♪ >> political winners and losers, and drama on capitol hill. >> if you are a democrat, you're in a competitive race next year. >> republicans celebrate key wins on election night. >> on day one, i will been critical race theory from being in our school system. >> including a stunning gop victory in virginia, after the party focuses on race, education, and the economy. >> we are ready to become a boston for everyone. >> also, historic wins by candidates of color. meanwhile -- >> there is no way that you can say that a 12 point swing in a state is due to congress not passing a bill. >> democrats point fingers, following critical losses in a narrow -- and a narrow win in

new jersey. >> i'm asking every house memo to vote yes on both these bills right now, let's show the world that america's democracy can deliver and propel our economy forward. >> and president biden keeps pushing his party to unite nd make his agenda law. plus -- some good news on covid and jobs, next. >> this is "washington week." corporate funding is provided by -- consumer cellular. additional funding is provided by -- the estate of arnold adams. foundation. committed to bridging differences in at unity.

and contributions to the pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again from washington, our moderator. >> good evening and welcome to "washington week." tuesday's election left the gop feeling hopeful and ready for the midterms. but democrats are willing -- reeling from key losses and close calls. in virginia, a first-time self financed candidate terry mccullough, a veteran democrat, and former virginia governor. he won by making race and education a centerpiece of his message to voters and focusing on the economy. there was unsuccessful pushback. >> what we want do is teach everything to our children through the lens of race, we will been critical rooster reformers will system on day one. >> he is bringing his personal culture wars into our classroom. let me tell you this. i promise you, we will not let

glenn young can use our young children as political pawns for his political campaign. >> it's important to note critical race theory is not taught in virginia's public schools. but gop voters were motivated by that issue and others and turned out in record numbers. meanwhile in new jersey, democrat phil murphy narrowly won his second term as governor. he was a second democrat and 44 years to win the election in that state. there were alssome historic wins, sears, elected the first black woman lieutenant governor of virginia and statewide in office. >> i am at a loss for words, for the first time in my life. what you are looking at is the american dream. [cheering] the american dream. >> in pittsburgh, ed gainey was elected the city's first black

mayor. in boston, michelle will became the first woman and person of color to be elected mayor. joining me tonight to discuss what all of this means for president biden's agenda and elections in 2022 and 2024, i know we are talking about those years already, aaron haynes, editor at large for the 19th, and joining me is studio, the national politics reporter for cnn, kelly o'donnell, the new senior white house correspondent for nbc news, so congratulations for that, and dave waterman, senior editor for the clip political report with amy walter. thank you all for being here. the gop had a great election night. a lot of it was focusing on race and education. i wonder what your biggest take away is from the fact that strategy worked, especially when you think about our country's history and where we have been as a country and where we are going. >> well, let me add my convention wishes to kelly, too. i'm so jealous i am not in studio with all of you tight. it's nice to be in person again. critical race theory is the big

lie of 2021 and the modern-day southern strategy. that is appealing to white voters. education is the 2020 version of economic grievance. i was covering race as a reporter for the associated press before i became editor at large at the 19th. i know from talking to voters and covering campaigns that race-based appea to voters are increasingly an aspect of gop politics. one that the former president certainly capitalized on in his elections, but it's not new to our politics in this country. and it is one that correct candidates are testing to see how successful the strategy can remain. and we saw that was effective at least in virginia on tueay night. as you mentioned, record turnout on both sides. democrats and republicans got more votes in this gubernatorial race than they did in 2017. you saw youngkin winning out.

this is the message that resonated with virginia voters. >> aaron, a lot of people couldn't define what critical race theory was. even though it is notaught in schools. tell me about people's ability not being able to define it and being motivated by. -- by it. >> politics are emotional. you don't get a more emotional boater -- voter than a parent in a conversation about education, being the second most popular issue with voters and regina, according to some of the polling that we saw. this fight is not even about critical race theory. a lot of people were not sure what it was, they just knew they didn't want it. this is really just about a larger conversation on a continuum in our country and in virginia about how history should be taught in our schools and recognizing our society -- recognized in our society.

