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Democrats Win House of Representatives and Republicans Increase Senate Majority in Midterm Elections; Interview with Counselor to President Trump Kellyanne Conway. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired November 7, 2018 - 8:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[08:00:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Baby steps.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Baby steps, OK. In about three hours, the president is going to hold a White House press conference to talk about the election results. So let's go to Jeff Zeleny at the White House with new reporting on the president's mindset. I take it, Jeff, he's not going to say it was a thumping or shellacking in the House.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Alisyn. No, President Trump is not going to use either one of those words we certainly do not expect. International I am told that, quote, he feels vindicated. And that's what we were told the president is going to say is his mindset going into his press conference. He feels upbeat largely, in fact only because of the U.S. Senate primarily, the races that he campaigned in. He's going to talk about that. I am told he is going to give a speech before the press conference, probably a lengthy one talking about all the places he campaigned. He of course will talk about those Senate races. He campaigned in Florida, in Indiana, in Missouri. He also campaigned in Montana. That is the one he really wanted to win. That is too close to call this morning. But I am told the president is going to seize victory.

But one thing that is unclear is exactly how he is going to address and discuss and in fact work with potentially the new Democratic majority in the House. The White House press secretary Sarah Sanders late last evening said the president had no plans to call Nancy Pelosi. She said we would he. It turns out that's exactly what he did overnight.

So talking to a White House official here this morning, I asked what this new dynamic is like with the White House and the new soon to be Democrats in control of the House. They said we are taking our cues from the president on this. So they are not yet sure what exactly he is going to say in terms of working with them. But look for the president to talk specifically about his victories.

One other thing. We were talking to allies of the president, some who were with him last night here at the White House as he was watching all of these results come in. They are not sure that he fully appreciates and understands the weight of what is about to change in Washington, particularly with the prospect of those investigations. Of course, that is something that could affect people throughout the ranks of government, at agencies, other places here. Talking to one ally of the president this morning who has talked with him recently said we are not sure that they understand the weight of all of that. So this is something that will of course be coming into full view here even as the Russia investigation also returns to the front burner.

At the same time the president looking ahead to 2020. He was asking his advisers what they thought the results last night meant for him two years from now. John and Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: All right, Jeff. We have the person who can answer some of those questions for us. Joining us now is counselor to President Trump, Kellyanne Conway. Great to have you here in studio.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: Welcome to Washington.

CAMEROTA: Thank you very much. It was an exciting night. So what changes this morning? Now that Democrats control the House, what changes in Washington?

CONWAY: Well, that's a question for the Democrats as well, Alisyn. The president has shown his willingness to work across the aisle on say the dreamers, DACA. Last January he was willing to make a deal on NAFTA and Democrats walked away from the table.

CAMEROTA: Hold on, because you know Democrats see it differently. They say that they had a bipartisan bill. We've interviewed Senator Chris Coons who says they were willing to give money for the wall, and the president reneged at the last moment.

CONWAY: That isn't exactly what happened, but immigration is also a very complicated and complex issue. It is not just the wall and it is not just DACA. It also is the president's call to end chain migration, the visa lottery system, for example.

But more to the point, this president is the consummate dealmaker. He is a negotiator. He's willing to work with Democrats. He just passed historic opiate legislation with every single Democrat voting for it in the House and the Senate. So he led on an issue. They joined him. He has shown his willingness to work on infrastructure, spending bills, certainly.

And, really, I think the question is for the Democrats, a number of Democrats won House seats last night in swing districts. Are they going to go home and say to their voters that, hey, there is a big appetite now for endless investigations and subpoenas? People like when you focus on the issues and not just investigations. That's a question for them as well. I know last night that Nancy Pelosi did not mention investigations and subpoenas in her statements and in her phone call with the president.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about that. What did he say to Nancy Pelosi, and what did she say to him?

CONWAY: He's always willing to work with people across the aisle. I think that the big story from last night is how his engagement made history yet again. Only eight times in the last 80 years has the president's party in power picked up Senate seats at all. He picked up at least three, possibly five as the counting goes on.

CAMEROTA: What did he say in that phone call?

