theres a significant vote. And i think it came out that blew up right in Kelly Loefflers face and probably blew up in perdues face, too. Indeed thats a point joy reid was making tonight, and what about a point we were discussing earlier a big argument with both of these candidates was the corruption subject at least broadly, that if they didnt profit off a pandemic its aapparent they cut their losses on a pandemic which american citizens were free to do, but those who got early inside briefings were a little bit freer than the rest of us. Yeah, i think the whole thing is disgusting. I think corruption is the number one issue in american politics right now, and just hope and pray above Everything Else that the president elect nommates an attorney general who is very wants to enforce the federal criminal law. I think thats very, very important to begin to restore some faith in our process here. Thats a terrible thing, and i really hope that president elect biden has a very Competent Person who has great reference to the federal criminal code. And james, what about the fact that lets say again for the purposes of conversation the democrats go one and one and even perhaps 20 tonight. The fact it will be borne into this world, into this environment of so much tumult. It is so toxic any victory by a party not named republican will instantly be branded corrupt and fraudulent. Well, youre going to have that this is going to shake their confidence. There is nothing more fun than watching the republicans after they lose a race. You know, we lose they go after each other with meat cleavers. And people have no idea of whats coming up here in the next couple of weeks in terms of the political discourse in the Republican Party, if theyre going to be at each other throats tomorrow, and they dont mind pointing fingers. And theyre going to play the blame game left and right. And again trump didnt get it done. He lost. He came in, he put it on the line, didnt make it. Too bad, out of here. And theres going to be time to deal with him anyway because i think were going to see a real change in the way the public looks at that. Were going to see a real change in the way the republicans look at this. He didnt get it done. He lost. And thats just a fact, and it is going to settle in in the political community. Its going to settle in among democrats. I think warnock has shown and ossoff here we have an africanamerican and two jewish senators. Somebody texted me tonight and said, this is a great night for america. It shows that anybody in this country and very demonstrably has a place if they work hard and want to do it. My hats off to all the democratic friends in georgia and particularly these two campaigns. They really stepped up and had real game here. Real something to be proud of. Final question. It has often been said in relationship guides find someone in your life who looks at you the way mike pence looks at donald trump and youll be setup, youll be in good shape. He is a he has worked hard at being a supplicant. The president has now linked him to this action where normally his role would be Michael Beschloss tonight compared to the bert parks. His role would be m. C. Theres no heft to the role, no job to do. What does he do knowing hes been publicly threatened with political trouble Going Forward if he shows anything but steadfast loyalty to the boss . Theres a story in the times he told trump i cant do anything about this. And he put out a statement refuting it. Okay, that was Maggie Haberman who did that story. I would bet anybody a dollar that that story is accurate. Maggie does not make mistakes. And theyre going to go back to indiana high. Thats whats going to happen. This whole thing is falling apart right in front of our eyes, and its just fun to watch. It really is. Im immensely enjoying watching this entire melt down. And these two people are going to do our country great in washington. And, you know, were going to move ahead, and trump lost and pence knows it, and Everybody Knows it. And i seriously doubt maggies story is wrong, seriously. James carville, our thanks as always for joining us. Great to hear your voice. Great to talk to you along the way. Another break for us. When we come back, back to Steve Kornacki. At the board we go because the only thing we know about a night like this is every minute were not looking at the board theres little incremental number changes. Theres one for you right now. Well dive back in when we come right back. When we come right back you cant plan for your periods. What the gush moments. But the right pad can. Only always ultra thins have rapiddry technology and, they absorb 40 faster. The gush happens fast. Thats why always absorbs faster. So you want to make the best that means selling everything. And eating nothing but cheese till you find the perfect slice. Even if everyone asks you. Another burger truck . Dont listen to them that means cooking day and night until you get. [ ding ] you got paid that means adding people to the payroll. Hi mom. That means. Best burger ever. Intuit quickbooks helps Small Businesses be more successful with payments, payroll, banking and live bookkeeping. Iwith vicks sinex saline nasal cmist. Tion for drug free relief that works fast. Vicks sinex. Instantly clear everday congestion. Welcome back to our special coverage of the Georgia Senate races. Tonight weve got too close to call in both cases. In the warnock race, the Raphael Warnock, Kelly Loeffler race, that race is being characterized by nbc news as warnock being in the lead. Again, both are being described as too close to call. Weve got 98 of the vote in. We are currently awaiting Election Night remarks from Raphael Warnock. Unexpectedly Kelly Loeffler spoke a few minutes ago. We apologize for not bringing that to you live. We did not have advance notice it was coming. She made brief remarks in which she did not concede the race. She described herself as still having a path to victory. Well see what reverend warnock says in his remarks expected shortly. While were awaiting those remarks were going to bring back into the conversation the chair of the Democratic Party in the great state of georgia. Shes also americas newest member of Congress Sworn in just two days ago for the seat in the u. S. House recently held by the late john lewis. Congresswoman, thank you so much for coming back with us tonight. Im sure we are not keeping you up. I imagine you are bouncing offthewalls. I am still up, rachel. Congresswoman, i actually have to interrupt you as soon as we started because Raphael Warnock has just started his remarks. Were going to go to those live and be back with you on the other side. A proud graduate of Moorhouse College and the path for Ebenezer Baptist church, the pe spiritual home of Martin Luther king, jr. And congressman john lewis. Watching these remarks from reverend Raphael Warnock. As you can see its frozen there. Thats not on our end. That appears to be on the side of the feed. Were going to see if they get that reset on reverend warnocks side, on the side of his campaign to see if we can get those remarks back up. Doesnt seem like were going to. Okay, we still dont have it. We will go back to that if that restarts. While that is unfortunate, again, that feed appears to have frozen on the side of the Warnock Campaign. Well bring it to you if they get it restarted. Oh, this is how it goes. Apparently its just back. Hard work and the people by our side, anything is possible. May