many cases have been part of this. there's still a debate among some people in this country about what the civil war was actually about. whether it was about slavery or whether it was about states' rights. yet yet you that history can't really be changed, but it can be forgotten, if it is not taught, is something that we have to consider in this conversation. you would think that we already learned this lesson is a country, yet we find ourselves here again because race remains so potent in our politics. >> race absolutely is remaining potent. i want to come to you. you called this race at 8:25. you reported this and the networks followed you. can you talk about how much this gop playbook -- can it be replicated in 2022, even 2024? also talk about the run numbers that you saw that you have been looking at. >> a couple of scary things here for democrats -- the first was the consistency of the swing the republicans that was on tuesday.

virginia is a state that voted by biden by 10 and young kin by 2.5. looks like film murphy is going to win by 3.5. if you superposed that swing on the entire house of his and vapes in 2022, -- house of representatives in 2022, the macaws would lose 51 seats. -- democrats would lose 51 seats. republicans are having success running candidates in the suburbs who don't look or sound like trump. terry mccullough's message the last two weeks was glenn y oukin is glenn trumpkin. voters didn't buy it. he comes from the corporate boardroom. virginia voters actually like those cans of candidates. they elected mark warner. -- those kinds of candidates. they elected mark warner. it shows democrats are having trouble transiting was going on in d.c. to voters -- to

voters' everyday concerns. th are not looking at the infrastructure package is addressing their top two concerns, which are right now the cost of living and education. on education, i don't think it was so much that voters endorsed len -- glenn's position on critical race theory. it became a catchall on parent'' frustration on what happened with sool closures. -- what's happened with school closures. they look for alternatives. >> when you think about transgender rights, the rights of lgbtq people, that was lumped into this critical race theory. i want to talk about democrats and their losing what voters. -- white voters. do democrats have an issue here with their hemorrhaging of these voters, maybe it's not as pronounced? >> look, this has been a growing problem for democrats for a very long time.

terry mccullough won fairfax county by 30 points. he still lost the state, because rural white turnout was extraordinary. if you told me before to say that terry mccullough would win close to 1.6 million votes come i would've said he would probably win. but he lost. because the trump-based turnout was so massive that they are fired up at joe biden, the intensity of opposition to mocrats in washington has amped up a lot in the last couple of months. one of the exclamation points underlying is that democrats lost to district south of richmond that are plurality black. it wasn't because blood voters defected to republicans. it wasn't because -- it wasn't because black voters defected to republicans. it was because white voter turnout was phenomenal. >> thank you for coming back on the show. congratulations with cnn. he spent a lot of time covering the virginia race. i saw a lot of your stories.

talk about what you think democrats did here, how they failed to win this race. if you can talk about what it means for future elections >> terry mccullough focused so intensely on trump, it came at the expense of -- what it did was it drowned out all of his other issues. if you are just a casual observer of this race, you would think that glenn y. random or policy focus camping. -- ran the most policy focused campaign. he was very disciplined with his message. but there wasn't a lot of depth to his day one game plan. it was succinct, it was easy to understand, he repeated it over and over on the trail. you could go to his website and read the paragraph long plan. but terry mccullough, he had pages and pages of policy on a -- on his website, a plan for lifting up like virginians, but you didn't think about that when you thought about terry

mccullough, all you thought was about donald trump. that was a really big mistake. there was a woman on the campaign trail that came up to terry mccullough and said, don't forget abut the climate. in his gregarious politician way, he goes, go to my website -- read the plan. i'm thinking, why don't you -- why aren't you leading with this? why are you leading with characterizing glenn y. as trump ? another aspect of this race is, his team really kept him shielded from, i would say, lengthy interviews. there wasn't a lot of picking away at the day one game plan, there wasn't the opportunity to ask him really rigorous questions. i would've loved to have had the opportunity to ask him, besides content of your character, what other messages and readings from dr. king informs his ideology. i would've loved to to have asked him more about this critical race theory. that's become a numberless term for diversity, equity, and

