‘They Have Defied History’: Watch MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News React to Dems Keeping Senate

After months of seesawing predictions and projections, and days of counting votes, the results of the senate race in Nevada resulted in most news networks projecting on Saturday that the Democrats will once again hold control of the senate next session. |

Going into election day, Democrats had well-founded fears they could lose control of both the Senate and the House, and talk of a “red wave” was the dominant social media buzz. But as of Saturday, not only did the senate stay in Democratic hands, there’s a plausible scenario where they keep the House as well — a far cry from what many politicos expected. So the Nevada call was what a certain White House official might refer to as a “big f’ing deal.”

The cable networks all broke the news in their 9pm hours on Saturday. As regular viewers of cable news (or regular readers of Mediaite, or anyone who uses Twitter) might expect, the big three channels each handled the turnaround of Republican and Democrat fortunes differently.

If you were to guess right now, you would probably guess for giddiness on MSNBC, some gloating on CNN, and wailing and gnashing of teeth on Fox News.

Well, two out of three ain’t bad.

CNN

Let’s start with CNN. After anchor Wolf Blitzer excitedly made the call, the panel took turns reacting. Political director David Chalian astutely observed that the president’s party keeping control of the senate where his agenda is realized is “very good news for the Biden administration.”

But it was the network’s chief political analyst Gloria Borger who really had the quintessential CNN reaction, when she began her answer, as so many answers on CNN do, by bringing up Donald Trump.

I think one of the things, when we take a long view of this, is this may be the moment that we discover that Donald Trump is not a kingmaker any longer. This is it. His candidates did not do well. His election denial was not a big issue in this campaign.

And I think Republicans are going to have to do a lot of soul-searching about whether they actually ran on issues that were dear to them. And how they could have lost the senate with an election that was about inflation, that was about crime, that was about immigration. Yes, it was also about abortion rights. And democracy.

But I think that the fact that the Republicans couldn’t pull this off is going to force them to go to the couch and have a little bit of therapy and say: Why did we do this? Were we following the wrong leaders? And how can we fix it? One short-term answer might be to tell your voters that they should vote by mail. Because maybe it’s easier, and maybe more people do it, and, you know, if you don’t want to show up on election day as Donald Trump wants you to show .. just vote any way you want.

MSNBC

On MSNBC it was even more all-smiles than on CNN. National political correspondent and all-around elections guru Steve Kornacki announced the call, and elaborated on the mechanics a bit before anchor Ali Velshi went to his panel for reactions.

Velshi noted the obstacles that Democrats faced, including Biden being a “deeply unpopular president,” and said that Democrats retaining control is “a remarkable conversation to be having.”

Upping the ante, co-host Alicia Menendez said of Democrats: “They have not only defied expectations, they have defied history.”

But the top prize is reserved for revolving door champ Symone Sanders, currently of MSNBC, who brought the energy just as the segment was getting dry.

This is monumental. Again, we cannot underscore this. And I really think that this bolsters President Biden and this White House to really shut down some of this chatter about, is Joe Biden the best candidate to run for president again? Should he take a seat back? This is a president that has retained, that flipped a seat in the Senate, has retained control and potentially is gaining another seat. Under his leadership the House is is closer than anyone thought it would be. And he’s got an agenda that is quite popular.

He gave a democracy speech before Election Day, and many people said that’s not what he should have been doing. People came out and they voted for democracy and against extremism. So if I’m Joe Biden and Jen O’Malley Dillon, his deputy chief of staff who’s out there, I’m clinking cups on air right now, like, we did that today!

Fox News

And then, of course, there is Fox News Channel. Fox did not have a special panel on air to watch the results from Maricopa in Arizona and Clark in Nevada on Saturday, so Dan Bongino‘s show was airing at the time the other two networks made the announcement.

But a short time later, overnight anchor Marianne Rafferty broke in with the breaking news alert, bringing on Fox News senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram to talk about it.

… By phone.

Pergram had a number of good observations about the consequences to each party from the new situation, but definitely zeroed in on a favorite Fox News subject when he brought up the position that West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin could be in, depending on how things shake out.

What this also means, and again, maybe if Democrats don’t win in Georgia, Joe Manchin is still a central player. He put out a statement a week ago today where he blasted President Biden about his position on coal and comments that he had said about coal plants here. So, Joe Manchin, there’s still going to be a power player here.

But here’s where things might get a little more complicated for Democrats. The fact that it’s going to be a 50/50 Senate, you’re going to have groups on the left continue to pressure Chuck Schumer, the majority leader here, to try to get rid of the filibuster. In other words, you could get around that procedural hurdle and pass bills with just a simple majority. Right now, it takes 60 votes.

So that is going to be something to watch, especially for the left, because they did not get that in this past Congress. And that pressure is going to increase in this Congress with Democratic control.

Three cable channels, three different ways of reporting the news. CNN’s Trump way, MSNBC’s clinking cups to celebrate way, and FNC’s literal phoning it in.

Straight out of central casting, don’t you think?

Clips above courtesy of CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News Channel. Obviously.