LIVE: Schumer Reacts to Warnock Victory in Georgia

The vote came in in the general election and even though he was disappointed that he came close but not at 50 and he'd have to run again he said I'm raring to go and we're going to win the runoff and of course he did by not half a percent or one percent but by close to three percent and it was because he did an amazing thing he was just a person for who had great faith he had great strength he had great conviction he had great caring he's a unique man who has a great future and I was brought to tears last night watching him tell his story in his concluding line in the sentence where he talked about his mom and he said she grew up in the 50s picking someone else's cotton and somebody else's tobacco and last night this is so touching every time I read it I get choked up last night she helped pick her son to be a United States senator only in America only in America you know four years ago I began recruiting candidates in Georgia and my first choice was obviously my friend Stacey Abrams she said I don't want to run for senate but there's someone as good as me if not better Raphael Warnock and it took me a to even convince him to meet with me he was very busy with the job he had at the Ebenezer Baptist Church as pastor of one of the leading pulpits in America the minute I met him I finally met him I said this guy is special if there's anyone who can win in Georgia which was then regarded as a red state it is this guy and it took a few more months of persuasion I had everyone in the sun call him Al Sharpton was on TV today mentioning that and thank God he ran and of course the people of Georgia are better off the Democratic Senate caucus is better off and America is better off because he ran and won and as I said he's going to have a great great future so that's first and foremost Raphael Warnock an amazing man who has now had four victories in two years in what was regarded as a red state and one more point I'd make I give lots of credit to Stacey Abrams she and her organizations helped take a state that was very red and made it purple and it's a lesson for all of us you don't just come into an election three months or six months before but you build organizational strength day after day and year after year okay second I'm going to talk about why do Democrats defy history in these midterms as you know we did it's the first time since 1934 where every Democratic incumbent won with the party and with being the party in power that hasn't happened since 1934 that every incumbent of the party in power won why'd that happen well first because we had great candidates not just Raphael Warnock I Gary and I probably talked to every one of the candidates I probably did every single day and their strength and their vitality and was it was just incredible and they're just indomitable minutes every time there was a setback none of them said oh god it's terrible they just move forward but there are two other points that I would make here why we won why did things change why back in April when everyone thought we would lose seats in the Senate why did we win and I think two things happened and I'll take it in time order first in May and June the public began to realize how far right these MAGA Republicans had gone the Dobbs decision was the crystallization of that of course when people said wow these MAGA Republicans are serious about turning the clock all the way back but then there were the two other two Supreme Court decisions on concealed carry and on limiting what we could do to stop coal plants from poisoning the atmosphere there were the January 6 hearings I think they planned an important effect because people didn't just read about something that happened once but every night they saw on TV these hooligans these insurrectionists being violent beating up police officers I was very touched meeting the Sidnicks yesterday Mrs. Sidnick went to Madison High School we talked about that and they saw all of that and they said wow and then the third thing is they saw that the Republican leaders wouldn't even attack this craziness and so about 10 to 15 percent of the electorate Republicans who said who were not MAGA Republicans who were not Trump Republicans people who said well I'm a Reagan Republican I'm a Bush Republican but this Trump Republican isn't for me and independents who leaned conservative intended to vote Republican started saying this Republican Party isn't for me but in June still they held doubts about the Democratic Party was the Democratic Party doing talking about things they didn't care about or didn't like and could they get anything done and the turning point really occurred that summer this summer where we passed six major bills five bipartisan all of which affected people's lives they were the things people wanted us to talk about making the environment better dealing with high cost of prescription drugs helping our veterans who were unduly dealing with gun safety getting American jobs here not in China with new industries in the CHIPS legislation expanding health care and they said whoa this Democratic Party is the party that I like and by September 1st I thought we'd we'd win the Senate we'd keep the Senate because the combination of those two things was the powerful one-two punch that made us defy all the odds and provided the the right nutrient agar so our great candidates both incumbent and uh non-incumbent uh could prevail and don't take my word for it this is what I read Lindsey Graham said this morning he said quote Democrats have done a good job of picking issues that motivate their base and have wider support among the public we the Republicans need to be doing the same thing I think a lot of people in the Republican Party don't see us doing it emphatically as the Democrats it's one of the few times I'll quote Lindsey Graham with approval but he said it okay the practical effects of the 51-seat majority it's big it's significant it gives us a brief we can breathe a sigh of relief obviously judges and nominees will be a lot easier to put on the bench we are so proud of our record with judges it's one of the most significant things maybe the most even uh things we've done as you know we put on the bench two-thirds are women um half are people of color there are more black women on the federal bench now than there has ever I think more today than all the others combined before we got into the majority we got into Biden became president and we got into the majority and they're they're people who come they know what people's lives are like they're not just corporate lawyers or prosecutors they're public aid um immigration lawyers and consumer advocates and legal aid people public defenders so the bench is looking more like America now it's going to be easier so are the nominees it's been amazing how Republicans have been able to use the 50-50 Senate to procedurally hold up so many appointments it's going to be a lot quicker swifter and easier it's also going to mean that our committee chairs have more flexibility on legislation the number of times chairs came to me and said I'd like to move this bill forward but in a 10-10 committee I