CONWAY: He is going to tell you at his press conference today how he feels about all that. But as you can imagine, we have had Minority Leader Pelosi to the White House many times in the past, and Mr. Schumer as well. You have to do what's good for the country, and he's willing to do that. But again, if we are going to call for unity on the one hand, on the other hand talk about incessant investigations, I don't see what the appetite is there.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about that because there does seem to be an appetite, for instance, the president's tax returns to be released.

CONWAY: Respectfully, is this really what we're talking about today after we've had historic gains in the Senate?

[08:05:01] CAMEROTA: Yes. Because there will now be oversight that hasn't existed for the past two years. So there will be more oversight, and as you know, Democrats have long wanted there to be more oversight of this White House.

CONWAY: Well, sure. Some of them it seems to be all they talk about. But what do their voters think? What do their constituents think? The last time the Democrats did, let's just say, an extra investigation it was during the Kavanaugh hearings, and the four Democratic senators who voted against Brett Kavanaugh all lost last night. And Manchin won.

CAMEROTA: Kavanaugh does --

CONWAY: It showed how ham handed they were about an investigations.

CAMEROTA: Overreach always -- for sure.

CONWAY: Didn't matter last night the places where President Obama went, the people he campaigned for lost.

CAMEROTA: I hear you. Overreach certainly is a problem for various parties. But how does the problem feel? That was where Jeff Zeleny ended in terms of is there any anxiety in the White House about this new oversight task that Democrats will take up?

CONWAY: The president addressed this on Monday when he was on his three-stop tour. All of the three of them won, by the way, last night, the people he was out for on Monday. He said the Democrats are going to do what they are going to do and I'm going to do what I've always done, which is find a way to deal with it. And he'll do that. But if they want to bring Washington to a grinding halt, then they don't understand President Trump, because he is going to continue to want to do --

CAMEROTA: Let's just focus on the tax returns. They just want to see the tax returns. CONWAY: Respectfully, I'm not going to focus only on the tax return.

According to CNN's own polling, that's not what animated voters last night.

CAMEROTA: No.

CONWAY: And you had a poll October 22nd showing Gillum ahead 12 points, and that poll is a form of voter suppression. He's way ahead. He lost last night.

CAMEROTA: Here is the poll on the tax returns -- 68 percent of Americans should have released them. He promised to release them. He said absolutely. I'm just saying --

CONWAY: So we're going back to 2016 now?

CAMEROTA: One of the first orders of business that I think that Democrats could easily do, like that, is get the tax returns. Is the president at all nervous about that?

CONWAY: The president is not nervous about anything.

CAMEROTA: OK.

CONWAY: I was with him all night last night. And again this morning he is going to address the nation. What he's very excited about is that his political engagement in these key races made history again. He defied the trends again. We had I think it bordered on adulation for some of these candidates for governorships in Florida and Georgia, certainly Beto in Texas. It bordered on adulation, all the positive coverage, the profiling. I think some people also, it is not their business, they are not supposed to be partisans, really being, I think, very unkind and patently unfair to some of the opponents in those races. And the voters looked past all that. So I think they're going to look past all these investigations in large part, too.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about what you brought up with the unkindness and the tone and if anything changes today as a result. The president, it was so interesting. He did this interview with Sinclair. And he was asked if he has any regrets over the past two years. And he brought up maybe the tone, maybe my tone, maybe I could have --

CONWAY: Play the whole clip. What did he say. He said I'd like to soften the tone, but I can't because I get hit everywhere and not treated fairly.

CAMEROTA: Does the tone come from the top or not?

CONWAY: I think the president is a great counterpuncher. And he's always said that. He doesn't draw first blood, but he's going to defend himself and stand up for the candidates that he believes, the principals and policies he believes in.

CAMEROTA: So in other words, no.

CONWAY: No, that's not true. He just said he likes to change the tone. But also --

CAMEROTA: But can he change it?

CONWAY: But is the Congress going to change? Is the constant racism, sexism, misogyny, is that going to change? I doubt it.

CAMEROTA: Do you put the president on the same par as a cable news anchor?

CONWAY: No, not at all. He's the president of the United States.

CAMEROTA: That's right. So why doesn't he set the tone?

CONWAY: And he knows it, by the way.

CAMEROTA: Why doesn't he set the tone?

CONWAY: We look right past people who have no business treating the president of the United States the way he is treated.

