Hello and welcome to the 538 Politics Podcast. I'm Gaelin Drouk. This is not the podcast that we were planning on recording today.

We were waiting for projections in the Georgia Senate runoffs before sitting down to record a podcast after last night's election.

While we were waiting for those projections, pro-Trump extremists violently occupied the US Capitol. Lawmakers hid under their desks, were told to grab gas masks and were evacuated.

They were unable to complete their tally of the Electoral College votes, one of the final steps in the transfer of power.

Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power during the election. He's primed his voters to believe that American elections are fraudulent for years.

He's focused on false claims of fraud almost exclusively over the past two months and encouraged his supporters to gather in DC today and then during a rally directed them to the Capitol.

He's periodically refused to condemn his extremist supporters and told them today while also asking them to go home, quote, we love you, you are very special.

There's a debate over what to call this, a coup attempt, sedition, an insurrection. Maybe my colleagues have thoughts on that, but frankly I think describing exactly what happened tells you all you need to know.

I try and keep this podcast fun and wonky and even keeled, but frankly it was a shameful and sad day. And I don't think we can mince words here.

Today bore the fruit of precisely what Trump has shown during his campaign and his presidency.

So we're going to discuss where we go from here as a nation, how our political leaders respond, and we are also eventually going to talk about the Georgia election last night.

So here with me to talk about that are editor in chief Nate silver, Haney, Hey, Gaelin.

Also with us is senior politics writer Perry, big and junior, Hey Perry.

And politics editor Sarah Frostensen. Hey Sarah.

Hey, Gaelin.

So you know, I there's no way to kick this off with a use of polling or some kind of horse race, wonky question.

I'm just curious to hear from you all we sat for hours watching on TV as something we never, I guess, imagined happening in America took place.

Nate, what did you make of what you saw? How would you characterize it? What does this mean for American politics?

Easy question. I mean, I think like so much of American politics in the Trump era, maybe before that, but certainly the Trump era.

It is kind of imaginable. It's a little different, maybe visualizing it and seeing it play out in real time, right?

I mean, Trump during the debates and the whole run for the campaign clearly pointedly did not pledge a peaceful transition of power.

He said, what do you say? You know, stand down and stand by wherever the proud boys, right?

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