Pete Hegseth faces impeachment effort as Republican lawmaker moves to force vote – US politics live

Donald Trump said that he had an “excellent conversation” earlier today with the prime minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, during a press conference.

Trump read a statement similar to an earlier social media post, where he wrote that “Most importantly, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, and others, would prefer the status quo, in other words, a continuation of the Greatest Naval Blockade in History, and the new Operation Iron Gate — Therefore, Land and Sea.”

“Israel and the entire Middle East are protected from Iranian danger and threats,” Trump said. “And we’re seeing momentum toward the end of this conflict. I think it’s going to be ending fairly soon.”

Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, defended Pete Hegseth in comments to reporters after Thomas Massie introduced articles of impeachment against Hegseth.

“I think he’s done a great job. I’ve worked with him every single day on many of these topics, I’ve seen the work he does, the professionalism that he brings to it,” Rubio said.

He added, “I think it’s unfair” that a Republican introduced the articles of impeachment.

A press conference by US attorney general Todd Blanche interrupted efforts to count ballots in Jackson, Mississippi. The press conference comes as the state of Mississippi is in embroiled in a tight Senate race with a razor thin margin. Democrat Scott Colom leads incumbent Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith – if he wins, Colom will be the first Democratic senator Mississippi has sent to the Senate in decades and the first Black senator the state has sent since the Reconstruction era.

Dozens of police officers idled outside buildings in downtown Jackson while Blanche spoke inside the Jackson City Hall. Elsewhere, officers hovered on rooftops, patrolling local streets and circling in police cars. Many streets around the Hinds County Circuit Clerk office, where votes are still being counted, are blocked off. Officers outside the Jackson City Hall would not let the two dozen people who waited outside the building in

Across the street, dozens of protesters chanted, “Don’t interrupt our vote!”

Ahead of the start time, officers refused to let dozens of people who waited outside the butte Jackson City Hall in, saying that the building was at capacity.

Blanche is ostensibly in town to announce that Jackson has been selected as one of four jurisdictions to federal funding through the Trump administration’s Model Cities Initiative, a controversial program that other southern cities, including New Orleans and Charlotte rejected due to concerns around civil rights violations.

Thomas Massie floated Florida governor Ron DeSantis as a potential replacement for defense secretary Pete Hegseth during a press conference on the eight articles of impeachment he introduced against Hegseth today.

“I will name a name because I suspect he doesn’t want the job,” Massie said, after initially deferring to name a contender because “if I named a name, they would probably never put that person in there.”

In a press conference full of sharp remarks, Massie said he was advocating for the impeachment in his final weeks in Congress because “the time for waiting around and being polite and introducing bills and waiting six years to try to get them inside of some other bill, that time is over for me.”

“I am trying to force a vote here on this issue because I think it’s at the heart and soul of our republic, who has the war powers,” he added.

• Republican Congressman Thomas Massie has introduced eight articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth, refiling a resolution in the hope of ousting the defense secretary. The House has two days to take it up. This could result in a vote on the floor, a formal investigation or the measure could be tabled. All require a simple majority (218 votes) in the House.

• Massie, the outgoing representative from Kentucky, accused Hegseth of illegally waging war in Iran without congressional authorization and abusing his powers. The articles also focuses on Hegseth’s move to strike several boats in the Caribbean that have killed over 200 people throughout the campaign. The resolution also points to the defense secretary’s targeted Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, a former Navy captain, for telling troops to resist unlawful orders. Hegseth formally censured Kelly, accused him of seditious statements, and moved to reduce his retired military rank and pension. A federal judge later blocked the Pentagon’s effort.

• While Democrats are expected to back the impeachment effort, some Republicans have also expressed some support, even though they hold a narrow majority. A reminder that for the removal of an impeached official, there needs to be 67 votes in the upper chamber. Speaking to reporters, Massie insisted that his articles of impeachment are “not symbolic”. “He is not doing a good job. In addition to breaking the law and violating the constitution, he’s not doing a good job,” Massie said. “If he stays in power, and Republicans reject this – what message do you think he sends to the American public after last week’s election?”

• After initially saying he would accept the results of the midterm elections, that saw Democrats flip dozens of seats and win control of Congress, Donald Trump has begun to cast doubt on the Republican drubbing. “Does anybody really believe that this ‘Election’ was honest,” he wrote on Truth Social. “How could the Polls be so wrong??? Some early voting ‘dumps’ were so large that it was impossible to win, no matter how many people went to vote.” The president also repeated his baseless aspersions that that voting machines are unreliable. “It’s all about the machines, which are far more important than the voter!” Trump wrote.

• Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer responded to Trump’s statement, saying that the president’s “return to election denialism was inevitable”. The Senate minority leader added: “He can whine all he wants, but nothing will stop this inescapable truth: For the last two years of his presidency, Trump will face the largest Democratic congressional majorities in decades, all because he has been an unprecedented failure.”