my story be an inspiration to some young person who is trying to grasp and grab hold of the american dream. And so, georgia, i am honored by the faith you have shown in me. And i promise you this tonight. I am going to the senate to work for all of georgia. No matter who you cast your vote for in this election, in this moment in american history, washington has a choice to make. In fact, all of us have a choice to make. Will we continue to divide, distract, and dishonor one another . Or will we love our neighbors as we love ourselves . Will we play political games while real people suffer . Or will we win righteous fights together Standing Shoulder to shoulder for the good of georgia, for the good of our country . Will we seek to destroy one another as enemies or heed the call toward the common good, building together what dr. King called the beloved community . Heres what i know. I know that we can beat this pandemic with science and good oldfashioned common sense. I know we can respect the dignity of work and the workers who do it, an economy that honors those who we now call essential workers by paying them an essential wage and providing to them essential benefits. And so to everyone out there struggling today, whether you voted for me or not, know this. I hear you, i see you. And every day im in the United States senate i will fight for you. I will fight for your family. To our supporters, our Incredible Campaign team and to my family, thank you from the bottom of my heart. And to every georgian who marched with us, organized with us, prayed for us, fought for us, believed in us or shared their story and their pain with us, thank you for all of your love and support. In the words of dr. King who grew up just a few blocks from where im sitting right now, we are tied in a single garmment of d destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. I remember my dad in this moment. He used to wake me up every morning at dawn. It was morning, but it was still dark. Its dark right now but morning comes. And scripture tells we may endure for the night but joy comes for the morning. Let us rise up and greet the morning we saw the meat of his remarks there before we saw the audio glitch again. A video glitch at the beginning of reverend Raphael Warnock speaking right now at a time nbc news has not called this race. Nbc news characterizes this race as too close to call with warnock in the lead. He leads right now by our count. 98 of the vote in georgia, but you heard him say there plainly i am going to the senate, means im going to the senate to work for all of georgia. Now, his opponent Kelly Loeffler tonight also made brief remarks to her supporters in person, in which she said that she still sees a path to victory and that a lot of votes remain to be counted. So shes not conceding defeat. He is essentially claiming victory. This race remains to be called by nbc news, but reverend warnock is clearly in the lead. Still with us is congresswoman Nikema Williams, the chair of the Democratic Party of georgia. Im so sorry for those technical difficulties and having to interrupt you around that. But congresswoman, let me ask you for reaction from those remarks from reverend warnock and his performance tonight. Rachel, i could not be more proud to be the chairwoman of the Democratic Party of georgia. When people told us that black voters would not turn back out to vote in a runoff, democrats had never won a runoff, how are we going to get it done . I remember a conversation with Lawrence Odonnell when i said watch me work. Georgia voters have turned out and left it all on the fill tonight. Im so proud of the campaigns they ran, but i believe in every vote being counted, so im watching the rest of these numbers and we might have to celebrate with you tomorrow night. Well, we are seeing as i mentioned nbc news characterization theyre describing as reverend warnock being the lead in that race. It is 5050 as far as we can tell between perdue and ossoff. At last call it was just over 1,200 votes difference between perdue and ossoff with a number of votes still to come in. Do you have confidence that jon ossoff is going to pull off that race in the end based on the outstanding vote and where it seems to be coming from in the state . Im watching the clock just like you are and watching the map. And ive been watching steve just like you. And i have my own little personal steve. My husband has been tracking these numbers, so i do have confidence were going to send these two democrat tuesday the United States senate and were going to get to work right away on behalf of the georgia people. When americans think about the change in fortune weve had politically from the 2016 Election Night when Hillary Clinton was expected by every pollster in the country to run away with that seat, to run away with the presidency when instead donald trump won, when the republicans had the senate, republicans held the house. We have now seen first democratic president ial candidates since 1992 win in georgia. We have seen joe biden and Kamala Harris make donald trump a oneterm president. We have seen apparently tonight georgia on its way to potentially potentially elect two Democratic Senators. I mean, so much of this fulcrum here has been in your state and has been on your shoulders as the chair of the Democratic Party. And among the shared work two between you and your fellow organizers and democrats. The country owes its change of fortune to your work and what youve been able to do. Do you have any way to share the secrets of your success with other organizers and activists in other states who want to do what youve done . Rachel, this was a labor of love for so many people, and this was this was the result of deep organizing on the ground for cycle after cycle. It didnt just happen in this president ial cycle. It wasnt just about donald trump. And when i look at the people that i 18 years ago i moved to georgia from alabama and got started with the young democrats. And ive been involved in some form or fashion with the Democratic Party in this state for the past 18 years. And i was vice chair of this party and interim chair back in 2013 and came back as chairwoman in 2019, the first black woman to ever chair our state Democratic Party. And i know that this victory belongs to so many people on the ground because ive been in the trenches with them doing the work cycle after cycle. When you said watch me work to Lawrence Odonnell looking ahead to these runoffs, i remember that moment. And we are watching you work. We have seen you do what you and your colleagues pull off something tremendous magnitude, politically and in lots of other ways. Congratulations tonight. I know theres a long way still to go before these races are home but congratulations to what youve done thus far, congresswoman. And congratulations on being sworn in. Youre going to have a tremendous year ahead of you. Thank you, rachel. Congresswoman Nikema Williams sworn in two days ago to the United States congress. She would hold the seat once held by the late great john lewis. Were going to take a quick break. While weve been hearing from reverend warnock, Steve Kornacki has been burning up several phones. And were going to be talking with him about the outstanding vote that remains to be coming in and why the numbers keep shifting a little bit. Right now as i am checking it looks like the perdue lead over jon ossoff is down to 1,100 votes. The warnock lead over loeffler is up to almost 36,000 votes. More details, more numbers with steve when we come back. Stay with us. With steve when we come back. Stay with us i am robert strickler. Ive been involved in communications in the media for 45 years. Ive been taking prevagen on a regular basis for at least eight years. 