Hello and welcome to How to Win 2024. We're recording this episode on Thursday morning,

November 7th at about 10.30 a.m. Eastern time. I'm Claire McCaskill and well, folks, we did not win in 2024. We got our

ass kicked. It's not who we wanted, but it is the outcome that we have to live with. And obviously,

it's an outcome that we have to work hard towards changing in the future. Before we get into results

and what it all means, I want to let you know that we're going to be winding down this podcast after this episode.

A year ago, we set out to cover an unprecedented election, and we've done that and then some.

What a roller coaster it has been.

So now it's time to hang it up.

We might come back with updates here and there as news warrants, but for now we're taking a beat to figure out what this moment calls for and the very best way to serve you, the most important

people in this enterprise, are podcast listeners. And if there are any updates in the future,

you will be the first to know. But now let's get to it. Today, I'm here with three amazing special

guests, superstars in their own

right, MSNBC's own co-hosts of the weekend, Simone Sanders Towson, Michael Steele, and Alicia Menendez.

Hey, everybody, welcome. Greetings, Claire. Hi, Claire. How tired are we? We're tired. Yeah,

we're tired. I've just kept the IV of Tito's and other cocktails going, so I'm good.

You know, I got to tell you the truth.

I came home last night after work, and I made my first drink, and it was a very healthy, dirty

martini, okay?

That was about 7.30.

I drank it, and I went straight to bed. There you go. I love that for you, okay?

I love that for you. All right, we need to start with the caveat that what we're talking about is as of this morning, but frankly, I think we know kind of what's going to happen here. I've looked at the data. It's pretty clear. We're going to lose the House also. We don't know yet what the margin will be in the Senate, and that matters. It matters whether they have 52 because we've got a couple of senators that are independent-minded. We still have Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, who I have watched personally stand up to their caucus time and time again. So if we win the rest of them, that's great. If they get to

55, then it gets really dicey in terms of our ability. And we don't know what they're going to do

...