>> 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 the income ladder think they hav 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 next four years. i am soledad o'brien.

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 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 being counted.

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 get some things done. soledad: what will it look like?

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 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. schumer's a guy who likes to cut

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. bernie sanders had an interesting stat 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. we need to focus on those workers, because those are the

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. and democrats and republicans, what the 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 upstarts who took it to the

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 women went rea >> and, can we all just ha and,a

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"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 first female president of the united states, but the clinton firewall, which was supposed to be women voters got failed to materialize. white, college-educated women supported 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. talk to me about what was wrong from the democrats perspective about the hillary firewall, which they were so confident -- what went wrong? jane: in comparison to her last

hardly mentioned the historic nature of her candidacy and do not really talk to women specifically, this entire campaign she really spoke to women. it. 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 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. they 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

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 we make in elections. 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 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 vote in the negative spirit you really have to be for something. voters voted for barack obama because he was a historic figure who could inspire.

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 minnesota, and 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 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. it would be a barack obama kind of turnaround if she ran for president and four years time. soledad: who knows, anything could happen. thank you for joining us.

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 off his navy uniform. >> we sold everything we owned for an opportunity on capitol hill. first there is shaving. blades. sharp and precise. then gillette shielding. comfy lubrication before and after. and also cooling. oooh. i got goosebumps. gillette proshield chill with lubrication before and after the blades. shields and cools while you shave. proshield chill from gillette. the best a man can get. proshield.

soledad: a 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 supported clinton, a drop from the 71% that turned off for obama in 2012 -- 61% supported clinton. latinos for tarp up some a 19%

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 latinos who were hoping to elect a democrat president in terms of how it ended up. what did you find in turn off for latino voters? >> latinos were turninou 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. an amazing turn appeared latinos voted in 17% larger numbers, if not more, than they did just four years ago.

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%. i am stunned with the really anti-immigrant, anti-latino 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. voters are looking at, and in some way, trump most -- must have spoke to that voter's mind. for example, the economy. the income inequality is 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

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 conservative. even on economic policies, he claims he is going to be for the lower and middle income americans to try to bring back jobs. 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 ran on this idea of corruption, that the elites are in bed with big business. he said he was one of them, honestly, a big businessman

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 vote of some latinos, because they sell this insider game that they were not part of, and the wanted it to change. soledad: it is nice to have you. click coming up next, a young >> we probably would have been homeless within four months. >> how he conquered the hill to make sure vets are heard. later, church and state --

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soledad: pictures of veterans day at arlington national

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. navy veteran justin brown says that number needs to change. 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 so 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 to the veteran or military experience in some way here to so huge expenditures on

these are extraordinarily important issues within our government, people who have been through these experiences, who understand what this means at the ground level, and there are primary advisors to our members 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 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 to washington, d.c., with no network, very little funding. we probably would have been homeless and why show was if we had not found the paid position.

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, others turn to prayer. take to the streets in protest, others turn to prayer. at longhorn, tonight's special: great steak pairings. a center cut sirloin with a choice of bacon-wrapped shrimp, baby back ribs, or parmesan crusted chicken.

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 by 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,

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 feel somewhat exiled in their only and. >> it is not about the size of government. it is about decency with each other. 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 all people.

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 his approach to the prpress is unlikely to change. we are committed, just as we've always been, to the critical questi 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, and we'll

tonight we have a trail tales bonanza. how historians may tell the story of 2016 in the form of an old school doment tear. >> the vast communication network overwhelmed this establishment using flip phones. >> how we could tell the story to our kids. >> fix that mess as fast as i can. >> plus our game show political squares with our pabl of stars and maybe a few surprises along the way.

president trump... the political elite in both parties did not see that coming. republicans were blind sided first. ? ? >> to the republican elite, one man was poisoned. the other more like a bullet to the head. >> shot or poisoned what does it matter? >> as the war resistance, the republican elite decided to drink the poison. >> what turns yo on about cruz? >> that he's not trump. >> you might find an anecdote to poisoning. i don't know. >> time was running out as general trump concurred states to the north and south. the wall that pitted brother against brother was winding down. general trump took over the twitter line and used it to feed his war machine. >> prior to the great