IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Ralph Northam beats Ed Gillespie Transcript 11/7/17 All In with Chris Hayes

Guests: Adam Schiff

Show: ALL IN with CHRIS HAYES Date: November 7, 2017 Guest: Adam Schiff

CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC HOST: Now it`s all coming closer again. And for the best of reasons, I think, people of all ages are feeling the pull of a time when leaders spoke of values, when people sat around and argued the great issues of war and peace, and the individual versus the nation. We look with envy at a time when people thought big and put their competing hopes aside. Well, tonight, today, we have a President who never speaks of right or wrong, who never cites a moral compass for himself or our country. He acts as if the only thing that matters on this earth is the act itself, his act. And that`s HARDBALL for now. "ALL IN" with Chris Hayes starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC HOST: Tonight on ALL IN.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When you talk about innocent, I am truly not involved in any form of collusion with Russia.

HAYES: The President`s bodyguard grilled on the Hill.

KEITH SCHILLER, DONALD TRUMP`S PERSONAL BODYGUARD: I`m no stranger to putting my hands on people.

HAYES: New Russian contacts and the bombshell testimony of Carter Page.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was one of the weirder depositions I`ve sat through.

HAYES: And how the Page testimony supports key portions of the infamous Steele Dossier.

TRUMP: I think it`s sad what they`ve done with this fake dossier.

HAYES: Tonight, my interview with the top Democrat on House Intelligence, Adam Schiff. Then, how the CIA is engaging with conspiracy theories as directed by the President. And as polls close in Virginia and New Jersey - -

SEAN HANNITY, HOST, FOX NEWS CHANNEL: This is massive.

HAYES: My interview with Donna Brazile on the new book that is rocking the political world. When ALL IN starts right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Good evening from New York, I`m Chris Hayes. All right, it is election night across America. We have a call at this very hour. NBC News right now projecting the Democrat Phil Murphy will win the race for Governor in New Jersey and will replace Chris Christie as Governor. Meanwhile, in the most-watched race so far in the post-Trump era, the Governor`s Race in Virginia, polls have been closed now for an hour, the early results are showing Ralph Northam with 51 percent of the vote and Ed Gillespie with 48 percent of the vote. It is too early to call. Both gentlemen have just over a half a million vote. There`s 43 percent of precincts in.

But here`s the thing. If you look at a lot of bellwether precincts, if you look at turnout projections, our own Steve Kornacki has been carefully looking at this, comparing apples to apples. Right now Ed Northam appears to be, in terms of turnout and margin, outperforming where he would need to be to win the state if the margins are to hold. So an encouraging early set of returns for Ed Northam and the Democrats after a lot of -- a lot of anxiety and wringing of hands about that race. We`ll have more from Virginia and elsewhere later in the show.

We begin tonight with what has become a ritual for people closely associates with the President. Long-time Trump aide Keith Schiller going to Capitol Hill today to testify behind closed doors under oath before the House Intelligence Committee about the President`s possible ties to Russia. Other than family, there`s probably no one closer to the President than Schiller, former NYPD officer, became Head of Security at Trump Tower in 2005, and who served as Director of Oval Office Operations before leaving the White House in September. Schiller has been Trump`s body man, his confidant, and his gatekeeper. The man White House officials reportedly sought out when they wanted to know the President` mood.

When Trump wanted a quarter pounder with cheese, it was Schiller who would head to McDonald`s on a stealth fast food run. There were big task too. Trump entrusted Schiller to hand-deliver his letter firing FBI Director James Comey. It was Schiller who removed journalist Jorge Ramos from that Trump press conference back in 2015. That`s him there putting his hands on Ramos. It was also Schiller who ripped a sign away from a protester outside Trump Tower and then turned around and coldcocked said protester when he tried to get it back.

SCHILLER: Oftentimes you`ll find in the city cops and firemen do a lot of side work. So I said, you know, I see some -- you know, a light goes off. I said, bodyguard, I can do this. This guy`s a bodyguard? I`m a (BLEEP) bodyguard, you know what I`m saying? And you know, knowing that I had done over the years, you know, I`m no stranger to putting my hands on people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From way back.

SCHILLER: From way back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Crucially, Schiller was with Trump when Trump traveled to Moscow back in 2013 for the Miss Universe Pageant. And that is when the Steel Dossier alleges the Russians gathered compromising material about the future president. The White House was hopeful that Schiller, ever the loyal lieutenant, would knock down that dossier`s claims. Lawyer Ty Cobb telling the Washington Post the White House is delighted that Mr. Schiller will have opportunity to shed some light on these scandalous allegations. But Shiller`s questioning under oath comes one day after the release of Capitol Hill testimony by none other than former Trump Campaign Aide Carter Page. A man whose comments appear to corroborate some crucial parts of that dossier including a claim that Page met with high-level Russian during a July 2016 trip to Moscow, something Page denied to me just last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Did you brief anyone on the campaign when you got back?

CARTER: I may have mentioned just a few sort of, you know, things I heard but nothing serious at all, yes.

HAYES: Well, people keep using terms like serious or official, like -- but you told them what you did and who you talked to?

PAGE: What I said is that there`s a lot of positive feedback. In general, on the street, the average person is really excited about --

HAYES: Donald Trump in Moscow.

PAGE: I think in just in general about you know, future possibilities. So again, I had no meetings, no serious discussions, with anyone high up or at any, you know, official capacity.

HAYES: Let me ask you this --

PAGE: This is just kind of man on the street, you know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Congressman Adam Schiff, who joins me momentarily, confronted Page during his testimony with an e-mail page sent to Trump Campaign official J.D. Gordon, in which Page said that he -- Page said he had received incredible insights and outreach for a few Russian legislators and senior members of the Presidential administration here. Page admitted to a brief conversation with, among others, Russia`s Deputy Prime Minister. Page also revealed that Steve Bannon had urged him not to appear on this very network.

And he acknowledged lauding the Trump Campaign for watering down the GOP platform on Ukraine, making it more palatable to Russia. Page writing in an e-mail to J.D. Gordon of the Trump Campaign, "As to the Ukraine amendment, excellent work." Gordon said in a statement, he didn`t see Page`s e-mail and insisted he isn`t the one who cleared Page to go to Russia. "I discouraged Carter from taking the trip to Moscow in the first place because it was a bad idea since I refused to forward his speech request form for approval, he eventually went around me directly to campaign leadership."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HAYES: I`m joined now by Representative Adam Schiff of California, who is the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, questioned both Carter Page and then Keith Schiller today. Congressman, let`s start with Keith Schiller, was he forthcoming today?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA), HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: You know, I can`t really discuss interviews. We allow the witness to disclose whether they`re interviewed or not. So I`m afraid I can`t comment on that.

