Warren: Midterm ‘victory belongs to Joe Biden’

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Sunday said the Democratic “victory” in the midterm elections “belongs to Joe Biden” after the party retained control of the Senate and while a handful of still-to-be-called House races will determine who controls that chamber.

“It belongs to Joe Biden and the Democrats who got out there and fought for working people,” Warren told NBC’s “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd. “The things we did were important and popular.”

“Remember, right after Joe Biden was sworn in, all of the economists and the pundits in his ear were saying, ‘Go slow, go small,’ ” she said. “Joe Biden didn’t listen to them. And in fact, he went big.”

Warren listed a number of achievements, including the Inflation Reduction Act, as successes.

“The president’s leadership put us in a position, every candidate, up and down the ballot, to talk about what Democrats fight for and what we deliver on,” the senator said. “And by doing that, we were able to address the values and the economic security of people across this country. And it sure paid off. It paid off at historic levels.”

Democrats managed to capture a majority in the Senate after a projected victory in Nevada on Saturday, while a runoff in Georgia will determine if they gain one more seat.

In the House, Democrats have a potential path to the 218 seats needed to win a majority, but they are behind the GOP’s share of seats.

The victories were surprising given that Democrats were the party in power and, historically speaking, should have lost a number of seats given a Democratic president. Republicans also slammed Democrats on the economy, which was a top issue ahead of Election Day.

Warren on Sunday said former President Trump backed candidates who aligned with his views on voter fraud in the 2020 election, which she deemed were “awful candidates.”

“Donald Trump, with his preening and his selection of truly awful candidates, didn’t do his party any favors,” she said. “They were extremists. They wanted to fight about conspiracy theories and the 2020 election.”

“And voters said, ‘No, we need somebody on our side.’ So Democrats fought, Democrats delivered, Democrats won,” she added. “And that should inform what we do during the lame duck and what we do in 2023 and 2024.”

Updated at 11:50 a.m.