Mass. Congressional Delegation Looks Toward Future Under President-Elect Trump

We're collecting reactions to the election results this week. Today, we check in with two members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation and ask what they see as their role in the future Trump administration.

Rep. Seth Moulton On What Democrats Can Do As Minority Party

"It's gonna be hard. But as always we've gotta find common ground to work with Republicans on shared priorities for the American people. But also stand up as a bulwark to President-elect Trump when he tries to erode the values that are so fundamental to us and are enshrined in our constitution.

"Of course it depends on what Trump plans to do. But if he actually follows through on his campaign promises to discriminate against minorities, to ship people out of the country, to indiscriminately bomb people overseas, even innocents, then we're going to have to prevent him from doing that."

Moulton On His Communities That Voted For Trump

"First of all, I'm a representative for everybody in the sixth district — Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Trump voters, Clinton voters, and anybody else. And I take that responsibility seriously. I'm a public servant. I'm accountable to them, I work for them every single day. First of all, I won't forget that. Second of all, I'm gonna listen. I'm actually the single Democrat in Congress, House, or Senate, who's held the most town halls in the whole country this past year. I'm gonna continue doing that because we need to understand the people who feel left out."

Moulton On Trump's Relationship With The Military & Veterans

"He has to show some fundamental respect for our military, for our military families, and for our constitution. And he has a lot of work to do in all of those departments given what he has said on the campaign trail. And also frankly his history. He has a history of disparaging veterans in the private sector long before he ever ran for president.

"First of all, he needs to surround himself with smart and experienced people. Ultimately, a lot of his success or failure will be dependent on the team that he brings together. I hope he realizes that the responsibility now on his shoulder as Commander in Chief, requires him to rise above it — not just bring in his friends and family members, his business cronies or whoever else, but actually bring in people who know what they're doing when it comes to matters so weighty as our national defense.

"He wants just to outright privatize the VA, which will actually raise wait times for veterans and raise wait times for everybody else because so many veterans would be thrown into the private healthcare system — without any of the specialized services that the VA has designed to take care of veterans. So what veterans want overwhelmingly is not to privatize the VA, but reform the VA we have."

Rep. Jim McGovern On What's Next After Election

"I'm heartsick over this election and I know a lot of people all throughout the country are. And the question is, how do we react? I've been trying to talk to people who've been calling me afterwards who are in deep depression -- what we cannot do is give up. We have to do more than just agonize, we have to organize. We have to fight for what's best about this country. We can't give up on things that we all value."

McGovern On His Communities That Voted For Trump

"I represent a very diverse district and there's a lot of red areas in my district. This election divided a lot of people. And people who voted for Donald Trump, voted for him for a number of reasons. Some of those reasons were people just felt detached from government and from Washington, and they were fed up and they wanted to send a message and I understand that. And I think Democrats, we need to figure out a strategy to bring some of these people back into the field. And a lot of the people who voted for Donald Trump, in my opinion, voted against their own self interest... I understand the frustration people have and Donald Trump through his bombast, was able to capitalize on that.

"I was, quite frankly, shocked as a result of many encounters I had during this last year with people who basically embraced some of the most hateful aspects of Trump's candidacy. The sexism, the racism, the xenophobia, there's some deep divisions that he helped show. And we need to figure out a way to bring this country back together. And we need to figure out a way of dealing with some of these issues that people don't wanna talk about. Like the fact that we still have systemic racism in this country. That women are still not treated equally in this country. Those things have to be addressed."

McGovern On What Democrats Can Do To Bridge Divide

"Part of it is that we need to talk about some of the issues more candidly than we've been willing to do in the past. And we need to try to propose solutions that people believe in."

McGovern On What He's Telling His Daughter

"We'll get through this. This is a strong country, it's a resilient country and just like we were saying all during the campaign, I really do believe at the end of the day, love trumps hate. I really do. There are a lot of Republicans that I serve with who I know are deep down concerned about a Trump presidency, they don't embrace a lot of the things that he said during the campaign about building walls, deporting Muslims, certainly were outraged by his comments about women. That's not the country they want either... I obviously was pretty depressed after the election results but I told this to my staff and I've told this to people who called me, 'We're not defeated.' "

Seth Moulton, Massachusetts Congressman representing the sixth district. He tweets @sethmoulton.

Jim McGovern, Massachusetts Congressman representing the second district. He tweets @RepMcGovern.