“You brutalized Hispanic voters in a way I warned you would destroy you politically,” MS NOW host Joe Scarborough declared Wednesday morning, delivering a fiery post-election rebuke after not being chosen to anchor the network’s prime-time coverage.
“For people in the White House watching right now, that is the price of ICE,” he added, offering his interpretation of the Republican losses in Texas, where the party surrendered a Senate seat and the governor’s mansion in what he portrayed as its darkest electoral setback in decades.
Scarborough’s criticism carried an obvious irony for his detractors, who remembered his earlier insistence that Joe Biden was “beyond cogent… better than he’s ever been, intellectually, analytically.”
That is the price of losing an election: enduring a chorus of commentators insisting they saw the result coming.
There is little doubt that President Donald Trump and several of his handpicked congressional candidates faced serious political vulnerabilities. That, however, did not make the triumphant reaction from liberal television commentators any easier for conservative viewers to watch as the Democratic gains began piling up.
Even before 6 p.m. Eastern, the president appeared increasingly agitated, sending messages to Fox News host Greg Gutfeld during his live broadcast.
“Greg, tell Jessica Tarlov, who is the worst — and worst is in capitals — gas prices are lower than they were for Biden and Obama, and they allowed Iran to have the nuclear bomb,” Gutfeld read from his phone on The Five.
Trump was also challenging the Fox News polling being discussed online. “The Fox News Poll, always the worst, is so insulting with the questions they ask. Every question is a hit job, and every answer is ‘BULLS**!’ This has been going on for years,” he posted at 6:36 p.m.
“I warned you,” declared MS NOW’s Joe Scarborough during a fiery Wednesday-morning broadcast after the election results began emerging
Before 6 p.m. Eastern, President Trump was already trading messages with Fox News host Greg Gutfeld, who was live on air
It was shaping up to be a very long night.
Over on CNN, the network’s chief defender of Joe Biden, Jake Tapper, opened awkwardly by referring to Trump’s signature tax proposal as “no tax on tits.”
Whatever the intended policy reference, the slip did little to inspire confidence in the network’s election coverage.
Tapper soon appeared far more animated as he examined the first meaningful vote totals coming in from across the country.
Republican-held seats in reliably conservative Indiana and Kentucky were beginning to trend toward Democrats, and Tapper’s enthusiasm became increasingly difficult to miss.
The MS NOW panel, led by Rachel Maddow, was similarly tense as the early results unfolded.
The central question was whether American voters had, against expectations, delivered a major blow to Trump — and what such a result might mean for Maddow’s career as one of the president’s most prominent critics.
Shortly after 7 p.m., the network’s election-night narrative appeared to be entering a decisive new phase.
Networks called the Georgia Senate race for Jon Ossoff, prompting CNN’s Kasie Hunt to celebrate. “The Ossoff for President campaign starts tonight, basically,” she said.
From there, Republican losses began arriving in quick succession.
At 8:10 p.m., Democrats were projected to win Florida House seats in districts drawn to give Republicans an advantage.
Tapper began using the phrase “blue-nami” to describe the developing Democratic wave. His excitement rose further as the broader map turned increasingly unfavorable for the GOP.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott appeared vulnerable, while Democrats led in dozens of Republican-held House districts. Susan Collins was trailing in Maine, Kansas had entered play, and Republicans were failing to demonstrate the strength they needed in key Senate contests to retain control of the chamber.
Back on CNN, Van Jones described the results as a “revenge of voters of color.”
The focus on demographic voting patterns quickly became a central feature of the network’s analysis.
At 9 p.m., Republicans received one of the evening’s few major pieces of good news.
Former Congressman Byron Donalds was declared the winner of Florida’s gubernatorial race, succeeding Ron DeSantis and becoming the first elected Black Republican governor in the country’s history. Yet liberal commentators did not dwell on the historic significance of the result for long.
At MS NOW, commentators including Symone Sanders-Townsend instead focused on Democrat Keshia Lance Bottoms’ victory in Georgia’s governor’s race.
Rachel Maddow led a visibly tense MS NOW panel as the election results continued to move against Republicans
“Symone, your political analysis of this race has been perfect, but how does it feel? How does this feel?” asked Lawrence O’Donnell.
Sanders-Townsend then appeared to wipe away tears with a tissue offered by Maddow.
“I’m over here about to cry, Lord,” she said. “After the 2024 presidential election, I myself — but Black women all over the country — felt like it was a repudiation of us.”
Donalds’ victory in Florida received considerably less attention from the panel.
“As you say in my community, all kinfolk ain’t skinfolk,” Sanders-Townsend said.
The remark immediately drew criticism from viewers who believed the coverage reduced the election to a contest over racial identity.
Donalds was also targeted online soon after his victory. His Wikipedia page was reportedly altered to describe him as “the first openly gay man to serve as governor,” despite his marriage to his wife, Erika.
As the night continued, the Republican losses mounted and the celebrations among liberal commentators grew louder.
“I’m happy, happy, happy! I’m so happy!” Jones said with a broad grin.
“This is like Christmas, and a birthday and the Easter Bunny and Halloween,” he continued, later comparing the result to the Jonestown cult massacre. “This is Jonestown for the Republican Party. They drank the Kool-Aid and they have candidates that are dropping like flies across the country.”
“I’m happy, happy, happy! I’m so happy!” Van Jones said as Democratic victories continued to accumulate
Even former Obama adviser David Axelrod interrupted to ask Jones what was in his coffee mug.
At 9:30 p.m., Democrat Roy Cooper was projected to win North Carolina’s Senate race. An hour later, Lindsey Graham’s sister was declared the loser in South Carolina. By 10 p.m., Democrats had been projected to take the House, and the broad outline of the election was clear.
Trump and his allies had suffered a decisive defeat. The result was hardly mysterious: a combination of an apparently prolonged foreign war and elevated gas prices helped Democrats make inroads into traditionally Republican territory.
What comes next remains uncertain. If Democrats interpret the victory as a mandate for sweeping ideological change, the political mood could look very different two years from now — with the celebrations replaced by recriminations if the governing party overreaches.