can't do it it'll be tied that's all going to change because we'll have the advantage on every committee it's going to mean that our committees will have greater oversight ability subpoena power and people say well it's the Biden administration oh no no no subpoena power can deal with corporate corruption and inequities and other problems throughout the country and it gives us just a lift the fact that we got the 51 votes gives us a just a great feeling enthusiasm unity encouragement in that way and let me just add in addition our caucus has been greatly deep deeply grateful for Vice President Harris's constant schedule juggling to preside over a 50-50 Senate she did a great job we're appreciative it's part of her job but I think she's done a lot of other good things and now she's going to have a little more time to do those things because the need for her to be here will be less next one of the things I hope to do as leader is even in this new electoral climate is reach out to Republicans there are a good number of Republicans in the Senate and the House who are not MAGA Republicans who know that if the Republican Party follows the hard right and the extreme members in their caucuses that they'll continue to lose ground as they've lost ground in 2020 and they lost ground in 2022 and in 2018 in the House and it is my intention to reach out to them and say how we can how can we work in a bipartisan way and you say oh that'll never happen well look at what happened this summer with 50 50 of the six major bills we passed five were bipartisan and it wasn't that every Republican went along with us but most did how many enough did we are going to keep doing that turn left Republicans or at least don't turn hard right it would be a more appropriate um a more appropriate uh thing to do but that's very very that's very very important uh to us um to get things done we want to get things done and if we can get some bipartisan things done it will of course be better for the country but it'll be better for the Republican Party but we'll have a strong healthy Republican Party that believes in democracy and is willing to get things done as well and the final thing I talk about before I'm a little exuberant today I hope you understand that um but the final thing that I would say is this this election both in November and now here on December the 6th shows that Americans believe in democracy during some of the darker times people said whoo the democracy I don't know if it has many days left but both in micro what happened in Georgia despite the efforts of Republican legislature to make it harder to vote our people voted people voted Georgians voted they they said we're not going to let these barriers stand in our way even if we have to wait in line in the rain wait online in the rain but on a larger level overall the American people rejected so many of this of this MAGA extremism both in knocking down and not voting for some of these extreme MAGA candidates but as I said many of the voters in the middle came over to us because they were worried what the Republican party under MAGA control would do for democracy the roots of democracy are deep this 200 plus year noble experiment is not a fluke it's hanging around for a long time as long as we fight for it and we'll continue to do that Gary Peters did an amazing amazing job as head of the DSCC in motivating and uniting our caucus in choosing a great staff and I want to give real credit to that staff I know he will but Christy Roberts who's been with the day I met her when we asked her to run testers campaign back in I can't remember if it was 2006 or 2012 12 I think Shriak ran it in 2006 um uh is incredible I was on the phone this morning with her just thanking her and the whole staff which Gary ran and chose and they were amazing our caucus just loved the way Gary did this job and he deserves kudos accolades credit and happiness for the great work he did Gary Peters well thank you Chuck it is indeed a a great day and a very very happy day and I'll just start off first off with Raphael Warnock what an amazing candidate but more importantly what an amazing individual that he is and it was just so apparent through that campaign and as we talked about candidate quality which was absolutely critical for us to win all of these races you couldn't get a clearer contrast between two candidates than what you saw in Georgia and clearly Raphael's character his tenacity and his ability in a short period of time he's been with us Chuck to do meaningful legislation to help people in Georgia the port of Savannah to local military bases to insulin he definitely deserved to win and we're just so happy for him loans student loans uh he has and what uh hitting the ground that quick uh now that he's coming back for six years you can just imagine what he'll do for the next six years before I say a little bit about the the a little bit more about the campaigns I just want to take a moment to thank Chuck Schumer I've had an amazing opportunity to work with him on these campaigns I first got to see Chuck Schumer when I was a candidate for the United States Senate and I can tell you as a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Michigan a real battleground state I heard from Chuck an awful lot during that campaign uh he is very tenacious he gets involved in the campaign and as a DSCC chair he is an amazing partner he understands these races uh inside and out uh he knows every media market I mean it's uh it's amazing uh uh what how he gets involved and everybody appreciates thank you Chuck for this victory that's why he's exuberant for a lot of reasons but it was a lot of work over some exuberant is him well thank you Chuck I appreciate it uh and I want to thank the the DSCC staff as well Christy Roberts is an amazing person I don't think I would have taken this job if she wasn't going to take it she was really a person a driving force great political mind but everybody on the staff we're blessed with an incredible people on the DSCC who have been working their hearts out the building is empty now because they're all in Georgia it'll take a while for them to come back but we're just so pleased with their work and they require accolades I want to just step back briefly let's let's look at where we were two years ago when when I agreed to take this position and we talked about Chuck and I talked about it we knew this was going to be tough I mean this this was historically a very tough term you had the president uh Democratic president in the White House historically that doesn't look well for the the party we were just coming out of a pandemic people were exhausted of the pandemic the economy was in trouble that is not a great time to be running that's the bad news but I was willing to take that on because I'm used to tough races too in Michigan Michigan is a pretty tough state and it really kind of think represents the kind of the diversity of our country as well and as you know Democrats did extremely well in Michigan this year as well but we knew we could win in a tough environment that but that was the bad news it was a tough environment the good news is it was clear the American