The United States midterm elections were widely considered to be a referendum on President Donald Trump. And the numbers suggest feelings were running high. This week saw the highest voter turnout for midterm elections in 50 years. As a result Republicans extended their control in the Senate, but Democrats’ took control of the House of Representatives, where they can now provide a legislative check on Trump’s presidency. On election day, our producer, Liz Yuen was in Texas, where the hard fought senate battle between Republican Ted Cruz and Beto O’Rourke, a potential Democratic candidate for president, drew national attention. With me to talk about the US midterm elections results are Nicholas Gordon, Vice Chair of Democrats Abroad HK, Kym Kettler-Paddock, Communications Director for Republicans Overseas, and Tara Joseph who is the President of AmCham HK.

The Democrats won’t actually take control of the House until it reconvenes in January, but President barely blinked before launching a fusillade of actions to punish people he saw as opponents. On Wednesday, a day after the midterm elections, he fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions and replaced him with Matthew Whitaker, a Trump loyalist and critic of the Mueller investigation into meddling during the 2106 presidential election. That same morning, Trump let off steam at a press conference when he somewhat petulantly read out a list of Republicans who didn’t “embrace” him and lost their election bids, he accused an African-American reporter of asking a “racist question”, and – arguably - finest moment of all – yelled at, and ultimately barred from the White House, a CNN reporter.