HAYES: Can you tell me if he brought a lawyer or if he was there by himself?

SCHIFF: You know, we don`t disclose the witness`s participation. We leave it up to them to disclose if they choose so. I really can`t at this point confirm whether he came in today.

HAYES: Let`s talk about Carter Page. What do you think you learned from Carter Page`s very long testimony that we now have had the opportunity to look over?

SCHIFF: Well, Chris, the first thing we learned, because I asked him about it right off the bat, was what he told you on the air just a few days ago was clearly was not accurate, and indeed what he`d been saying publicly for quite some time was not accurate. He represented to you and others that his meetings were you know, essentially with the man on the street, they weren`t with high-level officials, that it was purely in his private capacity. But we learned within minutes of his interview in closed session that, in fact, he let -- he met with very high-level people. He did have private conversations.

One of those was with the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia itself. But more than that, that he wrote back to the campaign in a memo in the campaign`s own format that said that as a result of these meetings and discussions, he had valuable insights and outreach to report to the campaign. That is completely inconsistent, obviously, with this being a purely private endeavor. So we learned the public representations weren`t accurate. We also learned more detail about a second trip that he made to Russia later that year, as well as the third trip that he made to Hungary at the suggestion of the Hungarian Ambassador, someone he met during the Republican convention.

HAYES: One of the other items that you read to Mr. Page in your -- in your questioning, the first that about we`ve heard of it I think publicly, was an e-mail he wrote congratulating the campaign team on their machinations to insert that amendment or change the amendment in the Republican platform with regards to lethal weapons or lethal help to Ukraine. What do you think the significance of that is?

SCHIFF: Well, I think these memos show a number of things. They show certainly that Carter Page was aware of the debate during the convention and the efforts by the Trump campaign to fight off an amendment that would have been stronger in terms of providing defensive weapons to Ukraine. They also indicate that higher levels of the Trump Campaign were more than aware of his trip to Russia, including notifying now-Attorney General Sessions, then-Senator Sessions, about that trip. So as well as his disclosure during testimony that he notified Sam Clovis of his trip to Russia. So a lot of the contacts that he made were represented to higher levels of the campaign and that directly contradicts -- that directly contradicts rather things that we`ve heard people like Corey Lewandowski say, Attorney General Jeff Sessions say, and others within the Trump Campaign. HAYES: Carter Page has in multiple instances attempted to minimize meetings he may have had or did have. He admitted to me that he met Sergey Kislyak in Cleveland but said it was very brief. He admitted to meeting the Deputy Prime Minister but said it was very brief. He said that he told Jeff Sessions that he was going to Russia but it was you know, it was in passing. Do you trust those characterizations?

SCHIFF: Well, I don`t think we can trust these characterizations because, of course --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HAYES: All right. That was my interview, previously recorded, with Adam Schiff but we are back here to make a call. We now have NBC`s own Steve Kornacki who joins me to talk about the returns so far. Steve, what do we have our of Virginia?

STEVE KORNACKI, NBC NEWS NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have a winner. We have the Democrat Ralph Northam. This was -- the polls were right but maybe they even underestimated what`s going on here. Ralph Northam, the Democrat, going to win this Governor`s race in Virginia. The big storyline that`s emerging, we talked all last year about that split among white voters, right? The college-educated whites, the non-college white sort of a social class divide. Look, the story with Donald Trump`s election last year was non-college whites in those critical battleground states. Well, the story tonight looks like it`s the college-educated whites, the suburbanites looking right outside Washington, D.C.

Look, this is Democratic territory traditionally right here in Virginia, but it was really big Democratic territory last year. They really turned hard against Donald Trump. Ed Gillespie`s campaign was premised on two things. It was running up Trump-like margins in the southwest part of the state, but not getting creamed like Trump did in those college-educated suburbs of Washington, D.C. Let me take you very quickly through what happened because to give you an example right here in Loudoun County. Ed Gillespie ran for the Senate here a few years ago. He won this county. Last year, Donald Trump won it by 17. Remember the goal of Gillespie, don`t get blown out like Trump. He got blown out worse than Donald Trump, 19 points in Loudoun County. Down here at Prince William County, when Ed Gillespie ran for the Senate, only lost it by three points, last year Trump lost by 21 points there.

Tonight, 21 points, same thing. How about right here, Ed Gillespie, Fairfax County, they`re still counting the votes, only lost it by 18. Trump lost by 35. You`re getting Trump margins here. Trump backlash. The Trump backlash that we saw in these -- in places like this around the country, it has not subsided at all, it even expanded a little bit in Virginia. It looks like when you get outside of Richmond, take a look here at Henrico County, this have been -- you know, this is the mid -- if you`re Gillespie you want to lose this maybe 13, 14 points, it`s explodes 10 points more than that. The suburbs in Virginia, there is a lot of energy there. Looks like it`s anti-Trump. We can debate, did the Gillespie campaign running on Trump issues, did that exacerbate it all or was it just the anti-Trump energy that`s been there ins is the election last year? But you are seeing -- Ed Gillespie, he didn`t want to see any of the numbers. I just showed you, and you`re seeing them all over the place tonight.

HAYES: You know, Steve, it was interesting the Gillespie approach which Steve Bannon had called Trumpism about Trump at one point. And -- there were two prongs to it. One prong got a load of attention in which were the ads he was running. Those were the things on keeping the Confederate statues up, about the central American gang MS-13, one about Terry McAuliffe re-enfranchising felons, things that played in the kind of culture war terrain of Donald Trump. He was meanwhile sending these mailers to northern Virginia calling himself the son of an immigrant, talking about economic growth. And what I`m hearing from you is attempting to essentially pull off that two-track campaign did not work up in those places in Northern Virginia?

KORNACKI: Yes, I mean, look, maybe it was ultimately an impossible thing that he was trying to pull off but here with the dynamic that Ed Gillespie walked into was this. As a Republican, you know, his background obviously, he`s sort of the establishment Republican traditionally. Well, his background, he did pretty well for a Republican up here when he ran for the Senate a couple of years ago. He actually didn`t do as well as Republicans should do maybe in the rural parts of Virginia. Last year when Donald Trump was running, we`re seeing you know, Trump get 75, 80, 85 percent in some of these counties. So what Gillespie was trying to pull off was the culture issues that he ran on aggressively. He was trying to get that 85 percent in places down here. It doesn`t look like he quite reached that number.

