Commentary Culture Investigations

With just about everything breaking Democrats’ way, the Elitist Media sought to test a narrative of DSA ascendancy. In particular, CBS’s Margaret Brennan and Norah O’Donnell tried to suggest there was some message to be had from Angie Nixon’s defeat. Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel accepted. Watch the exchange, and watch as Emanuel pushes back against this ideological framing: Rahm Emanuel pushes back against the Margaret Brennan’s idea of a DSA ascendancy, counters with a GOP split pic.twitter.com/qGEHWNnUqy— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) November 4, 2026 MARGARET BRENNAN: I did want to ask you, you had talked at one point about the Democratic Socialists, and the Progressive wing of the party as kind of elevator music- you were like, background music. You didn’t necessarily believe that they were going to represent your party as a whole. I’m looking at these numbers out of Florida and seeing what a close call it was with Angie Nixon versus Ashley Moody. She performed surprisingly well, Angie Nixon. Like there’s a message there that is compelling. Does that say something?RAHM EMANUEL: Yeah. Which, yes. What also says a lot to me. Look what I think is the biggest story here is that the country club or what I call John McCain, Mitt Romney Republicans? They are done with the Republican party. Adam Hamilton in Kansas, former Republican running as a Democrat. Jolly, who ran for governor, former Republican is running. Amy Acton in Ohio, the Democratic nominee for governor, worked in a Republican administration for Governor Dewine. The biggest- Neil Bush, Governor Bush’s brother. President Bush’s brother said he’s going to vote for Talarico. The non-MAGA Republicans have had it with Trump’s party. That’s the biggest story coming out of this election. You can see. And this gets to the conversation about what you do across the country, where you’re flipping red districts and red states. It’s because a element of the Republican party says, “You know what? We’ve had it with them. We’re going to give you a chance. We’re going to give you a second look.” So my view is make that a transformational, not transactional. The Republicans who have walked away from the Republican party is a historic opportunity for the Democrats to build a broad-based governing coalition.TONY DOKOUPIL: Congressman, I think what Margaret was pointing to is that you’ve got a DSA-aligned candidate overperforming expectations. You don’t think that that wing of the party is helpful for the party at all. (UNINT)EMANUEL: For the- here’s what I would think. Here’s. Let me give you how- this is going to get. Like, I’m gonna really nerd out for you.DOKOUPIL: We don’t have that much time. We’re going to commercial break, so-EMANUEL: Okay. Here it is. Four states. Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan, Maine. All four governorships are open in all four cases. The Democratic gubernatorial candidate comes from the pragmatic wing. The Senator comes from the Progressive wing. Let’s see who runs ahead in each of those states and who doesn’t.NORAH O’DONNELL: Are you for Medicare for all?EMANUEL: No, no, I’m. What I’m for is what I’ve said. Take the gover-. Take. When I was a congressman and chief of staff, I was on the federal employees health care plan. That’s the best exchange. That’s the true public option. Take everybody in the ACA and put them- If it’s good enough for the president, good enough for you.O’DONNELL: All right, Ambassador, Mayor, former Congressman. GAYLE KING: Maybe President in 2028.That’s right.EMANUEL: What happened to being like, CBS mouthpiece?KING: That’s good.EMANUEL: The budget cuts are pretty severe here, huh..(CROSSTALK)The Florida Senate close-ish call in a blowout year seemed to Brennan like a good time to try to push the ascendancy of the Democrats’ socialist wing. Emanuel resisted, suggesting that this was a change election and that the Democrats had to deliver results to their electorate.At that point, Tony Dokoupil jumps in. So does Norah O’Donnell shortly thereafter. Emanuel argues that Democrat socialists will consistently underform the top of the ticket. O’Donnell tries to swerve Emanuel with a question on Medicare for All, only wo get shut down with Emanuel’s counterproposal. The Elitist Media are doing everything in their power to make socialism look as cool as possible. Even if it means trying to push a former White House Chief of Staff into bending the knee to the DSA.  