CAMEROTA: Do you look right past them? Because you said he is a counterpuncher. Which one is it?

CONWAY: He has a right to defend himself and defend policies and principals. So for example, when we heard about a year ago this time, Alisyn, the tax cut will never pass. It will never pass. It will destroy the economy. It has been part of the economic boom. We have record unemployment numbers. I know you don't want to say it, because I'm going to say it since we don't hear it much on CNN.

CAMEROTA: We cover it all the time.

CONWAY: African-American, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans, 65 year low among women. That mattered to female voters.

CAMEROTA: Understood. But you still lost the House.

CONWAY: Right. That was to be expected.

CAMEROTA: So the economy is doing well, but you still lost -- I understand. That was a much tougher economy. So the economy is going really well, and you still lost the House. So clearly voters are displeased with something.

CONWAY: That's a historical trend, but this president's engagement and the vice president's engagement helped to mitigate those trends. The president since he was elected did 53 rallies specifically for candidates in about 25 different states. Since Labor Day, just two short month ago, Alisyn, 30 rallies. He packs the houses. I know the big question is we see all these people here, but will they vote? Yes. They went and they voted, especially in states where he showed up and endorsed the candidates and he was talking about policy each and every time.

[08:10:01] CAMEROTA: Hold on a second. Hold on a second, Kellyanne. The president's rallies are not that -- if you think the takeaway from the president's rallies are policy, that is a much different takeaway that a lot of people there think.

CONWAY: You can cherry pick different clips.

CAMEROTA: That's not true. You know what he does when he goes there is he gins up the crowd. He uses --

CONWAY: He talks about the economy.

CAMEROTA: He calls the press the enemy of the people. Will that change today?

CONWAY: He talks about --

CAMEROTA: I'm just curious.

CONWAY: He says many things.

CAMEROTA: That is clearly the epitome of tone.

CONWAY: So this election was about the media?

CAMEROTA: Kellyanne, don't divert.

CONWAY: I think the election was about the media, they were really, really bad this time. A poll last night -

CAMEROTA: After we got pipe bomb in the mail, I'm just wondering, will he change that? Will he still call the press the enemy of the people? Kellyanne, you don't think this somehow taints the tone?

CONWAY: Here's what I think is that there is a new report out today that we all call it 80 percent, I think it was 88 percent, over 80 percent of the coverage in these midterms for the president was negative. Why?

CAMEROTA: So, in other words, so the president won't start changing the tone? He's waiting for somebody else --

CONWAY: He said he will work with the Democrats in the House, but they have to present proposals to him. I think the 43 retirements and a lot of those members who said I don't want the president campaigning with me, they lost, too.

CAMEROTA: The president has the power to change the tone.

CONWAY: Respectfully, I don't think the election was about the media. I think it was about the booming economy.

CAMEROTA: As you know, he doesn't just go after the media. He goes after immigrants. He goes after --

CONWAY: Don't you think it was curious, Alisyn, that -- don't you think it was curious that somebody like Claire McCaskill, senator of Missouri, said I'm not one of those crazy Democrats. I vote with Donald Trump 60 percent of the time. The voters aren't fooled by things like that. They know that she's a reliable vote for liberal policies, and all these folks who said Medicare for all, socialism, they lost as well.

CAMEROTA: Look, we look forward to seeing if the tone changes and if it shifts more to policy, less ad hominem attacks.

CONWAY: It's the policy all along. The economy cannot be any better, even if it doesn't get the coverage it deserves.

CAMEROTA: We shall see what the tone is and if it comes from to top. Kellyanne Conway, thank you very much for being here.

CONWAY: Thanks.

BERMAN: All right, Alisyn, thank you very much. Interesting discussion.

Washington has changed. The Democrats will now control the House of Representatives. Republicans increasing their majority in the Senate. Kellyanne Conway says the president deserves credit for that and none of the blame for the loss of the House. We'll discuss with our panel next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:16:16] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. For the first time, President Trump is up against a divided Congress. The Democrats are taking control of the House of Representatives which we believe at this point they will have 229 seats. The Republicans, they continue to hold the Senate. We are still counting votes in some key races, including Montana.

Joining us now to discuss, Rachael Bade, John Avlon, Ana Navarro and Robby Mook.

