• Battles brewing: Incoming House Oversight Committee chief Robert Garcia accused Attorney General Todd Blanche of “threatening” Democratic lawmakers with investigations to stop them from conducting oversight. President Donald Trump has tasked the Department of Justice with investigating Democrats, and Blanche said members of the party should be “very worried.”
• Balance of power: Meanwhile, dozens of newly elected incoming members of Congress are gathered in Washington, DC, today at the start of a post-election orientation period. Votes are still being counted for the Senate races in Mississippi and Alaska, while 20 House races are yet to be projected.
• Democratic divide: Chuck Schumer is confident he’ll continue leading Senate Democrats after they captured the chamber’s majority in dramatic fashion on Tuesday. But two prominent Democratic senators are not so sure.
Updates
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Conservative podcaster and wife of new White House chief of staff Stephen Miller announced she would not be recording any more episodes of “The Katie Miller Podcast” in light of her husband’s promotion.
“Nothing is more important than raising our four kids. While I’ve loved the podcast, the time commitment is too great and now is the time to step away,” Miller said in a post on X. “I’ll be cheering President Trump and his team on from outside the administration.”
Miller left a role as a top aide to Elon Musk in 2025 to launch the podcast for conservative mothers. She interviewed a slew of administration officials throughout its run, including Vice President JD Vance.
Miller added that two previously recorded episodes would still be aired.
While Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer remains a heavy favorite to lead the chamber next session, some newly elected Democrats are expressing uncertainty, and, in a few cases cases, openly opposing his bid for majority leader.
Despite the skepticism, Schumer has said that he is confident he’ll continue leading Senate Democrats after they captured the chamber’s majority in dramatic fashion last week. He has no declared opposition and to become majority leader, he needs to win only majority support from Senate Democrats.
Here’s where some incoming Senate Democrats stand on Schumer’s leadership bid:
Michigan’s Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed told ABC’s “This Week” that he and Schumer “figured out how to work together” to get El-Sayed elected, but left the door open to supporting someone else to lead the chamber: “The question to me is: Who wants to be the leader who’s going to make sure that we deliver on the mandate that we just got? I want to see who else is in the running. I have been very, very committed to somebody like Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who I know has his eyes set on other goals. But let’s see,” El-Sayed said.
In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, Kansas Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton, a moderate Democrat, also indicated that he would stand by his campaign pledge not to back Schumer for majority leader. “I think whether it’s fair or not, Chuck Schumer is seen as a more divisive figure by many people, and I think we need somebody who’s going to bring us together,” Hamilton said.
Maine Sen.-elect Troy Jackson reiterated on Friday that he would not support Schumer. “I’ve already said, I told Senator Schumer I’m going to you know, support somebody else, so that’s no different now,” Jackson said, according to WGME.
South Carolina Sen.-elect Annie Andrews also weighed in on Schumer’s leadership during an interview with Fox News. “I still very much believe it’s time for a generational change on both sides of the aisle,” she said.
Minnesota Sen.-elect Peggy Flanagan said told reporters the day after the midterm election: “I am tremendously grateful for Chuck Schumer’s leadership and what he has done over the last many years and I think it is time for new leadership.”
Scott Colom, the Democrat in the Mississippi Senate race that remains too close to call, has also been noncommittal on Schumer, calling for more geographic diversity among party leadership.
CNN’s Patrick Svitek, Jordan Budney and Logan Schiciano contributed to this report.
Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett this morning made the case for why he should be appointed to the Senate seat opening in his state after Marsha Blackburn won the governor’s race.
“Well, I’m double digits above any of them in polling,” Burchett said about the potential candidates on Fox News’ “The Sunday Briefing.”
He added that he had strong fundraising numbers last quarter and that he has a “statewide network” that would give him a leg up in the competition.
Blackburn will make history as Tennessee’s first female governor. She will decide who will fill her seat in the Senate until the special election to fill it in November 2028.
Burchett, who has represented his Knoxville-area district since 2019, added that he’s “got a good shot” at being selected for the Senate seat.
“I prayed about it,” Burchett said. “I would absolutely take on that role, and if not, I would absolutely run for it in two years.”
GOP Rep.-elect Chris Stigall, who will fill the seat of a retiring Republican in Missouri’s rural 6th Congressional District, said his party has “got to figure out a way forward” after seeing significant losses in last week’s midterms.
