‘Shock and disbelief’: Hear how Harris’ campaign is reacting to results

Still things we don't know. But obviously the picture here of what we're looking out is looking at is starkly clear. We are standing by to hear from Vice President Kamala Harris.

Obviously she did not speak last night. Source now telling us she will deliver her concession speech this afternoon at Howard University. And this will be the first time that we will hear, see from her since she lost to Donald Trump a night that, of course, she thought would go very differently, that Trump seemed to think could go very differently.

Priscilla Alvarez is just outside the Harris campaign headquarters in Washington, D. C. Elaina Treen is outside Trump's campaign headquarters this morning.

So, Priscilla, first to you, what do you know about just what's gone on in these past few hours in the inner circle of that campaign where we had all heard their view, they'd been public, they were confident, they thought David Plouffe said. They thought they could win all all 6 or 7 swing states. And yet here we are.

Aaron, I've been talking to allies of the vice president and sources close to the campaign over the course of the morning, including in the early morning hours. And they are in a state of shock and disbelief. Just to give you a sense of some of what I'm hearing.

One source telling me that their quote, stomach is in knots, another telling you that they felt, quote, terrible, and another just describe the mood among campaign officials as quote, gloomy. And it was Pennsylvania. And the results that came in in Pennsylvania that was really the nail in the coffin.

The source also saying bluntly the caveats one now, the reason that there is so much shock this morning among those closest to the vice president is because of what was being said privately and publicly by senior Harris campaign officials, essentially projecting optimism and confidence in those final hours leading up to election night, feeling as though they could pull some of those undecided voters to their side. And, of course, finger pointing has already begun because part of the strategy also included bringing in disaffected Republicans who they believed were fatigued by former President Donald Trump, as well as trying to lock in parts of their coalition where there had been waning enthusiasm. But the numbers have shown they just were not able to accomplish that, including in some of those red rural counties that they had banked on, peeling off some of those Republican votes.

Now, as you mentioned there earlier, the vice president will be speaking at 4 p. m. at her alma mater here at Howard University.

She is also expected to call former President Donald Trump ahead of that speech. So certainly, Erin, a lot of work going on behind the scenes to work on those remarks. Yeah, absolutely.

I can only imagine that phone call. Right. You know, he came out just the other day, right?

Low IQ, all these things. And to have to to pick up the phone and make that call. These are of course, I think at these moments to remember human beings.

Priscilla, thank you very much. And let's go to the Trump campaign. Now early on, a train is in West Palm Beach, Florida.

And Elena, here's the thing. It appeared from everything the Trump campaign was signaling the way he was acting himself. He didn't think he would win.

Then he came out and won. And he didn't just barely win. He won in a landslide.

So how does this adjustment sink in, and what do his next few hours look like? Well, you're certainly right, Erin, that, you know, heading into yesterday, Donald Trump's campaign kept saying they were cautiously optimistic. But behind the scenes there was a lot of uneasiness, uneasiness.

They expected the race to be incredibly close, and they were not expecting it to be called as soon as it was when I talked to some advisers soon after. Most of the networks, including ours, had called it for Donald Trump. They said that they were obviously excited, but also relieved again, because they had not anticipated that it was going to come so quickly, particularly those crucial, those crucial votes in the battleground states.

Now, as for today, I'm told Donald Trump is laying low. For the most part, we know that he's been taking calls with a series of people who've been congratulating him. One thing to note about that is that we've heard, you know, clearly, we've seen foreign leaders publicly reach out and congratulate him over online, but they've also been calling him, as have CEOs.

And Donald Trump's campaign is very closely tracking who was reaching out and when. Because remember, Donald Trump values loyalty at many times above all else. And so this is something that they are watching very closely throughout the course of this day.

Yeah, of course, even watching the world leaders, as you think about what what people said, what they thought and now what they're saying, how how does he manage that? I mean, so much is resting on how he manages that for the whole country and the world. Lana, thank you very much, Wolf.

Erin. Thank you. My team of experts is here with me right now.

M. J. Lee and Gloria Borger.

M. J. , you're our senior white House correspondent.

I understand you're working your sources, getting some new information. What are you learning? Yeah.

