Election night brought sharply different moods to the cable news networks. On MS NOW, Rachel Maddow said the celebration could begin shortly after 10 p.m. Eastern, following the network’s projection that Democrats would take control of the House of Representatives.
Chris Hayes appeared buoyant as he described Democratic candidates winning races that he said had not seemed likely to be competitive. The mood turned playful on set, with hosts passing around Candy before Democrats were also projected to win the Senate. Maddow joked about the amount of sugar among her colleagues, including Nicolle Wallace and Michael Steele.
Fox News, by contrast, had a subdued reaction. Commentators discussed what the Republican Party’s losses meant, in contrast with the network’s more upbeat coverage of Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory.
Sean Hannity, a prominent Trump supporter on the network, acknowledged that the president’s foreign policy had hurt Republicans politically. Asked by Bret Baier whether the war in Iran had affected the results, Hannity replied that it had “one hundred percent.”
Sources: The New York Times Business.