00:00Next to Joel Rubin, the former United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of State.
00:04Joel, welcome. How do the Democrat Senate gains compare with perhaps what you're expecting?
00:11What surprises you most about these results?
00:16Well, Jamie, it's great to be with you.
00:19And not only was the Senate an overwhelming victory for Democrats, but the House as well and the governorships.
00:26We now see Democrats, we now have 28 governorships, which is a flip to the majority.
00:32And so it's really a repudiation of Donald Trump at its core.
00:36But what Americans voted for was someone desperately, they're begging someone to desperately take on the affordability crisis in this
00:46country and the cost of living issues.
00:48And so I think for Democrats, with this majority, you're going to see Sarah Schumer and Speaker to be Jeffries
00:54pushing for legislation that makes life more affordable for Americans and basically daring Donald Trump to veto that, to set
01:02up a very severe contrast between the two parties.
01:05The American people voted for results.
01:07And I think we're going to see Democrats trying to force results into the system.
01:11Do you think the American public voted for something?
01:15I mean, was this a vote for the Democrats or or a rejection of Donald Trump?
01:21Well, you know, always in the second term of an incumbent's time in office in the midterm election, historically, that
01:29that leader loses.
01:30And so the president's party was going to lose at some level.
01:32But this was such a tidal wave, such an overwhelming rejection of President Trump.
01:39We haven't seen returns like this since 1974.
01:42We saw Democrats winning in deep red states.
01:46We're almost likely going to take Mississippi for the Senate.
01:50We took Texas, Iowa, you name it, South Carolina.
01:54And so it's a repudiation, of course, of President Trump.
01:57But also these candidates for the Democrats were offering an alternative, offering empathy for the situation of the American people
02:05right now, economically, on the cost of living.
02:08There are concerns about how to get by on a daily basis.
02:12And I think that's ultimately what's going to be the measuring stick of whether or not Democratic majorities are effective
02:18in the next year.
02:19What do these results mean for the future direction of the Democratic Party?
02:26Well, right now, the majorities are large enough to kind of paper over some of our differences.
02:31And there really are differences.
02:33There are different wings between the left and the right within the party.
02:37But what the lesson, the big takeaway for Democrats, and I'm talking to a lot of people across Washington this
02:43morning about it, is that we win when we have everybody inside the tent.
02:47When we don't try to push out the left or push out the centrists, but actually try to get them
02:53all inside.
02:54So that's the key takeaway.
02:55And so while we Democrats are uniting, we're already seeing the Republicans fracturing.
03:00This J.D. Vance tweet that you mentioned about Iran is clearly his first attempt to try to say he's
03:06running for president in 2028 and to set up a contrast to Secretary of State Rubio, who was an Iran
03:11war advocate.
03:12So they're going to have a lot of internal battles on the Republican side and Democrats with a large enough
03:18majority.
03:18Now, we might have our differences, but we're going to see a lot of uniformity on the agenda going forward.
03:25In terms of the agenda going forward, what does the next two years look like then?
03:29I mean, how much will these results limit Mr. Trump's power over the remaining years of his term in office?
03:38Well, you know, there is an historic analogy to this, although it's imperfect, which is that President Clinton in 1994,
03:44when he was in the White House, he got essentially destroyed in the midterms by Newt Gingrich in a contract
03:50with America.
03:52And President Clinton triangulated and he worked with the Republicans and they passed significant legislation related to the budget, related
03:58to health care, related to a variety of reforms on domestic policy.
04:03President Trump could do the same.
04:05He has a legacy to think about or he could try to veto.
04:08And if he tries to veto, the next two years will be a clash of visions where Democrats will be
04:14pushing forward bills that say to the American people that we care about your direct concerns on health care, on
04:20education, on the cost of living.
04:22And we'll push those bills because we Democrats have the majorities straight onto the president's desk and dare him to
04:28veto it and then dare the remaining Republicans in Congress to help support that veto and sustain it, even if
04:35their constituents are unhappy about it.
04:37So a lot of contrast coming in the next two years.
04:40Joe, good to see you.
04:41Thanks for that.
04:42Joe Rubin, the former United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of State.
04:45My pleasure.
04:45Bye.
