Democrats gain control of the U.S. House and Senate

Welcome back to Fox 5's primetime election night coverage. Joining us now for some analysis, let's bring in Democratic strategist Taryn Rosenkrantz and Republican strategist and Free Press Fail founder, Corinne Clark, both live with us here on Fox 5. Ladies, thanks for joining us. Good to see you both. Thanks for having me. Corinne, I want to start with you here tonight. What is the lesson for Republicans, for President Trump, and what's the role moving forward with a Republican president but a Democratic Congress? You know, this isn't a huge surprise to anyone. Usually Republicans do win or do lose the House. And we've seen similar things. Obama had a similar outcome in 2010 to work with a bipartisan, you know, different Congress. Party in the White House is not anything new, but I do think a lot of us were a little more optimistic going into tonight than the results are. I definitely thought we would do a little bit better. But I think the lesson here is that the Iran war was a lot less popular than even those of us who are critical of that war believed it was. And the voters really made that clear tonight Across the board, I think it's contributed to higher gas prices. It's contributed to a higher cost of living that unfortunately really hurt us at the polls throughout the country. So I think we'll have to do some correcting there. And I'm sure that we'll find a way to govern in a bipartisan way with the split Congress and White House. you. And speaking of that, Taryn, what Are the priorities here for Democrats as they take the reins in January and also who's going to be leading the effort? Because people most likely think Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer will be the key leaders there, but maybe not so when this new Congress takes over. Yeah, I think you're going to hear what we've been talking about all along, that voters want to change because There was too much pain at the pump and at the grocery store and pretty much with our health care costs kept rising. I think the first priorities will be to bring down those costs. I think we're going to see that there's going to be a huge priority to kind of get our economy under control and to make sure that we can bring down some of those costs. People are hurting and they felt really ignored and unheard. And I think that that's where we kind of landed. The war became a priority that was not a priority for folks, as my colleague was just saying there. And I think I think we're going to see that they're going to take action swiftly. As far as leadership goes, I think we'll see how this night turns out and where things are. I certainly think that there is an easy case to say that leadership remains the same or it could be different. We'll have to see. Taryn, let me ask you this. As you mentioned, those factors, those economic issues there, but there's also a lot of Democrats who want to see investigations. There are some that would like to see another impeachment here. I mean, Democrats are gonna feel pressure on both of those fronts. What do you tackle first? Can you tackle both of those at the same time? I think you're going to really see a concentration on the economy as that seems to be the priority and something that fits. Felt like to American people has been largely ignored. I think there was a lot of overreach and now we're going to try to self-correct when it comes. So maybe there'll be investigations. But I think the first and foremost thing is to try to get this economy under control, to try to get this war, to sort of sort out some of the priorities and overreach that the president has gone too far on and sort of get things back into a way where we can govern without people feeling like democracy is at stake every minute. And then I think you might be able to see if there were investigations or other things we needed to kind of pursue. But I definitely think the economy is first on the agenda here. Corinne made that pretty clear. And Corinne, I feel like we could objectively say that the president has tested not only the balance of power, but the checks and balances here in D.C. with his projects, with the legal challenges, ignoring some of the legal decisions here by federal judges. How will Congress and the Democratic Congress most likely play a role? And should the president tamp down? Should he listen to that? Or do you think he's going to go full steam in the other direction? I think we'll see some defiance from the Trump administration, as it would be expected. I think the Trump base does expect him to be Trump and not just give in to a Democrat majority just simply because they won this election. But I think that Democrats would be making a mistake if they don't focus on the economy. As my colleague was saying, that should probably be their focus. I'm not in the habit of advising Democrats, but it seems to be. That seems to be the concern of the American public. I think that's why we lost this election tonight. And I think it would be a distraction to just go. hard on all of the investigations and impeachment efforts. And I couldn't ask for a bigger gift from the Democrats if that is what they choose to focus on, because it actually ends up benefiting Republicans who run a really strong campaign against liberal lawfare. And we saw a Trump victory in 2024 after the extreme lawfare against Trump. If Democrats focus on the economy, Republicans are going to have a much harder race in 2028. If they go hard on investigations and impeachment, I think we'll see a Republican victory in 2028. Corinne Clark, it's always good to see you again. Tara Rosenkrantz, same. Thank you both for staying up late with us here on Fox 5. It's good to see you. Thanks And stay with us. We'll be right back.