And, Robby, I want to start with you because you just heard from Republican Kellyanne Conway at length about the White House. She says the president deserves a tremendous amount of credit for picking up those seats in the Senate and she would not accept the president was responsible for the losses in the House. She says that's to be expected.

ROBBY MOOK, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The president put himself on the top of the ticket across the country. This was all about the president and him campaigning out there made it that way. He leaned on the strategy of racism, focusing on immigration.

That may have helped him in those red states. This is one of the best maps for the Republicans, one of the worst maps for Democrats in the Senate in decades, maybe even in 100 years. So, yes, that helped him here.

But the loss in the House was devastating. In particular for me was that popular vote margin, looking like Democrats will win by seven points, maybe as high as nine points. That's way higher than the popular vote margin for the Republicans in 2010 wave.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: It was? Then it was called a shellacking, but Trump has lost many fewer seats than 61 that Obama lost.

MOOK: That's because of the redirecting. That's because of the gerrymandering.

And two important things here to note for Trump. First of all, Democrats won important races. We won a judgeship in North Carolina, we won a bunch of legislative chambers and governorships.

This map is going to have to get better for Democrats. This is really bad news for Republicans in the future.

Secondly, you look at the Upper Midwest, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, we won those governorships. This isn't this two Americas anymore.

The map is looking better for Democrats in 2020 now. And if I were the president today, I would be absolutely spooked. He is not setting himself up well for re-election.

CAMEROTA: That's not how you feel, Ana Navarro, this morning.

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: My biggest problem is that the man on my house was bullish on Ron DeSantis, and I promised if Ron DeSantis won, I would let him eat ice cream in bed. I got much bigger problems than the checks and balances.

CAMEROTA: But, seriously, I know you are disappointed about Andrew Gillum because you told us that you as a Republican voted for the Democrat not just to send a message to President Trump, because you were inspired by Andrew Gillum.

NAVARRO: I think if you take a look at Florida as a microcosm of Florida and God knows we're like Noah's ark and have two of everything. I do think that the president -- I do think Trump helped Ron DeSantis. There is no doubt about that. Ron DeSantis was the nominee of the Republican Party because of Donald Trump.

I also think that he cost House races. There is no doubt in my mind that Carlos Curbelo lost last night because of the health care vote, because of Donald Trump's tone. Mind you, Carlos Curbelo losing, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen retiring, that means that, yes, there is going to be more Democrats in the congress, but there is also going to be less Republicans who speak up against Donald Trump's tones and abuses of power in Congress.

It is now a much more Trumpian and much redder Republican Party that's going to be in Congress with some very few exceptions like a Mitt Romney.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. No, I think that's exactly right. And that is a loss for the center right which has been under siege and someone like Carlos Curbelo, who'd been speaking out against the president, that voice gets lessoned. And Mitt Romney and Ben Sasse take up that mantle of a Bob Corker, potentially that role he had been playing. We have a more polarized Congress. [08:20:01] The one exception being, and here's where Democrats who may

want to lurch to the left. First of all, I don't think this election says that the progressive wave is where Democrats need to go, should go to win in 2020 going forward.

But look at those suburban swing districts that they were able to pull. Not -- you know, this is not Pennsylvania won, which actually Republicans held on to. This is Oklahoma City suburbs, Kansas City suburbs, Dallas suburbs, Pete Sessions.

South Carolina first district, my home district, that is unbelievable to see a Democrat in that district. So those are really significant. Those are not Democrats who are going to embrace the far left, but it shows a more subtle realignment below the top line races.

BERMAN: They're not Jane Taylors or Heath Shuler either. That's why if you're looking back to 2006, that era. But those pick ups in those suburban districts it really was across the entire map. You have done so much reporting on what the future Democratic Congress might look like. I know you haven't gone to press yet.

So tell us everything you can. What's going to happen with Nancy Pelosi? Is she going to be the next speaker?

RACHAEL BADE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Too early to tell. If your number is right, 229, she can only lose 11 votes on the floor. Right now, of the candidates that won last night, there are at least five who have said point blank, I will not back Nancy Pelosi. And a number of them also said they want new leadership to try to fend off these attacks from Republicans and suggest they wouldn't back her without cornering themselves against voting for her.