The big, blue midterm wave election has brought the Elitist Media back to the position of acting as Regime Media for the Democrats. Polls hadn’t even closed yet, but some are making even less of an effort to conceal their partisan bent than usual.Watch as CNN’s Kasie Hunt lets slip what is known in the Beltway as a “Kinsley Gaffe”, an accidental truth-telling: CNN’s Kasie Hunt laments “it took us years to get” to a blue wave midterm against Trump pic.twitter.com/bvWEWd8yZZ— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) November 4, 2026 KASIE HUNT: So, look, Anderson, at this point in the night, obviously, we’re still being conservative with our decision desk, but all of the both Republicans and Democrats I’m talking to are looking across the map and they are saying the same thing: that this night is shaping up to be a blue tsunami, just to use kind of the word that we have been wondering about the Senate races right now. Talarico’s numbers are- he is outperforming where they need to be. The Gina Hinojosa campaign, the gubernatorial race there, they think they’re outperforming their numbers right now. That’s going to be much closer. Then you’ve got Ohio and Kansas. Republicans are saying they think those are likely- they’re telling me those are likely going to be gone, too. I mean, this is at a level that honestly was the greatest fear for Republicans. And it was something that Democrats didn’t dare to hope for.DAVID AXELROD: Well, this is a repudiation that is absolutely broad. And the through line is Donald Trump. And the through line is Trump’s- are Trump’s policies.ANDERSON COOPER: He is on the ballot, whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat.AXELROD: He begged to be on the ballot and he is on the ballot. And the verdict is very, very negative. And it’s broad across this big, diverse country.HUNT: And it took us years to get there, too.Who’s “us?” Giving Hunt the benefit of the doubt may lead one to believe that she’s referring to the broader nation with the royal “us”, as in it took the nation years to get Donald Trump to a midterm blowout. But that’s not what happened.If you go back and look at Hunt’s statement, she’s talking about how Ohio, Kansas, and Texas being “gone” for the Republicans, and how that’s something Democrats didn’t dare hope for. Hunt didn’t get to complete her thought because David Axelrod and Anderson Cooper had an exchange. But she did when they finished. Hunt then made clear that the “us” she was referring to was the Democrats who dared not hope for a midterm blowout.When one examines CNN’s coverage of the Trump administrations, and of Republicans in general, it makes complete sense for Hunt to say “it took years.” Now that the thing happened, with Texas fully flipping blue, Hunt’s mask slips completely off. The first of many, as Democrats sweep back into Washington, D.C., where an eager press awaits them.

MS NOW/SnapStream

After months of fearing of a stolen midterm election, MS NOW celebrated Democrats’ wins on Tuesday night and took a victory lap on coverage led by Rachel Maddow. At the start of coverage, Jen Psaki and Chris Hayes were relieved to see the election moving as normal, before Maddow proclaimed the voters interrupted “Democratic backsliding” under Trump. Later, fears of the election were subdued, and new MS NOW White House reporter Paula Reid said Trump “told the New York Times that he will accept the results of tonight’s election,” dispelling the liberal fears.Psaki was first to mention the fears and voters overcoming obstacles, and she invoked conspiracies like “the threat of ICE at the polls” or “polling locations being eliminated. She celebrated, “And we have record early voting numbers. We have people waiting in line in all of these key states. That is incredibly inspiring.”Claiming more voter suppression, before a night of anything but voter suppression, Psaki continued, “It tells you that people are telling America, there’s a plot twist here, everybody, we’re going to participate and we’re going to get out. And it doesn’t matter. All of the suppression you’re throwing at me.” After fearmongering over the midterms for months, MS NOW is now shocked that the midterm elections are happening as usual, which Chris Hayes related to something “really inspiring about the American system: The American people.” pic.twitter.com/MLG7pDe5bD— Nick (@nspin310) November 4, 2026 Hayes also joined in, and decried Republican “gerrymandering,” before he admitted, “it seems like the fundamental mechanics are working.” He moved on to celebrate a “normal midterm”:There’s elections all over the world. The ruling party never loses them. And so that to me, like after we saw this real kind of steamroller attempt at regime consolidation, basically by the Trump Administration, to be here and watching what feels like in certain ways, a normal midterm.Speaks to, like, something really inspiring about the American system: The American people.Later in election coverage, Maddow randomly talked about “democratic backsliding”: MS NOW election coverage now relates America under Trump to an autocracy, as Rachel Maddow talked about “democratic backsliding” and distrust in elections before saying the midterm turnout is a “freaking one-finger salute to that idea from the American people.” pic.twitter.com/xMNaCueN0k— Nick (@nspin310) November 4, 2026 One of the things that happens in Democratic backsliding, and when authoritarians take over Democratic countries, is that they tell you that the vote doesn’t matter. I mean, that’s the whole thing behind claiming