>> today on "matter of fact," you were a witness to history as the trump era puts republicans firmly in charge. >> the american people are looking for results. >> how will they use it? >> people at the bottom of income ladder think they have a chance. >> can you get behind the president-elect? >> it could be a big win. the one issue that could pull americans together. and washington in need of a job. >> i came to washington, d.c., with a young wife and daughter. >> what he wants you to consider this veterans day. but first -- soledad: what is ahead for the

welcome to "matter of fact." in just over two months, every branch of government will be behind the republican banner. president-elect donald trump says he will overturn roe v wade, build a wall, and promised to rollback executive orders on immigration and climate change and repeal obamacare. so what do we know about the voters who ushered in this change? republican feehery and democratic strategist jim also meant join me. welcome to you both. what happened in the polls? they were so off. john: well, the forgotten voter voted. the people that the pollsters didn't reach came out that they didn't anticipate. there were a lot of people who had been disaffected from political system, who hadn't voted in a long time, and they wanted to vote for change, and donald trump was the biggest change agent we have ever seen in our history. soledad: so they came back into

about how they were going to vote? jamal: i don't think so. i think what happened was a little bit different. in all the vote predictions, hillary clinton got about what she said she would get, around 47%, 48%. the difference is there were a whole bunch of undecided or looked like they hadn't made up their minds. those people, a lot of them were republicans and they went back , to the republican column. when they decided, they decided for trump. voters, rural voters, and the country feels very divided. john: we have a political process to try to work through those big differences of opinion. we will see how it works out before we go into our camps again. i think he has an opportunity to

republican side? he is not your closet conservative republican. >> he is an antiestablishment figure, not unlike obama. he will have to figure out a way to govern with paul ryan and mitch mcconnell. paul ryan and mitch mcconnell are not on the trump team, but right now it's a marriage of convenience, and to be successful, they are going to have to work together to get stuff done, which i think he going to try and do. jamal: one thing that happens in a one-party government though, we have to when it is harder, you cannot blame any one if something doesn't work. at least if you have one house congress, you could say, oh, this is nancy pelosi's fault or chuck schumer's. they won't have anyone to blame this on besides other republicans. so factional differences and regional differences will emerge inside the republican party. so i don't think its going to be completely smooth. john: it is not going to be completely smooth. i do think that trump has this new leader in the senate, chuck schumer, who is his neighbor in new york and they have a long , relationship.

done on immigration, on tax reform. i expect they will have a close relationship. you are absolutely right. you can expect that some republicans will be angry at the end of the day because trump will do things that he wants to do for his own legacy and he might cut republicans out of some of those deals. jamal: and infrastructure will be a big thing i think democrats are looking at in the trump administration as something they could do something together. berniean interesting statement yesterday where he said listen, if he wants to work on workers and closing the wealth gap and helping rebuild, he will find someone willing to work with him. but if he is misogynist, racist and homophobic, then we're not going to do business with him. john: and i would also say when it comes to unions, not government unions but other unions trump and unions are , going to have a good working relationship because a lot of , those union members voted for trump. he needs to make those people happy if he wants to expand a republican coalition which he , has expanded in ways that no one expected. jamal: and democrats should pay attention.

folks that used to be democrats, and we know there are cultural issues why they are not democrats but we can find some , economic ground and try to woo them back. soledad: final question for you guys -- what's the moral of this election, if you had to boil it down into one sentence for me? the big takeaway. jamal: i would say the big take away is that we are incredibly divided, but we have an opportunity to do something different. i think americans want to make sure we are focusing on real issues of workers and building the country and getting people invested. what the elites have not done is talk about a new social compact where people at the bottom of the income ladder feel like they have a chance to make their way up that ladder. john: listen -- and that was more than one sentence. >> [laughter] soledad: he knows what he is doing, just keep talking, right? john: i will say that this election was about the political class versus everyone else. and if you talk about sanders or trump, they were both the