So, she is working behind the scenes right now. We know she is making calls to candidates last night, including some of these candidates who said they will not vote for her.

She's a seasoned pol. She knows how to do this. If you remember back two years ago, there were 63 Democrats that voted for her privately in caucus, but when the vote came to floor, all but four of them folded to her, so she knows what he's doing.

I've also heard that there is about a dozen incumbent Democrats who are really hoping these new candidates come together and push her out. These dozen Democrats are willing to say that they are going to vote against her on the floor. But I'm very skeptical because they haven't come out publically, which is very telling in itself.

So, it's going to be a battle for her.

NAVARRO: You know, looking at it from the other side, she sounded so off message to me this entire time, particularly the recent days. She sounded very, very confidence, overconfident when I think she should have been sending the message, and every Democrat, she should have been sending the message, run and run scared. Don't believe the polls. Don't get complacent. Stop measuring for drapes in the majority office. She was already celebrating much more before. And the polls is

another untold story here. Honest to goodness, every pollster needs to be tarred and feathered.

CAMEROTA: Why? What's your takeaway?

BERMAN: I disagree.

NAVARRO: Oh, John, CNN had a poll with Andrew Gillum 12 points ahead.

BERMAN: He was up one point last week in our poll, and he lost by less than a point. That's well within the margin of error.

I think there were errors in some of the polls, particularly in Missouri and Indiana, where it was in the margins. I think we do have a problem picking up red state pro-Trump voters. But by and large, Harry Enten were told there are 227 Democratic House members, there's going to be 229 it looks like, you can't get much more right than that.

They're not perfect. But I don't think they're the villain.

NAVARRO: I think the turnout model is getting impossible to predict, and when we saw a replay a 2016.

MOOK: Yes. I think, John, you put it very well. We do have a problem, we saw it in Florida, detecting some of this Republican support in the polls.

I think we misuse them sometimes. I think we see a race that's close and then we say, we're going to win. Look, Texas was never a toss-up. It was a real reach for Democrats. Georgia was a real reach.

Florida was a genuine toss-up. It looks like we will lose by a point, less than a point. That's a toss-up. So, I think sometimes we need to look at these things and think of them as a probability and not as a, well, that's close. That means we'll win. That's not a responsible way to look at polls.

AVLON: Just in terms of turnout, I want to emphasize turn-out again. It was extraordinary turn-out last night, 113 millions votes cast compared to around 88 million in 2014. That's an incredible surge. The Democrat margin, the point Robby was making, is probably the largest we have seen since 2008.

Those are significant trends, not have a partisan perspective, but from a voter participation, people engaged with their democracy standpoint. And that's a good thing.

BERMAN: All right. Thank you one and all.

CAMEROTA: Thank you, panel. Great conversation.

So, a record breaking number of women are winners this morning. We will talk to two of them next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:28:34] CAMEROTA: OK. Big morning for female candidates. At least 100 women will serve in the House of Representatives next year. That is more than ever before.

America will also have at least eight female governors. One of those joins us now, Democratic Michigan Governor-elect Gretchen Whitmer.

Also with us Democratic Congresswoman-elect, Kendra Horn of Oklahoma. She pulled off what might be the biggest upset of the night, winning Oklahoma's fifth district. The only little bit of blue in the state's sea of red.

Ladies, good morning.

GRETCHEN WHITMER (D), MICHIGAN GOVERNOR-ELECT: Good morning.

KENDRA HORN (D), OKLAHOMA CONGRESSWOMAN-ELECT: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: I want to start with you Congresswoman-elect Horn. How did you do this?

HORN: We did it by changing the way that campaigns work in Oklahoma. We were on the doors talking to voters on the phones and asking them what they were concerned about, and we did it by talking about issues that matter on a day-to-day basis, talking about health care, pre- existing conditions, lifetime caps and the cost of education. So we just engaged the community. And I think they were ready to hear those issues and talk about those things that matter to them.

CAMEROTA: I mean, Congresswoman-elect, I don't know if you are being modest about how you did this, because just to let people know, you are the first Democrat to be elected to the office in 44 years. So that old boot strapping, you know, door to door retail politics is great. But wasn't there some other magic? How did you convince that sea of red to vote for a Democrat?