Elizabeth Warren: This isn't about parties. I'll work with anyone

>>> this victory belongs to you. you did this. you did this. for every family that has been chipped and squeezed and hammered, we're going to fight for a level playing field , and we're going to put people back to work. i will always carry your stories with me in my heart. i won't just be your senator. i will be your champion. i promise.

>> you know what the most difficult part of this is? i now have to break the news to my truck that i'll be taking it home. you all sent me to washington to be my own man, and i'll be returning my own man. and for that i am very, very proud. so thank you for that opportunity. there are no obstacles you can't overcome. and dweetd -- and defeat is only temporary.

>> look at that.

>> that's pretty good. 42 past the hour.

>> some more graciousness.

>> that was really great.

>> all around.

>> two great candidates in that race. welcome back to " morning joe ." harold ford jr . and mike barnicle back at the table. joining us now, the chairman of --

>> the graciousness ends.

>> yeah, it ends right here.

>> just the look on his face. i know something absolutely ridiculous and off color is going to come out of his mouth.

>> or else he's going to tear off that shirt and he's going to have the baby gap black t-shirt.

>> you vote! i come here to talk serious.

>> here's the deal. elizabeth warren is going to be on this segment. could you please be quiet?

>> you watched all morning. has she chastised any guest? none. reverence, respect, abuse.

>> deserved.

>> boy, you didn't see her interviewing rudy yesterday, did you? so let's talk about the republican brand. you're all about branding. the republican primary process, we talked about it this past weekend on "meet the press," it really hurt the republican brand. the convention did not go well. and you look at this party right now, its brand is as bad as it's been in years.

>> i was talking to steve schmidt backstage. the brand is over as we know it, if it ever wants to succeed. all you have to do is look at the demographics of where the country is going. it's going to get worse for them. people want progressiveness. people want compassion. basically -- and even, you know, bill o 'reilly who i never like to quote basically said the white establishment is now the minority. they have to self-correct. they can't just say we're not your father's oldsmobile anymore. they have to be a new invention. they will never win again if their tenor, if their gestalt, does not change. their relevancy has moved away from them. literally, they need brand reinvention. the republican party as we know it, if they will ever win another election, has to be completely reinvented at this point.

>> and you talked about steve shsubms schmi schmidt, this is about demographics. george h.w. bush in 1988 , an election we all remember very well, got 62% of the white vote. he got over 400 electoral votes . last night, mitt romney got 62% of the white vote. he got half the electoral votes .

>> chuck todd said an interesting thing backstage also. georgia, texas, arizona moving away. you know, what this country is going to look like in the year 2050 , this is a new country. and basically, they're being held captive by the tea party . they're being held captive because you've got to give a nod to those extreme social issues. you can't get elected that way anymore. it's that simple.

>> and joe, as you said, it's got to be beyond symbolic. you can't just nominate marco rubio next time and say see, we've changed. it actually has to come from somewhere deeper.

>> that's a fantastic point. i said that also. it can't just be look at me, i'm hispanic or african-american, it's got to be here.

>> it's got to be what elizabeth warren did, actually.

>> is that your segue in.

>> yes, it is.

>> you look at marco rubio in florida, ted cruz in texas, republicans are electing good conservative candidates. but if you have a primary process that forces everybody to go far, far right and being seen as being hostile to hispanics, it's going to cost you.

>> all right. joining us now from boston, winner of the massachusetts u.s. senate race, senator-elect elizabeth warren . congratulations!

>> you know --

>> i'm sorry. i'm so happy for you.

>> mika is so giddy, senator-elect.

>> i really am.

>> i don't know what i'm going to do with her. you can now tell america that it was our kiss at fenway that put you over the top last night.

>> that was it.

>> what an incredible victory. talk about what's happened to you over the past four years. who would have believed that a boomer sooner would make it to the u.s. senate in massachusetts !