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Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. Tell your doctor about your medicines and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. So give your businesss more than resolutions. Give it solutions, from comcast business. Work more efficiently with fast internet and advanced wifi. Make your business safer with powerful cybersecurity solutions. And stay productive with 24 7 support. Make this years resolution better solutions. Bounce forward with comcast business. Get started with a powerful internet and voice solution for just 64. 90 a month. Plus, for a limited time, ask how to get a 500 prepaid card when you upgrade. Switch today. We are back covering not one but two barnburner senate races. At stake, of course, is control of the u. S. Senate and nothing less. And we understand you dont want to hear from us. Theres one guy you want to hear from especially at this hour. Hes at the big board. Steve kornacki, what have you learned in inintervening minutes . Its gotten real close again, inside a thousand votes now in this david perdue, jon ossoff race. Jon ossoff trailing david perdue by 919 votes statewide. Look at that spread right there, 5050, a difference of 919 votes. Thats come down. Thats come down because we just got a batch of very, very small and in Fulton County here, where the suburbs are a batch of a couple hundred votes that were cast today, election day. Same day voting. I think thats the last of the same day vote in Fulton County. It was a couple hundred votes there helped ossoff in terms of the statewide number there. The other thing we got in, and i think this one is important to kind of understanding the moment weve reached here in terms of whats to come here, if you were watching we said theres a scattering of counties around the state, some of them red counties. What were basically waiting on here are the mail votes, mail votes from some relatively small counties here. The mail vote we said tends to be the most democratic vote. I say this because the other thing that just happened to make the Ossoff Perdue race tighter we got the mail vote in Coffee County, so Coffee County is small county, a reveille republican county. But the mailin vote was just tabulated. That was the last outstanding piece of the vote here in Coffee County. Jon ossoff won 54 of the mailin vote in Coffee County. And the democrat gained because it was just mail votes. That was left to be counted there. And Raphael Warnock in the other race also got 54 of the mailin vote in Coffee County. This is the other thing were saying. Theres a scattering of county by Coffee County. They may look red on paper, may be red overall, but were down to having in mailin votes, so even in a county like coffee, the mailin portion still to be releelsed, that democratic here. Democrats gained more votes than republicans outlet of Coffee County. What does that do to the statewide picture, has Raphael Warnock up by nearly 36,000 votes statewide over Kelly Loeffler. Where are the outstanding votes weve been looking for . Wave been talking ability these Dekalb County. Its a little bit less than 12,000 votes here. Early votes, not sure if were going to get those tonight, tomorrow morning when were going to get those close to 20,000. Democrats we expect are going to win 80 plus of those. 80 plus for democrats of 20,000 votes, you could imagine that warnock lead could be over 50,000. If that was the next thing counted that could certainly put ossoff over perdue. Where else are we waiting on votes here . Fulton county i mentioned we got a couple hundred in just a minute ago. What is left in Fulton County it looks like up to 7,000 mailin votes. Not sure on the exact number here trying to get final clarification, but as many as 7,000 mailin votes in Fulton County. It sounds like i was talking to them just a few minutes ago. It sounds like were not going to see those votes released until tomorrow, and tomorrow morning it might be even into the early afternoon it sounds like. But its about 7,000 mailin votes, and again thats a heavily democratic vote. And the third sort of big outstanding place is Chatham County, savannah. Mailin votes, 3,000 of them there. Again, thatd be a democratic vote we certainly expect. Any race separated by less than a 1,000 deserves very close watching. In fact, dont look away. In fact, our live coverage continues at the top of the hour right after this break. Continues at the top of the hour right after this break pay off my student loan debt. They were able to give me a personal loan so i could pay off all of my credit cards. I got my mortgage through sofi and the whole process was so easy. Express yourself express yourself balanced nutrition for strength and energy. Whoohoo great tasting ensure with 9 grams of protein, 27 vitamins and minerals, and nutrients to support immune health. And nutrients to quiet piano music comfort in the extreme. The lincoln family of luxury suvs. Ing gain flings, their laundry smells more amazing than ever. Ah, honey isnt that the dogs towel . Hey, me towel su towel. Theres more gain scent plus oxi boost and febreze odor remover in every fling. Gain. Seriously good scent. Love the scent of gain flings . Then youll swoon for long lasting gain scent beads. We do things differently and aother Money Managers, dont understand why. Because our way works great for us but not for your clients. Thats why were a fiduciary, obligated to put clients first. So, what do you provide . Cookie cutter portfolios . Nope. We tailor portfolios to our clients needs. But you do sell investments that earn you high commissions, right . We dont have those. So, whats in it for you . Our fees are structured so we do better when our clients do better. At Fisher Investments were clearly different. Nicoreyou get advice like smoking is freaking hard. Try hypnosis. Or. Quit cold turkey. Kidding me . instead, start small. With nicorette. Which can lead to something big. Start stopping with nicorette for people with Heart Failure taking entresto, it may lead to a world of possibilities. Entresto helped people stay alive and out of the hospital. Dont take entresto if pregnant; it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. Dont take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if youve had angioedema with an ace or arb. The most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium. Ask your doctor about entresto. It is 1 00 a. M. In georgia, and they are still counting votes. Im Lawrence Odonnell. Youre watching msnbc its continuing coverage of the Georgia Senate elections. This is an Election Night unlike any you have ever seen. This is an Election Night of only two senate races in the same state. Those races can determine who controls the United States senate. Will the democrats control the United States senate . Will they win two senate seats tonight that would create a 50 50 senate, with the tiebreaking vote in the senate cast by Vice President Kamala Harris, making Chuck Schumer the majority leader, making democrats the chairs of all senate committees. Raphael warnock is in the lead against Kelly Loeffler. Jon ossoff is in a virtual tie against