Stigall, who is in Washington, DC, for new member orientation, said he hopes to be on the “ground level of figuring out how we can reconnect and better message to the needs of the American people.”
He also said there had been “active campaigning” among Republicans running for leadership positions, but would not say who he plans on voting for.
Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Republicans don’t have the courage to confront why they lost Tuesday’s midterms or the grit to rebound from those losses.
Gingrich referenced his own experiences in wave elections — like the 1994 midterms he led as speaker and the 2010 midterms, when Republicans picked up scores of seats — saying Republicans today don’t have the right approach.
“The Republicans, frankly, right now, don’t have the courage, they don’t have the focus, they don’t have the right level of anger,” he said in an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “We are drifting towards the mid-1960s minority Republican mindset of playing tactical games, hanging out, raising money, playing golf, and being the minority. That’s a very dangerous place to be.”
First, he said, Republicans need to first acknowledge that “we got beaten badly.”
“We got beaten because the American people believed we had failed,” the former speaker said. “This is not complicated.”
Part of what the party needs to realize, he said, is that it did not communicate well with voters.
“But for some reason, they got in their heads that money could replace arguments, and that as long as you had enough consultants getting paid enough money, you didn’t have to have a strategy, you didn’t have to communicate, and you didn’t have to listen to the American people,” he said.
Gingrich encouraged Republicans to prepare a compelling alternative for voters in the next election, instead of just opposing Democrats.
“We can’t just be negative,” he said. “We have to offer a better future with better solutions.”
Newly elected Democrats expressed confidence that they can deliver on their sweeping campaign promises to make life more affordable for voters and to hold the Trump administration accountable.
“We have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time,” Rep.-elect Brad Lander told reporters at the start of an orientation for new House members.
The progressive New York Democrat emphasized the importance of restoring “trust in government,” urging the House to ban members from trading stocks to show “we’re serious that we work for voters and not for donors or ourselves.”
Lander said he believes when House Democrats take back the majority next year they can “right away” begin reversing Republican-passed healthcare cuts and President Donald Trump’s tariffs, while also holding hearings to hold the federal immigration agents who killed US citizens early this year accountable.
Rep.-elect Scott Wiener, who will fill retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat in California, echoed that House Democrats can deliver on affordability and accountability, but he emphasized, “the highest priority has to be lowering people’s cost of living.”
“We need to do both. We can walk and chew gum, but lowering people’s cost of living is the most important thing,” he said.
Incoming Democratic members broadly expressed support for Hakeem Jeffries to become House speaker in January, despite the wide range of views in the caucus.
Lander, who unseated a moderate Democrat in his primary, said he has received “hundreds” of emails from constituents encouraging him to oppose Jeffries due to policy differences over issues like Israel.
“Look, there is a time for fights within the party,” he said, explaining that he expects to support progressive Democratic candidates in the 2028 presidential primary, but “right now we need disciplined, strategic unity across the party.
“A leader who has built consensus, won the support of his colleagues, and can hold us together is critical at this point,” he said.
While many House Democrats, including Jeffries, have voiced support for impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, there seems to be less of an appetite to impeach Trump immediately.
Lander pointed to the “big agenda” Democrats have committed to, adding “if we get through all of that, come back and ask me again whether we should impeach the president.”
Democratic Rep.-elect Nancy Lacore, whom Pete Hegseth removed as chief of the Navy Reserve last year, called him the nation’s “most unqualified” defense secretary ahead of a potential impeachment vote.
Lacore said the impeachment issue should “be handled before I get there” but “it’s all part of the problem with the corruption and the lack of strategy” with the war in Iran.
The incoming congresswoman representing South Carolina’s 1st District was part of an officer purge under Hegseth, many of whom were women or people of color.
“I was never given a reason when I was removed from my position in August of 2025. I don’t think any of the other generals and admirals were ever given reasons either. And frankly, at this point, it doesn’t really matter. You know, it opened a door for me to do what I’m doing now and continuing my service in Congress,” Lacore said.
Going forward, she said the US needs to “end this war because that has driven up costs extraordinarily high across the district and the country.”
A former adviser to President Donald Trump on Sunday expressed confidence that the president’s incoming chief of staff could facilitate compromises between the White House and congressional Democrats, even as many are questioning his ability to do so.
Jason Miller, a longtime Trump confidant, said he was in a meeting with White House officials last week discussing paths forward, with Republicans set to be out of power in Congress. Miller said incoming chief of staff Stephen Miller was also part of those talks, and that potential areas of agreement between the two parties could include passing a ban on stock trading for members of Congress and making Trump’s prescription-drug cuts permanent.
