The answer may or may not come on Tuesday, but news organizations that have spent months reporting on the presidential campaign between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump finally had the opportunity to sift through actual results.
Broadcast, cable news networks, digital news outlets’ sites and one streaming service — Amazon — all set aside Tuesday night to deliver the news from their own operations.
“The future of American democracy is on the line tonight,” ABC News’ David Muir during his network’s coverage.
Little was obvious from the early numbers and exit poll results in key battleground states. Networks reported that Republicans were encouraged by early signs from Georgia, and Democrats similarly saw positive signs from Pennsylvania, but neither was determinative.
Anchors warned viewers that it would take time for results to be known.
“We’ve got days,” said MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. “We’ve got weeks. We’re tireless.”
Fox analyst Karl Rove carried a whiteboard saying “Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania,” attesting to the importance of that state — and saluting the late Tim Russert of NBC News, who famously used the same prop to point to Florida in the 2000 election.
Actual results were a relief to news organizations that had weeks — and an excruciatingly long day of voting — to talk about an election campaign that polls have repeatedly shown to be remarkably tight. The first hint of what voters were thinking came shortly after 5 p.m. Eastern, when networks reported that exit polls showed voters were unhappy with the way the country was going.
It’s still not clear whether that dissatisfaction will be blamed on Harris, the current vice president, or former president Trump, who was voted out of office in 2020, CNN’s Dana Bash said.
Trying to draw meaning from anecdotal evidence
Otherwise, networks were left showing pictures of polling places Tuesday and trying to extract wisdom from anecdotal evidence.
“Dixville Notch is a metaphor for the entire race,” CNN’s Alyssa Farah Griffin said, making efforts to draw meaning from the tiny New Hampshire community that reported its 3-3 vote for Harris and Trump in the early morning hours.
MSNBC reporter Jacob Soboroff talked to voters waiting in line outside a polling place near Temple University in Philadelphia, where actor Paul Rudd was handing out water bottles. Soboroff was called on by one young voter to take a picture with herself and Rudd.
On Fox News Channel, Harris surrogate Pete Buttigieg appeared for a contentious interview with “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade.