david perdue. Warnock addressed his supporters about 30 minutes ago. I remember my dad in this moment. He used to wake me up every morning at dawn. It was morning. But it was still dark. Its dark right now. The morning comes, and scripture tells us that weeping may endure for the night. But joy comes in the morning. Let us rise up. Reverend warnock was delivering a victory speech in a race that nbc news has not predicted a winner. All of the numbers outstanding in this race, in both races at this hour look good for the democrats. Good enough that Stacey Abrams is beginning to celebrate the outcome in georgia. Stacey abrams has activated the democratic vote in georgia in a way we have not seen in decades. We havent seen this turnout of democrats of this makeup ever in the state of georgia. And tonight, Stacey Abrams tweeted, with new votes joining the tally, were on a strong path. But even while we wait for more, lets celebrate the extraordinary organizers, volunteers, canvassers, and tireless groups that havent stopped going against november across our state. We roared. A few miles to go, but well done. And joining us now at the big board, Steve Kornacki with the latest from georgia. What do we need to know now . Were getting down to the final votes in georgia. Raphael warnock, right now, he leads by over 35,000 votes statewide. Theres been a persistent gap between warnock and jon ossoff, warnock is running more than 35,000 votes ahead of jon ossoff. Ossoff is trailing perdue in the statewide count by just over 1,300 votes right now. Its a situation right now where ossoff is looking to the outstanding votes to leapfrog perdue, and to try to get ahead. And the question of, will it be one 0. 5 , then this could go to a recount that could delay it a little bit. But thats the story in the ossoff race. In the warnock race, warnock is looking to the outstanding votes to try to build on his lead he has over loeffler. So where are the remaining votes . This is the biggest one, the biggest source of votes by far thats left. About 20,000 votes, a little bit less in Dekalb County. You can see how the votes have come in, warnock is getting 83 2 , ossoff is getting 82. 5 . One of the biggest democratic counties in the state of georgia. There are just under 20,000 votes to come in. Theyre early votes, votes cast by people, in person, early. Its a democratic county, and thats a Democratic Group of votes. We expect the almost 20,000 votes to be at least 80 democratic. You can see a clear opportunity here for jon ossoff with the remaining votes in dekalb to leapfrog perdue, and a clear opportunity for warnock to build on his lead. And next door in Fulton County, its where atlanta is, and more than that, but what is left to come, mail votes, probably about 7,000 mail votes that they may not be reported out until tomorrow. But heavily democratic county. The vote by mail tends to be extremely democratic. You can expect the remaining mail votes should break pretty heavily for the democrats as well. Also, we believe this has been a source of considerable confusion tonight, but Chatham County, which is where savannah is, we think, and they have communicated to our decision desk, it believes there are about 3,000 more mail votes yet to be counted in Chatham County. Again, that would be, and the folks in Chatham County, we know Election Officials are done for the night. So we believe there are about 3,000 mail votes there left to be counted in savannah in Chatham County, probably not until tomorrow, or later today since were past midnight. But mail vote in a democratic county. Those are the three biggest sources of outstanding votes on this map. Were trying to get a sense of where else there could be votes. Is there a small amount left here, they were trying to get a sense of anything else. But those are the three biggest sources of it. Beyond that, this wont be counted tonight, this is days from now, military votes would be counted up, provisional ballots would be counted up. There were about 10,000 back in november, probably this time you can expect 8,000 or so. A group of votes that went democratic about 21 back in november. So there will be more votes after tonight. But you see what is left here, and the opportunity exists, certainly what we know is left for ossoff to leapfrog perdue and try to build a bit of a pad there. And the opportunity in terms of what is left for warnock to really build some distance between himself and loeffler. Thinking about what the votes from dekalb could do for the votes for warnock. And joe biden won georgia by the famous 11,779 votes. So Raphael Warnock is running well ahead of that margin right now. When you look at that map, do you see a way for loeffler to leapfrog Raphael Warnock . Thats what im saying. Were trying to take stock here of, are there missing pockets of votes here that are not accounted for right now . Because it gets very confusing in georgia with the vote. Because you can know that all of the election day is counted, and sometimes its a little unclear where the mail votes still remains that is uncounted. Were trying to get a sense, are there any other significant sources of votes . There is nothing were aware of right now on the scale of what i just described to you. Weve been in contact with the decision desk, if they see anything else. But theres nothing were aware of on the scale of the three pretty big democratic vote producing places that are left here in this election. Except as i say, there are roughly 17,000 military ballots, they do not, the state of georgia does not release the individual totals of military ballots. That will take place a couple of days from now. Also probably a little bit short of 10,000 provisional ballots. Outside of provisional ballots and military ballots, its those three i took you through. On paper, there are more than ample opportunities for warnock to build on it, and for ossoff to get ahead in this thing. One thing we dont know, are they going to come in tonight, will we get any votes reported out tonight, or will it be tomorrow morning into tomorrow afternoon . Some flashbacks into november, where the final batches took some time. And if the decision desk can get clarification on exactly how many votes are outstanding, and where they are, get a real number on that, match it up to warnocks lead, see that theres a mathematic impossibility for senator loeffler, is that the moment when they make a projection and is that possible tonight . Yeah, i would say, not wanting to speak for them and all the caveats and everything, the basic idea is, when they reach that level of certainty that there is no mathematical way for the candidate who is trailing to catch up when i think one of the provisions is, is the recount provision, if the margin gets outside of the 0. 