“There are so many things that President Trump and Democrats can team up on,” Miller said on Fox News. “Stephen’s the one who can figure out how to get it done.”
The comments come as Democrats, and even some Republicans, have blasted the president’s chief of staff pick, claiming that Stephen Miller’s track record of hardline stances on issues like immigration won’t be conducive to compromise in a divided government.
Meanwhile, Jason Miller urged Republicans to take advantage of their remaining time in control on Capitol Hill. He said they should eliminate the filibuster to pass legislation and confirm judges without Democrats’ support.
He said the “Republican Senate really needs to get their act together — use the nuclear option, get the rest of the president’s agenda through during the short stretch. They have to do it.”
Rep. Robert Garcia, who is set to lead the House Oversight Committee when Democrats take control of Congress next year, responded after Attorney General Todd Blanche said earlier that members of the House Oversight Committee should be “very worried.”
Blanche’s comments came after President Donald Trump said that he would have the Department of Justice look into threats of “impeachment and many other forms of punishment” by Democrats against certain members of his administration, companies and donors to his ballroom project.
In response, Garcia said “we’re not going to be intimidated.”
Listen to more of his response in the video below:
Florida Gov.-elect Byron Donalds urged Republicans to focus on lowering healthcare costs after his party suffered significant losses in Tuesday’s midterms.
“If Republicans, in my view, want to be serious about anything, we have to start having this real political conversation and economic conversation around healthcare to stabilize healthcare costs, lower healthcare costs,” the outgoing congressman said in an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” describing the issue as the next “battle line in American politics.”
Concerns around high prices were what Donalds said he heard most from voters as he campaigned around the state, something he thinks Republicans need to “get back focused on.”
“The mission for Republicans is to get back focused on just on the cost of living for the people of this country,” he said.
He also disagreed with Vice President JD Vance’s claim that the Iran war is the main reason Republicans suffered in the midterms.
“I think it’s a little bit broader than that,” he said. “At the end of it all, it’s about gas and groceries.”
Affordability, Donalds said, will be his focus as he begins his term in January. He said he’ll leave presidential politics — including whether Vance can realistically separate himself from the war — up to the vice president and President Donald Trump.
Democratic Texas Rep.-elect Bobby Pulido said he would like to work with President Donald Trump on immigration reform, after unseating a GOP incumbent in the midterm election.
“I want to convince him that, honestly, we need immigration reform for all of us,” Pulido said on MS NOW’s “Connect.”
Pulido, a Tejano singer and Latin Grammy award winner, won Texas’ 15th Congressional District, spanning from San Antonio to the Mexican border. Republican Monica De La Cruz had flipped the majority-Latino district in 2022.
The district voted for Trump by 18 points in 2024. Pulido said immigration is not the sole reason for the change in voting habits.
“Immigration for us is tied to our economy,” Pulido said.
The Democrats are already on track for the House’s largest majority in decades, projected to hold at least 254 seats as of the morning of November 8.
The last time any party won more than 250 seats was the Democrats in 2008. In 18 races, the winning party is yet to be determined.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie told CNN that he plans to trigger an impeachment vote this week against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whom many GOP lawmakers and allies blame for the party’s historic midterm losses.
Several GOP sources said they expect it to pass.
Hegseth has urged troops to “ignore the noise” in a video posted to social media yesterday, insisting the Trump administration is more “more resolute than ever to finish what we have started.”
“To the troops: Don’t blink, ignore the noise, never hesitate. You see, all this is politics. You do real things, so stay the course,” he said in a video filmed outside the Defense Department. “And as always, President Trump leads the way. And I’ll assure you, we have only just begun to fight.”
The message comes two days after Hegseth posted a similar video in which he compared his situation to President Donald Trump’s own impeachment.
Trump has expressed confidence in Hegseth, telling reporters this week that the former Fox News anchor was doing a “fantastic job” at the Pentagon.
Remember: Massie announced in September he would force an unprecedented vote to impeach Hegseth over his handling of the US war with Iran. His resolution carried special procedural powers, starting with a legislative clock that required GOP leaders to bring it to the floor within days. House Speaker Mike Johnson adjourned the chamber early to stave off the vote ahead of the midterm elections.
CNN’s Maureen Chowdhury, Lauren Fox and Sarah Ferris contributed to this report.
