Legal Drama in Florida Recount.
KING: Welcome back. The changing Senate map now threatens to render the president, remember his post-election optimism -- complete victory he says. Well, the map's starting to render that inoperative. The president's words from November 7th when he thought he would have 55 Senate Republicans, quote, the Republican Party defied history. Now the changing math has made the Senate map look quite dramatically different. Arizona is blue. Mississippi headed to a run-off. And the president has turned to peddling conspiracy theories about the Florida recount. When will Bill Nelson concede in Florida, the president tweeted just a few minutes ago. The characters running Broward and Palm Beach voting will not be able to find, in quotes, enough votes. Too much spotlight on them now. A Florida judge, for the record, said he's seen no evidence of fraud. Ditto for the state's top election officer, that would be the secretary of state. Rather, the source of the sunshine state drama is tangled lawsuits and some counting hiccups without a doubt. "Tampa Bay Times" political editor Adam Smith joins me now. Adam, we're watching this from afar. Any idea, will they be able to meet the Thursday deadline or are they too far behind?</s>ADAM SMITH, POLITICAL EDITOR, "TAMPA BAY TIMES": Well, I think we're talking 67 counties and it's a good bet that at least -- that 65 will. And it's those two counties, Broward and Palm Beach, that just don't seem to be able to get their act together and they could tip over that deadline.</s>KING: If you look at the history of recalls, most people would say there's no way the votes are out there. You understand the state a lot better than we do here in Washington. Are there enough votes out there, and all these lawsuits, are they legitimate questions being raised, or are just sort of -- the ghost of 2000, people making sure they have place markers in course in case they need to go there?</s>SMITH: Yes, I think it's the latter in terms of the court cases. You know, the votes are theoretically out there, but it's a stretch. I think the hope of the Nelson people is that you've got these undervotes in Broward County, 20,000, 30,000 undervotes that the machine messed up and didn't count. And once they look at them, you'll actually see votes. So that's a leap, but it's conceivable.</s>KING: A leap, but conceivable. And will that be determined in Broward County or is that a question, if you have paper ballots and you say somebody marked it, the machine didn't count it, is that going to end up back in court?</s>SMITH: I think what I could see ending up in court is the deadline because once -- once this machine -- the deadline for the machine count comes Thursday, then they've got so little time to do these hand recounts of the votes -- of the ballots that are either undervoted or overvoted and I could see them -- a bunch of counties bumping up against that deadline and then it becomes a big fight, sort of like 2000 was in terms of should the voting -- should the counting continue.</s>KING: Sort of like 2000 was. Thanks for that, Adam. We'll leave this conversation there. But if it's sort of like 2000, I suspect we'll have a few more in the days and weeks ahead. Appreciate your insights, Adam. Let's bring it into the room. This matters, number one, because you should count votes and you should have elections people can trust. Number two it matters because if Florida swings, the president thought when he had his big post- election news conference, Montana was going red. During his news conference it was called for Tester. He thought Arizona, the Republican, was leading then. Now it's blue. Florida and Mississippi are on the board. If Florida were to somehow change, then the Republicans could come out of this at net zero. Possibly if Mississippi then went in a runoff at minus one. Most people think the Republicans are going to come out of this plus one, maybe plus two. But --</s>RAJU: Look, I mean, it does -- either way you look at it, it's not the narrative that the president and Mitch McConnell were pushing the day after the election, that this was a very good day in the Senate. I mean the map for the Republicans coming into this cycle was one of the best that they had had in a very, very long time.</s>BASH: Ever.</s>RAJU: Ten -- probably ever. Yes, 10 Trump states, states that Trump won five in very red territory. And, remember, they started off the cycle with a 52-48 Senate. Then they lost that one seat in Alabama. So for the cycle at most it will be plus one, they have a 53-47 Senate. So if you're the Democrats, of course you want to be in the majority. But you look at the 2020 map --</s>BASH: Exactly.</s>RAJU: And there's a good chance of them taking back the Senate.</s>LERER: And a very --</s>KING: And so the president is saying in e-mails from his campaign, trying to raise money in tweets, stolen, fraud, crooked, crimes. Listen to one of his top White House aides trying, trying to agree with the president without exactly agreeing with the president.</s>MERCEDES SCHLAPP, WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: There's always concern about voter fraud. And so I think the key is, obviously, that in conjunction with states working with the federal government to make sure that this doesn't happen. But we always have to keep an eye on it because the most -- one of the greatest rights that we have, and privileges, is that of voting and we need to ensure voter integrity at the state and local and federal level.</s>KING: The president say there was -- the president didn't say we have concerns about voter fraud or we're going to keep an eye on it just in case to make sure there isn't voter fraud. The president, with zero evidence, said there is voter fraud.</s>LERER: Right. This is a strategy that we've seen the president use before. Of course, after his own election, when he --</s>BASH: Won.