5 , thats the standard. If theres no mathematical way, thats typically when a decision desk calls a race. Steve, thank you. And youll be calling us back when we need to come back to you. Joining us now from atlanta, greg bluestein, a political reporter for the atlanta journalconstitution. What do we know at this hour, and what can we expect to discover tonight . Reporter i just got an update from my colleague, who reports dekalb is continuing to count the ballots. Not sure of an eta, but theyre continuing to tally the ballots. They havent quit for the day. Its a slow going process. But as you mentioned, the ballots that are still outstanding should be the margin to put reverend warnock ahead, and might make the difference between, almost certainly will make the difference between jon ossoff and david perdue. Are republicans telling you that they see any path in the vote count that remains to be counted for the republican candidates . Reporter i mean, the candidates themselves, senator perdues surrogate and Kelly Loeffler was saying theyre hinging their hopes on provisional and military ballots. But the provisional ballots went overwhelmingly democratic in november. I think the best chance that loeffler may have is maybe finding some way to force them to recount territory, and hoping for the best from there. But really, even republican strategists privately say theres no clear path for her. David perdues situation is a little bit better, obviously, because he has a little bit more support. But his position, hes in dire straits now as well. What is the local perspective on why senator perdue is doing better in this campaign than senator loeffler . Reporter thats a good question. I think part of it is the fact that senator perdue is a more wellknown quantity in republican politics. He won in 2014 after a very heated republican primary. Hes been in office for six years. Hes a rock star in republican circles for years. Senator loeffler had a tough challenge by doug chollins, and she was appointed to the office, she didnt win it herself, by government kemp. Those factors may play into why she got a little bit less support than senator perdue. Greg, thank you very much for joining us. I really appreciate it. Were joined by yamiche alcindor, and the Trump White House looks like theyre going to be waking up to a new United States senate tomorrow. Thats right. And the story of tonight is really a story of two things. One, years and years of work put in to georgia by democrats like Stacey Abrams. This was the coming to a head of a project that was started to long ago. Long before President Trump, when democrats were working hard to up the turnout and registration around that state. Theyre a blueprint for so many other states to look out, including southern democrats who have been saying we can do something here given the time and resources. And the second thing, as you noted, this is going to be a shellshock for President Trump, who really did not do the work in some ways to try to help republicans when they needed him most. Especially when you look at how hes treated republicans in georgia, lashing out at them, making this all about his own political future. Tonight, we heard from republicans like gabriel sterling, saying if these two republicans lose, as it looks like at least loeffler will lose, it looks like it will be entirely President Trumps fault. That is a republican official saying, the president came to that state, spent a little bit of time talking about the senators, but spent a lot of time talking about his debunked, false claims of all sorts of fraud that simply did not happen. Yes, President Trump will wake up to this reality that his antics, his rants in georgia did not work for him. And that is of course going to be something that will lead him into a wednesday where he will see congress certify these election results, even though he continues to at this moment, at this hour, continue to up the ante on Vice President pence to try to do something to turn this around for him. Maria, what are you seeing in the election returns as they stand at this hour tonight . Lawrence, you have known me doing voter latino for a while. Weve been working in the Southern Belt for the last ten years, georgia, North Carolina, arizona. This is, as yamiche said, a coalition of individuals coming together and saying, this is what america looks like. And we have to embrace each and every one of us. Since november 3rd, thousands more people registered to vote. And theyre young, hungry, and they want to send a loud message to congress saying we need change. The one right now who is sh shuddering in their boots is mitch mcconnell. He expected to do trumps bidding, and the republicans would keep him in power. He should be the one who is most concerned. This is a blueprint for North Carolina, texas, and arizona when it turned blue. Texas and North Carolina are now purple states, and its an opportunity for us to bring and unify the country, to give them the Economic Relief they need, and that can only happen making sure they send two Democratic Senators to washington, d. C. And yamiche, the success that these Democratic Candidates are having, and in georgia, its a success to come within 1 of beating a republican statewide if they both actually beat their republican incumbent senators. Then you have a stunning success in georgia. These are not the kind of moderate democrats who used to run for senate in georgia. David perdue got elected to the senate by beating former georgia senator sam nunns daughter, who ran as a moderate southern democrat, much like her father. And here you have two candidates going out there and embracing the left side of democratic policy positions all the way. All the way through a campaign in georgia. Thats right, lawrence. This should not have been a race that was anywhere near a nailbiter as its turning out to be. This should be a race where republicans should be able to win the state of georgia easily. But abrams and so Many Democrats have done the work to make it that these Democratic Candidates can run and be their full selves and lay out what they want to do. The thing that sticks with me is what you saw also in democrats, them bringing all of their visions and all of their allstars to georgia to make the case that they could only do their agenda and carry out a full agenda with progressive ideals if they took control of the senate. We heard president elect biden, we heard Vice President elect harris say this was an extension of the 2020 election. Making the case that the year could not be over until after january 5th. And its true, if we know what a senate controlled by mcconnell and a democratic president looks like. It looks like all sorts of agendas that were stopped by republicans, and now what we see is a georgia that is responding to that message and wanting to put, it seems, at least one democrat in the senate. You have been doing voter organizing for as long as ive known you, which is a long time. Youve taught me a lot about it. It takes persistence, you have to be willing to go through a series of losses, and you have to survive the losses to continue to get victories. Stacey abrams has done that. Hes gone through the losses. Jon ossoff has been part of the losses. The disappointments in the georgia in the past. Where does Stacey Abrams belong in the voter organizing hall of fame . Shes the queen, lawrence. Shes the one who has brought all these different groups of americans in a time of trump tribalism to say, were one, were a voice, were together so much stronger. And we can bring incredible impact and change. But the groups on the ground, the new georgia project, the list goes on. It was a collective effort. And the amount of love that came in to georgia saying we need you, georgia is standing up and rising. You know, everybody kept saying, singing this one georgia song. The one in my head is the devil going out to georgia. But the devil is packing, the community is rising and saying, this is a new pathway for how america can be, for the next decade. Covid relief is on the line, health care is on the line. How we can reimagine work is on the line. And its only if joe biden has a cooperative Democratic Senate that theres the possibility of addressing Climate Change and other things is possible. Thank you for joining our coverage tonight. Really appreciate it. When we come back, well go live to Dekalb County for the latest on the vote count there. Stay with us for our live msnbc coverage for this historic night which will determine which Party Controls the United States senate. Es senate pay off my student loan debt. They were able to give me a personal loan so i could pay off all of my credit cards. I got my mortgage through sofi and the whole process was so easy. Express yourself express yourself express yourself did you know cliberty mutualir. 