‘Blindsided:’ KIRO Newsradio hosts react to Trump winning the 2024 election

Donald Trump spent his first day as president-elect receiving congratulatory phone calls from his defeated opponent, world leaders and President Joe Biden as he began the process of turning his election victory into a government.

Trump was keeping a low profile, staying out of the public eye after addressing supporters in Florida during the wee hours of Wednesday morning.

Vice President Kamala Harris called Trump to concede the race and to congratulate him, while Biden invited the man he ousted from the White House four years ago to an Oval Office meeting to prepare to return the keys.

“President Trump looks forward to the meeting, which will take place shortly, and very much appreciated the call,” Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said.

Biden’s chief of staff later Wednesday nudged the Trump team to sign the required federal agreements necessary to begin an orderly presidential transition, a White House official said.

The KIRO Newsradio team was also busy, sharing their opinions on Trump’s win in the 2024 election.

Concession: Harris says nation must accept election results, but urges supporters to keep fighting

‘A lot, a bit … wrong:’ Gee and Ursula thought it would go a different way

Saying he “wasn’t a little bit wrong I was a lot, a bit … wrong” Gee Scott of “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio broke down why he believes the Trump came out of the 2024 presidential election victorious.

“We and most of us went into this (asking,) ‘Well, what about policy? And what about the the politics?’ That’s dead,” Gee said. “The majority of people are not really listening and talking about politics.”

He also said it appears Trump voters believed he will make their financial situation better.

“This is what people are thinking: ‘I don’t care nothing about (policy). I don’t care none about (politics). I’m broke. I’m hurting. You want me to sit here and vote this? ‘I think I feel that Donald Trump is the person that’s gonna make my financial situation better, and I think that’s what’s going on around the country now,'” Gee said.

Ursula Reutin, the other host of “Gee and Ursula,” acknowledged some Americans are feeling good after the Trump win and there are others, locally and nationally, who are in pain after the voting results were revealed.

“And I wanted to say that although I had hoped you heard me (Tuesday), I hoped that Kamala Harris could usher in the era of the woman. Clearly, that is not a sentiment that was shared by enough American voters to make it a reality,” Ursula said. “Unfortunately, there were more men who fought against that notion, and in those critical battleground states that so-called ‘bro gap’ was impossible to overcome.”

Michael Medved on KIRO Newsradio: ‘Americans were in a bad mood. They wanted change’

Ursula also called out some key voting demographic numbers, citing that in Pennsylvania, the exit polls found that women backed Harris by a 12-point margin. Men turned out for Trump by 16 points. In Georgia, women were backing Harris by seven points. But the men were plus-14 for Trump. In Ohio, women supported Harris by 5% more. But with men, Trump was up by 18 points.

“I know that for many, many women right now especially, it’s like we asked the question, will we ever see a woman president in our lifetime? Clearly, that also played a role,” Ursula said.

‘Blindsided:’ Jake and Spike react to Trump’s electoral victory

Jake Skorheim and Spike O’Neill opened Wednesday’s “The Jake and Spike Show” covering the 2024 election and Trump’s victory over Harris.

“I just didn’t expect last night to happen like it did,” Spike said early in the opening segment.

When Jake asked Spike if he felt blindsided, Spike agreed.

“Kind of blindsided,” he said. “And like I said (Tuesday) or maybe the day before, you asked me how I felt and I said I still had some little PTSD from 2016 and to have that reoccur.”

Looking more at where Democrats go from here, Spike noted it will be important for Democrats to identify where and how they failed and the successes on the other side.

“I look into the numbers and … we’re doing some post-mortem on the election,” Spike said. “Here’s the thing if you want to learn from history, you have to examine and you have to figure out what you did wrong and what the other side did right?”

Jake jumped on that point, noting how many people decided to vote for Trump despite the Democrats’ message.

“To be like ‘What was I not doing? What was I not seeing that more than half the country felt so strongly, even though for the past couple of weeks they’ve been talking about Nazism and Fascism and all this stuff that they could look past those claims and still say, ‘Hey, you know what? I’m not happy with the way things are,'” Jake said.

Laura Scott, producer of “Jake and Spike” admitted she wasn’t feeling terrific about the result, but had a feeling it was coming.

“I’m not feeling great. I’m gonna be honest,” Laura said. “It feels different than 2016. Like in 2016, I was living in Iowa, and I remember crying and just being completely shocked. I think this time I had a sneaking suspicion that this might be the outcome.”

Contributing: The Associated Press

Steve Coogan is the lead editor of MyNorthwest. You can read more of his stories here. Follow Steve on X, or email him here.