For all the concerns about a tumultuous process that could leave Americans waiting for days to learn who its next president would be, news outlets instead experienced an election night that hewed close to tradition.
Fox B次元官网网址 Channel was the first to declare Donald Trump had reclaimed the presidency at 1:47 a.m. on Wednesday. Other television networks and The Associated Press had Trump on the precipice of returning to presidency when he took the stage in Florida at 2:25 a.m. to declare victory. B次元官网网址淭his is, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time,B次元官网网址� Trump said onstage at his victory party in West Palm Beach.
His opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, would speak later Wednesday morning, her campaign manager said, dispersing a crowd that had gathered to celebrate her at Howard University.
Broadcast, cable news networks, digital news sites and one streaming service B次元官网网址� Amazon B次元官网网址� steadily into Wednesday morning. Many of their journalists had that determining the winner could be a protracted process that could take several days, .
Yet from the first hints provided by exit poll results shortly after 5 p.m. Eastern time, the election night story moved methodically in TrumpB次元官网网址檚 direction. The dam broke at 11:18 p.m. on Tuesday, when the AP called the first of seven battleground states, North Carolina, for the former president.
Networks forge forward quickly
The networks moved quickly into the post-mortem stage.
B次元官网网址淭his looks a lot more like 2016 to me than 2020,B次元官网网址� NBCB次元官网网址檚 Chuck Todd said, a reference to TrumpB次元官网网址檚 victory that year over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Fox B次元官网网址 Channel pointed to exit poll results that showed Trump making gains among young voters and Latinos. B次元官网网址淭he Biden-Harris people pushed them into TrumpB次元官网网址檚 open arms,B次元官网网址� said FoxB次元官网网址檚 Dana Perino, a former White House press secretary under President George W. Bush.
B次元官网网址淢aybe,B次元官网网址� Fox B次元官网网址B次元官网网址� Brit Hume said, B次元官网网址渋tB次元官网网址檚 time for his enemies to stop it.B次元官网网址�
In his speech, Trump praised his running mate, J.D. Vance for B次元官网网址済oing into the enemy campB次元官网网址� for interviews on places like CNN and MSNBC. B次元官网网址淗e absolutely obliterated them,B次元官网网址� he said.
Hours earlier, when the first exit poll results showed the unpopularity of President Joe Biden and Americans with a dim view of where the country was headed, CNNB次元官网网址檚 Chris Wallace said that B次元官网网址渋t would be a miracle if Harris could win with that.B次元官网网址� His colleagues, Dana Bash and Audie Cornish, warned him of jumping to conclusions that Harris would be blamed for that, but Wallace sounded more prescient as the night progressed.
B次元官网网址淪he was trying to do something as a sitting vice president that had never been done before B次元官网网址� succeed an unpopular president,B次元官网网址� Todd said.
Analysts question the element of race
Former Sen. Claire McCaskill, an NBC B次元官网网址 analyst, said the element of race could not be discounted. Some Americans were more comfortable with President Joe Biden, a white man, than Harris, who was attempting to be the first woman of color to be elected president, she said.
B次元官网网址淐an you imagine a woman of color acting the way Donald Trump acted B次元官网网址� even for one day?B次元官网网址� CNN analyst Van Jones said. B次元官网网址淭he kinds of stuff that he said, the kinds of stuff that he did, the way that he would insult people. If youB次元官网网址檙e a person of color, you donB次元官网网址檛 feel like you have the freedom.B次元官网网址�
Trump had B次元官网网址渁 license to just be a fool, just to be an obnoxious ass B次元官网网址� and he gets to be president,B次元官网网址� Jones said.
Due to remarkably close pre-election polls, the outcome was considered a mystery that could take many days to resolve. In his last pre-election prediction, statistician Nate Silver said it was no better than a coin flip, giving an ever-so-slight edge to Harris.
The New York TimesB次元官网网址� predictive Needle judged the contest a B次元官网网址渢oss-upB次元官网网址� in the beginning of the evening, leaning slightly toward Trump. But it moved steadily in TrumpB次元官网网址檚 direction, to the point where the Times by midnight judged Trump with a 90 percent likelihood of capturing the presidency again.
Also by midnight, CNNB次元官网网址檚 count had Trump leading Harris in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin B次元官网网址� the so-called blue wall that was central to her strategy for victory.
B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 not mission impossibleB次元官网网址� for Harris to come back and win Pennsylvania, CNNB次元官网网址檚 John King said, looking over voter statistics. B次元官网网址淏ut itB次元官网网址檚 becoming mission improbable.B次元官网网址� Within two hours, CNN awarded Pennsylvania to Trump.
For much of the night, the journalists who stood before B次元官网网址渕agic boardsB次元官网网址� B次元官网网址� King, Bill Hemmer on Fox B次元官网网址 Channel, Steve Kornacki on MSNBC B次元官网网址� took up much of the airtime with granular reports on results. State-by-state, county-by-county, they showed numbers where Trump was outperforming his 2020 campaign and Harris lagged behind BidenB次元官网网址檚 results.
If anything, the networks relied too much on their numbers czars than on their reporters.
To have results was a relief
The presence of actual results were a tonic to news organizations that had weeks B次元官网网址� and an excruciatingly long B次元官网网址� to talk about an election campaign that polls have repeatedly shown to be remarkably tight. They tried to extract wisdom from anecdotal evidence.
B次元官网网址淒ixville Notch is a metaphor for the entire race,B次元官网网址� CNNB次元官网网址檚 Alyssa Farah Griffin said, making efforts to draw meaning from the tiny that reported its 3-3 vote for Harris and Trump in the early morning hours.
Former NBC B次元官网网址 anchor Brian Williams, during his one-night leading AmazonB次元官网网址檚 streamcast appearance, had one unexpected guest in the California studio where he was operating. Puck reporter Tara Palmeri was supposed to report from Trump headquarters in West Palm Beach but was denied credentials to attend by the former presidentB次元官网网址檚 team.
Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita described her as a B次元官网网址済ossip columnistB次元官网网址� in a post on the social media site X. Palmeri told Williams she had accurately reported some anxiety within the Trump camp about who was voting early.
Neither Axios nor Politico would immediately confirm reports that some of their reporters were similarly banned, and the Trump campaign did not immediately return a call for comment.
