JUDY WOODRUFF: As we have
reported, votes are still being
tallied from last week's midterm

election, but Democrats have
picked up more than 30 seats
to regain control of the House.

John Yang has more
on the lessons of the
2018 midterms -- John.

JOHN YANG: Judy, was
it the blue wave that
Democrats had hoped for?

And will the new House majority
look like what the voters
that helped elect them look

like?

It's time for Politics Monday
with Tamara Keith of NPR and
Stuart Rothenberg of Inside

Elections.

Welcome to you both.

Tuesday night, the story line
quickly developed that this
wasn't the night that Democrats

had hoped for, that the
blue wave had become -
- I heard someone refer
to it as a blue ripple.

Tam, a week now out from
Election Day, we have seen
more races called, we have seen

some margins narrow.

What does it look like?

TAMARA KEITH, National Public
Radio: Sometimes, the initial
hot takes are not so hot after

a few days.

And what it looks like is
-- and President Trump came
out and declared victory.

And it was like, hmm.

Well, now it's even clearer
that -- that Democrats
picked up a lot of seats.

There are still several
races that are not called
yet still outstanding.

At the moment, AP has
it at 32 seats flipped,
but there are many more
outstanding, especially

in California.

And the important thing to
keep in mind is that, yes,
election night is a big night,

it's a big night on television,
but the vote counting is slow
and arduous, and especially

in states like California, where
they have a lot of vote by mail.

Even if it says 100 percent of
precincts reporting, that's not
100 percent of votes counted.

JOHN YANG: Stu, credit
where credit is due.

All right, Tuesday night, I
remember fairly early in the
night you tweeted out -- you

didn't -- you said, what's
with all this hand-wringing?

(LAUGHTER)

STUART ROTHENBERG, Inside
Elections: That's right.

That's right.

Yes, I think the narrative
didn't change two or three
days after the election.

I think it changed two or
three hours after the votes
started being counted, actually.

I understand why Democrats
were fully invested in
the Texas Senate race and
the Florida governor's

race and the Georgia
governor's race.

And Amy McGrath didn't
do as well in Kentucky
6, in an early state.

But, look, once we got into
the large number of districts
that were competitive and that

we were really watching, it
was very clear we had a wave.

I mean, between 35 and 40
seats flipping is a wave.

A national election is a wave.

It's not a cherry-picked
election, where a district here
flipped and a district there

flipped.

There were -- there
were upsets, significant
upsets, in Oklahoma,
in South Carolina's 1st

Congressional District.

So, look, we just had a wave.

People tend to jump the gun.

I understand it.

Everybody wants to be first.

People are emotional.

They're invested in the races.

But we had a wave, a
good Democratic wave.

JOHN YANG: Stu, a couple of
those races you talked about,
the Georgia governor's, Florida

governor, still up in the air.

The president saying that
votes being discovered in
Florida, being turned up.

He really is -- seems
to be challenging the
legitimacy of this.

What do you -- what
do you make of that?

STU ROTHENBERG: I think
this is very consistent
for the president.

He really doesn't
care about process.

He's all into outcomes and how
the outcomes affect him and
how he plays in the outcome.

I mean, many of us think
the process is actually more
important than the outcome.

If you don't get the
process right, you can't
get the outcome right.

So I think it's -- what
you see with Donald
Trump is what you get.

This is very consistent
all along the ways, with
the Kavanaugh testimony,
rigged elections.

He's always undermining the
system when it benefits him.

And I expect him
to continue that.

TAMARA KEITH: Yes.

And the thing about the
president is, the first election
that he was probably really,

truly invested in the
result of was 2016.

And that election ended at
the end of the night -- or
very early the next morning.

And this election
is -- did not end.

There are 435 House races
and 35 Senate races and all
of these governor's races.

And the minutiae of the
election process is not
pretty all the time.

Close elections get
a little bit messy.

The process has a lot
of technicalities.

And things that, if you haven't
been paying close attention,
come off as weird or suspicious,

but aren't.

STU ROTHENBERG: I just
want to add one thing.

The more we have mail
elections, mail balloting,
absentee ballots and the
like, the more complicated

this counting process
is going to be.

I remember somebody tweeted
the other -- the other
day, maybe the president
needs to understand

how the mail works.

It's a slow process.

Letters come in.

The votes come in, and
you got to count them.

That's the way it is.

TAMARA KEITH: And you have
to match the signatures
on the absentee ballots.

JOHN YANG: Tam, we heard
representative-elect Spanberger
talk about the new voices coming

into the House.

The leadership, though -- the
new voices at the lowest levels.

At the top levels, the
leadership team that
appears to be headed to
remain has been there

for about a decade.

They're, the three top
leaders, in their late 70s.

Is this going to be a challenge
for the Democrats, this public
face of the party as this -- as

we approach 2020?

TAMARA KEITH: Certainly, if
the leadership stays exactly
the way it is, I can picture

the RNC e-mails that are
probably headed to my
inbox already talking
about the leadership

not reflecting the broader
American public, and also the
RNC e-mails saying, what about

all those Democrats who said
they weren't going to vote
for Pelosi, and now they do?

One argument that you
been hearing a lot in
the last 48 hours or so
is, you can't replace

something with nothing.

And until someone steps forward
for the Democrats to challenge
Pelosi, this sort of nascent

effort that is out there with
members trying to put together
a movement, it's pretty hard

if the movement
doesn't have a leader.

JOHN YANG: Stu?

STU ROTHENBERG:
Well, no, I agree.

I think -- I think the younger
Democrats and more recently
elected Democrats need a voice.

But let's remember,
the speaker is a woman.

Clyburn is an African-American.

So, this is a party that
has tried to be more
diverse and welcoming.

But there's no question
that 18-to-29-year-olds,
18-to-35-year-olds, they
would be more comfortable

seeing, I think,
some younger members.

It doesn't have to even be in
the form of leadership, John.

These are people who speak for
the party and are involved in
TV interviews and things like

that.

I think that would be helpful
for Democrats, because the
leadership should in many ways

reflect the party.

But, also, they should
reflect the country, actually.

TAMARA KEITH: And beyond the
top three, Democrats have a lot
of leadership positions in the

House.

So, Nancy Pelosi has said
that she sees herself as
a transitional speaker.

They have had farm team issues,
where the people who were
in the lower ranks of the

leadership ended up leaving,
like Xavier Becerra, who
went to become attorney
general of California.

So there's something for
Democrats to figure out.

JOHN YANG: Tamara Keith, Stu
Rothenberg, thank you very much.

STU ROTHENBERG: Thanks, John.