>> you know, this has just been amazing. every single part of this. and the most amazing part has been the last year about running for office. you know, massachusetts is a very special place. this one was grass roots all the way. these were people who showed up in living rooms and kitchens and school auditoriums who held signs, who called neighbors, who really made this happen. and they saw this race as a race about what kind of a people we are, what kind of country we're going to build. and they wanted to be part of it. and they made it happen yesterday. i've got to tell you, this is democracy.

>> yeah. no, we watched you throughout the race. we've been so impressed with your campaign. even joe was. and your campaign style was genuine and based on knowledge and gut, knowledge in terms of what you truly believe this country needs to do. but let me ask you now moving forward, because you created the consumer financial protection bureau, but then it got of got churned out of the system. you know how hard washington can be. you lived it. now you've gone through how brutal a campaign can be. what do you think you'll be able to do in washington given the fact that when you get there, it's going to look a lot like the washington we had last week?

>> you know, but i come there for the same reasons i went before. and that is to work for people who need, someone to speak out for them. i come there not just to be a senator. come on, that's not what this is about. this is really about coming there for all the people who say, look, this country has got to work for us. working people . for the carpenters, for the teachers, for all the people who said, we're out there. we work hard. we play by the rules. we just want a chance. we just want a chance to build a little economic security . we're willing to pull tighter on our belts if we feel like we're building a future for our kids. just help us do that. for me, this isn't about parties. i'll work with anyone. and i really do mean that. democrat, republican, independent, libertarian, contrarian, vegetarian, i don't care. it's about --

>> that's a big tent , senator.

>> it is a big tent . you bet. because what it's really got to be about is it's about what's happening to our working families , what's happening to america 's middle class . if we don't make some changes and put some solid ground under their feet, then america as we know it is going to fundamental fundamentally change. we just can't let that happen. and the people of massachusetts last night, i've got to tell you, there are too many folks who stood there in the rain holding a sign, too many folks who knocked on doors to say, we're better than that. we can build a country together that works for our families again. i believe that.

>> mike barnicle .

>> senator-elect warren --

>> oh, say that again, barnicle.

>> isn't that amazing? i love it.

>> senator-elect warren. it's been many months since i encountered you in washington when you were just leaving the consumer bureau. and we talked about you running for the united states senate .

>> i think you talked about it. yeah. mm-hmm.

>> but you know, i think you'd be the first to admit, you know, to admit teaching at harvard law school you led a rather sheltered life in a sense within academia. what have you learned about yourself during the course of one of the greatest processes a person can go through, a campaign --

>> and grueling.

>> going through places like fit fitchburg, massachusetts , and gardner, massachusetts , far from cambridge, the life you've led the past ten years. what have you learned about yourself that you think will be helpful for you in the senate?

>> you know, i think it's about the heart and about the connection. i always know who i am. i'm the daughter of somebody who sold fencing and ended up as a maintenance man. my mom worked the phones at sears. i knew every single day at harvard exactly who i was. i was blessed to be there but i didn't kid myself. i wasn't born there. when i was in fitchberg and pittsfield, i was growing up in an america that was still investing in its kids, an america creating more and more opportunities and too many people today live in a world in which the opportunities just keep shrinking. there just aren't enough doors that open. and so it was -- it's hard to heart and it's understanding. we all want that same chance. i got the chance. i want to make sure others get it, too, and that's what this race was about.

>> all right. thank you so much for being with us, senator-elect elizabeth warren . we greatly appreciate it.

>> thank you.

>> thank you. congratulations.

>> and carol ford, i want to say it again --

>> she's great.

>> i know she's great.

>> i know but she's really good. we're so lucky to have her.

>> yes, i know you're so lucky to have her.

>> it's true. aren't we lucky to have her? thank god.

>> what's the opposite of a bromance?

>> i told you not to speak.

>> again, look, we're talking, mika, like this era of good feeling at least for the past 24 hours doesn't look like this usually the morning after an election, a hard fought election. but look at not only what the winner said last night in massachusetts but look at the joy -- the joy, seeming joy, in scott brown --

>> scott brown is a really great guy.

