YOLO! GOP lame ducks take parting shots at Trump

OK, everyone, so one week after a hugely historic election, the. most fun thing is happening. in Washington, D.C. this week, and it is called Freshman. Orientation, which basically means. all the new members of Congress from all over the country, the. dairy farmers, the doctors, the loggers, the firejumpers, they're all here in Washington, D.C. and boy, is it glorious. Let's start with the fact that there is 109 new members. in the upcoming House of Representatives,

which is the most in nearly 100 years. It's kind of amazing how big. their incoming freshman class photo is. It's very cool. And I just have to show you, it is what is so unique about this. Look at that. I mean, unbelievable. What is so cool about this is that. this incoming freshman class looks a lot more like America. than I think any incoming freshman class I can remember. And they have been doing videos or posts. because they're also younger.

So they're attuned to social media. And I'm just going to show you some of them. because they are so great. OK, this is one of my favorites. This is the Blue Dog Caucus, which is basically. the moderate Democrat caucus, which was essentially. near extinction for a while. And now it has been rejuvenated by the incoming class. of new members who won in red or purple districts. You can see a lot of them there. They hopped on top of the car for the picture. Look at that. It's quite something.

I mean, you have like a former firefighter, you got the smoke jumper all helping people, Sam Forstag all helping people get on top of the car. It is like perfect. Everything about it is perfect. Then there were other people who posted photos, which is also so fun. Rebecca Bennett, look at that, love it. Dan Coe, they posted for the, like basically first day of school photos. My kids do these, we still do these, even though they feel like they're too old for them now,

but they're not. So Dan Coe has his whole, you know, you fill out like your favorite thing to eat. and your favorite subject, and they're so good. And Rebecca Bennett posted that her favorite subject is, quote, "ending more foreign wars and making. child care affordable," and that when she grows up, she wants to be an example to little girls everywhere, which. I love so much, because here she is, a freshman member of Congress. And then there's one of the races--. there's so many races that we've all been following--.

but one of the races I followed is the Virginia Fox race. And I have talked about this before, and you may remember this, you may have seen it. This woman, the old bat that she is, wrote a mean letter back to a 10-year-old constituent. who wrote her a letter asking basic simple policy questions. She went kind of viral for it. And then she went viral again for it. And the guy who defeated her, Chuck Hubbard, look at that smile. It's so, so good. He's just happy to be here. I don't think he's gonna be writing any mean letters.

to any 10-year-olds, which is delightful. Then there's Zach Malk, who won New Jersey's second district. He posted a bunch of, I don't know, pretty wholesome photos. from what is a mixer of sorts. Look at them. They're just like happy to be here, learning all the things. Many of them probably know how a bill becomes a law. Some of them may be learning how a bill becomes a law, but. they're representing their districts. and the people who elected them. It's pretty cool. And I just wanted to read you the caption he posted. It's so great.

Last night I met a smoke jumper, a math teacher, a dairy farmer, a two-star real admiral, a. firefighter, a VA nurse, a Tejano music singer from Texas, and a three-star admiral. All I would note incoming members from the freshman class. Okay, and then there's the Senate. I've really been showing you stuff from the House. Then there's the Senate, which is equally awesome, even though. they're smaller. The Democrats, of course, are sending a bunch of new members. to the Senate from across the. country. Look at this selfie video. I am so obsessed with it.

It does not have Scott Columbian in it. 'cause he had not yet won his race. and Mary Peltola still counting obviously. But look at this, look how different this group of people. looks from what we see day to day in the Senate currently. It is, again, I mean, you look at that photo, it is a fifth generation logger, it is a doctor, it is a public health expert, it is a Paralympian, I could go on. It is such a cool representation of the country. The last one I just want to show you,

and there's so many of these, but is the Senator-Elect from Maine, Troy Jackson, posing with Elizabeth Warren. They're drinking, you guessed it, boba, a boba-loving lager from Maine. Who would have thought he still won his race? There we go. And now I guess he can just be free with his boba. out there in society. Anyway, it was such good vibes. I love it so much. I just had to share it with you. It's so good. On the other side, we have how the Republicans who got.

absolutely walloped in the midterms, or as my old boss said, would say, shellacked, how they are. handling it. And while Donald Trump and his lackeys have been definitely. scrambling, they've been doing. some just freaking weird things. I mean, for God's sake, Donald Trump named Stephen Miller his. chief of staff. He's doubling down on hugging it out with his vanity projects. All of that is really weird. But some Republicans are embracing, what I would say is their membership in the YOLO caucus. You know, you only live once.