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Designed to put you in control. With realtime notifications and a week of uninterrupted recording. All powered by reliable, secure wifi from xfinity. Gotta respect his determination. Its easy and affordable to get started. Get self protection for 10 a month. May my story be an inspiration to some young person who is trying to grasp and grab hold of the american dream. And so, georgia, i am honored by the faith youve shown in me. And i promise you this tonight. Im going to the senate to work for all of georgia. That was Raphael Warnock, claiming victory in his Senate Campaign about an hour ago. Nbc news has not yet projected a winner in either of the senate races in georgia tonight. Lets go to Dekalb County, where Priscilla Thompson is outside a ballot processing site. What is the situation there at this hour . Reporter well, lawrence, the poll workers here are still, or the election workers are still hard at work counting the remaining outstanding ballots here. Last hour, we were told there were around six usb cards that still needed to be pulled into the system and tabulated. And were learning that some of that is from election day, and some is from early voting. So theyre doing that now. Working to get the numbers pushed out as soon as possible. We expect that well have them before folks here go home tonight. Theyre saying it could be another hour while theyre working to get that done. And then of course what will be left is the absentee ballots. Officials inside are telling us theyll likely be back in the morning to finish processing those. Although they werent able to give us a specific number how many they have left. But still a lot of work to be done in dekalb as were watching the results continue to come in. It underscores how important the atlanta suburbs were to this race. Democrats said all along the Atlanta Metro area would be important. And what is interesting is that, you know, speaking to voters, were talking about a lot of the numbers tonight. But we shouldnt disregard the passion that was on the ground here in this high stakes race. And how georgians understood that. I want you to listen to a conversation i had with a voter earlier in cobb county. Listen in. When you went in to cast your ballot, what was the number one issue on your mind . My daughter. She is 28 years old. She is in the lgbt community. So i wanted her to be able to live without having any restrictions. Have the same rights anybody else has. I wanted my voice to be heard as a single africanamerican female. Its been a hard struggle. And, you see tears come into my eyes. I wanted to make it count. Reporter and you hear and see the passion among voters on the ground here. And that is really what the democrats were hoping to capitalize on, to sort of drive this turnout. We spoke to senior aides with the Warnock Campaign earlier today as we were seeing the long lines in some republican areas. They said we expected republi n republicans to see the turnout on election day, but with early and absentee voting, it was really a numbers game. And we saw that continue to be reflected as we get the results. But it took many days after election day after all the absentee ballots were counted. And there could be the possibility of a recount with 0. 5 margins. But were beginning to get a picture of this tonight. Lawrence . Priscilla, thank you. Were going to squeeze in a break in our live coverage of the Senate Elections in georgia tonight. Well be right back after this break. Right back after this break. Amazing than ever. Ah, honey isnt that the dogs towel . Hey, me towel su towel. Theres more gain scent plus oxi boost and febreze odor remover in every fling. Gain. Seriously good scent. Love the scent of gain flings . 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Using my old spice moisturize with shea butter body wash. All i wanted was to use your body wash and all i wanted was to have a body wash. Got my head got my hair got my brains got my ears got my heart got my soul got my mouth i got life jon ossoffs campaign has just released this statement, which is in effect a victory expectation statement. It says, when all the votes are counted, we fully expect that jon ossoff will have won this election to represent georgia in the United States senate. The outstanding vote is squarely in parts of the state where jons performance has been dominatdo dominant. Lets go to Steve Kornacki. What do we need to know . We have, we can show you right now, david perdue is 1,322 votes ahead of jon ossoff in the count. Thats 50 50. Tight, 1,300 in a state as big as georgia with 98 of the vote in. In the other senate race, Raphael Warnock with a lead of nearly 36,000 votes over loeffler. Warnock has been outpacing pretty consistently ossoff. So warnock with the vote that is left is looking to add to the lead, get it up and away from recount territory. Ossoff is trying to leapfrog david perdue and build a lead of his own. Were waiting on about 19,000 votes in heavily democratic Dekalb County. Will they come tonight . Will we have to wait until tomorrow morning . Priscilla said maybe an hour or so, well see. The other major piece of outstanding real estate, i talked to the director of elections in Fulton County, 7,500 mailin votes that are yet to be counted in Fulton County. All of the election day vote is down, all of the early voting is done. 7,500 mail ballots still need to be counted. That should be a heavily Democratic Group of ballots. But he does not expect theyll report out the results until tomorrow afternoon. Theres a bunch of different processing issues. They want to report all 7,500 of them at once. They should be heavily democratic. We will not expect to see them until tomorrow afternoon. Dekalb, maybe tonight, maybe in the next hour or so. Fulton, not until tomorrow. And the third piece of outstanding real estate, about 3,000 mailin ballots left to be counted. Officials have left for the night in Chatham County. So thats Something Else to wait on. Its dekalb were waiting on, seeing if that comes in tonight. If dekalb comes in tonight, thats by far the biggest remaining pile of votes out there. And it will be so heavily democratic, it could have a Significant Impact on the two statewide races. Ossoff sees an opportunity not just to catch perdue, but to build some distance. Steve, thank you very much for the update. Well be coming back to you as necessary. Joining our discussion, jonathan alter, author of his very best jimmy carter, a life. That life began in georgia, by the way. David jolly, as well. Also joining us, christina greer, and professor greer, let me begin with you. What are you seeing in these election returns tonight with Raphael Warnock certainly looking like hes in the lead of all four candidates, including