political class got it's clock cleaned. soledad: we'll see how it goes. only a couple months away from the start of the first 100 days. john feehrey and jamal simmons, thanks, guys appreciate it. ,mrs. clinton: didn't you love the pantsuits? >> if you thought pantsuit in a should could ensure a clinton victory, why did this diverse group of feminists fail be nominee? >> a group of went really hard for donald trump. >> and, can we all just have a

ection process. soledad: "i voted" sticker's were on the gravestone of susan b anthony, who fought to give women the right to vote. her tombstone became a symbol for voters who were hoping to usher in hillary clinton as the

firewall, which was supposed to be women voters got failed to materialize. white, college-educated women supported her, but among white women overall, 43% voted clinton , 52% supported donald trump. jane small is knee-deep in the issues are women and politics and joins us today -- jane newton small. from the democrats perspective about the hillary firewall, which they were so confident -- what went wrong? jane: in comparison to her last campaign in 2008, where she hardly mentioned the historic nature of her candidacy and do not really talk to women specifically, this entire campaign she really spoke to

it was all about getting the women's vote. there is one demographic here that swan, and that was the non-college-educated white women, and they were going very forcefully for donald trump leading into the first debate. but then when comey reintroduced the investigation, reopened the fbi investigation into hillary clinton's emails, that group of women swung really hard to donald trump. it is a sense of they think hillary is an elitist and feels she is entitled. they do not think she understands their struggles. really bought the "crooked hillary" line that donald trump was selling. it caused them to really flee hillary in mass numbers, and he ended up winning the non-college educated white women by 28 points, and age point increase over mitt romney and 20 points in 2012, a huge swing towards donald trump. soledad: do you think women will vote for women? i think it is a big assumption

black people will vote for black people, women will vote for women. do you think that is true? jane: i don't, actually. part of the problem with hillary is she was not inspiring enough. you cannot just vote against donald trump because you dislike what he is saying. you have to vote for somebody who is his story, some of you who will inspire you. soledad: it was a pretty miserable election season. jane: it is so hard to v have to be for something. voters voted for barack obama because he was a historic figure who could inspire. soledad: who do you think it possibly be the first female president? jane: i guess you could say elizabeth warren might run, but she is six months younger than hillary, so she is pretty old. there is a nice bench of women in the senate, gillibrand from new york, the senator from

missouri. they are all very top wished and savvy women on the republican side. kelly ayotte just lost her seat in new hampshire, but she is a very, very sort of attractive candidate on the right. i am sure she will run for office again. people talk about harris, recently elected to the senate in california, although it was a pretty tight turnaround of turnaround if she ran for president and four years time. soledad: who knows, anything could happen. thank you for joining us. >> coming up next, does trump's talk on immigration translate? >> he's not quite as conservative as some republican candidates. >> is talk of a wall just talk? plus, he put on a tie and took

soledad: a closer look now at the latino vote. donald trump's comments about building a will on the southern border, even telling a u.s. judge a hater for his mexican heritage, had some democrats hoping latinos would abandon him and mobilize for clinton. among hispanic voters, six if i percent spo turned off for obama in 2012 -- 61% supported clinton. latinos for tarp up some a 19% to 29%. we had the national executive director of league of united latin american citizens. nice to have you with us. so good news story in terms of turnout, bad news story for

how it ended up. what did you find in turn off for latino voters? >> latinos were turning out in record numbers in battleground states and in early voting in number as we have never seen before. florida, 69% uptick in early voting, which is unheard of. in georgia, we saw over 120% latino early voting uptick. appeared latinos voted in 17% larger numbers, if not more, than they did just four years ago. so the growth in the latino vote is huge, a big success story. soledad: i was surprised looking at the percentage of latinos from the latino poll, 18%. the cnn exit poll has 29%.