But through the tactics you`re talking about, he was still trying to be the Ed Gillespie of 2014. The Ed Gillespie of the Bush-era up here. The voters didn`t buy it at all. And again, this is going to be a debate, I think. Was there a backlash? Could it have worked without the campaign he ran? Or was this just -- was this just set in stone? What we are seeing in Northern Virginia tonight, was this just set in stone by that election result last year. By Donald Trump winning, by Donald Trump being the President, a version of the President that he was as a candidate, is Northern Virginia just locked into the same anti-Trump position it was on election day last year? Maybe even a little bit more so. And if that`s the case, and it`s not about the tactics of Ed Gillespie, that could have very significant implications for 2018.

HAYES: Yes, and I want to make one more point Steve here about what was going on in Virginia, which was a lot of investment also in the races for house of delegates. And there`s a lot of delegate races that were contested. Democrats had for a long time not contested a lot of those seats and they ran candidates in them. We`re getting early returns that even members of GOP leadership who had been serving in their delegation forth a very long period of time now looking neck and neck, possibly some huge, huge up sights -- huge upsets happening in that race. We`re going to keep our eyes on that. Steve, if you`ll stick around because I want to come back and talk more about that. NBC`s Garrett Haake is in the Ralph Northam event in Fairfax, Virginia, where I imagine folks are pretty excited. What`s it like there Garrett?

GARRETT HAAKE, NBC NEWS REPORTER: Yes, Chris, as we and then CNN just called this race over the last few minutes, the crowd here went nuts. I don`t know if you can see the room behind me, but it`s not even entirely full yet. They just started letting attendees into this party a little bit -- a little while ago. I think even the Northam folks didn`t expect to see the race turn as quickly and as decisively as it has. Although they had been much more confident in Northam campaign, and the folks I`ve been talking to in Virginia than I think national Democrats were all along. The line I`ve been hearing from people in Northam`s camp and from voters in Virginia today was they felt like Northam has an authenticity that connected with Virginia voters in a way that maybe national Democrats didn`t quite appreciate. This is the guy with a southern accent.

This is a guy who talks slowly. This is not someone who fires up the room as some kind of a natural bomb thrower resistant candidate, and yet he`s been able to translate a lot of that vote while not turning off some of these more moderate counties and places that tend to lean a little bit more towards the establishment Republicans. When you talked to Steve about Loudoun County, Prince William County, sort of the D.C. excerpts, the numbers that were seen Northam put up there have been huge. And the folks here tribute a little bit to the sort of anti-Donald Trump but also the fact that they have despite what national Democrats were talking about, what they felt like was a very good candidate for Virginia, a candidate with a legitimate Virginia background who was able to connect. And I think we`re seeing that pan out in the numbers right now Chris.

HAYES: You know, it`s interesting you say that about that room being partly empty and I take you behind the curtain here, we were -- as we were gaining on election day, Virginia elections get called notoriously late because usually the (INAUDIBLE) Virginia which is huge bulk of the votes, that comes in late. In fact, Hillary Clinton -- the state was called for Hillary Clinton fairly late on election night a year ago, even when Donald Trump was shown being up in the actual vote count because of what was out in North Virginia. So this decisive victory, this early, getting a call at 8:15, this is a huge win for the Democratic Party of Virginia and for a National Democratic Party that has spent the last two weeks absolutely lashing itself on the back in advance preparation of a loss in Virginia and almost started down the pathway of the analysis of what did we do wrong. There`s got to be a lot of exuberance and relief in that room.

HAAKE: There really is Chris. Let me tell you, I talked to Tom Perriello earlier today who was the democrat who lost to Ralph Northam in the primary. He`s been very active by the way campaigning not just for Northam but for all those house of delegate candidates that you mentioned. And he said, you know, look, Democrats have been talking to themselves about how they need to get active in these off-year elections and these midterm elections in a serious way since at least 2010. He was hopeful this morning that they would start to see it tonight. And it looks like they have. And you know, you mentioned those delegate races.

One of the theories here is that there`s almost a reverse coattails effect here, where Democrats just have not competed in a lot of these places in Virginia historically. And now they`ve got folks on the ballot. So even if you`ve got a house of delegates candidate who may not do great, but if they`ve got a couple hundred of their friends and family who are going to come out and vote, it lifts a little bit in all these rural counties that for a long time Democrats had almost written off in places essentially sort of south and west of Richmond. Now all the rest of that is back in play. Not to mention, we`re looking at a tiny, tiny fraction of Fairfax County which is sort of the behemoth blue county here in Virginia which comes in historically late and will be I think enormous based on the voters I talked to tonight.

HAYES: Yes, Garret, you know, thank you for that. We`ll probably be checking back with you in the hour. That point you made about reverse coat tails is something that folks I know in Virginia have been -- have been hammering home, the activists and the sort of political operatives. And when we had the DNC Chair Tom Perez on the other night, last night -- the weeks go by so fast -- he said, look, we`re competing in every house delegate race, we`ve got a ton of people, and you were -- Tom Perez, who`s on the phone now, the DNC Chair. You pointed to that as a key part of what you were doing in your role in the Democratic Party, investing in the state, investing in these house delegate races. How are you feeling right now?

TOM PEREZ, CHAIRMAN, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: I`m feeling incredibly optimistic. The author of the anti-transgender bathroom bill just got defeated by a woman named Danica Roem, a transgendered woman who is a spectacular candidate. The two Latino candidates, Elizabeth Guzman and Hala Ayala both ahead in their races. If elected they will become the first two Latinas ever elected in the house of delegates. The new Democratic National Committee is all about helping people up and down the ballot, Chris. And when you have such an authentic candidate at the top of the ticket as Ralph Northam, and when the number one issue in the election is health care, and you have a healer on the Democratic side and a divider on the Republican side, this is a really important night.

And it`s not only an important night for Virginia, but it`s a blueprint for what we`re doing everywhere, which is competing in every zip code, telling our story. And our story is that Democrats believe in health care for all. The story is that Democrats believe that we should be uniting our country, not dividing our country. That`s exactly what Ralph Northam said, that`s exactly what Phil Murphy said in New Jersey and that`s why we`re winning up and down the ballot. And there`s still more to come in Virginia.