voter fraud and claiming that the elections are rigged. It’s to tell people, don’t bother voting. Your vote doesn’t count. Your vote, whatever you intend it to mean. It won’t ever mean that, and this whole system is rigged against you. And it’s to turn people off from voting not only to make them disbelieve the results, but to make them disinterested in participating.In her big conclusion, she remarked, “And this is a freaking one-finger salute to that idea from the American people tonight.” In more cringe-worthy remarks, Maddow added, “I don’t know what’s gonna happen in South Carolina; this is the American people saying ‘We are out here, fam.’” After months of fearmongering over a stolen midterm election, new MS NOW chief White House reporter Paula Reid declared, “Rachel, the president just told the New York Times that he will accept the results of tonight’s election.” pic.twitter.com/8zIfvmNsUG— Nick (@nspin310) November 4, 2026 In more of MS NOW’s election fears over the past year being proven wrong, former CNN reporter Paula Reid joined from the White House and said, “Of course. Well, Rachel, the president just told the New York Times that he will accept the results of tonight’s election.” In the last gasp of fearmongering, Reid did add, ” I will note, though, he made those remarks before the results have all come in.”Notably, MS NOW went all in on election fears in the midterm campaign, with just this week Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough fearing Elon Musk would rig the election and fears from the summer fearing Trump would stimulate “violence” and invoke emergency powers if he lost the election.Lawrence O’Donnell celebrates Democrat midterm wins: “So this means the Trump reign of terror is over.” pic.twitter.com/hakuEXkba6— Nick (@nspin310) November 4, 2026 To close out the liberal relief on the DNC-aligned channel, the crazed Lawrence O’Donnell proclaimed, “This means the Trump reign of terror is over.”The transcript is below. Click “expand”:MS NOW’s We the People: Election NightNovember 3, 20266:15:18 PM Eastern(…)JEN PSAKI: I’ve been I mean, first of all, I’ve been thinking so much about and listening to Vaughn and Jacob talk about all the voters waiting in line, all of the obstacles that these voters have faced over the last two years, whether it was redistricting or the threat of ice at the polls or polling locations being eliminated or hours being shortened. And we have record early voting numbers. We have people waiting in line in all of these key states. That is incredibly inspiring. It tells you that people are telling America, there’s a plot twist here, everybody, we’re going to participate and we’re going to get out. And it doesn’t matter. All of the suppression you’re throwing at me.RACHEL MADDOW: Yeah.CHRIS HAYES: There was I think there was a real desire from Trump on down to essentially voter-proof the Republican party to try to make it so that you could engineer a kind of permanent majority or presidentialist system. You know, the gerrymandering was the most aggressive version of that. And we shouldn’t just skate past it because it really was a crazy power play. Hadn’t seen it happen except for one state, Texas, under George W. Bush. And so when you layer atop that, all of the attempts to the executive order on mailing, which courts basically enjoined all the shenanigans, the Department of Justice and all the announcements about we’re going to go after this. We’re ending in a place where, like, it seems like the fundamental mechanics are working, which is people in a democracy get to tell the leaders whether they like what they’re doing or not. MADDOW: Yeah. And oust them if they don’t.HAYES: Ando ust them. In fact, the definition of a democracy, according to one political scientist I read, is a system in which the ruling party can lose an election. MADDOW: Yeah. HAYES: That is definitional what a democracy is. There’s elections all over the world. The ruling party never loses them. And so that to me, like after we saw this real kind of steamroller attempt at regime consolidation, basically by the Trump Administration, to be here and watching what feels like in certain ways, a normal midterm.MADDOW: Yeah.HAYES: Speaks to, like, something really inspiring about the American system: The American people.MADDOW: In terms of what the American people want, what they’re willing to stand up for, and what our system can take.(…)7:33:17 PM EasternMADDOW: One of the things that happens in Democratic backsliding, and when authoritarians take over Democratic countries, is that they tell you that the vote doesn’t matter. I mean, that’s the whole thing behind claiming voter fraud and claiming that the elections are rigged. It’s to tell people, don’t bother voting. Your vote doesn’t count. Your vote, whatever you intend it to mean. It won’t ever mean that, and this whole system is rigged against you. And it’s to turn people off from voting not only to make them disbelieve the results, but to make them disinterested in participating. And this is a freaking one-finger salute to that idea from the American people tonight. [Laughter]NICOLE WALLACE: So good. So good.MADDOW: I mean, the turnout numbers again, those those record turnout numbers, I was just I was just conveying to you, those are out of South Carolina.WALLACE: We don’t even know who they voted for.MADDOW: I don’t know what’s gonna happen in South Carolina; this is the American people saying “We are out here, fam.” (…)11:22:05 PM EasternMADDOW: Let’s go to Paula Reid now. MS NOW Chief White House