CNN anchor Anderson Cooper sat through a presidential news conference about granite, limestone and a last piece of steel, then told viewers they did not need to watch the beam go up.
President Donald Trump made his first on-camera remarks since Republicans lost both chambers of Congress on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026, answering questions from reporters at a construction site on the White House grounds as the final steel beam was hoisted into place outside his unfinished ballroom.
Democrats had swept the House and the Senate the day before, on Nov. 3. Cooper and co-anchor Dana Bash carried the impromptu news conference live on “Election Day in America Continued,” which aired 1 to 1:30 p.m. ET.
Cooper spoke up after the network played the first clips. “And it went on. He talked about the granite. He talked about really every aspect of the construction of the ballroom the day after this massive election loss,” he said.
Watch the Beam Go Up
Trump told reporters: “This will be something very special. And so we’re putting up the last piece of steel. I thought it would be appropriate to have the media here.”
He called the project “not only one of the biggest, but it’ll be the most beautiful ballroom, I think, anywhere in the world,” and said people had been trying to get one for 150 years. About 525 people built it, he said. Every worker on the job had signed the beam — steel workers, plumbers, electricians and painters — and he said he would sign it last.
Reporters tried repeatedly to steer him to the election. Asked whether he was worried about impeachment by the incoming Democratic majority, Trump answered, “No. Not even a little bit.” Such a move would destroy Democrats, he said, and there was no reason for it, because the country is more successful than at any time in its history.
“Watch the beam go up,” Trump told the press at the site.
“Wow. I don’t think we need to watch the beam go up,” Cooper said, suggesting that CNN simply play the beam going up while the panel kept talking.
Unsure Why She Was Gobsmacked
CNN White House correspondent Alayna Treene said the appearance caught the press corps off guard. “We did not expect to hear from President Donald Trump publicly like this,” she said. By her count, the president spent roughly 15 to 20 minutes on ballroom features before he touched the election at all. Many people in the building, she added, woke up unhappy, disappointed and frustrated by the results.
Bash, anchoring from Capitol Hill, said she was not sure why she was gobsmacked to hear Trump on Corinthian columns, limestone and steel that morning, since everyone has watched him care about exactly this. The repercussions on the Hill, she said, had already begun.
CNN political analyst Alex Thompson heard something else in it. “And there seems to be a bit of denial among the president that there was a rejection of his agenda,” he said. Thompson also pointed to a candidate quality problem running through the race.
Vance Blames the Iran War
Vice President JD Vance broke with the president in an online post that Cooper read on air, blaming the Iran war for the party’s losses. Vance said Trump himself had said so the night before. Anyone arguing that losing the Senate for six years was a price worth paying should make that argument honestly, Vance wrote. The main problem was not turnout, he said, pointing to the many 2024 Trump-Vance backers who voted for Democrats in 2026.
Trump had offered a different diagnosis. He told The Wall Street Journal ahead of the vote that the biggest issue facing Republicans was his own absence from the ballot, and he posted on Truth Social after the returns came in that the party would have won had he been on it. He personally backed candidates who lost.
Cooper said the president “couldn’t translate the love in the rallies he had to the candidates,” candidates he said Trump “largely forced down the throats of voters.”
Musk’s Millions Couldn’t Save Paxton
Democrat James Talarico won a Senate seat in Texas, the first Democrat to do so in 38 years. Elon Musk had put more than $150 million into electing Ken Paxton, the Republican who lost to him.
CNN anchor Erin Burnett asked Talarico whether Paxton had called him. No call had come, Talarico said, but he saw the concession speech and appreciated the kind words. He told her he was looking forward to representing all 31 million Texans, Paxton included.
The map broke open elsewhere, too. In Kansas, pastor Adam Hamilton won a seat no Democrat had taken since 1932. Democrats also picked up seats in deep-red South Carolina and in Maine, where Susan Collins was unseated after five terms. The party needed four flips to take the chamber and got seven, netting 54 seats.
In New Hampshire, former Republican Sen. John Sununu’s bid to reclaim his seat fell short, and Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas won. Sununu ran with Trump’s endorsement, and in an ad he said of the president, “I’ve never even met the man!”
CNN projected at least 232 Democratic seats in the House, where 218 are needed for control, with 64 races still in play. Two Senate races remained too early to call during the broadcast. Dozens of votes separated the candidates in Mississippi, and in Alaska, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan was in a close contest with Democrat Mary Peltola, where correspondent Kyung Lah reported from Anchorage. Both races were still uncalled as of Saturday, Nov. 7: Democrat Scott Colom narrowly led Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi, and Peltola led Sullivan 48.2% to 47.9%, with ranked-choice tabulation set for Nov. 18.