Page 845 - Midterm News Today

Democrats, dont forget, resist was good enough for republicans to win back the house in 2010. resist is good enough. americans like divided government. they generally dont like to give one party too much leeway as they go forward, and that is just -- that is a natural proclivity. that is why we have presidents generally losing large numbers of seats from their party in the first midterm. there is a historical precedent. as for the republican message, how do you run on a platform that says americ...

Hear that thoughtful conversation back and forth between the left and right about what is the message moving forward, the democratic message we should point out, we havent gotten into this part of the onion yet, resist, resist, resist. we didnt hear that, as bret pointed out, because it is more conservative, ruby red, as you heard. but resist, resist, russia, russia, that is what we will hear in a whole lot of other districts. what is the republican message, do you think, moving forward? >> on t...

Lot to coffer there this morning. thanks. >> julie: lets get to closely watched special congressional election in pennsylvania. as we still await the official results in the matchup between republican rick saccone and democrat conor lamb. the race which by the way is still too close to call. drawing national attention as bill weather for the midterm. rick saccone is not conceding yet. >> took little longer than we thought. we did it. >> were practical people. were serious people. tonight, we cel...

Happens. they know its closer than it should be. they know that their candidate is severely underperforming. and for whatever weaknesses saccone has, he is a relatively standard republican candidate. and so running on the issues he is running on, being a republican this year and underperforming to the extent that he is, you talk to republican strategists, and theyre saying we need to figure out almost on the fly if there is a new message we should be adopting as a party, how were going to handle...

Fun, but that could be where were headed here. >> are you available, mr. klein, for a recount? given your former experience, would you like to -- >> you might want someone who wants a recount this time. one observation i would like to make which is 2018 is a midterm unlike any other. its the first time you had a record number of retirements by the party thats in power. what that means is, we talked a lot tonight about who the democrats will select to run in 2018. the republicans are are goigoin ...

Of a point. if its under .5, its a recount. if lamb were to gain votes here in washington, if it was a loss to westmoreland, he could still push it in that vote total. >> steve kornacki, thats why were asking that you not leave the big. this young, would-be member of congress had to make a commercial to say he wasnt going to go with nancy pelosi. do the democrats in washington understand. a republican, who is up in this midterm is going to run against. >> theres no question about that and youve ...

Done. >> could not get it done. looking ahead to the midterm, steve, can democrats pull clear lessons here beyond having a candidate that fit the district which they havent had in past special elections? >> yeah, look, i think the lesson and maybe its not just for democrats or maybe the indicator, thats the better word, the indicator that comes out of this is this is not an isolated event that we just saw here in pennsylvania 18. look at it this way. from the start of donald trumps prt si, presi...

District, what does that mean for the 23 districts that hillary won but republicans hold in congress? setting up blue wave. saying as republican not trying to bring ominous tone but reality is democrats won big and every republican is terrified of the results this evening. >> for democrats in washington or running around the country, trying to flip republican seats, what is strategic lesson. heard that conor lamb is of the district, cultural fit of the district, little bit at odds with the natio...

Committee is a useless organization. >> i dont think anybody is covering themselves in glory. there are two important points in looking forward, one if we are going to protect our election in 2018, this midterm, we have to start drawing conclusions and getting some next steps and so wrapping up some portion of the investigation ma-- makes sense that end. and you have to remember that the democrat leading the intelligence committee is spending more time in cable news green rooms than in the intel...

Opposition party, whether its republicans with obama or democrats right now, they dont have to do too much because the nature of these elections is like you want to check whoevers in the white house. how much of that is carrying everything were seeing tonight and this last year? montana, south carolina, these swing states -- how much of it is gravity of politics? >> i think thats a big part of this. we dont live in a parliamentary system. if youre unhappy with whos in office, we pretty much have...