Reporter Paula Reid is at the White House with some of the response that we’re hearing tonight from Washington. Paula, thanks very much for being with us. What are you hearing tonight?PAULA REID: Of course. Well, Rachel, the president just told the New York Times that he will accept the results of tonight’s election. I will note, though, he made those remarks before the results have all come in. Now, look, for days officials here have been bracing for losses, but we’re told they’re really surprised by the margins. One official calling it a, quote, “worst-case scenario.” All through the night, the mood here has been pretty downcast. One top Trump advisor told me earlier he wasn’t even sure he was going to attend the president’s election night watch party. Now, the president and the White House have tried to distance Trump from these results, suggesting this is all because he wasn’t on the ballot, even though he’s been asking people to pretend he was on the ballot. He also said other problems with candidate quality, despite the fact that Trump personally selected the GOP Senate candidates in key states like South Carolina, North Carolina, and, of course, most notably in Texas. We know from our polling that Trump was top of mind for voters. Rachel, I also know here officials at the white house what is really top of mind for them right now is what the fallout will be from this election. What does this mean for Susie Wiles? A lot of officials believe she is the last person standing between the current situation and Stephen Miller becoming the second most powerful person in the White House. So that’s where a lot of the folks, the sources that I’ve been speaking with, that’s where their attention is turned right now the fallout over the next few days.(…)11:38:10 PM EasternLAWRENCE O’DONNELL: So this means the Trump Reign of Terror is over. Trump Reign of Terror in Washington, in which he controlled Mike Johnson’s every breath and every thought and everything that happened in the United States Senate, controlled by Republicans. That’s completely over now. Mike Johnson is out of a job. He’s available to be the next white house chief of staff if you need him. This changes everything. This means that Donald Trump could not get a Supreme Court justice confirmed if a vacancy occurs in the remainder of his presidency. This means that there’s absolutely nothing Donald Trump can do about the budget of the United States of America without the Democrats in the House and the Democrats in the Senate.The governing of the country has now just shifted out of the White House. He’s left with his executive orders, most of which, from this point on, will be wildly illegal and will be dragged into court immediately. This is as powerless a presidency as we will have seen in our lifetimes from this point forward.(…)

Trump squandered his mandate to be normal, to bring back prosperity, to be more than simply not Joe Biden’s Woke Democrats.

From the river to the sea. Blue tsunami reckoning.
Americans won’t be getting those $5,000 checks after all. The polls weren’t wrong. If anything, they understated the carnage awaiting Republicans on Tuesday.
As of midnight, Democrats were projected to comfortably retake control of the House and Senate. By the time all votes are counted, they could control 55 seats in the upper chamber.
“It’s worse than anyone thought,” one GOP strategist told Mark Halperin. Others described the results as follows: “Bloodbath.” “Cataclysmic.” “Massacre.” “This is f—ed.”
And so it was.
Republicans didn’t just lose a U.S. Senate seat in Texas to James Talarico, a baby-faced avatar of insufferable wokeness who can name his favorite drag queen in less time than it takes most men to remember their own birthdays. The three-term governor, Greg Abbott (R.), was defeated.
They lost Lindsey Graham’s old seat in South Carolina, a state Donald Trump carried three times by double digits. They lost in Iowa and Kansas, a state that hasn’t voted for a Democratic president since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.
So much for the concerns about Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) switching parties or becoming a nuisance to his fellow Democrats as the decisive 51st vote in a narrowly divided Senate. And, for that matter, the previously widespread Democratic fears that Trump would cancel the midterms or attempt to overturn the results.
“I am absolutely willing to accept those results,” Trump told the New York Times. “We’ll work with the Democrats, and we’ll, you know, look forward to working with them. We’ll probably work something out.” (Fact check: They probably won’t.) He followed up on Truth Social, writing: “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!”
In any event, the opposite happened. Most observers—including some Republicans eyeing a run in 2028—will view the outcome as a sweeping rebuke of Trump’s presidency. The post-Trump era of American politics has finally arrived. The lamest of ducks, floundering in the wreckage.
To put the results in historical context, the GOP’s midterm performance was roughly as calamitous as that of the Arab armies in the Six-Day War.
On a related note, Abdul El-Sayed was projected to win the Senate race in Michigan. A left-wing radical with extensive antisemitic affiliations, El-Sayed will become one of the shortest men to serve in the U.S. Senate since Israel’s founding in 1948. Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University activist who said Hamas “couldn’t avoid” the Oct. 7 massacre, was in Detroit to help him celebrate.