himself, who are running. Let this be a lesson to the democrats and especially to the larger dnc, weve ignored so many states over the years and just written off full states and havent really put up serious candidates or really tried to mobilize democratic voters, especially africanamerican voters in those states. And we know that grassroots organizations have done the heavy lifting that the party did not do. Were seeing young, black turnout especially not just in cities but in rural and suburban areas across the state. We saw how black women delivered in alabama with doug jones. This should be a larger democratic strategy. We know that Stacey Abrams and fair fight were in georgia, wisconsin, michigan, arizona, nevada neva nevada. All those states went blue in 2020. I think that we can extrapolate some of the strategies and think about ways that democrats can be much more competitive moving forward in the next 2 to 4 years. Jonathan, it was only three democratic presidencies ago that georgia delivered a democrat to the white house in the person of jimmy carter. This was a very different Democratic Party in georgia, with a different democratic electorate than when carter was running. Its astonishing, the change. Researching carters life and Franklin Roosevelts life, the level of racism, the virulence of the hatred was over the top. The extent of it is impossible to convey to young americans. It was white terrorism in georgia. And so Raphael Warnocks victory, which it seems like will definitely take place, is a true marker in american history. This election, because it is on a pivot point for a posttrump era, is arguably the most important and historic state election in american history. So this was a big night, lawrence, and i think, you know, as we look back on this, the idea of the pastor of Martin Luther kings Ebenezer Baptist church, its almost poetic justice if you look at it in the larger sweep of our history. And david, Raphael Warnock is a firsttime political candidate. Never run before for anything. Jon ossoff has run before, jon ossoff did already build a National Fundraising system for himself. Just to run for a house seat in georgia, where the Democratic Party had high hopes for him. But heres somebody, Raphael Warnock starting off in a state where everyone was hoping, at least everyone outside of the state, certainly, that Stacey Abrams would run for the seat. And she said, dont worry. Dont worry, were going to have strong Democratic Candidates. We dont need me running for this seat. And look where we are tonight. Its remarkable, lawrence. Two very contrasting democratic nominees in tonights races. Warnock representing that new generation, social media, National Fundraising base that hes developed for the Democratic Party. Will bring immediate youth to the United States senate, to be generous about it. And then in Raphael Warnock, a firsttime candidate that is later in life. And more seasoned. Listen, hes somebody that as you listen to tonight, you can tell, he brings a steady hand. A compassionate heart. A wisdom that comes with both his age and service to his community and his convictions of faith. This is a special duo well see come out of georgia. And i dont think anybody quite knows what the future holds for either one of them tonight. Professor greer, we remember senator sam nunn, easily reelected, very popular in georgia. He was popular because he was very moderate. Voted against many democratic initiatives in the United States senate. They didnt mind because they wanted a democrat elected in georgia. His daughter michelle ran against david perdue in 2014 as a moderate sam nunnstyle democrat. She lost decisively. These were not moderate georgia democrats in the sam nunn mold running tonight. No, not at all. This reminds us, all politics is local. These candidates, warnock and ossoff, really felt the moment of georgia. And the pragmatic, i would say, progressivism that is in the south. And building on a conversation that Stacey Abrams started in 2018, and donald trump loomed large in much of the strategy and the policy talking points. We know democrats will consistently be challenged for these senate seats. Republicans will not go quietly into the night. But its not a radical idea to make sure that americans have a living wage or a stimulus check in one of the worst pandemics weve ever seen, and were handling it worse than almost any other country on the planet. And its not radical to talk about health care and the millions of americans and hundreds of thousands of georgians will are living through covid. And when these ideas are explained to voters in pragmatic ways, theyre not pie in the sky ideals. Theyre real fundamental policy positions that can move America Forward collectively. When we think about so many americans, especially georgians, who are struggling financially, not just due to covid, but because of the aftereffects of 2008 and poor republican policies that put them in that position. Were going to squeeze in a commercial break. When we come back, well have the latest on the vote count in georgia. And the latest from Steve Kornacki if there is any new movement in the vote count. Well be right back, after this break. Ight back, after this break. I made a business out of my passion. I mean, who doesnt love obsessing over Network Security . All our techs are pros. They know exactly which parking lots have the strongest signal. I just dont have the bandwidth for more business. Seriously, i dont have the bandwidth. Glitchy video calls with regional offices . Yeah, thats my thing. With at t business, you do the things you love. Our people and network will help do the things you dont. Lets take care of business. At t. I wasnt sure. Was another around the corner . Or could things go a different way . I wanted to help protect myself. My doctor recommended eliquis. Eliquis is proven to treat and help prevent another dvt or pe blood clot. Almost 98 percent of patients on eliquis didnt experience another. And eliquis has significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. Eliquis is fdaapproved and has both. Dont stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. If you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling, numbness, or muscle weakness. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily and it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Whats around the corner could be worth waiting for. Ask your doctor about eliquis. Whats around the corner could be worth waiting for. Vicks vapopatch. Easy to wear with soothing vicks vapors for her, for you, for the whole family. Trusted soothing vapors, from vicks and this is breaking news. Nbc news now projects Raphael Warnock as the winner in the special Georgia Senate election tonight. Raphael warnock, the projected winner, beating incumbent senator Kelly Loeffler with an at this point 36,000vote margin. The votes are up to 40,000, the votes are still being counted in georgia. Raphael warnock is building that lead. Lets go straight to Steve Kornacki at the big board. What just happened to cause this race to be called for Raphael Warnock, and you see the official call on our screen, we got another batch of votes from Dekalb County. Weve been talking about Dekalb County. We didnt get all of the outstanding vote, but we got about 6,000 more votes. There were about 18,000 outstanding. About a third of the remaining vote just came in. Warnock won 91 of the new vote that just came in. So extremely democratic vote that just came in. That, what that does to warnocks lead statewide, it pushes it over 40,000, to a full point. Again, still more than 10,000 votes to come in Dekalb County. You see the dramatic effect that updates from Dekalb County are having. And more will push the lead out further for him. At least 7,500 mail ballots to come, we expect that to come from warnock. T and putting it into a place, the decision desk is looking for, does a candidate get to a place where there is no realistic way that the trailing candidate can get back in it . And warnock is putting it in a place where theres not a realistic path for Kelly Loeffler. And a full point ahead, he seems clear right now of that 0. 