HAYES: Yes, you`ve got -- you`ve got -- I saw someone noting right now, and again, it`s hard to keep track of all these house of delegate races, but one of the -- one of the things that happened in the Obama era, of course, was this sort of hollowing out of the bench. We saw Republicans take statehouse after statehouse, it gave them control of things like gerrymandering of the Congressional districts which sort of further enmesh their power. You`ve got a bunch of House of delegate candidates. One I just want to -- a trans candidate who beat a Republican who wrote a trans bathroom bill. And there`s also I believe a marine veteran who identifies as Democratic socialist who, if I`m not mistaken is running competitively with someone in the House GOP leadership right?

PEREZ: That is correct. That is correct.

HAYES: The House GOP Whip might lose to a socialist marine veteran. Is that actually happening?

PEREZ: Well, there are a lot of remarkable things going on tonight in the House of Delegates races. And here`s where it gets even better. I don`t know whether we`ll get to 17, that`s the number we need, that`s a tall order, but it`s not beyond the pale give where things are moving right now. But it`s important to know that there was a lawsuit filed because of the partisan gerrymander in Virginia. And we`ve already won that lawsuit. So a court is going to be redistricting next year to make the districts fair.

So even with an unleveled playing field, look what we`ve been able to do tonight. And in the months ahead, a court will be redrawing lines in a way that will create fairness. Virginia is not a 66/34 state. It never was. But as a result of the 2009 election, that`s what happened. And the illustration of this race, Chris, is this 2017, 2018 cycle races, these are 14-year, 13-year election cycles because these governors are going to control redistricting. That`s why tonight is so important. It`s a new day in Virginia, it`s a new day in America, it`s a new Democratic National Committee.

HAYES: All right, Tom Perez, we may be checking back with you. Thank you for hopping on the phone with us. I want to just reset for those who are just joining us, on this the first national election night in the Donald Trump era. And some good news so far for the Democratic Party which was hoping for some good news after last year`s results. You`ve got Phil Murphy who is the Democratic Candidate for Governor. He is projected to be the winner in New Jersey. He`s being Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno who is the Lieutenant Governor for Chris Christie, whose approval rating is around 15 percent. That was a heavy baggage for her to carry.

Murphy heavily favored going down the stretch. He is projected to be the winner there. The one that had Democrats chewing their fingernails down to the bone was Virginia. Well, Ralph Northam way, way ahead of any -- anywhere I think anyone thought who was going to be projected at 8:15 is the projected winner with Northern Virginia still out, defeating Ed Gillespie, who won a narrow bid for Senate just three years ago. My colleague Chuck Todd is on the phone now. And Chuck, there was so much anxiety and focus on this race. What do you make of tonight`s results?

CHUCK TODD, MSNBC HOST: Well, the data -- actually, the results matched the data. I think, what -- you know -- you know, why there was so much anxiety that I noted even with the people that were looking at the data and all of that on the Northam campaign themselves, they had their own anxiety, was because they were sitting in this exact same moment a year ago on one hand,

HAYES: Right.

TODD: So there`s a little bit of that going on that anxiety. But frankly, even in Virginia, you know, four years ago, if you remember, all the numbers pointed to this big McAuliffe win and then turned out to be more of a nail-biter. And if you recall, I don`t think we called that rate until the 10:00 hour. There -- basically we had to wait to see if Northern Virginia was going to perform like Northern Virginia before we could call that race. Tonight, what you`re seeing is that the -- it looks like a bad environment for Republicans, but you know, you`re not sure if the tactics are going to work. We`re going in. It looked like this was going to be a bad environment for them.

But the question was, you know, how much were the voters going to punish the Republican Party in Virginia for President Trump? I think we got an answer. This is a wipe-out for the Democrats tonight. This looks like -- I mean, this looks like they`re going to sweep all three of those statewide races and they`re going to have a good night on this. Right now, I think they`re going to have a good night. Look, we`ll see when all the returns are in but this looks like was going to be a big win for Democrats tonight. I think you`re going to have a lot of Republicans waking up tomorrow morning going, and the debate`s going to be, does Trump -- is Trump that much of a problem? Or was Ed Gillespie not -- you know, the vote -- the base knew he wasn`t really Trump. The base knew he really wasn`t of them. And I think that`s going to be an interesting debate tomorrow morning in that postmortem on the right.

HAYES: It`s a great point because one of the things we`re going to see is turnout and sort of raw terms. What we did see today was that we have high turnout in areas that are traditionally Democratic, particularly college- educated voters in Northern Virginia, very big turnout numbers. They`re -- we`re going to look at what those turnout numbers were in the -- in the Trump-heavy areas. Some of the early return I saw showed Gillespie doing Trump kind of margins but nowhere near the raw vote totals, to your point about whether he was able to get those people out. And particularly in these off-year elections, as we learned during the Obama era, who turns out their voters becomes you know, the determining factor in a lot of cases?

TODD: Well, especially in -- especially in the off-off-year, right, very much so. And I think, for instance, that`s what four years ago taught us a lot, which was when that was a base versus base. And you realize, boy, you sort of hinted that the Dem base was not fully enthused and that`s why McAuliffe perhaps narrowly won. This is a different story. The turnout numbers, Arlington County, Fairfax County, and you know, which is basically the two -- the heart and soul of when you hear us talk about Northern Virginia, for those of you not familiar with Northern Virginia, those are two massive counties population-wise. And they hit their 2013 turnout numbers. I think Arlington County did it at 3:30, upholds 3 1/2 hours before polls closed. And Fairfax County did it about 5:00, two hours before polls closed. So lower turnout in most Trump areas, higher turnout in Northern Virginia. It`s going to make that debate inside the party actually that much more complicated.

HAYES: And you know, tonight is the first night, I remember two big moment in the early Obama years, the -- of course, Scott Brown`s special election was a huge wake-up call, and then the next year when Chris Christie won that race in New Jersey in solid blue New Jersey. And that was sort of the beginning of --a sort of a beginning of what would become the tea party wave in 2010, but also beginning of sort of reckoning with what the political backlash to the Obama era would look like. And we`ve had a bunch of special elections so far in which Democratic victories didn`t materialize at least in the Congressional level, and a question about whether some similar kind of pendulum swing was in the offing, which I think was the source of that anxiety. And tonight at least just looking at these returns, it looks like the terrain broadly has shifted from a year ago.