El-Sayed’s victory is sure to embolden the Democrat extremists eager to shape the party’s ideological trajectory heading into the 2028 primary. He was the only swing-state Senate candidate endorsed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), a likely presidential candidate who preemptively touted her influence in a memo to allies.
“The Congresswoman has emerged as one of the most powerful endorsements in the United States,” the memo reads. “Over the course of the past two years, she has proven herself to be one of the most effective voices in the country for America’s working class.”
El-Sayed was also the only Democratic Senate candidate to campaign with Hasan Piker, the anti-American influencer who has praised Hamas, Mao Zedong, and Luigi Mangione. On his livestream Tuesday, Piker urged El-Sayed and other radical Democrats to “get back to work” and “immediately hard pivot [left] once the elections are over.”
As expected, several House candidates who campaigned with Piker easily won seats in deep-blue districts after defeating establishment-backed opponents in the primary. They will join a Democratic caucus projected to hold more than 250 seats—the largest House majority for either party since 1990.
Among them: New York’s Darializa Avila Chevalier, a Columbia graduate student who attended a pro-Hamas rally the day after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, and New Jersey’s Adam Hamawy, a Brazilian butt lift specialist who testified for the defense in the trial of the Muslim cleric who inspired the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
To the extent that American political parties can be said to win elections, rather than stand by as their opponents lose them, it was a great night for Democrats. Trump’s conciliatory overtures notwithstanding, their willingness to work with his administration is unlikely to extend beyond congressional subpoenas. They are just as unlikely to draw any useful lessons from their victory, which was largely driven by the same cost-of-living concerns that fueled Trump’s reelection two years earlier.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.), who is now in line for Speaker of the House—assuming he can get the votes—promised to deliver the “dramatic change that the American people are demanding.” We shall soon find out what that means.
George Santos, the former GOP congressman and federal inmate, told the Washington Free Beacon that Jeffries would have his hands full attempting to placate the incoming crop of left-wing radicals. “These people are crazy,” he said. “Israel bad, kill the Jews. I mean, there’s a lot of hyperbole in politics, but that’s what they actually believe.”
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Maine Democrat Troy Jackson defeated Republican incumbent senator Susan Collins after campaigning as a crusader against corporate interests and “high-priced lobbyists.” His victory could create opportunities for his son, who worked as a high-priced corporate lobbyist as Jackson led the Maine Senate.
Jackson led Collins by a 5-point margin when the race was called at 12:25 a.m.
Jackson campaigned on a far-left platform of Medicare for All, abolishing ICE, taxing billionaires and corporations, and putting an end to what he described as “the genocide in Gaza” by halting U.S. arms sales to Israel. While Jackson also argued in favor of overturning the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision and told Mainers there were no billionaires funding his campaign, his campaign finance report revealed that there were, in fact, billionaires funding his campaign.
Jackson, the former president of the Maine Senate, entered the race under unusual circumstances. He was tapped as the Democratic nominee in July after Graham Platner, the Nazi-tattooed “oyster farmer,” withdrew from the race following a credible rape allegation.
Like Platner, Jackson ran against a “system” that he argued was rigged against “working Mainers.” But while Platner was a political novice, Jackson spent two decades in the state legislature in Maine, including six years as president of the Maine Senate. There, Jackson and his family became well acquainted with Maine’s political “system”: In 2022, Jackson’s son Chace joined a lobbying firm founded by Jackson’s former chief of staff and represented an array of corporate clients. Jackson introduced a number of bills benefiting those clients, including one that would have allowed a “predatory” lending company to sidestep Maine’s interest rate caps.
Jackson also followed Platner in emphasizing his purported working-class background. Platner presented himself as a blue-collar “oysterman” but attended an elite Connecticut boarding school that costs upwards of $75,000 a year and purchased his home thanks to a $200,000 loan from his father. Jackson, for his part, described himself as a “logger by trade” and for years claimed to own a “Logging and Forestry” business, though he actually used the company to accept tens of thousands of dollars in consulting fees from a Maryland-based union, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Platner’s demise ultimately stemmed from personal scandals, and Jackson’s closet proved cleaner than his predecessor’s. Jackson was scrutinized early in his brief campaign for his poor treatment of female colleagues and staffers in the Maine legislature, but the accusations never turned sexual in nature as they did with Platner, paving the way for Jackson to defeat Collins. The result marks the end of Collins’s three-decade Senate career.
Jackson’s son stopped lobbying when Jackson left the State Senate, though he could return to the profession with dad in Washington.
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Minnesota Democrat Peggy Flanagan held off former NFL sideline reporter Michele Tafoya in a closely watched Senate race Tuesday, overcoming questions about her handling of multiple fraud scandals while serving as lieutenant governor in the administration of Governor Tim Walz.