Democratic Ohio Rep.-elect Brian Poindexter said he has not heard from his opponent Rep. Max Miller after defeating him in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
“He didn’t call, unless he called me from a private number,” Poindexter said on MS NOW’s “The Weekend.”
Poindexter, who ran focusing on both affordability issues and Miller’s character, unseated the embattled congressman in an Ohio district President Donald Trump had won by more than 10 points two years ago.
Miller has been locked in a bitter custody battle over his daughter with his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, the daughter of GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno. Emily Moreno has accused her ex-husband of abuse, including claiming Miller held a gun to her head when changing their daughter.
While Miller has denied the allegations and requested a House Ethics Committee investigation into the matter, party officials sought to push him out of the race over the summer in a bid to retain the seat. Miller, however, refused and will leave Congress in January.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the results of the midterm elections signaled an opportunity for the newly elected Democrats to deliver on progressive goals.
The mayor highlighted affordability as a unifying issue for voters across the country.
“It speaks to the fact that working-class Americans, wherever they live, are having a hard time making ends meet no matter how hard they work,” he added.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he expects House Democrats to provide “incredibly strong” support for GOP Rep. Thomas Massie’s effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Jeffries, who is expected to become House speaker in the next Congress, told ABC’s “This Week” that he’ll be a “hard yes” on Massie’s resolution, which the Kentucky Republican plans to force to the floor for a vote when Congress returns this week.
“The so-called secretary of defense has abused his power, undermined our national security, and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran, which has skyrocketed prices on the American people and made the country less safe. Pete Hegseth has got to go,” Jeffries said.
The New York Democrat said his caucus will discuss the impeachment effort in the coming days and he believes “there will be incredibly strong support for that resolution.”
Jeffries has notably taken a much more cautious public stance on whether House Democrats would try to impeach President Donald Trump, telling CNN’s Manu Raju last week that it is not something he’s been talking about with members.
He also called Trump’s selection of Stephen Miller to be the next White House chief of staff an “awful choice,” predicting “there’s not going to be any opportunity” for Democrats to work with Miller.
“We’re committed to forcefully pushing back against the extremism that they may try to continue to unleash on the American people. And we’ve got a firewall in the House and a firewall in the Senate, thanks to the American people,” he said.
Michigan Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed on Sunday said he is open to meeting with President Donald Trump to discuss how they “can serve the Michiganders,” despite the two men trading insults as the Democrat ran for office.
“I’ve never met the man. He is the president of the United States. I am the US senator-elect from the state of Michigan. I am happy to meet with him, like I’ll meet with anyone who can advance the goals I ran on to get money out of politics, put money in pockets, pass Medicare for all,” El-Sayed said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“If (Trump) wants to act serious, we are happy to work alongside him to actually address these issues,” El-Sayed added. “But if he wants to continue to fool, he will hire people like Stephen Miller to run the White House. And he gets to choose where he goes next.”
Trump frequently attacked El-Sayed’s Muslim faith in the lead-up to the midterms. El-Sayed has called Trump an “unserious fool” and Vice President JD Vance a “coward” since winning his race last week.
The senator-elect said no plans are in the works for a meeting.
On his relationship with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, El-Sayed said the two “figured out how to work together” to get El-Sayed elected, but he left the door open to supporting someone else to lead the Senate next year.
“The question to me is: Who wants to be the leader who’s going to make sure that we deliver on the mandate that we just got? I want to see who else is in the running. I have been very, very committed to somebody like Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who I know has his eyes set on other goals. But let’s see,” El-Sayed said.
Democratic Kansas Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton said President Donald Trump’s decision to elevate Stephen Miller to White House chief of staff is concerning, describing the move as “doubling down” despite Democrats’ huge wins in the midterms.
“I’m actually surprised that he did that because the election was a repudiation of so much of what Trump has stood for, and I think so much of that was designed by Stephen Miller. So the idea of making him chief of staff seems really odd to me, and it’s concerning,” Hamilton told Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“It feels like a doubling down on what the first two years of the Trump administration have done,” he added.
Trump announced Friday in a Truth Social post that Miller, a longtime aide who orchestrated Trump’s immigration agenda, will be stepping into the role Monday, replacing Susie Wiles.
In the interview, Hamilton, a moderate Democrat, also indicated that he would stand by his campaign pledge not to back Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to lead his party as Democrats take power in the Senate.