people really don't like Republicans that much I mean it was clear in all of our research they were saying they don't offer anything positive they talk about the problems but we all know the problems you saw the ads during the campaign inflation's an issue and the American public said yeah we know that we go to the grocery store we know it's an issue tell us what you're actually going to do about it they never said what they would actually do about it whereas we did as Chuck mentioned the Inflation Reduction Act to reduce cost we had issues to run on our candidates had issues to run on Raphael had a great record in Georgia but all of our candidates across the country could run on that record and then the contrast between them and their opponents was extreme and one of the most powerful issues for us was the right of the choice the choice issue the abortion issue was clearly a motivating factor for our base in all of our states it got people out I mean it Michigan alone at the University of Michigan students who were aligned at eight o'clock at night when the polls closed stayed in line the last student at the University of Michigan to vote was after 2 a.m. they stood in line for six hours predominantly because of the choice we had a the amendment we had constitutional amendment on the ballot and young women in particular but everybody said we are not going to let Republicans take our fundamental right away from us we're going to stay here and vote and we saw that all across the country it made a difference that allowed folks to see the clear difference and just one final note to turn it back over to the the leader here it was also about tactics we knew that we had to have very robust ground campaign and we certainly saw that in Georgia this victory that we just had is a result of just amazing an amazing group of volunteers who all came together volunteered time to get on phones to knock on doors it was an army there as it was in all of our states we made a tactical decision at the DSCC two years ago that we were going to invest more money in the ground campaign than we were in TV and all of the other kinds of things because we knew that these races are all going to be close they're in battleground states by definition they're going to be close but if you're on the five yard line you got to punch across the goal line and that's where you need a field operation and that's what we did at the DSCC we spent more money on that than we ever have in history it was the right decision tactical decision as we move forward and today we have an amazing opportunity to celebrate for all the mentioned so we look forward to going to work i do share chuck's passion to work in a bipartisan way i'm a chair of one of those committees of homeland security i'm very happy to get another member of the democrat democratic member and uh homeland security we're also the chief oversight committee we'll look forward to having oversight of corporate america as well as we move forward with an ambitious aggressive agenda but we want to do this together and we look forward to working together with our colleagues across the aisle as well thank you we'll have questions on this subject i think a good number of the um non-MAGA republicans including some who won in new york i know a few of them pretty well and worked with them when they were in other offices realized that if they follow a MAGA direction they're going to lose and so i think there's going to be a real imperative for them to work with us we'll have to reach out we're not going to get everything we want they won't get everything they want but i think it will work for in it's in everybody's interest that is the democrats all of us and the significant number of non-MAGA republicans in both the house and senate to work together and i am going to pursue that you know with the same kind of energy that we pursued winning this election yes well traditionally you do the democrats do better in a presidential year than a non-presidential year one of the reasons everyone counted us out six months ago was because it was a non-presidential year and we were the party in power and the tradition is that you lose seats in that situation of course we didn't we gained um so i think you know i think uh president biden being on the ticket if if he runs and if he runs i'll support him um it would be very very helpful yes okay well let me say a couple of things first i'm not going to speculate on what we're going to do in the next congress we'll have plenty of time to talk about that and we're thinking a lot about it already um and just in general the child tax credit is something many of us are passionate about and uh we would very much like to get it done it was took half the kids in america out of poverty close to half not quite half that's an amazing thing and it's something that we should aspire to and i think and it was supported by a large you know a majority of americans so we'll yes no i'm not again i'm not speculating about the next congress yes okay these are you know we have great senators we have a large number who are up you name two who are in democratic in uh trump state you know republican leaning states but uh look they're great candidates and we're going to do everything we can to help them yes well she has plenty to do believe me joe mansion and kirsten cinema are great members of our caucus they're very valuable they don't always agree with us on certain issues but they are tremendous contributors to our caucus and we'll continue to work with them nope nope nope next not speculating about the next congress i got it we got to sit down we got to talk to our members we got to figure out the directions we want to go in yes i think the nominees he's put forward have been very progressive and a far cry from some of these trump nominees who are hard right and maga they're an amazing counterbalance and if we continue in the same direction that we've had the last two years i think i'll be happy uh the caucus will be happy but most important america will be happy yes again you know as i said we have subpoena power it gives us certain abilities we will discuss as we get closer uh the various ways we may use them okay last one i think that i think there are going to be a whole lot of areas where the non-mega republicans are going to work with want to work with us for the good of the country but for their own survival it will just not work it will just not work if they pursue a maga line and i think you know i think having talked to a few of them both and not just the new candidates in the senate as well again let me reiterate of the six major bills we passed five were this summer you know june july and early august five were bipartisan people are here to get things done not just to make a speech and be negative and as gary aptly put it in a lot of their campaigns since they didn't have solutions they lost but i think a large significant number of republican senators and republican house members have some solutions they may not always agree with our solutions but they're not here just to make a speech they're here to get them enacted okay nope not going to talk thank you everybody thanks