TODD: Chris, if a transgender-- first transgender candidate wins and the Democratic socialist candidate wins, I think that tells you that, yes, I think the terrain is there. I am not convinced -- I am not convinced that most of the voters that voted in that race probably knew about the transgender issue, I don`t know that that`s the case, right? How familiar were voters or how many weren`t in there and it just say, look, I`m looking for the D right now because you know, I`m punishing the R`s or I`m coming out? Whatever the reason is, that`s the stuff that`s going to make -- give Paul Ryan heartburn tonight, frankly, and thinking about -- thinking about what House 2018 is going forward. And then you had a -- what I`m going to be curious to see Chris, is do Democrats -- and the next time you talk to Tom Perez, you got to ask him this because there`s not been a lot of evidence. If Democrats take what`s the lesson they take away from Virginia --

HAYES: Absolutely.

TODD: -- and what -- how do they apply to it Alabama? Do they try to make a point in Alabama now realizing there is some terrain there, don`t walk away from it?

HAYES: That is -- that is a great point. A huge, huge implication for what the Democratic Party decides to do with Doug Jones, their candidate running against Roy Moore in that special election in the Senate in Alabama. Chuck Todd, thanks for that. I appreciate it. I`m joined now by HARDBALL Host, the one, and only Chris Matthews. Chris, what do you make of this?

MATTHEWS: Well, I think -- I just want to add to that, it`s about morale. And the people working in Doug Jones` campaign down in Alabama, people working hopefully against Kelli Ward out in Arizona, and of course the Nevada, anywhere where it`s conceivable that a Democrat can win, they`re going to be thinking victory tonight. They`re going to think, this is a switch, as Norman Mailer called it, a switch of the cosmos when everything just shifts.

And voters have very crude tools to use to send a signal to send a signal. Basically when there`s no presidential election, they`ve got to grab every weapon they`ve got and send the signal they don`t like this president and his behavior. They just don`t like it. They think it`s not what we want as a leader in this country.

And I do think the fact that the people, all the lines today, all the lines of the ballot, they said, you know, I`m going to take this line and use that against Trump. I only got a few grenades to throw, I`m going to throw them all.

And I do think if I`m working down there in Alabama in a senate race I thought was a long shot, I`m now thinking, hey, this is doable, I`m going to work my butt off. Same thing in Arizona, same thing in Nevada. If I were the RNC right now, I`d be thinking, get the people with the walls right now and start protecting everything you got because everything`s vulnerable now.

And the reason I say that is because even with the issue of the monuments, and I understand the sense, I went to school in North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I understand the sensitivity of people about the south and its history. It`s not all about slavery. It was -- the war was about slavery. But the history, the texture of the south, the whole thing. I understand where 60 percent of the voters told our exit pollsters that they want to keep the monuments, but they didn`t vote that way.

HAYES: That`s right.

MATTHEWS: It`s so interesting. They voted on health care.

HAYES: That`s right.

MATTHEWS: They voted that things that matter in their lives.

HAYES: I don`t know if we have that board up, but the top issue for voters was health care.

MATTHEWS: Right.

HAYES: And a lot of people noticed that Gillespie was trying to make this race about -- he even sent a mailer out with a football player kneeling.

MATTHEWS: Oh yeah, that worked.

HAYES: And I`m glad you brought that up, because look, Republicans and Democrats alike have learned how hot and how much it burns when you touch the health care stove. And let`s not forget that Republicans took a run at repealing Obamacare and failed and still may be paying the political consequences.

MATTHEWS: They`re still at it.

HAYES: Without a bill to show for it.

MATTHEWS: Right, they`re still threatening. And as long as they threaten, the Democrats are going to have that issue on their side.

I think the only bad news for Democrats, and this is really reaching for bad news because there really isn`t any -- the notion that somehow all politics is a see-saw, that if Trump goes really down in the polls then Democrats are going to start to look good. And you`ve got to be careful about that. I think Democrats should have a morale boost like they`ve never had tonight, but they have to say, now we got to get out there and sell something. We got to sell something, whether it`s a better health care program, a jobs program, or something.

I think they`ve got to be -- but that`s just me talking. I think it`s a good night for the Democrats. I don`t want to take any of the joy out of it. They beat the hell out of this guy who pretended to be a Trumpster. Ed Gillespie is a Washington lobbyist. He`s knee-deep or head- deep in the swamp. He`s part of the problem Trump ran against. He is a Catholic U grad from New Jersey. I`m sorry. He`s not Stonewall Jackson, but he tried to run as his grandson, you know? It just didn`t work. And people are not stupid.

HAYES: Well, Ed Gillespie, proud son of Emerson Township, and guarantor of the legacy of Robert E. Lee. Chris Matthews, thanks for making time.

MATTHEWS: It`s great to have me on. Thank you.

HAYES: All right, big night. Big election night. We`ve got some big results. People are still just processing the scope of what`s happened in Virginia, because this was projected to be a nail biter. It is not. It is over, it appears, the projected winner, of course, Ralph Northam.

But down-ballot, Democrats would have to pick up 18 seats in the house of delegates, 18 seats to flip that chamber, that seemed absolutely impossible just a few weeks ago. They still might do that. That is still a possibility. We`re going to keep our eyes on that. We`re going to keep our eyes on both headquarters in Virginia. We`ve got some other races coming in. Much more ahead. Don`t go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: All right, it is election night in America. The first national election since Donald Trump was elected president. We`ve got some calls, if you`re just joining us. In New Jersey, Phil Murphy is the projected winner there. He`s the Democrat. He`s running against the Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno.

And in Verginia, what was projected to be a naibiter and conventional wisdom in the political press was that Ralph Northam is going to blow it, Ed Gillespie was going to win, but, no, very early this evening, 8:15, we called it for Ralph Northam. He`s up by 5 points. We`ve still got a lot of votes to come in from Northern Virginia. That`s going to be a significant margin. Not only that, it appears Democrats have picked up at least maybe a dozen seats in the House of Delegates. There`s a Medicaid expansion item on the ballot in Maine. There`s some early returns from that we will be looking at.

So, right now, it`s looking like the best night for Democrats in an election since that night last year.

I`m join now by Donna Brazile, maybe you`ve heard of her, the former interim chair of the DNC. She`s author of a new book that also maybe you`ve heard of called "Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House." You have been making a lot of news with this book, a lot of people angry.