Could Hakeem Jeffries, as the likely next speaker of the House, work with Stephen Miller, the architect of Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign who last week named White House chief of staff?

“No”, Jeffries replied, when asked about the possibility of collaboration at his press conference today.

“Stephen Miller is a stone cold racist. His track record speaks for itself, and I’ve got zero interest in working with that kind of individual,” Jeffries added.

It’s not the first time the top House Democrat has condemned Miller, but this language is Jeffries’s strongest yet. Needless to say, this does not bode well for the possibility of bipartisan collaboration in the next Congress on issues like immigration reform.

Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, the top Democrats in the House and Senate, respectively, may have just led their party to historic victories in the midterm elections, but they remain unpopular with the party’s base.

Activists have called on House and Senate Democrats to elect other leaders before they assume the majorities in Congress next year. At a press conference today, Jeffries signaled confidence in Schumer’s chances of staying on as the top Senate Democrat.

“Chuck Schumer was the quarterback of a team effort led by Senate Democrats and incredible candidates who ran all across the country,” Jeffries said.

“I think the results of that election, the outcome, the decisive victory, speaks for itself.”

He was more diplomatic about his own chances of staying on as the top House Democrat – and thereby speaker of the House in waiting – ahead of caucus leadership meetings set for Wednesday and Thursday of next week.

“I’m going to work hard to talk to every single member about what we’ve been able to do together over the last two years and what the opportunities are for us to do together in the next two years to deliver upon the dramatic change that the American people so decisively voted for this past Tuesday,” Jeffries said.

When a reporter said it sounded like Jeffries didn’t have the votes “nailed down,” he replied: “You think I don’t have the vote nailed down? … I guess we’ll find out next Wednesday.”

Massie said today that he hopes that Pete Hegseth addresses the resolution methodically at his Pentagon press conference, scheduled for tomorrow.

“I hope he addresses the eight articles and doesn’t get up and misquote the Bible in Quentin Tarantino fashion and do some pull-ups and you know call everybody fat and gay like for being for this impeachment,” Massie said. “I may have just given you half his speech. I don’t know, but I would like to see him go through the eight articles of impeachment and just make the argument from a podium.”

As I noted earlier, Thomas Massie’s push to Pete Hegseth has been months in the making.

In September, Massie introduced the articles, but was stopped when Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson ended up cancelling the final day of votes ahead of the midterms recess. For Massie, an outgoing Republican who lost his primary election earlier this year, he has long pushed back against the lack of congressional approval for the administration’s war in Iran.

“I’m a defeated congressman. I’m not disgruntled, and we’ll see if the plan works,” he said on Tuesday. “I’m being polite here … An impeachment is just firing somebody. Really, you don’t go to prison. You don’t go to jail. You’re not. You don’t pay a fine.”

Now that Massie has refiled the resolution, the House has two days to take it up. This could result in a vote on the floor, a formal investigation or the measure could be tabled. All require a simple majority (218 votes) in the House.

While the Iran conflict is the primary focus of the articles of impeachment, Massie’s resolution also focuses on Hegseth’s move to strike several boats in the Caribbean that have killed over 200 people throughout the campaign.

“Not only are they striking people without identifying them,” Massie told reporters after speaking on the House floor. “They don’t know who all those people are in the boat. They’re going back and killing all the survivors. This puts our own military in danger in any kind of future military engagement.”

The resolution also points to the defense secretary’s targeted Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, a former Navy captain, for telling troops to resist unlawful orders. Hegseth formally censured Kelly, accused him of seditious statements, and moved to reduce his retired military rank and pension. A federal judge later blocked the Pentagon’s effort.

Today, Massie said that Hegseth is in more danger when Democrats take over Congress in the new year.

“They won’t have just eight articles of impeachment,” the congressman said. “I suspect if Pete Hegseth doesn’t leave … the Democrats are going to bring people in here who have served under him and with him, give them protection. They’ll be able to say what he’s actually done, the things he has ignored, the things that he did that caused civilian casualties, the way he’s you know ignored the laws, and then there’ll be a full robust trial over in the Senate.”

Massie added: “And it’s not a certain thing that he would survive the Senate, you know, even though you know they don’t have what would you call it an impeachment-proof majority in the Senate.”

A reminder that for the removal of an impeached official, there needs to be 67 votes in the upper chamber.

Speaking to reporters, Massie insisted that his articles of impeachment are “not symbolic”.

“He is not doing a good job. In addition to breaking the law and violating the constitution, he’s not doing a good job,” Massie said. “If he stays in power, and Republicans reject this – what message do you think he sends to the American public after last week’s election?

Senator Chuck Schumer, who is hoping to become the upper chamber’s majority leader when Democrats take control in the new year, is now facing pushback from members of his party for the top job.

