Here & Now

The new and solid Democratic majorities in the U.S.

House and Senate herald a new day in Washington and across the country.

What will it mean for voters who made their voices heard this week?

We turn to Democratic U.S.

Senator Tammy Baldwin.

And thanks very much for being here.

It's a joy to join you.

So when you were watching the returns come in on Tuesday night, what was your reaction?

It was.

Incredible.

I had been spending the last many weeks campaigning in Wisconsin with Democrats running for state legislature and with David Crowley.

And I knew from what I was hearing, interacting with voters that something was something was afoot.

And boy, was it exciting to watch the returns come in not only across the state of Wisconsin, but to see from the East Coast all the way through to the West Coast.

I a real message being sent, you know, as I was campaigning, along with so many candidates universally, voters were talking about their struggles, their struggles to afford things, to make ends meet, their groceries, their gas, etc.

and they knew very clearly who was at fault.

They knew very clearly that the president and his Republican supporters support of the war, tariffs, trade wars, were driving up their costs, and they made it clear it was a repudiation of the Trump and Republican leadership of the Congress.

And now we have our work cut out for us to address those very issues that the voters talked about.

So Democratic consultant Joe Zepecki cautioned this was not, quote, an embrace of the Democratic Party, but a repudiation of Donald Trump and Maga, and that the Democrats, he said, need to govern like it.

Do you agree with that?

And how do lawmakers proceed?

Well, that's exactly how I just characterized my interaction with voters over the past many, many weeks.

They're struggling small businesses, farmers, families are struggling, and they're smart.

They know who's to blame.

So moving forward, there's a number of things we have to do.

We have to do oversight and accountability to make sure that the corruption that we have seen over the last year and, well, almost two years now, does, comes to an end.

You know, this president is enriching himself at the same time that others are just struggling to get by.

But we also need to address the high cost of things immediately.

And there's things we can do to bring down the cost of gas and diesel, and to bring down the costs of health care and prescription medication.

And there's things we can do to bring down the cost of child care, all the things that people are struggling with.

And I think we can do oversight and hold this administration to account.

At the same time that we're addressing the very central needs that voters have told us, not just in Wisconsin, but across the country.

President Trump has said that he would work with Democrats.

Where do you see the most play in reality?

You know, I think that we are all.

Focused right now on the affordability aspect of things.

We need to rein in this presence, lawlessness.

I mean, let me just remind folks that the war in Iran is illegal.

It has never been sanctioned by Congress in any way.

And so we need to bring that to an end.

I hope he understands that this election was in large part about that lawless act of his.

I hope we can work with him on a number of pieces of legislation focused on child care, focused on bringing down the cost of health care.

And we just need to be very clear that the voters gave us marching orders, and we are beholden to the voters who have placed trust in us and our leadership.

And we've got to go out and fight for them.

And we're going to do everything we can with every lever we can to get this president on board or, or work around him when we need to.

Why do you think voters punished Republicans all the way down the line for their repudiation of Donald Trump?

You know, there were hardly any Republicans who were willing to stand up to Donald Trump.

I think about folks who were horrified by his illegal war in Iran, but vote after vote because we kept bringing war powers resolutions to the floor.

They stood, you know, in lockstep with him, shoulder to shoulder with him, unwilling to say the very obvious truth that this is an illegal war of choice that Donald Trump brought us into.

And we saw that over and over again on numerous measures, including the huge tax breaks in what he called the big, beautiful bill we call the big ugly bill, huge tax cuts for the very richest, for the well-heeled corporations.

At the same time, he was ending Medicaid for hundreds of thousands of folks across the United States, including 270,000 here in Wisconsin.

We saw, you know, this this big ugly bill with tax breaks for the wealthiest.

At the same time, they were attacking the most vulnerable and their stability.

People saw that people voted and, you know, we we now have a situation where people saw it wasn't just Trump.

He had enablers.

He had enablers in the House.

He had enablers in the Senate, and a number of them aren't returning to the Congress of the United States.

This election is being called the beginning of the end of the Trump era.

If that's true in your mind, what era follows?

Well, certainly we are seeing underscored the end of the Trump era just by the several announcements just two days after the election of people departing the administration, whether that's a cabinet secretary or I suspect there'll be more or high ranking officials in various departments.

So you're going to see his leverage decline dramatically.

He's a lame duck president, but he is also one without the power in Congress to do his bidding.

And I think that, you know, hopefully this sets the stage.

If we deliver what the voters have demanded of us, they placed their trust in us.

The next era is going to be building towards a new Democratic president to succeed this administration.

Senator Tammy Baldwin, thanks very much for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

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