Democrats take control of Congress | What's next?

results. Democrats are set to take control of the Senate with 54 seats. Seven of those have flipped from red to blue. Those states are Maine, Iowa, Ohio, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas. Democrats are also taking back control of the House with 228 seats so far. There are still several seats left to be called. Voters also flipped five governor mansions as well. We're talking Texas, Iowa, Ohio, Georgia, and Texas as well, as we said before. President Trump congratulating Democrats, but letting them know it's not going to be an easy path forward. Congratulations to the Democrats. They did a good job. After a couple of months of vetoes, they'll call and they'll say, how do we get this stuff done? And we'll work together. All right. The president sharing this on his True Social, a new merch item with the word veto on it. All right. So that's what we can expect, I suppose, for the next couple of years. What we can expect in actual detail here over the next two years is Mr. Trump's presidency with political science professor in Sonoma State, David McEwen. David, first of all, I just want to say that House Speaker Mike Johnson just announced a few minutes ago that he's not going to be seeking re-election to be the minority leader, I suppose. Yeah, I mean, after last night, it'd be really hard to do that. He was talking about the day before that everything was a mirage, that they were going to do OK. That opens things up quite a bit for leadership in the House for Republicans on the minority side. I think the key question is, how do Democrats interpret this? Do they interpret this as a referendum? If it's a referendum, you do investigations, you subpoena people, you do impeachment for a third time. However, there will be a lot of pressure to do that. But you look at it as a backlash. You provide a counter program for government. That's what voters want. That's, I think, the big message out of it is counter programming. And that helps you in 2028. Do you think the voters have an appetite for that? this before, they want to see, you know, something new and different, not a lot of the same. That's correct. We did do the impeachment kind of saga before the investigations. Again, a lot of pressure to do that, especially around the Trump family and some of the deals there. However, in terms of having a backlash, then you're running a counter program on groceries, fuel prices, these types of things. This is what the issue is that I wanted to talk to you about, because right now, the real reason a lot of people appear to have heads of the polls is the affordability issue. Right. So if you start talking about impeachment and all this other stuff, you're going to lose people over this. Right. So. So, you know, is that something that you're watching to see how Democrats approach this once they take back the House and Senate in January? Right. And throughout the year. There's been this Democratic Party civil war, right, with the DSA types. The DSA types and mainstream centrist Democrats agree on the pocketbook issues focused around affordability. As you move out to other issues, DEI, foreign policy, that loses people in the middle and it splits the Democratic Party. So if you focus on the economic questions, that helps you in the near term. That includes health care. Healthcare will take a grand bargain with the president because one of the big aspects of HR. H.R.1 is throwing people off of that health care subsidy. California can't make that up. If you look at California itself, 40 of 58 counties are less than 200,000 residents. They're rural. The numbers for health care for older and poor individuals go way up in 2027 to 2035. You've got to deal with that. That's a national problem. California is not alone there, for example. How about 20? We've got 2028 coming up. Yeah. Twenty thirty two. Could this leak into twenty thirty two as well? It's going to take a while for Republicans to get a stronghold. Yeah, I think so. In this sense, too. If you look at class three, those are the senators that are up in twenty twenty eight. You see people like Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. Now, Wisconsin's a battleground state and important element here. But he's also a hard Trump guy. He's with Trump. He's not going to flip or get soft here. But Wisconsin has a battleground state, Wisconsin, Michigan. Which we know what happened last night in Michigan and Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania's seats flipped. Those three states have gone with the winner every election since 1992. So the dynamic there for Ron Johnson changes. But what you'll see is Republicans that are left are those that are part of MAGA and really with the president. And so that could create some difficulties within Congress itself. And that spills over to 2028 with these class three senators and with, I don't know, the 30 or 40 people that are going to run for president. I think you two. Yeah, right. Yeah. I might as well. The way things are going. I do want to talk about the immediate after effects. So because we have a couple more months, not even a couple more months before the new Congress is sworn in. But there is a lot happening with the current Congress and the president leading up to that. Can you talk a little bit about that and what that could pose? Yeah, right. The lame duck session comes up in early December before. Or then you have the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference in the Philippines. The president will be there. Xi Jinping of China will be there. Then you roll into that early December meeting. At that time, you've got to fund the government. You've got to fund the Defense Department with the National Defense Authorization Act. The government runs out of money December 11th, and then December 14th and 15th. At Mar-a-Lago and in Miami is the G20. The Russians will be there. The Chinese will be there. What does that look like? Do we start bombing in Iran right away? And we won't have Israeli elections settled for a couple of weeks, perhaps near the end of the month. That's before you get to January 3rd, which is a Sunday, and that's when the new Congress, the 120th, starts. There's a lot, potentially, that happens for a guy who doesn't respond well when he's cornered as well. Do you see changes in his cabinet? Yeah, I think that Susie Wiles, the chief of staff, this is the time when people gently move on after a midterm like this. That is the traditional approach. Thanks for your service. That means Pete Hegseth. Living on borrowed time, perhaps not even until January. Susie Wiles, chief of staff, who's been the architect of managing Trump, she leaves. What happens to Doug Burgum? And I'll give an example. Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, he's dealt with all of these monuments and issues in and around D.C. He would be called before the House Committee on Natural Resources, headed by Marin County's Jared Huffman. Does he want to be facing Jared Huffman every other week in terms of answering for these things? So watch what Doug Burgum does. He's been a very core. Thank you revive that and reconstruct that And look, we will Once Trump realizes that he has this lame duck status, he's not going to go gently into that fair night. So what does he do there and how does he react? And what does that do around the table within his cabinet? But what are the possibilities there? What concern would, if you are on the opposite side here, what are you concerned about how the president will react? The idea is some type of message discipline. The message discipline here was I recruited these candidates. These candidates lost. No, I didn't recruit these candidates. Oh, I'm on the ballot. Pretend I'm on the ballot. That message discipline did not work this particular election. And it was a foregone conclusion in this sense. 20 of the previous 22 midterms, the in-party loses. The second midterm is the worst time. Guess what happens? This is history. It's not Trump or Republicans or MAGA. This is how it works, and it's only worked this way since the Great Depression, and in the second midterm, only since the Civil War. It's the law of political gravity, the black hole of midterms. That's what we saw last night. How about the trifecta? When you own the House, you own the Senate and the executive branch. That's right. Does that ever last? It doesn't last. These are very short-term, thank you, they don't last in the sense that Americans like divided government. They're frustrated by divided government, but they like divided government. That's the Jekyll and Hyde voter. But, but, okay, but. But, you know, when we were talking earlier before we were on air about this, the fact is that the, you know, the Republicans might have lost now Congress, but all they have to do is wait another few years before, you know, before they can possibly get back in again. So what's the incentive to really make any real changes? Right. This lurch to and fro. You have the trifecta and then you have this adjustment and Democrats come out on top. And if Democrats have 55 votes in the Senate, that strains ambassadorships, any appointments to replace people in the cabinet, the gavel, the agenda, all of that changes. And as a result, if you're the Republicans, especially in the Senate, where you have the right of personal privilege, you slow down legislation as much as possible. The first quarter of the year, perhaps nothing happens. It makes for a long, hot summer in D.C. Next year, setting up. Just as candidates are able to gather money and fundraise headed into 2028 if they want to run for president. How much sleep you get last night? A couple hours. A couple hours. A couple hours. Well, we're going to keep you here if that's okay. We're going to chat with you next hour as well. That is David McKeown. We're going to check back with you, as mentioned, shortly. And we've got more results and much more coming up.