The mood on Tuesday’s 11th Hour was rather jubilant following Democrat Doug Jones’s victory in the Alabama Senate race, with assembled MSNBC guests touting the “earthquake” that resulted in a “very significant night” for the ages in America.
While it’s significant that an accused child molester and predator didn’t win the race, MSNBC was undoubtedly going to be celebratory no matter who the Republican opponent was as long as the liberal candidate won.
MSNBC political analyst John Heilemann had the first crack, telling host Brian Williams that “we witnessed a race, an outcome that many people thought was impossible” that was also “an earthquake in a lot ways” serving as yet another “huge repudiation for Donald Trump and the Republican Party.”
Winding his way through the winners and losers of the election, Heilemann touted the Jones campaign for running “a fantastic race” because, among other things, “they did everything technically right in terms of how they got their campaign together, in terms of doing the turnout.”
“New south Alabamians, Alabamians who had been wrestling with the ghost of George Wallace for 30, 40 years and wanting their state to be seen as a modern place, part of the New South, like a Georgia, like Atlanta, now worried about being embarrassed by the election of Roy Moore. They did what they needed to do tonight to get things to get things right from their point of view,” Heilemann added.
Ironically, Heilemann gave credit to the #MeToo movement for toppling Moore which also led to the firing of his co-author, co-host, and colleague Mark Halperin.
Liberal Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson also took the long view of the race, declaring to Williams’s approval:
ROBINSON: [Jones] was elected to the U.S. Senate, in — in an utter repudiation of Steve Bannon and what he stands for, and an utter repudiation, I think, by extension, of Donald Trump and what he stands for. So I think we will look back on this as part of a continuum and a very, very significant night, not just for the Democratic Party, but for this country.
WILLIAMS: Eugene, thank you. As always, you just put things into relief and context.
Moments later, Williams wondered to Robinson’s Post colleague Ashley Parker if Jones’s victory is part of a broader “reckoning” in the country following the courageous and crucial “exposure of sexual assault and harassment.”
Former New York Times editor Howell Raines was most excited, promoting the “historic night” in his beloved Alabama and how Jones has put the sate on the “right road” “for the first time in 175 years.” For more on Raines’s comments, check out our post here.
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Here’s the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Brian Williams on December 12:
MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
December 12, 2017
11:10 p.m. Eastern
BRIAN WILLIAMS: What did we just witness tonight?
JOHN HEILEMANN: Well, we witnessed — we witnessed a race, an outcome that many people thought was impossible. We witnessed an outcome that is an earthquake in a lot of ways. I mean, the Virginia, the off-year elections we saw in Virginia, New Jersey, other places, obviously a huge repudiation for Donald Trump and the Republican Party. This, orders of magnitude greater in some ways. Virginia has become basically a blue state. New Jersey is a blue state. This is an —
WILLIAMS: Alabama, on the other hand —
HEILEMANN: — this is one of the three or four reddest states in the country. You have — I made a long list of winners tonight and some losers and I think it's worth thinking about them a little bit. Doug Moore and his campaign ran — Doug Jones and his campaign ran a fantastic race, they did everything technically right in terms of how they got their campaign together, in terms of doing the turnout that Steve Kornacki has been talking about all day, how hard it was to balance those things, drive up African-American turnout while also helping yourself in the suburban Republican parts of Alabama, and keeping the turnout from rural precincts low. They got it exactly right. It was an inside straight they had to pull. They pulled it off. New South Alabamians, Alabamians who had been wrestling with the ghost of George Wallace for 30, 40 years and wanting their state to be seen as a modern place, part of the New South, like a Georgia, like Atlanta, now worried about being embarrassed by the election of Roy Moore. They did what they needed to do tonight to get things to get things right from their point of view. African-American voters in Alabama, obviously, turned out in extraordinary numbers. Roy Moore's accusers big winners tonight, seeing the man they believe violated them not go to the United States Senate. Senator Shelby, Richard Shelby who came in at a crucial moment and sent a pivotal message to Republican, suburban professionals that it was okay to stay home tonight.
WILLIAMS: As senior senator, as a Republican
HEILEMANN: As the senior Senator, as a Republican. An incredibly important thing he did over the weekend on Sunday. Mitch McConnell, in some ways, a winner tonight, did not want to see Roy Moore in the United States Senate, kind of won here. The national Democratic Party with that shift you talked about, just that one extra seat, 51-49, now a Democratic Senate, still hard to do in 2018, but now a little easier to do and actually sort in reach for Democrats. And I would say, finally, most — in many ways, on the grandest cultural scale, the #MeToo movement essentially won this race. It was — I was down in Alabama just for about 36 hours, yesterday and today, but this race was nationalized in a million ways, but it took place, Roy Moore's alleged crimes, in the context of the national moment we're having, was one of the big volatile factors injected in this race and for those part of that movement and those who feel the #MeToo movement is important, this was a big night.
(....)
EUGENE ROBINSON: And now in Alabama, a Democrat elected to the Senate, not just any Democrat but the Democrat who prosecuted the — the — the evil men who bombed the church and killed those four little girls in Birmingham. That Democrat was elected to the U.S. Senate, in — in an utter repudiation of Steve Bannon and what he stands for, and an utter repudiation, I think, by extension, of Donald Trump and what he stands for. So I think we will look back on this as part of a continuum and a very, very significant night, not just for the Democratic Party, but for this country.
WILLIAMS: Eugene, thank you. As always, you just put things into relief and context.
(....)
WILLIAMS [TO ASHLEY PARKER]: Ashley Parker, what I was going to ask you is — isn’t it true that our politics now seems wrapped up in this era of the exposure of sexual assault and harassment? We putting together a year-end special around here and we decided to call this period, this wave of social change, the reckoning and doesn't it seem right now, this minute, as if it now includes everything?
