pass some of those must-pass
bills through the United States
congress.
Bianna and Victor.
>> Lauren fox for us there on
capitol hill.
Thank you, Lauren.
>> Joining us now, CNN senior
political correspondent Abby
Phillip, anchor of "Inside
politics Sunday."
And CNN political commentator
Alyssa Farrah griffin, former
trump communications director.
Welcome both of you.
As Victor promised us, this was
the last lerks at least this
year.
So Abby, on that note, we have
now seen Raphael Warnock win
four elections in two years.
Clearly he is not an anomaly.
And that raises the question of
what that makes of Georgia.
Can we call Georgia a purple
state?
Because on the one hand you have
his wins.
On the other hand, every other
election this year went to a
Republican.
So what does that tell you about
where voters stand in Georgia?
>> Yeah, I think no one is more
happy that this is all over than
Georgia voters, who withstood
really a historic amount of ad
spending in this race over the
course of two years fighting
over two senate seats.
But you know, to your question,
bianna, look, I think when I
talk to Democrats they believe
that Georgia could be a purple
state.
It has the potential to be.
These senate campaigns over the
last two years have demonstrated
where that potential lies.
It's in the suburbs.
It's among the diverse
electorate, increasingly young
and increasingly diverse
electorate of black, Latino and
Asian American voters.
And so there's a lot of
potential there.
But you're right.
The reality is that Georgia
still has a lot of Republicans
in that state.
48% of the electorate voted for
herrtial walker.
A candidate who even Republicans
believe was deeply flawed.
I think that tells you a lot
about the fact that it's just --
partisanship is playing a huge
role here.
And Democrats now have four
years on the senate side to
figure out how to lock in some
of these wins because it's going
to take probably about that
amount of time to really move
things more in the direction of
the purple state territory.
>> Alyssa, this is not a binary
choice.
I'm asking for what is the
primary driver of the outcome in
this question.
Is this more about what Warnock
and Democrats did or about what
walker and Republicans did not
do in this campaign?
>> It's a little bit of both.
So governor Kemp, to Abby's
point, outperformed -- obviously
beat Stacey Abrams by eight
points.
Then the lieutenant governor won
his race, a Republican, by five
points.
But then of course last night
Raphael Warnock pulled it off.
So I do think it's trending to
being a purple state.
But ultimately it comes down to
the poor quality of the
candidate that my party put up.
Herschel walker was not
qualified to run for senate.
Excellent football player.
Put him on the field.
But this was not a man who was
ready to govern by any means.
You clearly had a large number
of split ticket votes with Brian
Kemp performing at the level
that he did.
And I think also, do want to
give credit, though, Raphael
Warnock ran a good campaign.
It was disciplined.
I was actually advising
Republicans in the 2020 runoff.
He wasn't nearly as disciplined
and on message as he is now.
And frankly he's one of the
biggest rising stars for
Democrats.
>> He's a first-time politician.
This is his first run-in and
four wins in a row.
>> Clearly a lot more money went
into this race than on the
Republican side.
Abby, one thing that really sort
of surprised us, I mean, the bar
is really low, but pleasantly
surprised us was the concession
speech that we saw from Herschel
speaker.
I don't know that many people
expected to hear from him.
What we did, given the rhetoric
that we heard surrounding the
campaign.
If we have the clip, let's play
it.
>> I want you to believe in
America and continue to believe
in the constitution and believe
in our elected officials most of
all, continue to pray for them.
I want to thank all of you as
well because there's no excuses
in life.
And I'm not going to make any
excuses now because we put up
one heck of a fight.
Stay together.
Continue to believe in our
elected officials.
Always, always cast your vote no
matter whatever's happening.
>> So can we take any solace in
that given that he was a trump
hand-picked candidate and he was
in line with trump on so many
maga-related issues and here
unlike trump he said that this
was a fair election, he said
that there are no excuses, he
said trust your elected
officials and the constitution.
Square that with what the former
president said about the
constitution just a few days
ago.
>> Yeah.
I mean, look, I think it is a
good thing that he did that.
I think that is what we do
expect and what we should expect
from people who run for office
in this country.
But it signals to me that even
Herschel walker understands that
the party is over for election
denialism.
It was really resoundingly
defeated at the ballot box.
And there's -- the one person
who is really left at the
highest levels who is still
pushing this is Donald Trump.
And it hasn't really worked for
anybody else.
So I think there was at least an
acknowledgment of that by
Herschel walker.
And you know, I can't -- I don't
know about the constitution bit
of it.
I think Republicans in general
believe that you should stand by
the constitution.
Democrats believe that too.
But will that mean that a
Herschel walker is throwing
trump under the bus?
I will wait to see that actually
happen before determining that
that's what he was trying to
signal.
On the other hand, I also think
this is a man who has been
humbled and chastened by this
experience.
It was incredibly difficult.
He was put through the ringer
because of his own conduct, I
should be clear.
But it's not an easy thing, what
he experienced, all that
spotlight.
And I feel like you saw it there
in how he gave that concession
speech.
>> So as Abby says, Alyssa,
maybe the verdict is in now on
election denialism.
But what does this mean for
trumpism?
Let's put up the slate of
trump-endorsed candidates in the
battlegrounds, in the swing
states.
All of these people lost, one
after another.
Tudor Dixon, Bolduc, Doug
Mastriano, mehmet oz.
All the way down here.
And these are the senate
candidates.
We're not mentioning Dan cox in
Maryland, other gubernatorial
offices.
What does this mean for
trumpism?
>> Well, it means that voters
are rejecting election
denialism.
A good thing.
Good for democracy.
I caution to go any further to
say that it has massive
implications for Donald Trump.
And I say that because many of
these were very weak candidates.
They were people he hand-picked
based on their loyalty and
fealty to him, less based on
their experience.
But Donald Trump still controls
a large portion of the base, and
I always caution folks, we've
seen many, many times that we've
said he's over, he's done.
Time will tell.
He's the only announced
candidate right now.
He's still polling ahead in a
number of polls for the
Republican front-runner.
But it shows the limitations on
running as a trump candidate.
Perhaps he can do it.
Perhaps that may work for him.
Though it hasn't worked for him
since 2016.
But it's certainly not working
when trying to be replicated.
>> Abby, we heard a bit of a
gracious side of chuck Schumer
today when he was celebrating
this election and now having 51
votes in the senate, 51
Democrats, that is, by saying
that he would like to work
across the aisle in a bipartisan
way with Republicans and asking
Republicans to at least if not
turn left not go far right.
Is that just wishful thinking at
this point, or do you think that
we could possibly see a change
in how these two sides work
together?
>> I think that's largely going
to be up to the Republican side.
In part because the Democrats
still hold the presidency and
Republicans are the ones who
have to decide whether it's more
important to them to resist
Biden, to push back on Biden, to
stall a Biden democratic agenda,
or to work with the other side.
And I think that, you know,
Democrats are very incentivized
to get bipartisan deals done
because when you look at the
last two years, despite all of
the ups and downs of the Biden
agenda and build back better and
what did and didn't happen,
there were a lot of bipartisan
things done.
And at the end of the day when
they took that to voters voters
decided that was apparently good
enough for them in spite of how
bad the economy was and how
uncertain that was.
So if you're chuck Schumer, the
lesson he takes away is that if