>> a great guy. we saw it with mitt romney last night, defeat. harold, we saw it with scott brown last night in defeat. a lot of graciousness this morning and, i'll tell you what, if we're going to do what we have to do as a country moving forward over the next six months, we need this sort of cooperation.

>> that's probably the most appealing feature this morning if you are an independent voter , an independent minded democrat or republican in the country, all of these candidates, winners and losers. i was struck by elizabeth warren 's answer to barnicle's question about what she had learned and will take to the senate. tim kaine talking about compromise which he did during the campaign, how you begin to broker an agreement between democrats and republicans around the fiscal cliff and it --

>> when he said his numbers started to move is when he started running positive campaign ads in english and in spanish the numbers started breaking his way.

>> you had a segment or two before, i hope he's right. i'm sick of seeing the negative advertising . i was sick of saying that all the money pour ed in, not only in the campaign but these outside groups, perhaps will usher in a new way in which campaigns will be conducted. in fact, it will have more debates. in fact, will have -- if indeed tim is right, that the positive ads helped tim to reach out to independent republicans and republicans elect to win that seat. that's what the country wants as much as we might have gone back and forth. people are interested in these answers.

>> there was a horrible moment, obvio obviously, with sandy but something magical came out of it. i think when christie and obama came together that was a seminal moment and set a road map for how politicians are supposed to behave. how they're supposed to behave. the day after election you are seeing the beginning of it. positive will be the new blackmail. the vitriol will no longer be in vogue -- i mean en vogue black. it's an expression.

>> i told him not to speak, right?

>> i'm making a very salient point here. this is the beginning of a new era.

>> you may be making a salient point, but you're making it very badly. why don't you just go backstage and collect some of those quotes you were just talking about.

>> et tu brutus ?

>> donny, great point, though. people do want cooperation. americans are tired of negative campaigning . they really are. and those 30-second ads run by mitt romney didn't move a single vote. a good performance in the first debate did. that's all he had.

>> can i be the brief resident cynic?

>> and i'm going to join you.

>> we closed the polls 12 hours ago. do we have any reason to believe that radio talk show hosts, people online are going to suddenly become more civil?

>> no but people tune that off. that's the difference.

>> we've said that before.

>> it's a moment in time. there is a certain shift that's happening and it started with this election. get the smug grin off your face, you cynical jerk you.

>> to 0 one of the points you made about chris christie , that wasn't -- it's not like mitch mcconnell and john boehner and president obama were coming together and -- it was the governor and it was a hurricane. 0 so while it was symbolically great, it was what they were supposed to do. i just want to close the conversation by asking you a question because i believe republicans will pummel chris christie , will punish him for it. was there an opportunity for the romney campaign and for 0 republicans to embrace what chris christie was doing or do they have to behave as they always do and kill their young?

>> as they always do. i think both parties have been guilty of that in the past. chris christie , though, did, and this is critical for somebody who comes from a hurricane state that had three, i think four hurricanes hit my district. even though bill clinton was my fiercest opponent politically, when we had a hurricane hit, you wanted the president there. you wanted to be able to take him around and show him how your people were hurting. i will tell you -- i will tell you -- and chris christie teared up a couple days ago and some people have been mocking him. i will tell you it's such an emoti emotional experience when you go to your friends and your neighbors homes that were there two days earlier and i can tell you one of the saddest moments after hurricane ivan hit our district in 2004 was when our good friends jan and rob mackey were crawling -- jan was crawling on the ground. her house was completely destroyed and she was crawling on the ground crying trying to find pictures of their babies so she could have those pictures to take with the new house they bought. you lose everything. and when you represent these people who have lost everything --

>> and you can bring them the president --

>> you want to do whatever you can to bring people comfort and i will tell you it doesn't matter whether it's bill clinton or george w. bush or whether it's barack obama . when air force one touches down in your district, you go and you embrace that president and ask him for help. chris christie did all he could do, and if you don't believe me, ask jeb bush who did it time and again as governor of florida.

>> there you go. and it's the republicans, then they haven't learned anything from this election. still ahead on this special edition of " morning joe " eugene robinson . up next nbc's tom brokaw , moderator of "meet the