Flanagan led Tafoya by a 10-point margin when the race was called at at 12:20 a.m.
She will become the first Native American woman to be elected to the Senate. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), who campaigned with Flanagan, claimed during her senatorial campaigns a decade ago to be of Cherokee heritage, but DNA tests showed she was at most 1/1,056th Cherokee ancestry.
The race proved uncomfortably close for Democrats, thanks largely to scrutiny of the Walz-Flanagan administration’s handling of the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal, in which state agencies doled out hundreds of millions of dollars to a network of Somali-American nonprofit groups as part of a federally funded food program for schoolchildren.
The groups stole at least $250 million by submitting falsified invoices for tens of thousands of meals that were never served. The scandal stoked scrutiny of Minnesota’s large Somali population, and sparked a Trump administration crackdown on potential visa and immigration fraud by sending thousands of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to the state.
That proved a rallying cry for Democrats, especially in the wake of the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were shot during physical altercations with ICE agents conducting enforcement raids. Flanagan said after the shootings that ICE should be “ripped apart.”
Flanagan, whose administration has given $7.9 million in state funds to a group that provides “booty bumping” kits to allow addicts to take drugs through the rectum, has also gone to bat on the transgender rights issue, especially regarding so-called gender affirming care for children.
In 2023, she sported a controversial T-shirt adorned with a large hunting knife with “Protect Trans Kids” scrawled across the chest. The attire drew scrutiny after Robin Westman, a 23-year-old biological male, shot up the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis in August 2025.
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MS NOW/SnapStream

Amid Democratic election wins in the midterm elections, there were two firsts with “historic” wins for Black candidates in both the GOP and Democratic Party, with Republican Byron Donalds becoming Florida’s first Black governor, and Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms becoming the first Black governor in the country’s history, leading to a celebratory MS NOW reaction. But the channel had a bit of a different tone for Donalds, as Symone Sanders Townsend noted noting the history but remarked “all kinfolk ain’t skinfolk.”Election night host and premier liberal opinion host Rachel Maddow reported the news of Donalds’ win just after 9 PM Eastern:We have a call to make, actually, and this is an important one in the Florida governor’s race. The Associated Press has projected a winner. The Associated Press has called this race. Florida governor’s race will be won by Republican Congressman Byron Donalds. He has defeated former Congressman David Jolly in the Florida Governor’s race. MS NOW’s Rachel Maddow did not note the historical nature of Byron Donalds being elected as Florida’s first black governor in her announcement of his victory… https://t.co/Nf66JhBuvz pic.twitter.com/LgICM0wFkA— Nick (@nspin310) November 4, 2026 She later remarked that “David Jolly kept it close,” but gave no initial mention to Donalds, who became Florida’s first black governor.Around five minutes later, Sanders Townsend joined in to first note the history: Can I also just note, I know this happened earlier and you said this, but we talk about the history that’s being made tonight. And to be clear, Byron Donalds is now the governor of Florida. It is a historic win. It is the first time Florida has elected a black governor. But then, turned to berate and insult Donalds’ “historic win” because of his policies were alike to current Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis: However, minutes after Maddow’s Donalds announcement, Symone Sanders noted the “historic win,” but then minimized him and said, “all kinfolk ain’t skinfolk.” https://t.co/jFX1oB6G2y pic.twitter.com/NKgRqwcoKQ— Nick (@nspin310) November 4, 2026 Will say, though, you know, as you say in my community, all kinfolk ain’t skinfolk. And whatI mean by that is Byron Donalds is making history, but he is going to continue the political direction that Ron DeSantis is going to continue in Florida.After Symone Sanders then praised Julianna Stratton, a Black Democrat, and said “History is being made all over this country tonight in crazy ways,” Maddow eventually noted the historic nature of Donalds’ win: “Yeah. And it’s being made both on the Republican side and the democratic side, which is an important thing.”Just 10 minutes later, Maddow gleefully joined in to project a Lance Bottoms win in Georgia:  MS NOW celebrates Keisha Lance Bottoms win in the Georgia governor’s race, noting she will be the first black female governor ever.Symone Sanders said her victory was about “Black people being under attack in this country politically,” and said Bottoms will be “the governor of… pic.twitter.com/ji9EDHIBgi— Nick (@nspin310) November 4, 2026 We have a big call. In the state of Georgia. We have a call in the governor’s race. This has just happened in the last three seconds. Associated Press has called this. Keisha Lance Bottoms, Democrat, will be the next governor of the state of Georgia. This is a flip in