inclusion, white supremacy, systemic racism. it's become a catchall for everything, that is how conservatives define it, not as just the academic legal theory that it is. >> you are saying you would've loved to ask those questions, i would've loved to see him answer those questions you were just posing to him. i think they are critical answers we didn't get answered by him. kelly, you were traveling with the president. he was landing, of course, he slid into the news that youngkin lost. how does the president think about how his standing -- how democrats did on election, and is there any sort of strategy change, talks of strategy change within the white house? >> this should have been an alarm going off everywhere in the biden white house. regarding the factors with the numbers, we should see that play out in changes, if they are going to be listening to the seriously. at the same time, i think they were quite willing to separate themselves from the candidate

mistakes that terry mccullough made. he is part of the old guard of politicians. glenn y., a fresher, newer face, that might've slid into some of this, too. you've got the fear and the fatigue and the fire of the fire of this election, where you have people who are just tired of covid rules -- tired of the wariness of what life has been like. you had youngkin talking about things like grocery store bills. that's theind of stuff joe biden needs to be talking about, those everyday issues. now after the election, some new fire from president biden, trying to get his own agenda passed, putting new pressure on democrats in congress to act, saying it would've been helpful if they had gotten more done. we know history is a part of this, too. typically the party of not the white house has a better night in the midterms. they have headwinds of their own

making come of the landscape, and historica all kind of conspiring against the fate of the political winds for joe biden. can he turn the momentum? good job numbers today would've been helpful before the election. if that's something that can help turn the corner, that may be useful for the president. but there are real lessons for the biden white house to be learned from this election. will they listen and will they change some of the strategy, on how they talk about some of these issues? that's what we ll be watching. >> that's a critical question. i also question the president wednesday about how democrats plan to counter the culture war strategy used successfully by the gop. >> what your message for democratic voters, especially black voters, who need republicans running on race, education, lying about critical race theory, worried that democrats don't have an effective would've pushed back on that -- an effective way to push back on that? >> speak the truth, lay out where we are. i just think people are at a

point, and it's understandable, where there is a whole lot of confusion. everything from why we can't get covid under control, to, are my kids going to be in school? they are all things we are going -- that i am running on, that we will run on, and i think we will define. >> aaron, what do you make of the president's response? what does it say about democrats' ability to talk about the issues in a way that i think it gets at the sort of worries that democratic base voters are worried about democrats losing on tuesday? i wonder if you can talk about what his response might mean to those voters. >> democrats at least in virginia -- there was no real response. terry mccullough attempted to respond to the critical race theory question. one of his final ads featured toni morrison, a voiceover with danny glover, telling black

voters, we know what this is about, don't let them try to take your voice in those final hours. but turnout really was not the question -- as was mentioned before in this program. used to record turnout from democrats -- you saw record turnout from democrats and republicans. there's a messaging issue when it comes to race. democrats are going to have to figure out how to address this, because race is going to be a part of the playbook in 2022, 2024, and beyond, because it is effective. we don't know how much o a factor infrastructure and the build back better bills passing would've been in the selection -- bills' passing would've been in this election. a lot of the black voters i talked to certainly are wondering, here we are this week, year out from the historic election where you saw black voters as part of the coalition that sent biden and harris to

the white house, that gave them a democratic majority in congress, and a year later, a lot of those black voters are wondering what they got for those efforts -- where is this administration on police reform, how hard are they fighting on voting rights? you saw the senate rejecting once again federal voting rest legislation, even as voter suppression bills continue to be put into place at the state level. i think for a voters, not only are they concerned with the culture where the essene player at the state-level and national politics, but they are very much wondering where their policy priorities are in terms of this administration and the other elected lawmakers the helped sent to office a year ago this week. >> on wednesday, senate republicans blocked the john r lewis voting act. the bill was designed to restore some protections from the landmark 1965 voting rights act. this is the second major voting rights bill derailed by a gop filibuster in the last two

