CNN projects that
Republicans will win control of the U.S.
House of Representatives,
reclaiming a majority
for the first time in four years.
This is a major blow to Democrats
as Republicans gain new power
to potentially limit President
Biden's agenda
and to make crucial decisions
about House investigations
Let's go to Manu Raju up on Capitol Hill.
This is a major development right now.
The Republicans
take the majority in the House, Manu.
Yeah.
And with that,
the power of the committees
and the power to set the agenda,
which is why this is hugely significant,
even though it is not as big
of a majority as Kevin McCarthy,
the Republican leader, had wanted.
They had hoped that
they would be in the 230 seat range,
maybe even 240 seat range.
We don't know the final numbers here,
but we do know that they have at least
218 seats.
That is a majority
to take back the House.
They would may have up to
220 will see ultimately
how many they have.
But significant
because once you have the majority
in the U.S.
House,
you have the chairmanship seats
and each of the key committees,
that means you have subpoena power.
You can set schedules for hearings,
you can call Cabinet secretaries
to come testify,
you can do what your party wants to do,
on the floor of the House,
the speaker of the House,
the House majority leader
get to set the exact schedule,
what they're going to bring to the floor,
what they refuse to bring to the floor
and decide the priorities
which is why
winning back one Chamber of Commerce
of Congress
will have significant ramifications
for the next two years.
The Biden administration.
Remember, Wolf,
the Democrats have control of the House
and the Senate.
In the first two years under Joe Biden,
they had the narrowest of majorities.
50 50 in the Senate.
They had a handful of seats
in the Democratic led House.
They were still able to do
a significant amount
of legislation
by passing bills
for some significant bills
along state party lines,
because they could do that
under the budget process.
That allowed them to pass
something like a nearly $2 trillion COVID
relief bill.
Also, that sweeping Inflation
Reduction Act,
dealing with health care,
climate change, taxes and other issues
they will no longer be able to do that
because in order
to move through the budget process,
you need to have support
within essentially
among your party
and Republicans,
the Democrats would not agree to move
such sweeping legislation like that.
So what does this mean
for the next two years?
Wolf,
it means that any legislation
that will pass
almost certainly will be incremental.
It will have to
be require
a significant amount of consensus
on both sides of the aisle.
It would still need to
surpass a 60 vote
threshold in the Senate,
even as the Democrats
are going to
regain control of the Senate.
They may have 51 seats,
but they will
still need 60 to pass anything.
So what can actually get done
next year is an open question.
But they will have major things
to deal with next year,
including
raising the national debt ceiling
to avoid a debt default next year.
Funding the government.
Always a tricky issue,
something that could lead to a shutdown
if there is not an agreement
between the two sides.
But at the moment, the big pressure point
for the administration
will be those investigations
into the Biden family.
The border
or the origins of the coronavirus
among a whole wide
range of other issues
as a new dynamic
here is now in Washington Wolf.
Manu, I want you to stand by.
Jeremy Diamond is over at the White House
for us
watching all of this unfold as well.
Major development right now.
CNN projecting
that the Republicans
will win the majority
in the House of Representatives.
Jeremy
I assume officials over
where you are at the White House,
we're bracing for this.
No doubt about it, Wolf.
This is a major inflection
point in
Joe Biden's presidency
for his first two years in office.
He has enjoyed control of
from a Democratic perspective,
of both the House and the Senate.
And for the first time in his presidency,
Joe Biden is now
staring down the barrel
of divided government, of power
sharing with Republicans
in a way that he has not yet
had to experience
as president of the United States.
And this is going to be a real test
of one of the major
things that he ran
on during his 2020 campaign,
which is this idea that he can
perhaps be a bridge
between the two parties. Right now.
That appears to be the last thing
that's going to happen.
We know that Republicans
are sharpening
their investigative and oversight powers
that they are preparing
to wield
that subpoena power
against the Biden administration
on a number of fronts,
investigations into everything
from the withdrawal of Afghanistan
and to
the Department of Homeland Security's
handling of border security.
Impeachment threats have been made
both at the secretary
of Homeland Security
as well as at the president himself.
But to be clear,
this is a
White House
that has been preparing
for all of that for months now.
And they're also looking at the fact
that this is a House Republican majority
that is going to be
the narrowest
majority in the House in decades.
And so while they will still have to face
the subpoena power
of this House, Republican
majority is slim, as it may be,
that does not change.
There is a certain sentiment
here at the White House.
I can tell you in
speaking with officials, Wolf,
that they are giddy
at the prospect of Kevin McCarthy
having to wrangle this very narrow
and oftentimes very rowdy
Republican caucus to getting things done.
But a number of challenges
beyond the investigations
that this White House now
faces in terms
of funding the government,
addressing issues
like the debt ceiling, for example.