the Georgia governor’s race. She has defeated Republican Rick Jackson. The only person who said that this would happen, who I believe is someone Sanders Townsend, and I only half believed her, if we’re being honest. But Keisha Lance Bottoms, former mayor of Atlanta, an incredible political talent in Georgia, among so many incredibly talented Black women and Democratic politicians in Georgia. Keisha Lance Bottoms is now – has been called the winner in this Georgia governor’s race.In a completely different tone compared to her Donalds talk, Sanders Townsend invoked Stacey Abrams and emotionally celebrated Lance Bottoms’ victory, while claiming it happened amid “Black people being under attack in this country politically”:“And today, America has elected its first Black woman as governor in this country. Keisha Lance Bottoms made history tonight, but she didn’t run on making history, she ran on the issues. And I think that resonated with folks in the state. As I was texting and talking with people, they all kept saying Black voters all across this country right now, but specifically across the South, they understand the assignment. And earlier this year, we have been talking about, Rachel did a whole segment about it. I said, “This is what an ally look like,” about Black political power and Black people being under attack in this country politically.”In more celebration, she said, “It is no small thing that Keisha Lance Bottoms will be the governor of Georgia during the next presidential election. That is right. It is Keisha Lance Bottoms who will make sure that the election is certified for whoever the winner is. It is Keisha Lance Bottoms. It will be on the other side of the phone. If Donald Trump picks up the phone and calls. It is remarkable. Remarkable!”Sanders Townsend closed, “So whatever else happens tonight, this is a reminder that in America, the people have the power. And Georgia has a governor named Keisha. Give me a T-shirt.”The transcript is below. Click “expand”:MS NOW’s We The People: Election NightNovember 3, 20269:11:13 PM Eastern(…)RACHEL MADDOW: Okay we have a new – We have a call to make, actually, and this is an important one in the Florida governor’s race. The Associated Press has projected a winner. The Associated Press has called this race. Florida governor’s race will be won by Republican Congressman Byron Donalds. He has defeated former Congressman David Jolly in the Florida Governor’s race. This follows the call that we had earlier this hour, excuse me, from last hour, in the Florida senate race in which the Republican candidate for Florida Senate also defeated the democratic candidate for Florida Senate. But in both cases, in a state that Republicans have supposedly slammed the door on all Democratic chances, we see with 98% of the vote in, David Jolly kept it close. But Byron Donalds is the winner of the governor’s race in Florida.That’s fascinating stuff.(…)9:16:22 PM EasternSYMONE SANDERS TOWNSEND: Can I also just note, I know this happened earlier and you said this, but we talk about the history that’s being made tonight. And to be clear, Byron Donalds is now the governor of Florida. It is a historic win. It is the first time Florida has elected a black governor. I will say, though, you know, as you say in my community, all kinfolk ain’t skinfolk. And whatI mean by that is Byron Donalds is making history, but he is going to continue the political direction that Ron DeSantis is going to continue in Florida. And so he was on the Breakfast Club this morning, was being asked about all kinds of policies and whatnot. And he, you know, sounded similar to Ron DeSantis. And so I think it’s very interesting what voters decided to do in Florida today, but also in Illinois because of Juliana Stratton, the sixth black woman ever in the history of our country, in the 230-year history of the Senate, is going to the United States Senate. For the first time ever in our history, three black women will consecutively be serving at the same time. For the first time in our history in America, Illinois has simultaneously elected the first – Two women of color will lead the Senate delegation. History is being made all over this country tonight in crazy ways.MADDOW: Yeah. And it’s being made both on the Republican side and the democratic side, which is an important thing.(…)9:24:53 PM EasternMADDOW: We have a big call. In the state of Georgia. We have a call in the governor’s race. This has just happened in the last three seconds. Associated Press has called this. Keisha Lance Bottoms, Democrat, will be the next governor of the state of Georgia. This is a flip in the Georgia governor’s race. She has defeated Republican Rick Jackson. The only person who said that this would happen, who I believe is someone Sanders Townsend, and I only half believed her, if we’re being honest. But Keisha Lance Bottoms, former mayor of Atlanta, an incredible political talent in Georgia, among so many incredibly talented Black women, Democratic politicians in Georgia. Keisha Lance Bottoms is now – has been called the winner in this Georgia governor’s race. Before we understand exactly how that happened, Symone Sanders Townsend, I want you to tell us why you knew that was going to happen before it happened.SANDERS TOWNSEND: I mean, well, one, because I know Keisha Lance Bottoms, but two, because the people in Georgia have been organizing. And to be very clear, if we just take it all the way