You know, Wolf, obviously there is going to be a lot of soul searching and asking a lot of questions in the coming hours and days about what, if anything, could Democrats and the Harris campaign have done differently? One thing that we are clearly already starting to see take place is finger pointing and the blame game, and a lot of that is going to be directed at President Biden. And this is even coming from some folks inside of the Harris campaign.

One senior official I just talked to said Biden will hold a lot of blame for it. And frankly, they said he should. One of the ways in which he is being blamed right now actually just goes back to the simple decision of seeking a second term and reelection in the first place.

Remember back in 2020 when he was running, he had initially said, I plan on being a transition and a bridge president and of course changed his mind ultimately and said, I'm the only person that can defeat Donald Trump. I have more work to do and ended up seeking a second term. And then when his performance completely blew up at the CNN debate over the summer, he had no choice.

He was forced to get out of the race. And that's why we ended up having this very truncated Kamala Harris campaign in the first place. And Democrats are looking back on all of this and thinking, what about that parallel universe where Joe Biden had not sought a second term and there had been a full Democratic primary contest where the party actually chose whoever they thought was going to be the strongest person to run a full campaign.

Again, I think just one of many ways in which Democrats are going to be asking themselves the tough questions. A lot of tough, tough questions are going to be aimed at President Biden. A lot of tough questions, indeed.

You know, Gloria, let's talk a little bit about what was going on. Some mistakes that may have may have been made. The Harris campaign focused heavily on abortion rights for women, as you know, focused heavily on the threat to democracy, which they kept referring to.

But the CNN exit polling results, which came out overnight, showed that it was the economy, more specifically inflation. That was a decisive issue for voters out there. Nearly 7 in 10 describe the economy is not good or poor.

75% said inflation had caused their family hardship in the last year. So was this a miscalculation on the part of the Harris campaign? Well, look, as I was saying, I think that, Kamala Harris had this albatross around her neck and it was Joe Biden, and she had a very difficult job separating herself from Joe Biden in the exit polls.

You see that 80% of Trump supporters say that there were worse off than they were four years ago. So the economy was a major issue. She tried to say, look, here are my plans.

But I think a pivotal moment was on The View when she couldn't distance herself from Biden and couldn't think of anything that she would have done differently. I mean, this is, a moment in this country that one source described to me this morning as a rolling realignment, where you have these disaffected voters who are upset because they're not doing as well as they were doing four years ago. And, it is not based on race.

It is based on class because Donald Trump has brought in all these all these, new Hispanic voters and black voters, for example. And the Democrats are left being the party of the elite, which they feel has nothing to do with them. And so she had a tough job, and she had to do it in just over 100 days.

And, you know, looking back on it, that might almost seem like an impossible task. Very, very difficult a challenge indeed. MJ, you're a white House correspondent.

We know that Kamala Harris is going to be delivering a speech at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington, DC, later today. Do we know if she's planning on calling Trump to congratulate him in advance of that speech? Yeah.

As we've reported, that phone call is likely to happen before she actually addresses the public. I mean, remarkable that there was a whole election night party essentially set up at her alma mater in Washington, DC last night. She ended up not making that appearance.

Appearance period. really reminds you of actually the 2016, Javits Center set up where Hillary Clinton was supposed to appear. Everybody thought that there was going to be a celebration.

And ultimately, John Podesta ended up coming out to tell the crowd, it's time to go home. We can't call this race yet. it is going to be very, very interesting to watch what tone the vice president takes as she publicly concedes this race again, presumably, after having done that privately in that phone call to Donald Trump.

remember, Donald Trump is somebody that the vice president recently referred to as a fascist. She has, made mince no words when talking about Donald Trump and the threat that she believes he poses to the country. And now here we are the day after election day, and we know that this is the man that is going to return to the white House.

So how does she talk to a big segment of the country and the population that is going to be completely devastated by the thought of another four years of a Trump presidency? It's the popular vote as well. I mean, we're not we're not just talking about the Electoral College anymore.

It's quite an achievement to win both. That hasn't happened in a while. And so, you know, she has to recognize that, you know, that they got worked and you have to go back and look at and look at why.

And I think it's always a very difficult thing for campaigns to do. But the Democratic Party writ large has a lot of thinking to do about what the American public thinks about it. Yeah, she referred to Trump as a fascist.

But yeah, we all know the way he was talking about her low IQ and all that kind of stuff as well. So let's see what happens in the course of these next few hours. Guys.

Thank you very, very much.