The following is the transcript of the interview with Rep. French Hill, Republican of Arkansas, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Nov. 8, 2026.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to Republican Congressman French Hill. He is currently the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, and he joins us from Little Rock, Arkansas. Good morning to you, Congressman. You survived a tough race down in, in Arkansas, usually ruby red. You finished just over 4000 votes ahead of your Democratic rival. What went wrong for so many other of your Republican colleagues here?
REP. FRENCH HILL: Well, Margaret, it’s good to be with you. It was a very complicated, tough election cycle this year. Look, we told the American people in 2024 that we’d secure the border, we’d make our communities safer. We would lead in the world, but we also told the American people that we would continue to fight to lower costs. And I think what we saw, no matter how many efforts that we made in the Republican House, that Americans are still concerned about the impact of 20% inflation that they experienced during the Biden administration, and that while it’s down from 9% to 3%, it has not gone lower. And that I think was a principal issue: the costs that the American people are, are having and experiencing in all of our families. So we have more work to do there.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah, costs eating into wage gains, particularly over the past six months. But let’s talk about what’s possible now. President Trump has changed his Chief of Staff, as you know, Stephen Miller, now in that role. Your Republican colleague Don Bacon of Nebraska said Miller is not a good choice because he’s antagonistic. He hurt Republicans during the election, saying he quote, took the immigration issue for President Trump from a two to one favorable to a two to one unfavorable. Do you agree with him? I mean, what, what does putting Miller in the chief’s role signal?
REP. FRENCH HILL: Well, first, I think Susie Wiles is leaving. President Trump has the right to promote Stephen Miller to be the chief. That responsibility means that during this 120th Congress, he’ll be the point person for the president in discussing policy matters with Congress. I’ll tell you though, on the immigration issue, I think we should focus on immigration reform, which I voted for twice back in 2018 to resolve the issues about how to seek asylum in this country, how we handle temporary protective services, and how we deal with children in this country that are here with legal green card holders like our engineering community that’s across the country, as well as those who’ve come in the country legally, but their kids are legal. We do need to resolve it. I think it’s a place where President Trump can lead, and this is an area that Stephen Miller is keen on, which is, secure the border, yes, but can we now reform the immigration system and make it better for our country? And that will, I believe, answer the questions about the deportation issue.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, I understand the aspiration, but credibly, you believe Stephen Miller can persuade Democrats and be persuaded himself to go for the kind of asylum you just spoke about?
REP. FRENCH HILL: Well, look, this is what President Trump has said for years that if the border was secure, he wanted to try to reform our broken immigration system, and that was an issue that came up in his first term, this is an opportunity that perhaps we can, on a bipartisan basis, find that solution in the next Congress.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I- there’s a lot of business for you all to get done. Your Republican colleague Thomas Massie is spearheading an effort to impeach Pete Hegseth, the secretary. There is action expected this week. Some of your colleagues, like James Comer has said with a high level of confidence, there’s a lot of questions about Hegseth, and Republican voters are upset. Should Hegseth be impeached?
REP. FRENCH HILL: Well, the question is for the president: Should he continue to serve as the Secretary of War–
MARGARET BRENNAN: You’re going to asked to answer this though by Representative Massie.
REP. FRENCH HILL: Yeah, that’s right. Well, you know, I want to hear the debate on it to see if it merits impeachment versus some other disciplinary action or action by the president if he’s not getting the job done in leading the Department of War. That’s the issue.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Are you satisfied with how the war has been handled?
REP. FRENCH HILL: No, but I mean I think the commander in chief has to take the responsibility for the strategy of conducting the war and how it’s been conducted. But I’ll tell you one thing: there’s nobody in America that wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon. This has been a goal of the United States for five decades. Well, look at the 1990s, Margaret. President Clinton had the opportunity to prevent North Korea from having a nuclear weapon, and it didn’t happen–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right, and–Â
REP. FRENCH HILL: -that’s a big issue for North Asia and for the U.S.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And CENTCOM just put out a $20 million reward offer for information about Iran’s nuclear program. So it’s clear the U.S. government doesn’t have clarity, nor has it completely obliterated the program. But just to go back to Hegseth. Do I hear you right? You don’t necessarily approve of how the war is going, but you’re undecided about whether he has committed an impeachable offense. Are you open to considering impeachment?
REP. FRENCH HILL: Right. Right. Here, look. Look. This is no. This is the issue. If you don’t think he’s done a good job conducting his job, that doesn’t mean per se that he’s committed an impeachable offense. He’s an executive officer of the executive branch, and if he’s not conducting his mission in the right way, then the president ought to make a change there. The question is: Are we leading at the Pentagon in the right way or not the right way? That’s very separate from whether or not somebody’s committed an impeachable offense.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And you don’t want to commit on how you’ll vote today. Have you reached a conclusion on whether you’ll vote for Steve Scalise or Jim Jordan for Republican leader?
REP. FRENCH HILL: These are two excellent leaders. They both could lead the conference successfully. We have, as you know, new members. We have about 60, 65 members of our 170 majority that have only been in Congress two years or less, and I think we need to have our family meeting and discuss it. But both Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan are fully capable of leading in the minority, and I look forward to our discussion in conference this week.
MARGARET BRENNAN: All right. Well, we will see who ends up, and we look forward to seeing how you end up voting on Secretary Hegseth as well. French Hill joining us this morning from Arkansas. Stay with us. A lot more Face the Nation when we’re back.
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