rhetoric from donald trump that that number would be that high, whichever poll you are looking at. >> if it was just about immigration this whole campaign, certainly, i think you are right. that there are other issues the voters are looking at, and in some way, trump most -- must have spoke to that voter's mind. for example, the economy. the income growing, and the distribution wealth in the country continues to accelerate towards the most wealthy americans. the folks at the middle income levels are kind of stuck where they are. soledad: what would you say is your best assessment of what comes out of this race, and potentially your worst assessment of what comes out of this republican victory? >> donald trump is not quite as conservative as some republican candidates we have had in the past. emigration, yes, of course, very

claims he is going to be for the lower and middle income americans to try to bring back jobs. he has expressed concern about a lot of companies moving jobs overseas or trading a lot of wealth for the top 1% at the expense of everybody else. if he can figure out how to do that, that would be progress. something that is also important that people have not fought about is the fact that he also that the elites are in bed with big business. he said he was one of them, honestly, a big businessman driving elites with any -- with money to do what he wants. he is going to change that. if he follows through to find a way to stop it leads purchasing access in washington, that could be a win for all americans. perhaps that is why he got the

they were not part of, and the wanted it to change. soledad: it is nice to have you. click coming up next, a young veteran finds his footing in the nation's capital. >> we probably would have been homeless within four months. >> how he conquered the hill to make sure vets are heard. later, church and state --

soledad: pictures of veterans day at arlington national cemetery, the day in which we pause to honor those who serve our nation. the influence veterans exert in public policy is really limited either numbers on capitol hill. according to a new survey, fewer than 2% of all staffers on capitol hill are veterans.

i spoke with him recently in new york city. justin: there are not that many veterans working on capitol hill than for any other federal agency. the worst federal agency is somewhere around 6%. capitol hill, we found about 100 veterans in total. soledad: out of how many? justin: out of the roughly 10,000 employees there. soap of devils advocate -- why does it matter? justin: nearly 60% of our discretionary spending is related military experience in some way here to so huge expenditures on the department of defense, department of homeland security, foreign affairs, department of veterans affairs. these are extraordinarily important issues within our government, people who have been through these experiences, who understand what this means at

of congress. soledad: what do you do to change these numbers? clearly, you have created a specific workaround to these low numbers. justin: absolutely, and this was brought about as part of our own experience. for me, i came to washington, d.c., with a young wife and young daughter. we sold everything to take a nonpaid opportunity on capitol hill, which is subsequently turned into a paid position. it was very difficult at we came network, very little funding. we probably would have been homeless and why show was if we had not found the paid position. we know that is a challenge for veterans that want to come to capitol hill. so we launched a program where we are housing them and giving them a start, training them, placing them on capitol hill, and we are trying to increase the number of veterans working in this space. >> when we return, while some take to the streets in protest,

mrs. clinton: donald trump is going to be our president. we owe him an open mind and a chance to lead. our constitutional democracy enshrines the peaceful transfer of power, and we do not just respect that, we cherish it. soledad: the most important speech at the end of an election cycle is not the speech given the victor but the one who succeeds, because the peaceful transition of power is a foundation of america's constitutional democracy. we are clearly a divided nation, and now is the time to heal. >> i woke up this morning, and i just wanted to be here. >> whatever the election's outcome, we have the sense that at least half the country would

>> it is not about the size of government. it is about decency with each other. >> as americans, we give thanks for the peaceful transfer of political power. >> we all have to walk this road together, and we all have to join hands and be what god calls us to be in this world. >> and that we pray for our country and for a p shining sea ? soledad: the election of donald trump as president reveals stark divisions in our nation, not just about how we view the role of government or specific issues, but how we view one another. few escaped being labeled by the poisonous rhetoric of the campaign. journalists were labeled as dishonest and unfair by the president-elect, who has said

unlikely to change. we are committed, just as we've always been, to the critical questioning of our leaders. we will never shy away from touchy subjects or difficult questions. and we'll continue to engage in sometimes uncomfortable conversations looking for , understanding and genuine solutions. democracy is a messy business , and it demands transparent public discourse. and that is our mission here. i'm soledad o'brien, an'

pbeat rock mus (uic) i'm livia, and here's this week's top story. (electronic music) - [katie] this report is brought to you by the council on addiction prevention & education. (jazz music) ad after bus load of students bus lo from four school districts arrived