Many Democratic lawmakers are pushing for new leadership, and a generational shift given the historic victories the party secured in the midterm elections.

“We need a conversation about leadership going forward because we need new energy and ideas,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, on Monday.

Over the weekend, several other caucus members questioned whether Schumer, 75, who currently serves as the minority leader, should go unchallenged.

“I’ve been very vocal that we need a new generation of leadership. We couldn’t have gotten a clearer signal than Tuesday,” said Elissa Slotkin, a first-term Democrat from Michigan. Meanwhile, sources close to Chris Van Hollen, the progressive Maryland senator, say that the lawmaker is receiving “an outpouring of calls and is now in active listening mode” about throwing his hat in the ring for leader, according to Politico.

Several freshmen Democrats spent time on the campaign trail insisting that they would not support Schumer as leader. This includes the Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed, who won the bitter fight for the open US Senate seat in Michigan, who only secured Schumer’s support after he won the Democratic primary against Haley Stevens, who Schumer backed initially. Other Senate newcomers, Troy Jackson of Maine, Adam Hamilton of Kansas and Peggy Flanagan of Minnesota, have all said they would support a different leader.

We’re watching the latest on the House floor, where Republican Thomas Massie is introducing eight articles of impeachment against defense secretary Pete Hegseth. Massie is hoping to force a vote, which could happen as soon as Wednesday.

Part of the impeachment articles includes the claim that Hegseth “abused the powers of the Department of Defense” that, he claims, resulted in the death of more than 175 civilians after strikes on an elementary school in Minab, Iran in February. The Pentagon has not confirmed responsibility for the specific attack, despite independent analyses finding the US was behind the strikes.

The defense department has carried out its own investigation, with a preliminary inquiry showing Washington responsible the deadly missile strike, according to a New York Times report.

After news emerged about the relationship between Jensen Huang, the Nvidia CEO and founder, and Alice Huang, a suspected Chinese government spy, several tech and business moguls shared their support of the Nvidia leader.

Elon Musk posted “I agree” in response to prominent venture capitalist Shaun Maguire’s defense of Huang. Maguire argued the Nvidia CEO “did something incredibly dumb” but that he is “one of the greatest entrepreneurs of this generation”.

“Two mistakes don’t make a right, and I believe Jensen is irreplaceable for America’s AI leadership,” Maguire posted. He stated the Nvidia CEO “did something incredibly dumb” but that he is “one of the greatest entrepreneurs of this generation”.

“Let’s also not nuke our AI industry because China ran a successful intel op,” Maguire added in a separate post.

Bill Ackman, the US hedge fund manager and pro-Trump billionaire, meanwhile, suggested that Huang is “human” and deserves public support over the affair.

“He is an incredible human. Even incredible humans make mistakes,” Ackman posted. “He takes full responsibility as he should. We should all support him and his family. Onward.”

Ackman followed up with another post later clarifying that he wasn’t suggesting Huang “gets a free pass” but that he was “hoping for a simple affair, not a risk to our national security”.

In the House tomorrow, we’ll also see leadership elections for the Republican conference. Here, outgoing GOP Speaker Mike Johnson said he will not run as minority leader.

Now, a contest between Representative Steve Scalise, the current majority leader, and hardline Congressman Jim Jordan is shaping up, as they both announced bids to lead Republicans in the next Congress.

Several Republican senators have called on party leadership to delay the internal election scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday).

“We need to have serious discussions within our conference as to what we can do to improve the outcome in 2028,” the group wrote in a letter to conference chair Senator Tom Cotton, noting the stunning GOP defeat in the midterm elections last week. “Holding leadership elections without engaging in a robust discussion and evaluation of how those running for leadership intend to lead would be political malpractice. It is certainly not the way leadership elections should be conducted in the world’s greatest deliberative body.”

Senator Ron Johnson, of Wisconsin, led the letter. However, there is no apparent challenger to the upper chamber’s majority leader, Senator John Thune. If Thune stays in place, he will lead the Republican minority in the next Congress.

Thomas Massie, the outgoing Republican congressman, is re-introducing his eight articles of impeachment today against Pete Hegseth, in his bid to oust the defense secretary.

Massie, who lost his primary earlier this year, will likely move to force an impeachment vote against Hegseth again, ahead of Democrats re-taking control of Congress in the new year.

The articles include launching and continuing an unauthorized war in Iran, violating the War Powers Resolution without seeking congressional approval.

As we noted earlier, many House Democrats appear in lock-step behind the impeachment resolution. On Sunday, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said he was a “hard yes” on the vote.

Democrats have flipped the Georgia state House, the Associated Press reported on Monday.

As of Monday, Democrats had won 91 House seats and Republicans 86, per the AP.

The state House in Georgia has been Republican-controlled since 2005. The flip comes as Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms won the governorship in Georgia last week.