DONNA BRAZILE, FORMER CHAIR, DNC: Chris, there are a lot of people tonight are celebrating what`s happening in Virginia.

HAYES: You`re celebrating.

BRAZILE: And they are celebrating what`s happening.

Look...

HAYES: They were going to come for you. They were going to blame you if Northam -- I already saw people writing the story about Donna Brazile being responsible for depressed Virginia turnout.

BRAZILE: A month ago I went down there to help raise money. I went out two weeks ago to kick off a canvassing campaign. Tonight`s story is about these delegate races.

I mean, everyone was out there two weeks ago, out there knocking on doors. I`m proud of the Virginia Democratic Party. I`m proud of the New Jersey Democratic Party, I`m proud of what`s going on in Maine.

Most importantly, I am proud that Tom Perez is invested in down-ballot races. That`s what we should have been doing last year. We`re doing it now and that`s great.

HAYES: Yeah, you know, we had Tom on last night, we had him on just tonight. He was talking about that.

What does this mean -- I mean, I want to talk about the book, but it`s funny now to sort of have passed through the curtain of time to after the election, because so much of the kind of controversy around it was this -- I think was an epi- phenomenon of the nervousness that people had about this race in Virginia.

BRAZILE: Of course.

HAYES: What does this mean for the Democratic Party, these returns tonight?

BRAZILE: Turnout, turnout, turnout. An offseason election, non- presidential years, you know Democratic turnout plummeted. This year, what we`re seeing in Northern Virginia, Henrico down there in the Tidewater area, we see Democrats coming out. They came out in Henrico, which is Richmond. They`re coming out in college towns. This is a good sign that the Democratic Party is coming back to life.

HAYES: So, you were on the ground there. You were talking about those down-ballot races. Tom Perriello, who lost that primary contest, former Virginia congressman, was spearheading part of the effort to get those delegate races going.

Do you think this is a kind of bottom-up coat tails that`s happened here? The national analysis is going to be, this is an anti-Trump vote.

BRAZILE: Of course, and it should be. This is the first year after the presidential election as you know. The president sort of controls the tempo. This is about those down-ballot races.

I mentioned in my book. I talked about the energy that you need in order to win at the top. You`ve got to get the grassroots involved. You`ve got to get people to carry your yard signs, wear your buttons. And what I saw in Virginia, I saw a lot of young people working for state delegate races. That`s the energy.

HAYES: There`s a question about a year after that election.

BRAZILE: Yes.

HAYES: And we`ll get to some of the stuff in the book, but a year after the election, there`s a real question about like what is the Democratic Party? Fill in the blank. The Democratic Party is the party that?

BRAZILE: Believes in not just the working class, but we believe that our party stands for opportunity for all. We want to level the playing field. We want every American to be able to get a head start in life and a healthy start. That`s who we are. And that`s what you heard Ralph talking about in Virginia. That`s what you`re seeing in Maine. And that is what Doug Jones is talking about in Alabama.

HAYES: But wasn`t that Hillary Clinton`s message too? Wasn`t it the message of -- the thing about that message is that that sounds like a message that was the message of a party that got absolutely slaughtered in down-ballot race in the Obama era.

BRAZILE: Chris what we heard last year is, is she likeable enough? What we heard was the sound of Donald Trump tweeting at 6:15 a.m. and the media blowing every tweet into a big, major story. We didn`t see all the policy positions she put out. We didn`t hear her message to working class. What we heard was, of course, the sound of 140 characters on the keyboard.

I do believe that the Democratic Party will be able to bring that message home next year when we have 36 gubernatorial races, 33 senatorial races. That`s the ball game.

But we can`t focus on 2020 until we can get past 2018.

HAYES: So, but this is interesting point because the top issue, if we can show that again, the top issue in our exit polls today was health care.

BRAZILE: That`s right.

HAYES: And part of what happened I think in that last campaign was, it was a very policy-free campaign in many ways. Donald Trump made it very policy-free. The media I think helped in that.

BRAZILE: I think the media helped a lot in making it -- it was about what I call the sound bite.

HAYES: The spectacle.

BRAZILE: That`s right, not the substance.

HAYES: But does it -- I mean, health care seems to me...

BRAZILE: Look at that.

HAYES: Yeah, and this is an issue that the Democrats have the luxury in some ways of defending the status quo.

BRAZILE: Absolutely.

HAYES: And it`s hard to change people`s health care. How central do you think that is to the party right now?

BRAZILE: I think that`s very important, especially at a time when the American people understand that the Republicans are trying to repeal Obamacare, but not replace it with something that`s better.

I think the Democrats will have to embrace not just Obamacare and health care, but we got to talk about bread and butter issues. The American people are still feeling anxious about the economy. If we go back to what I call those simple three words of opportunity and fairness and leveling the playing field, maybe it`s six words, I think Democrats are going to win in 2018.

HAYES: OK, but the issue there that strikes me is, that may be true that Democrats want a level playing field, opportunity and fairness. But here the thing. This economy is not delivering raises for people. It`s the fundamental truth about this economy. It`s the truth in the Republican administration, and it`s true in the Democratic administration, right?

This economy, it can grow at 2 percent, 3 percent. It can get unemployment down to 4 percent. It can have all these statics that look great from 30,000 feet. But my paycheck is not getting bigger. Do Democrats have an answer for people when they say what will you do for them?

BRAZILE: That has to be the central platform that the Democrats will put forward next year, how do we grow wages? How do we expand opportunity? If we cannot walk and chew gum and let middle America know that we`re on their side, that we`re the champions, then they won`t come out. They didn`t hear that message last year.

HAYES: Well, that`s the question. If I want to -- if you want to say to people, I want to raise your wages, what does that mean? What is a Democrat going to do to raise my wages?

BRAZILE: First of all, you saw in the last midterm election, you had all these states, including Arkansas, Ohio, they voted to raise the minimum wage. People want a wage. They want their wages raised. I think Democrats have to speak to those issues, but they also have to speak to bread and butter issues. They are going to reject Donald Trump, but we cannot just run on a platform of we don`t like Donald Trump, we`ve got to run on a platform that says what we stand for.

HAYES: We should note that Ralph Northam endorsed a $15 an hour minimum wage in Virginia. Interestingly enough, Ed Gillespie did not attack him very much on that, which I thought was indicative.