And because I guess when you're not worried. about Donald Trump endorsing you. or Donald Trump attacking you in the same way, you can kind of say what's on your mind. And I'm very much here for it. So here are a couple of examples. Okay, John Cornyn, Texas Senator John Cornyn, who I'm sure you remember lost his primary to Ken Paxton, who Donald Trump decided to endorse over John Cornyn. Well, Cornyn met with Tellerico, the incoming, of course, Democratic senator,

and actually posted a picture of the two of them together. I mean, this shouldn't be breaking news. It's not breaking news, but I think it's very endearing. And he posted with it, "Good meeting with Senator-elect James Tellerico today. "as he prepares to serve Texans. "in the U.S. Senate next Congress.". Again, shouldn't be breaking news, a Republican senator being. cordial to an incoming Democrat, but sometimes we just have to revel in the normalcy of that or. what should feel like. normalcy. We also have Tom Tillis, arguably one of the most.

outspoken members of the little bitty. YOLO caucus. Maybe it will expand over the next six weeks. We will see. Well, he announced he wasn't running for re-election after. Trump threatened to endorse a primary. challenger against him. One of the many ways that Donald Trump, I should say, made it harder for Republicans in this election. I mean, Roy Cooper may have still won, but it would have been a harder race. than it was against Michael Watley. And Tillis has got a lot of thoughts on his mind. He was asked about Stephen Miller, who I already mentioned, being named as the White House chief of staff,

and here's what he had to say about that. - Senator Tillis, good to see you. What's your reaction to Trump naming Stephen Miller. the new White House Chief of Staff. - The worst of all possible choices. How did we think somebody as divisive of a background. as Stephen Miller is going to be the olive branch. we need to the new Democratic majorities in Congress. to get things done? The president made this decision. and the president needs to rethink it. It is a colossal mistake.

And the last thing we need 72 hours. after the ass whooping we got on Tuesday. - Yeah, I couldn't have said it better. I mean, he didn't add that Stephen Miller. is the architect of ICE terrorizing communities. and he is, you know, really loves. on the white nationalist side of his party, but yeah, all of the things that Till has said. So we love that, or I love that. I mean, he's still a conservative Republican, but I mean, good for him for speaking out.

against the Stephen Miller selection the week that the. Republican Party was. absolutely walloped in the election. Then we have none. other than Nancy Mace who. is always quite the character and days after the midterm. shellacking she posted. I would note an AI generated photo of herself with Lauren. Boebert, Marjorie. Taylor Greene and Thomas Massey. First of all Lauren Boebert is. she aware of this. because Lauren Burbard as of this moment. hasn't conceded her race.

But I guess this is what happens. when Republicans are no longer worried. about Donald Trump, I don't know, keeping him happy. Apparently an AI generated portrait. is the way to express that independence, I suppose, if you're Nancy Mace, I don't even know. The good news is is that we still have. six more weeks of YOLO, so I'm so delighted to see what happens. And in the meantime, check out this. - Buy pumpkin, buy pumpkin, buy pumpkin, buy pumpkin.

- That gave me so much joy. All right, there have been so many stories. of Democrats winning. I've talked about a lot of them. We've had a bunch of people on our show. We're gonna have more on the show. in unexpected and exciting places. It feels like we've lived a lifetime since election day, and we've certainly lived maybe two lifetimes. since the weekend before election day. when Representative Haley Stevens, who of course ran against Abdul El-Sayed in the primary,

decided to come out and endorse Mike Rogers. to the surprise of mostly everyone, including people on her staff. The entire saga, of course, was so strange. It was infuriating and included a crooked selfie video, a very odd interview with Anderson Cooper. It all felt terrible. And a lot of Democrats were very, very, very, very pissed off about it. And it felt bad in the moment for this Michigan Senate race, which of course, Abdul El-Sayed won by a very large margin. at the end of the day. Now, after her endorsement,

this is a little bit of where are they now, Hailey Stevens? Where's Hailey Stevens now? Well, basically her entire senior team resigned on the spot. and dozens of her Democratic colleagues, as we may remember, kind of put out full-throated, pretty furious rebukes. of what she had done. see me some even suggested she needs to be kicked out of the. caucus. So that was kind. of how people responded. And we did. But then then the question. is like, what happened to. her because we really haven't heard anything about it since.