back to the new Georgia project, way back when, and Stacey Abrams when they in Georgia, Stacey Abrams set out and said, there are voters in Georgia to be organized. There are people who have yet to be touched. And if you just speak to them, if you just talk to them, if you just talk to voters about their power, they will participate. And cycle after cycle, we saw some gains and some moves. And today, America has elected its first black woman as governor in this country. Keisha Lance Bottoms made history tonight, but she didn’t run on making history, she ran on the issues. And I think that resonated with folks in the state. As I was texting and talking with people, they all kept saying Black voters all across this country right now, but specifically across the South, they understand the assignment. And earlier this year, we have been talking about, Rachel did a whole segment about it. I said, “This is what an ally look like,” about Black political power and Black people being under attack in this country politically.People, you saw that. We all see it. We talked about it. The voters across this country saw that and they are taking their power back. It is no small thing that Keisha Lance Bottoms will be the governor of Georgia during the next presidential election. That is right. It is Keisha Lance Bottoms who will make sure that the election is certified for whoever the winner is. It is Keisha Lance Bottoms. It will be on the other side of the phone. If Donald Trump picks up the phone and calls. It is remarkable. Remarkable. So whatever else happens tonight, this is a reminder that in America, the people have the power. And Georgia has a governor named Keisha. Give me a T-shirt.(…)

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ABC News, CNN

When Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) insisted in October that he had “zero interest in running for president,” nobody took him all that seriously — after all, that’s the standard line for any incumbent up for re-election in a must-win state. But even before the Senator had successfully defended his seat on election night, the news media were already so enamored with his campaign that they were already comparing him to Barack Obama. 
After his performance tonight, the media are all in on Jon Ossoff for 2028.In just the last few hours they’ve compared him to Barack Obama, practically declared on his behalf, and placed bets about how soon he’ll go back on his claim that he’s not interested. pic.twitter.com/G6VI4lrzGt— Bill D’Agostino (@Banned_Bill) November 4, 2026

After his performance tonight, the media are all in on Jon Ossoff for 2028.In just the last few hours they’ve compared him to Barack Obama, practically declared on his behalf, and placed bets about how soon he’ll go back on his claim that he’s not interested. pic.twitter.com/G6VI4lrzGt— Bill D’Agostino (@Banned_Bill) November 4, 2026

CNN’s live election coverage was abuzz with Osoff 2028 talk within minutes of the polls in Georgia closing. At 7:05 p.m. ET, CNN chief political analyst David Axelrod predicted:“There’s going to be a parade down to Atlanta after this to talk to Jon Ossoff, who said … during the campaign [that] he wasn’t going to run for president. There’s going to be a lot of interest in him because of the numbers that he’s putting up here in a state that wasn’t easy. He was considered vulnerable at the beginning of this cycle.”Political correspondent Kasie Hunt chimed in: “You know who else said they weren’t going to run for president when they were running for Senate, was Barack Obama.”She added: “The Ossoff for President campaign starts tonight, basically.”On ABC, anchor David Muir excitedly (and repeatedly) brought up the prospect of an Ossoff presidential run. Within ten minutes of the polls closing, and before even seeing any of the results coming out of Georgia, Muir was already asking ABC News Washington bureau chief Rick Klein for his thoughts on a 2028 run:“If you can, show us what you’ve got so far on the Jon Ossoff race. And I know he says he is not going to run for president… we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but we have heard that before.”The live election analysis on the other two major broadcast networks, CBS and NBC, also featured a healthy dose of Ossoff 2028 wishcasting. During the 9:00 p.m. ET hour, NBC News senior Washington correspondent remarked of Ossoff’s victory: “We’re keeping the focus on 2026, but there are real — and I’ve heard this from credible sources — 2028 implications here.”Both Jackson and the CNN panel were particularly excited that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms had won her seat as well, because, as Jackson explained: “If Senator Jon Ossoff decided to run for president in 2028, it would be a Democratic governor who’d pick his replacement.”Ossoff has been something of a media darling for months now, especially when it became clear he essentially had turned his Senate campaign into a referendum on President Trump. The freshman Senator won quite a few hearts in both New York and D.C. newsrooms by repeatedly referring to Trump as a “draft-dodging crook president.”But what the corporate media love even more than anti-Trump rhetoric is seeing Democrats win, and Ossoff is indisputably an effective campaigner. Whether that’s enough to secure him the 2028 nomination is anyone’s guess, but it certainly has been enough to win him the adoration of TV journalists.