Donald Trump now has 280 characters as you can see on your screen there and from halfway across the world he said, "Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for. Don`t forget Republicans won 4 of 4 House seats, and with the economy doing record numbers we will continue to win even bigger than before." The tire marks across the face of Ed Gillespie, Washington lobbyist --

BRAZILE: Totally predictable. You saw what happened in Alabama when his candidate didn`t win, he just rolls right over you.

HAYES: What does this mean for Alabama?

BRAZILE: I think Democrats need to go all-in, and trying to win Alabama. They have to win by not just getting Democrats, they have to get independents and some Republicans.

HAYES: You can`t win a statewide race in Alabama with just Democrats.

BRAZILE: That`s right.

HAYES: It`s not going to work.

BRAZILE: I`m from Louisiana and I understand. But we`ve got John Bel Edwards in Louisiana. We got John Bel Edwards because we had the kind of candidate who could appeal to the middle and also get some Republicans. We need I think Doug Jones can do that in Alabama.

HAYES: And hundreds of thousands of people in Louisiana have Medicaid and health care because of John Bel Edwards and because that was something he ran on.

BRAZILE: You know what I did in 2015 when Democrats were criticizing? I went back home and I helped him.

HAYES: Okay. Talk about criticism. You`ve been in the middle of this maelstrom --

BRAZILE: And by the way, Chris, I love my party. I don`t care --

HAYES: You kicked the crap out of your party in this book.

BRAZILE: It`s not the crap. I want to kick my party back into gear, because I want to win in 2018. I want to win in 2018.

HAYES: I know that. The question is, why are you doing what you`re doing in this book? Why are you doing it now?

Again, we`re talking about this on the other side of what looks tonight to be an incredibly good night for the Democratic party.

BRAZILE: This is my forum, this is my autopsy.

HAYES: Why would you publish an excerpt in Politico that uses the word rigged --

BRAZILE: I didn`t publish it.

HAYES: You did publish it --

BRAZILE: Look, I used the word rigged because that`s the word Donald Trump used to describe our election results. The word I prefer to use, and I said in the book when I talked to Bernie, I prefer to say cancer. I did not like the cancer. I call it cancer because we did not rig the primaries.

HAYES: Correct me if your defense is I didn`t say rigged, I said cancer. But cancer is pretty bad.

BRAZILE: Rigged is -- Yeah, of course cancer`s bad, and God knows we want to get rid of cancer. But the question that I had to answer, and I wanted to report back to Bernie, was, was the process rigged? And I did a forensic examination and came to the conclusion, Hillary Clinton won the primary. She got more votes, more delegates, she won more states. She won the primary.

HAYES: Okay.

BRAZILE: But what I found that I did not like, I call it cancer and I say it`s unacceptable.

HAYES: And what is that? And what is that and tell me how that applies to the party right now.

BRAZILE: Well, before primary`s over with, I think the Democratic party must be nonpartial, okay? And I`m talking about the staff and the operations. And when you have one campaign, and mind you, this campaign bailed the Democratic party out. This campaign provided the Democratic party with its resources, continued to help us with resources. And I found that objectionable. Because I couldn`t spend money as party chair. It got in my way of doing my job, and I opposed it.

HAYES: Is that -- are the sort of dependencies that you felt were biased that existed there, are those gone now?

BRAZILE: Yes.

HAYES: Is the party independent operator?

BRAZILE: Absolutely. I left the party, we cleaned that all up. I left the party in good hands, Tom Perez has done a great job with Keith and Karen and Mike and all the other officers.

HAYES: Who`s the future of the Democratic party?

BRAZILE: I won`t know that until 2020. I`m not running. I don`t know who plans to run, but I can tell you this much, we have enough seats open at the table to allow new voices and new faces to come within the Democratic party. I`m proud of my party. I`m proud of my party tonight. I`ll be proud of my party tomorrow as well.

HAYES: Do you think -- what do you think is the big lesson that Democrats have learned from a year ago? Everyone`s writing these one-year obits, right? Where are you a year ago?

BRAZILE:hat`s my obit, my autopsy.

HAYES: Your autopsy. And there`s some great stuff in here, which on election night, I would commend people to read the stuff about the hacking because I thought it was very important. And really important in a broader context if people think about the new world we live in, in which your e-mails might be public at any time.

BRAZILE: Thank you.

HAYES: What was the big one -- you`ve got to think about everyone wants to refight that fight in 2016. People are very invested in it. The excerpt came out, but you`ve really got to think about the future. Both for American politics and for the Democratic party. What is your big lesson for the future of the Democratic party?

BRAZILE: My biggest frustration, if you want to know what I went to bed with every night last year, I couldn`t help enough candidates in non- battleground states. I couldn`t send posters to non-battleground states.

I saw someone today criticize me today for sending money to Chicago. I sent money to Chicago because I wanted to help Tammy Duckworth. And the form of money I sent money was cause with President Obama. I sent money to my home state of Louisiana because we had elections.

Yes. I raise money and then I went out and told state parties I want to help you. I don`t want any state, whether you live in Alaska or my home state of Louisiana to go without resources and try to win elections. I`m proud of Virginia because the Democratic party stood up and they gave money not just to the top of the ticket, but they gave money to all of those delegate races. That`s the story tonight.

HAYES: As for the story tonight, I think you can do -- I believe her name is Danika Rome. She will be the first, I believe the first trans state legislator in Virginia and possibly the entire country if I`m not mistaken. Certainly in Virginia. She beat GOP rep Bob Marshal who is in leadership who refused to debate her, who refused to call her by her proper gender.

BRAZILE: Absolutely.

HAYES: That happened tonight. That is an earth shattering result. It speaks to what you`re talking about, about this need to contest at every level.

BRAZILE: Grass Root energy. She was not written off. She was embraced by the Democratic party and money and resources were sent her way. Thank you.

HAYES: Donna Brazile, who is pretty happy tonight for a variety of reasons, but not least of them no one`s going to be blaming her for Ralph Northam losing. The book is called, Hacks. Thank you for being here.

Let`s go back to Steve Kornacki at the board for the latest. Steve, what are things looking like now?

KORNACKI: We`ll go a little deeper than just the governor`s race, but to update you, by the way keep an eye on this margin because they are still tallying the vote. There`s still more vote to come in from Northern Virginia where Northam has just been owning it tonight. But look at this, up to seven points right now. And remember, last year the margin in the presidential race it was Hillary Clinton 50 to 44, a 6 point win. Right now, Democrats up to seven.