then. Well, when Politico stopped. by her office on her first day back in session, it appeared no. one was home. So there was. that the door was locked, the lights were off and there was no. one answering the phones. She's still a member of Congress, right? Because there. hasn't been the transition of power. They're not new members are not sworn in until the beginning of. January so people thought did she skip town? What's going on here? Well, then reporter started to notice that Haley Stevens had. voted on the floor. That means she had been in the building because she had voted. right so she was somewhere. She was somewhere.

Where was she? Where was she? Well, it turned out that Haley Stevens was hiding in the. Republican cloakroom. And I cannot even make up the absurdity of that because that. is, I mean, yeah, or maybe. it's the perfect end to the story. I don't even really know. But what's interesting about it is while there were calls for. her to kind of be removed from. the caucus and just so much irritation about all of it,

including from people like former. Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She was asked about this and here's what. she said, which is kind of fun. I was disappointed in that. I've conveyed that to her. You'll just have to ask her that about what her plans are. But. nonetheless, let's focus on the. very positive. This is a great day for our country. We want a.

great class of very talented. people. I mean, the shorthand for that is, I don't care where Hailey. Stevens is, which also I. should note is what Ernie Carney said, basically that the overall. sense in the Democratic Caucus. on punishing Hailey Stevens is that nobody is even thinking. about it anymore. So went. from very relevant to very irrelevant. in a very, very short period of time. Okay, another thing I've been thinking about. is what we've learned about the 2026 race.

that can tell us anything about 2028. Well, now we don't know who's gonna run in 2028, but there were a couple of big questions going into it. Who would be campaigning? How would they be campaigning? Who would be well-received? Who would give money? Who would win governor's races, which would make it so that Democratic senators. would feel the freedom to run if they wanted to run. because it wouldn't be a Republican. naming their replacement. Well, a couple of things I've been thinking about, again, we don't know who's gonna run, but in the state of Georgia, because Keisha Lance Bottoms won,

that also means that Senators Raphael Warnock. and Senators Jon Ossoff, both of whom, neither of whom, one of whom, could possibly run for president, have the freedom to make that decision. and not worry that their replacement. would be named by a Republican governor. Ossoff, of course, won his race in Georgia by 18 points and also. was one of the most. effective communicators out there, especially on tying. corruption to the impact it had on. people. So there's an argument there. Warnock campaigned all across the country. He even raised $750,000 for Scott Cologne, but he also was.

campaigning in nine other. states and he's been making the case about this Southern. strategy for some time. So it feels very intuitive at this point as we look to the. outcome. So there's then. There's also Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. No secret, he's been thinking about it. Well he won his race by 22 points. He had been talking about flipping four House seats in. Pennsylvania, which most people thought. was kind of a little bit of a fantasy number. Well guess what?

All four of those House seats flipped in his state, so that's. a good argument for him. Governor Gavin Newsom obviously championed Prop 50 last year to. redraw their maps. That passed. That was a total success. Democrats picked up five House seats, and it was a total flop on the other side. So there's part of his argument. Governor Andy Beshear, head of the Democratic Governors Association. There's a lot of factors in these governor's races, mostly about the governor's campaigns and the candidates, but he was head of the DGA, won five governorships, were picked up for Democrats.

