What Republicans could do with their power as they secure control of House and Senate

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• Geoff Bennett:

  House Republicans will maintain their hold on the Lower Chamber next year, giving Republicans a political trifecta in Washington, controlling both chambers of Congress and the presidency come January.

  Our Lisa Desjardins has been following it all and joins us now from our PBS News super screen.

  All right, Lisa, so Republicans retain control of the House. What are the margins looking like?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  OK, let's talk about this.

  We have — just having some changes in the last day right now with the Associated Press calling the races it has. Republicans have 218, the exact amount they need for a majority, Democrats 209. There are eight races for Congress, for the House of Representatives left to be called.

  And at this moment, the Associated Press math is zero change, the exact same distribution in the House right now, according to their calls. There are some races, of course, that are going to go, one in Iowa going to a recount. We're still waiting for some vote counting in ranked-choice in two states as well.

  But I want to look at it this way. These eight races that are left, right now, who's leading in them? Four Democrats are leading in those eight races. And how about it? Four Republicans. So that gets us basically to the same exact pattern we have right now in the House.

  Now, let's look at some of these races called just today, this race in Oregon. I'm talking about the Happy Valley up here. This is a Democratic flip, where Janelle Bynum, who is the co-owner of four McDonald's restaurants, was able to flip this district from Lori Chavez-Deremer, very hard-fought race here. Democrats happy about this.

  One place where Democrats are more concerned, however, and Republicans are happy is in Alaska, where Nick Begich, the grandson of former Senator, late Senator Begich, is ahead by four points. Now, this is a ranked-choice state, so they're going to count now people's second choice, those who didn't vote for either candidate. How many folks is that? That's 5 percentage points.

  That means for Mary Peltola to hold on to her seat, she needs to win a huge percentage of that. That's going to be hard to do.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Lisa, I know you have been talking with lawmakers as they take in some of Donald Trump's nominations, including that of Matt Gaetz as attorney general. What are you hearing?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Quite a lot to say here about Matt Gaetz. He is a controversial figure. He does have some allies in Congress, but he is someone who has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. And the Senate, talking to them, has taken pause on this, especially with the news that their House investigation by the Ethics Committee has been hanging over.

  And it does — there is reporting that the House Ethics Committee was getting ready to perhaps reveal their report on him. Now, that report no longer is in play because of his resignation, which was official today. Now, I talked to some U.S. senators. They will decide whether Matt Gaetz becomes the attorney general or not.

  And among Republicans, there is divide over how much scrutiny he should get. Let's listen.

• Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO):

  My presumption is that, listen, he's the leader of my party, Trump. He just won a resounding victory. I support him and his agenda. I think he should be able to choose his Cabinet.

• Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC):

  He's a smart, clever guy. I usually vote for Cabinet picks of all presidents, but, in this case, hearings will be in order. He will have some hard questions to answer. We will see how it goes.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  All right, so let's talk about the confirmations. Anyone would need 50 votes. Republicans have 53. So they can spare three votes and still get a nomination.

  But, listen, by my count, there are at least 10, maybe more Republicans with doubts about this candidate right now. Two senators, Ernst and Mullin, told me today they don't think he has the votes right now.

• Geoff Bennett:

  We will see how this nomination progresses, but how could it play out?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  OK, first step is the Senate Judiciary Committee, where senators, all of them Republicans, told me today they do expect they will in fact want hearings with Matt Gaetz, no bypassing it.

  We're watching Senator Cornyn, Senator Tillis, perhaps Senator Cotton and Senator Graham in that committee. And also, because of the new majority, there will be a new member of this important committee not yet named. Also, we had a text or social media post from an attorney for — representing a young woman who has made accusations against Gaetz.

  And he is writing that they want this Ethics Committee report to be revealed immediately, the report that the House Ethics Committee had been working on for months.

• Geoff Bennett:

  So, even though Gaetz has resigned, could the House Ethics Committee still release this report, Lisa?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Well, Democratic senators have written this letter just in the last couple of hours asking that the House release that report. The House Ethics Committee generally does not release reports after someone has resigned, but there is precedent.

  So let's answer a couple questions really quick here. Can they release the Gaetz report? Yes, they can. There is precedent for this. But they meet secretly. We don't even know when they meet. Now, will they release a statement? Often, instead of a full report, they will release some kind of statement. So this is a maybe.

  And then question now, we're hearing from some senators that they may even want to subpoena the House of Representatives for this Ethics report about this important top prosecutor position. That is an unprecedented idea. As you can see, we're in for a lot of questions and tricky times ahead on this nomination.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Indeed.

  Lisa Desjardins, thanks, as always.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  You're welcome.

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