Lawrence O'Donnell & Rep. Jason Crow

Molly Jong-Fast (0:00)

Hello, welcome to Fast Politics. I'm Molly Jong-Fast. We have a great show for you today. Later in the show, we'll talk to Representative Jason Crow about Pete Hegseth's madness. But first, we have MS NOW's Lawrence O'Donnell on the historic signs he's seeing in the midterms. Welcome, welcome, Lawrence.

Lawrence O'Donnell (0:20)

This is great, great to be here.

Molly Jong-Fast (0:23)

Great to have you. I feel like this is a midterm that we will refer back to because of just the way it's changed the map already and the way we see Republicans spending in states like Nebraska. But does it remind you of previous cycles?

Lawrence O'Donnell (0:41)

You know, I just want to remind the kids a couple of things. When I hear the word Nebraska, you know, I'm not 100 years old, okay? But when I worked in the United States Senate in midlife, there were two Democratic senators from Nebraska. Two, okay? So there's, you know, what is fun is Kansas, right? Because it's literally 94 years. I mean, it's 94 years since a Democrat has won a Senate seat in Kansas. And so I don't remember that, okay? I do not remember a Democratic senator in Kansas. And so that to me is the one, you know, that you really use to say, wow, you know, something really big has happened here. And the huge thing that's happened here is the Republicans have simply kicked away support. Now, Donald Trump being, you know, the stupidest person ever allowed for a microphone in the United States, I can't speak for the world, but I haven't heard anyone stupid or literally in history. And he has never understood how to appeal to people who don't already love him. The vulgarity, the stupidity and all of that doesn't pick up a single voter. It's why Donald Trump has never won a majority vote. And he's never won 51%. And when he got elected the first time, the only thing to watch when someone wins the presidency is how quickly they begin speaking to the people who didn't vote for them.

And most of the winners begin speaking to those people in their victory speech. Most of them. Okay, Trump never has to this day, you know, spoken to the people who didn't vote for him. And that's a disastrous approach to politics. And so the crazy party that went along with him in the Senate and the House is now paying the price for that.

Most of them were not as crazy and audacious as Trump and actively trying to offend the people who didn't vote for them. But they, because they've been living in the bind of Trump, have never figured out a way to talk to people who didn't vote for them. You know, ever.

And so that's what you need when you're trying to hold on to this. You know, and and so, you know, it's an it's a Trump inheritance that, you know, that these people have all functionally found themselves in the same spot of never having said anything, you know, to a Democrat or an independent in their state who didn't vote for them.

Molly Jong-Fast (3:37)

Right.

Lawrence O'Donnell (3:37)

That makes them interesting to them. I would say the only person who's ever kind of played with that at all is Susan Collins. You know, if you watch what she would do, you know, when she would win in Maine, she knew she was lucky. You know, she knew Ed Muskie came before her. She knew George Mitchell came before her. She knew she was lucky as a Republican to win in Maine. You could not take winning for granted there. And so she always found a way of talking to people, you know, Democrats.

So there's a Maine voter, OK? And there's a lot of them, you know, who voted for Susan Collins and voted for Kamala Harris.

Molly Jong-Fast (4:16)

Yeah. Right.

Lawrence O'Donnell (4:17)

That's a Maine voter, all right? And that's not a Kansas voter. There's no one in Kansas who voted for Kamala Harris, who also voted for Republicans, you know? And so Susan Collins is maybe your only model for that. And it may be very likely that that doesn't get her anywhere now, when it comes to the finish line, because people in Maine are saying have finally, I think people understand that the single most important vote that a senator casts is the first vote. And I, for one, you know, as a former Senate professional, really, I don't really care about any vote you cast after that.

I want you to cast all the rest of the votes for our side, but if you don't, that's okay. That first vote is the vote you cast. It's one vote, okay? It's in one vote on the Senate floor. It is a vote to organize the Senate.