5 threshold that could trigger a runoff, if the margin between the two candidates was a half a point or less, its recount territory. But its a full point and growing. Thats why Raphael Warnock is now projected by nbc news to be the next georgia United States senator. And jon ossoff has taken the lead over david perdue because of that big batch of votes we just got out of Dekalb County. The lead for jon ossoff now statewide in georgia sits at 3,560 votes. It was the exact same story in the Ossoff Perdue race. We got a third of the remaining vote, a third of the outstanding vote in heavily democratic Dekalb County. More than 90 of the vote that just came in was for ossoff. It vaulted him into a lead over david perdue. We have been tracking this all night. Ossoff has been right on perdues heels for hours. We said we expected with the dekalb vote he would have a shot to take the lead and he has. And with warnock, and the possibility for him to put that over 50,000, potentially. The possibility exists for ossoff to expand on this lead. What we just got from Dekalb County was a chunk of the remaining vote in decalekalb bu was only about a third of the remaining vote. Again, this is early vote, looks about 90 democratic. There are still plenty more votes to come from Dekalb County. Jon ossoff, he just gained about 4,500 votes. Nearly 5,000 votes. With the further updates from Dekalb County, he could climb up to 10,000, maybe significantly over 10,000 on top of that. 7,500 mail ballots to come from Fulton County. 7,500 mail ballots, vote by mail is heavily democratic, generally. Fulton is heavily democratic. You expect ossoff will continue to build a lead. He could get that well north of 10,000 with what is left in dekalb, and then add to that with Fulton County. And Chatham County, where savannah is. And the opportunity for jon ossoff, one number that may be interesting to keep in mind here is, you mentioned this before, joe bidens winning margin in the state of georgia over donald trump last november was a hair under 12,000 votes. Maybe use that as a bit of a marker here, is ossoff going to get above that biden margin from last november . If so, how significantly will he move above that . An opportunity for ossoff to build some kind of a lead with the vote yet to come. And for Raphael Warnock, hes now trying to im in alabama, i dont know the heck im doing here. Warnock can run away from loeffler now. Hes the winner, and the question is, how high will the margin get for warnock . Steve, thank you for that important update. The most important update of the night so far. And so there we have it. History made in georgia tonight. Nbc news is projecting that Raphael Warnock is the winner in the Senate Election in georgia. Beating incumbent senator Kelly Loeffler. Now 40,000 votes ahead of senator loeffler. We are joined now by jonathan, david, and christina. This is history made in georgia tonight. It is. Im cautiously optimistic, but we do know this country has a long history of excluding black voters and people from the political process. And when we think about soon to be reverend doctor senatorelect warnock, i hope it does set a tone and a pace for other black candidates to be elected statewide. Weve never been able to get a black female governor elected in the history of the United States. Hopefully that will change in 2022. Weve only had two black female senators ever elected. So i think a lot of people are inspired tonight, and not just black americans. David, your thoughts on the history made in this hour . Look, remarkable that the deep south has now elevated an africanamerican senator. We should all celebrate that. The big question for me, lawrence, coming out of this, it appears ossoff could likely win. Where does that leave our politics . Its easy to say donald trump has left the party in tatters, having lost the midterm elections, the senate, and not the presidency. But republicans will say, we had a higher turnout than ever. The senate is still 50 50, and we won seats in the house. What does that mean for biden and democrats governing in washington . Do they go bold, or work against the headwinds . I dont know where our politics sit tonight, but its a big night for democrats. Jonathan, Kelly Loeffler will be on the floor tomorrow as a defeated senator voting against democracy on the senate floor tomorrow. Yes, a member of the decision caucus. We need to focus on this, because they cannot, in the years ahead, go unpunished or they will challenge and litigate every future election. If they think they can get away with it. So i think we need to establish almost the lunacy of what these folks are arguing. Lawrence, i like to use a prop that i hope people will get accustomed to. Some scissors. What theyre saying is clip off the top of the ballot where joe biden won, discount that. But the bottom of the ballot, where i won, that counts. Thats completely idiotic, antidemocratic, and dangerous. And republicans will be arguing for that tomorrow and they must be confronted on that. And we must restore our democracy in the next few years. Thank you all for joining our discussion tonight. The news of this hour, nbc news is projecting that Raphael Warnock has won his Senate Election in georgia tonight. We will continue our live coverage of the Georgia Senate elections all night. Steve kornacki is not going anywhere. Hes pledged not to leave the building until we have results. Ali velshi will pick up our coverage after this break. Pay off my student loan debt. They were able to give me a personal loan so i could pay off all of my credit cards. I got my mortgage through sofi and the whole process was so easy. Express yourself express yourself smells more amazing than ever. Flings now so their laundry isnt that the dogs towel . Hey, me towel su towel. More gain scent plus oxi boost and febreze in every gain fling. And ask your doctor about biktarvy. Biktarvy is a complete, onepill, onceaday treatment used for hiv in certain adults. Its not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights hiv to help you get to and stay undetectable. Thats when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. Research shows people who take hiv treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit hiv through sex. 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In atlanta and the democrats are on the brink ofcr retaking control of the United States senate for the first time in six years, which could help president elect joe biden as he seeks to enact his agenda. Moments ago nbc news projected that the reverend Raphael Warnock has won the seat that republican Kelly Loeffler was appointed to just oneel year ag. Here is what warnock had to say a short time ago about his victory. May my story be an inspiration to some young person