</s>LERER: What he won, but he didn't like the margin, so he started talking about voter fraud in California. My favorite thing he said was when he said that the election official should let Election Day stand, which is kind of like, you're up in the fifth inning, so why play the full nine.</s>KING: Right.</s>BASH: Yes.</s>LERER: Let's just call it at five.</s>BASH: Exactly.</s>LERER: I mean this isn't -- this just isn't how elections work. And I think it's actually really detrimental for our electoral system because, in fact, there is no evidence of fraud. They've had various government entities in Florida investigate this. Nobody has found any evidence of fraud. There's evidence of mismanagement perhaps, particularly in Broward County, but not of fraudulent ballots.</s>KING: Right.</s>LERER: So what you're doing is really just weakening confidence in the entire, you know, election process, which really benefits neither party in the end.</s>KING: But he thinks it benefits him.</s>LERER: Right.</s>KING: He clearly thinks it benefits him and he was trying to keep his base fired up about a fight in Florida, in my view, because he doesn't want to look at what happened, which was a blue wave in the House. Republicans -- yes, Republicans won North Dakota, Indiana and Missouri. They should have won those seats six years ago. They got them back this year, the Republican states. And now we have in play Mississippi, where an incumbent, she's an appointed senator right now, but an incumbent Republican senator said she was invited to an event and she said, quote, if he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row. A Republican senator from the state of Mississippi said the words in 2018, if he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row. Cindy Hyde-Smith now, you would think, trying to explain this. Not really.</s>SEN. CINDY HYDE-SMITH (R), MISSISSIPPI: We put out a statement yesterday and we stand by that statement. We put out the statement yesterday and it's available and we standpoint by the statement. I put out a statement yesterday and that's all I'm going to say about it.</s>QUESTION: At least explain how it could be --</s>HYDE-SMITH: I put out a statement yesterday and we stand by the statement. And that's all I'm going to say about it. I put out a statement yesterday.</s>KING: The statement was -- the statement was, I used an exaggerated expression of regard. And any attempt to turn this into a negative connotation is ridiculous. No, that explanation is ridiculous. If this -- if this, back in the day, back in the day, the day that most of us hope was sealed in a vault and sent away, was an exaggerated expression of regard, you could say something like, I used a term I heard a lot in my youth and I'm horrified. I'm sorry if I offended anybody. Oh, my God, I'll never say that again. But instead you say, I put out a statement. And I just want to note, she's running in a run-off against the former Agriculture secretary, Mike Espy, former Congressman Mike Espy, an African-American Democrat. The state population is more than a third African-American. Is there nobody who would think that the Democrat had a prayer in Mississippi. But I give you Alabama Democratic Senator Doug Jones --</s>BASH: Exactly.</s>KING: To put on the table. Is it possible?</s>BASH: Look she's -- the fact that she wouldn't even repeat the statement, which, as you said, fell short by any stretch of the imagination, she doesn't want --</s>KING: You're way more polite than I am.</s>BASH: She doesn't want it to be -- she doesn't want a sound byte.</s>KING: Right.</s>BASH: She doesn't want -- it's OK for you to read it, but she doesn't want that sound byte. Why? Because she's going to go into a run-off and she doesn't want her base depressed. That is a sad statement. It pains me to utter those words. But that's the political reality. And what she might be doing is what you alluded to, John, firing up Mike Espy's base who might have just been like, all right, well, it's, you know, it's Mississippi. There's no way he'll win in a run-off. Well, if you keep that up, maybe he could.</s>BADE: And let's keep in mind the broader context too because Republicans right now, when it comes to issues of race and racial tensions right now, they are having clearly a big problem with Trump in the White House saying controversial -- making controversial comments post Charlottesville, et cetera. But also Steve King, who just a couple of days ago was caught on mic saying -- basically equating immigrants to, quote, dirt. And, again, GOP leadership, Steve Stivers, the chairman of the NRCC, he got in trouble privately when he came out and said Steve King's comments were, you know, unacceptable. No other GOP leader said anything about it.</s>BASH: That's right. He was the only one.</s>BADE: So the party right now has a big problem. And this just highlights them letting something like this stand.</s>LERER: But it's Mississippi and Roy Moore in Alabama was a really, really troubled candidate. I mean there were all these accusations that he had behaved like in sexual ways with young girls. So it's -- I mean it's still really, really hard. It's still really hard.</s>RAJU: And national Democrats have sat out of this race so far.</s>LERER: Yes.</s>BASH: Yes.</s>KING: We'll see if they do. We'll see what happens in that.</s>BASH: That's a very good point.</s>KING: But to that point, good for Steve Stivers, number one, putting principle, pride over power in politics and we'll see --</s>BASH: In suburban districts.</s>KING: Yes, and if he invited me to a public hanging and anyone who says that's a negative connotation is ridiculous. No, bad answer. Up next, they may be lame ducks, but lawmakers are back on The Hill today with a heavy workload and plenty of drama.