weeks. eva, democrats don't have a successful strategy right now, while the gop has been really efficient and successful at passing these laws. when you talk to voters, how much is that on their minds? >> it is somewhat. ultimately, i don't think that because democrats were not able to pass a bill, i think that the impact on terry mccullough maybe has been overstated, but it certainly could have helped him. the same voters, democrats keep coming back to, they are looking for results. they are not just looking for talk. i also want to say though, that this idea that youngkin ran up the margins in a what -- and white rural areas, the sense that i get from democrats is that they can't continue to see those voters. they need to elevate candidates. perhaps progressive candidates of color. with backgrounds similar economically to white rural voters that can speak to those

communities. >> dave, i have to sort of ask you there's new jersey, new york -- but we got good news today on covid, there's this pill that might be effective for helping people, the most at risk, stay out of the hospital, kids are also getting vaccinated. i wonder based on that, do these numbers at all -- does that have any impact on democrats? can they seize on that? or is it going to be part of the polarization of all this? >> there are still 12 to months until the midterms. and -- 12 months to go until the midterms, and that is a lot of time. 20 months ago, joe biden's political aspirations were on life support after coming in fifth place in the new hampshire primary. we were talking about mortgaging his house to keep his president should camping alive. thanks can change a lot in a year. >> they do. >> it is possible that we could

see a rebound in biden's approval, if we are not talking about covid next year, if inflation is not as severe as predicted. the number one issue that voters are feeling, that they are telling the members of congress about right now is the rising cost of goods. if democrats can't get it under control, the party empowers going to suffer. >> the other thing we want to talk about is that after weeks of negotiations, democrats still have not reached the final deal on passing the president's agenda at this hour. friday, house speaker nancy pelosi planned to hold votes and see where things land. >> we are in the best place ever today to be able to go forward. we have not had this level of progress. >> but it's unclear whether progressive and moderate democrats will be able to come together. kelly, you have reporting that

the president is basically on the phone trying to get his party to vote tonight -- it is still early in their minds. where do things stand right now? how much is the president tried to push this through? >> this has been a trust exercise and the president is really going all in tonight. you would think that would've alreadyappened. the president is asking tonight house democrats to trust him, that if they vote for the infrastructure bill, that he will garner the support needed to also deliver the build back better bill,, as they describe it, the sweeping climate and social programs bill. the concerns progressives have had is if you decouple those two bills and pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the other one -- then the other one will not pass. one of the challenges has been these two wings of the party, moderates with their concerns, who have been taught a real lesson with tuesday's results, concerned about big spending, concerned about the deficit questions, that we don't have the former cedia score, they've

raised concerns -- cbo scores, they've raised concerns. they are holding off because they've demanded these two bills be together the whole way. here in this 11th hour, decoupling them sort of changes their strategy. can they go forward? this is such a test. the house is due to be out. when you look at the available calendar left for actual legislating, it is dwindling. this is really the time to get something done and it appears the president is finally using the "i need you to vote" card, which he has not done until this point, which is very notable. 1 >> more thoughts on what's going on? -- >> your thoughts on what's going on? >> moderates and progressives are just captured in this perennial struggle. we just have to see ultimately if they are able to get this together. the longer that it drags on,

the worse that it looks for the president and for the party. how can you continue to ask for people's votes, when you have control of the house, the senate, the white house, and there's a complete lack of cohesion -- it makes everyone look weak. the reflexive response from moderates as a result of the election results was maybe no surprise, we should move forward with moderation. but the energy i think in the democratic caucus is with progressives. the excitement. i don't necessarily think it might be the best strategy to tamp them down, and to weaken sort of where -- i think the most excitement from the party is coming from right now. >> we are going to continue to wash that situation. it's moving and developing hour-by-hour. we will keep you updated. that is it for tonight. thank you to our guests for your reporting. thank you for joining us. tune in next week to the pbs newshour for tele-band take over. jane ferguson is on the ground

in afghanistan come as millions face starvation, and what officials are warning is becoming the worst humanitarian -- largest human italian crisis. today at the washington national cathedral, many gathered for the funeral of general colin powell, the first black u.s. secretary of state, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, he helped shape the foreign policies of several republican a ministrations. rest in peace, general powell. we will continue our conversation about elections in the future of politics on the washingtonweek extra. find it on our website, facebook, and youtube. good night from washington. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

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