These are all things that President Biden
was warning
about on the midterm campaign trail
over the last several months.
And now it is a reality
that he will have to confront.
Lastly, Wolf,
I would just add,
President Biden
as much as he has experience
with a number of Republicans
on Capitol Hill,
Kevin McCarthy is not one of them.
And he is, of course,
the most
likely person
to become the next speaker of the House.
And he's someone who President Biden,
while they spoke last week,
they really have not had many
dealings, Wolf.
But you can be sure
that they will have to speak much more
going forward.
They certainly will.
Jeremy Diamond at the White House,
thank you very much, Jeff Zeleny.
Let's talk a little bit about this.
The Senate.
The Democrats will be
the majority in the new Senate,
but the Republicans
will be the majority in the new House.
Talk a little bit about
and it is a sea change
here in Washington.
It's coming a week
after the midterm elections.
So it sounds like
it's not quite as as dramatic
but it actually will be in January
when the Congress
reconvenes in the new Congress.
And even though the majority is slim,
the oversight power will sting
just as much
to this White House
in terms of really inspecting
the spending that's been going on on the.
A COVID
relief bill is really looking into
where some of this infrastructure
money is going
and calling in secretaries,
you know, for the grilling that they will
certainly give.
So we're going
to see a couple of different things
play out.
Yes, there is going to be drama
among House Republicans among themselves.
But there's also going to be
a sense of purpose
about going
after the Biden administration.
Hunter Biden,
the president's
son, is already
going to be front and center
in some of these investigations.
So that is
one of the things
that is going to happen.
So even though it's a narrow
majority, likely on the one
hand of a finger,
probably single digits for sure,
maybe five seats, maybe eight seats.
That does not mean that
these committees
won't have the investigative authority.
But interestingly, also,
I think the House and the Senate,
what can get done here?
There was such a big message
that was sent from voters
to Washington
that people want to get something done.
So we heard Senator McConnell
say that earlier. He actually hopes that
that they can find agreement
on some things in the middle of the road.
We'll see about that.
But it is a huge sea
change in the new Congress next year.
You know, India,
I think one of the first things
the Republican majority in the House
probably will do
is eliminate
the January six select committee.
I think that's exactly right.
I mean, it's as good as gone right now.
And listen.
That's why you saw the Democrats
when they were in control
do as much work
as they did in my goodness,
they interviewed
hundreds of witnesses
and put on really compelling hearings.
That is gone.
And we'll see the reverse of that. Right.
We'll see
investigations
into the Biden
administration, investigations
into the Afghanistan withdrawal.
And it will be something
that the Biden administration
will have to deal with.
Democrats say in some ways
maybe that won't be a terrible thing
because it
could could show
Republicans are overreaching.
Right.
Focusing on issues that don't necessarily
benefit average Americans
as they grapple with inflation.
In a tough economy in
does that make Biden
sort of look like he's above it all
and focusing on the sort of bread
and butter issues
that voters actually care about?
One of the other things
they may investigate
is the January remedy. Yeah.
The Republicans have been complaining
that they don't have access
to all of these transcripts
and interviews.
I know one of the things
the committee is dealing with
right now
is what do they release both for
They turn into a pumpkin
and they're no longer in control.
I want to add one other word,
and that is Donald Trump.
Because of the chaos
we've been talking about
in the Republican conference,
because of the Freedom Caucus members,
people like Matt Gates,
who will blow something up
just to blow something up.
Donald Trump is going to have more power
with the Republican conference
because someone like Kevin McCarthy,
as we were talking about earlier before,
may need to reach out to him to say,
help me get these guys in order.
He will do that.
We're going to see a lot of chaos,
without a doubt.
And it's already coming
as a presidential campaign is
is already building.
Usually it starts in the next year.
Obviously,
the events of last night
are showing that it's starting right now.
But I also think, though,
it is still a moment for
if there's a political middle
and you know, the election does not leave
much opportunity for that.
But there is a demand in the country for
both the House
and the Senate to do something.
And we are seeing that much
more on the Senate side.
So the synergies between
both houses of Congress
is going to be fascinating to watch.
But the the investigation, some part of
the are
some things that they'll be looking at.
And we heard a lot of talk about,
is there
going to be an impeachment inquiry
or for President Biden?
I would be very surprised in this case
because the majority is so, so narrow.
It just does not seem
that there is room for that.
But there is some substantive work,
some very serious committee chairmen
that really have
some things to look into.
So that is the biggest thing
for the White House.
But as Jeremy was saying earlier,
the White House
has been bracing for this.
They've been hiring lawyers,
advising agencies.
So this is just how it works at
what is what usually happens
in a midterm election.
It's happening a week later, but is
just as significant.