Again, there the story continues to be we can zoom in and show you. In Northern Virginia, these are anti -- this is higher than the anti-Trump level that we saw in 2016 in a lot of these places. You can take a look here for instance. We still got vote coming in in Fairfax county. So see Northam by 35. That was the margin for Hillary Clinton.

Take a look here in Arlington. Look at this, a 61 point margin right now, 80% for the Democrat. That is better than Hillary Clinton did last year. Take a look. Alexandria, Hillary Clinton got 76%, Northam getting 78%, so he is improving on what Hillary Clinton got, and what Hillary Clinton got in this area was exceptionally high for a Democrat.

But the issue here in Virginia right now is becoming more than just the governor`s race. It`s a question of will this margin, this much larger than expected democratic margin in the governor`s race trickle down to other offices. Let me show you. We had a call a few minutes ago in the attorney general race. The Democrat -- this is closer than the governor`s race. The Attorney General Mark Herring, he was running for re-election. He`s been re-elected. We`ve called that one in the last few minutes.

This one is outstanding. It is not outstanding. It`s been called since I came up here. Justin Fairfax, the Democrat candidate for Lieutenant Governor, you can see closer than the governors race, but he is now going to win this race, so the Democrats will win the governor`s election. They will win the attorney general`s election and win the lieutenant governor`s election, all three of the statewide elections and that leaves the big suspenseful thing here right now, that is the question of the House of Delegates.

But Democrats set this up. Democrats right now coming -- 66/34 in the House of Delegates. 66 Republicans coming in to tonight, 34 Democrats. They`re all up, all 100 seats. The Democrats need a net gain of 17. Nobody said 17 was even possible, maybe they`d pick up a few. Here`s what we know right now. It`s a fluid situation. Democrats so far have picked up six Republican held seats in the House of Delegates and the magic number is 17. Six they`ve picked up before I came up here three minutes ago, it might have changed since then. They led in Republican held seats in 12. Six plus 12 you get 18, if -- it`s a huge if, but if that holds.

HAYES: Wow.

KORNACKI: That`s unthinkable coming in to tonight. A win of the House of Delegates for the Democrats. That`s what we`re really looking at right now.

HAYES: We should note that background context this is a state that has a Democratic governor, that it has gone for the Democratic presidential candidate in three successive elections with the 66-34 imbalance in the House of Delegates. That gerrymandering was just struck down by a court and you can see the mismatch between the way the state has voted at the statewide level and the margin there, but that may be coming to a close tonight. Certainly that gap is going to narrow.

Steve Kornacki, thanks for being with me at the board. With me now, I have David Ignatius, a columnist for the The Washington Post, who I was reminding everyone that it was your column about Michael Flynn talking to Sergei Kislyak was the first domino that brought us to where we are. I`m glad to have you here. DAVID IGNATIUS: Seems like a long time ago.

HAYES: Glad to have you here because on a very busy night with a lot going on, the president who just tweeted about Gillespie, is in South Korea where he is set to give an address to -- in their main legislative chamber about North Korea. It`s a pretty high stakes address given the tenure of the rhetoric so far.

What do you think is going to happen tonight?

IGNATIUS: I think President Trump will try to reassure South Koreans who have been really nervous. His rhetoric, the little rocket man stuff, I think really has put South Koreans on edge. American military presence in South Korea has always been controversial. He has a significant job of reassuring folks there who are under the gun quite literally that he`s thinking about them, he understands them.

HAYES: War planners estimate that any open hostilities between the U.S. and South Korea and North Korea would result in somewhere in hundreds of thousands of casualties within the first hour I think some people predict. This is a war there would be catastrophic obviously for the penisula and the folks there know it.

Do you expect his rhetoric to sound different than it did at the U.N. general assembly?

IGNATIUS: I`ll be curious whether we hear some of the belligerent talk before that audience. The importance of this trip is that if Trump can move from Japan to South Korea and Beijing and have support for diplomacy in each capital, the chance of having a unified position towards Kim Jong-Un, towards North Korea, is greater.

I think everybody wants that, so in that sense, it`s important to roll each of these together and have a front. We are all worried about what comes next after this trip is over.

HAYES: Do you think other countries -- there`s some great reporting about how North Koreans are viewing all this. There`s a great piece in the The New Yorker on this. Do you think that allies like Japan and other nations like China, do you think they feel like they have a handle on how seriously to take the president`s rhetoric on North Korea?

IGNATIUS: I think the president`s rhetoric is misstifying to people around the world. One thing I was thinking tonight watching the election results is that for a world that is really scratching its head and wondering how dominate is Trump, how should we take these polls in which he appears to be unpopular in the public, these are significant results. There is resilient in American politics.

So I think -- don`t underestimate the degree to which people all over the world are focusing on our political fever and wondering what`s happening in America. So tonight, as important as it is is a domestic story it does have international repercussions.

HAYES: Do you think they`ll be international headlines tomorrow and prominent ones across the world about a Virginia --

IGNATIUS: I don`t want to say that they`re going to be top headlines, but I`d be surprised if every correspondent for major foreign newspapers doesn`t talk about what does this tell us about where America is. There`s been real concern. Where`s America heading? Is this the country we know? How much is it changing? Here`s a sign that there is -- Chris Matthews earlier used the phrase, the balancing process, the spring board that`s at work in American politics. This tells the world that there is a reaction. You can see it in the polls and you can see it in the election results.

HAYES: The president we should say as he`s preparing to address that joint assembly and that`s obviously Ralph Northam`s headquarters there in Virginia, that`s the legislative assembly there in South Korea where the president is set to make an address in just a little bit.

He also tweeting about this Virginia gubernatorial result, throwing Ed Gillespie under the bus, basically saying that "Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for". That`s not what Steve Bannon said on the record to The New York Times the other day. "Don`t forget the Republicans won four floor house seats." I think he`s talking about special elections in which of course they were heavily favored. "With the economy doing record numbers we`ll continue to win even bigger than before." It will be interesting to see if he goes on a tangent about his electoral college victory in front of South Korean legislative leaders who are assembled tonight.

David Ignatius, thank you for making time to join us tonight.

IGNATIUS: Great to be with you.

HAYES: All right. On a really busy night here, That is All In for this evening on this election night 2017. The Rachel Maddow Show starts right now. Good evening, Rachel.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END

Copy: Content and programming copyright 2017 MSNBC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2017 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.