So there's part of his argument. Also, he was a huge advocate for Zach Dembaugh, who won in Kentucky six, a seat that Donald Trump had won. by more than a dozen points, I think about 15 points. just two years ago, so there's part of his argument. Mark Kelly, another person who's maybe thinking. about running, he went to 17 states to campaign. He was a huge advocate for national security candidates, people like Nancy LaCour, Christina Knickerbocker, people we're gonna be hearing a lot from. when Hegseth and the impeachment of Hegseth. seems like it's going to be brought up again.

in the winter, there's that, there's Governor JB Pritzker. He put in at least an estimated 40 million dollars of his own. money into helping candidates and people who were not getting. help from the national party. So, Gina Anahosa, he included, he sent 1.2 million dollars. there, 1.19 million, which is a special specific number, to. Scott Cullum in Mississippi, both of whom ended up winning. Then there's Pete Buttigieg, who Sarah Longwell, who's so funny, she joked that he was the.

where's Waldo of the 2026 midterms, as if when you see a. picture of a winning candidate, Pete Buttigieg is probably right there with him. Well he went to 38 states. I say all of this because guess who was a very popular. campaigner during the 2006 election? Barack Obama, and so was Hillary Clinton, and other people who. were running for president. This is about building their network, building relationships, and showing they are well-received and can win. And there are a lot of people who did a lot of work. to try to do that. So, interesting.

Okay, couple of people who probably have not gotten. the flowers they deserve, I just wanted to mention. One of them is Stacey Abrams. Among so many big wins in the midterms. and so much history being made, of course, there was one remarkable first, which was the election of Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia, making that a big piece of history. And while Georgians, and particularly black women, have been celebrating their governor's name, Takesha, I'm sure you've seen this online and in social media, it's pretty great,

many of them have really wanted Stacey Abrams. to get credit to, and I totally agree with that. And I just wanted to play some of what's been said about her. 'cause I think it's just such an important reminder. of all of the groundwork that she has done. to lead up to what we saw just over a week ago. - There's one thing I wanna say. beyond our governor named Keisha, special shout out to Stacey Abrams. - And I thank her, I wanna just give her her flowers. You know what I mean?

I just, while she's still here, we need to celebrate Stacey Abrams. for putting us in this position. because she truly is the reason why. we are in this position right now. - I see a lot of people floating this image around. for Stacey Abrams, and I just wanna give some people. some food for thought, and that food is, some of you are doing the work. that someone else would be the beneficiary of. I repeat, some of you are doing the work. that someone else would be the beneficiary of.

Don't get weary when you believe. that the work that you are doing. is not coming right back to you. It is coming. It's so well stated. I mean, her work, obviously she ran herself. for Georgia governor in 2018, 2022. She lost. But the thing is, is that all of the work she. did in organizing helped. Joe Biden win Georgia in 2020. It helped John Ossoff and. Raphael Warnock win. It's been.

a big part. That groundwork has been such a big part of getting. Georgia to where it. today, which is a pretty purple, even sometimes very blue state. It feels like a blue state right now, but it's quite purple. There's a similar story a few states west of Georgia, and. that's of course in the state. of Texas. And Gina Hinojosa became the first Latina governor of the. state. And of course, James Tallarico is the first Democratic. senator-elect since 1988 in that. state.

And just like Georgia's historic win, I mean, there are shoulders. they are standing on. They run incredible campaigns, but part of the credit here. belongs in part to the work. of Beto O'Rourke, who ran in 2018. He lost the Senate race to, of course, Ted Cruz, and he also. lost in 2022 against Greg. Abbott. But like Abrams, he did a lot of groundwork to organize, to. reinvigorate local parties,

to just get the system prepared to be able to support. candidacies that were outstanding and worthy, like those of Gina Hinojosa and James Tallarico. And my point here is this, I mean, Stacey Abrams and Beto O'Rourke didn't win, but they walked and people have said this before, so that people who were elected this year could run. And if you look at states like Mississippi, where there's actually been some work done. on the state party system for some time, You know, Scott Coulomb is the first example of really winning. there as of late.

But you can invest now in states and look ahead to potentially. reaping rewards in years. to come. But we knew it was coming. We knew it was coming. We had faith from the beginning. And we've been working in Natchez and Adams County and all. across the state. Tell me about some of the work you've been doing. We have, we organized, we organized an apartment dwelling. community as we went. We started early. We started in January, but especially in April, March, we. went to each apartment dwelling. community. We had education meetings. We talked to people.

We brought people from Jackson to talk to people. We brought people from the NAACP, from One Voice, and we. kept going. And then we started having town hall meetings. And we had meetings where we broke out into groups and said, "What are you going to do. between now and Election Day? You got 30 days. You got 28 days. You got five days. You got 24 hours. What's going to happen on Election Day?". We're ground zero at Zion Chapel High and Revels Church on. election day.