“I think whether it’s fair or not, Chuck Schumer is seen as a more divisive figure by many people, and I think we need somebody who’s going to bring us together,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton last week became the first Democrat elected to the US Senate from Kansas since 1932.
Republican Rep. Marlin Stutzman this morning called for President Donald Trump to fire new White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, arguing that it is time “to listen to the American people” after the GOP “got beat badly” during the midterm elections.
Miller “is not liked out here in the Midwest by people, they don’t like his tone,” Stutzman said. “They believe that he didn’t offer up a better solution, a more comprehensive solution on immigration, and that’s why I think it was a bad mistake.”
When pressed by Raju if Miller should be fired, Stutzman said: “Yes.”
The Indiana congressman also addressed allegations made by former top health adviser Calley Means about outgoing White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
During an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Means — a close ally of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — accused Wiles of blocking policy measures in exchange for campaign donations.
Stutzman said those allegations should be investigated and tied it back to Miller.
“He was the deputy chief of staff,” he said. “He was in, he’s been in the White House all along.”
Rep. Robert Garcia, who is poised to lead the powerful House Oversight Committee when Democrats take control of Congress next year, vowed to mount an “aggressive” investigative approach, despite President Donald Trump pushing the Justice Department to look into them.
“The days of us not fighting back are over. This idea that we’re every single time not going to actually take on that fight is over,” Garcia told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” this morning.
The California Democrat accused Attorney General Todd Blanche of “threatening” lawmakers on the panel with investigations in an attempt to stop them from conducting oversight, adding, “We’re not going to be intimidated.”
“All he wants to do is protect Donald Trump, is protect Donald Trump’s Cabinet and administration officials. That is not his job,” he said. “He also needs to be reminded that oversight is going to do our job.”
Garcia called the DOJ’s stance “ridiculous,” adding, “they’re so thin-skinned.”
Laying out a broad agenda for his committee, Garcia listed Trump’s top advisers and family members, as well as Elon Musk among the targets for investigations.
He said oversight lawmakers believe that Stephen Miller, whom Trump named Friday as the new White House chief of staff, has “been at the center of actions that are unconstitutional, unjust, and possibly illegal.”
He called the Trumps the “most corrupt family to ever be in the Oval Office in the White House,” telling Bash that Donald Trump Jr. and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner should be “expected to answer questions” before the committee.
And Garcia said the panel is already looking into allegations by a former top Health and Humans Services adviser that outgoing chief of staff Susie Wiles blocked some health policies to protect corporate interests.
“The fact that political donations could have had an impact here is serious and should be investigated,” he said.
• Battles brewing: Incoming House Oversight Committee chief Robert Garcia accused Attorney General Todd Blanche of “threatening” Democratic lawmakers with investigations to stop them from conducting oversight. President Donald Trump has tasked the Department of Justice with investigating Democrats, and Blanche said members of the party should be “very worried.”
• Balance of power: Meanwhile, dozens of newly elected incoming members of Congress are gathered in Washington, DC, today at the start of a post-election orientation period. Votes are still being counted for the Senate races in Mississippi and Alaska, while 20 House races are yet to be projected.
• Democratic divide: Chuck Schumer is confident he’ll continue leading Senate Democrats after they captured the chamber’s majority in dramatic fashion on Tuesday. But two prominent Democratic senators are not so sure.
Conservative podcaster and wife of new White House chief of staff Stephen Miller announced she would not be recording any more episodes of “The Katie Miller Podcast” in light of her husband’s promotion.
“Nothing is more important than raising our four kids. While I’ve loved the podcast, the time commitment is too great and now is the time to step away,” Miller said in a post on X. “I’ll be cheering President Trump and his team on from outside the administration.”
Miller left a role as a top aide to Elon Musk in 2025 to launch the podcast for conservative mothers. She interviewed a slew of administration officials throughout its run, including Vice President JD Vance.
Miller added that two previously recorded episodes would still be aired.
While Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer remains a heavy favorite to lead the chamber next session, some newly elected Democrats are expressing uncertainty, and, in a few cases cases, openly opposing his bid for majority leader.
Despite the skepticism, Schumer has said that he is confident he’ll continue leading Senate Democrats after they captured the chamber’s majority in dramatic fashion last week. He has no declared opposition and to become majority leader, he needs to win only majority support from Senate Democrats.
Here’s where some incoming Senate Democrats stand on Schumer’s leadership bid:
Michigan’s Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed told ABC’s “This Week” that he and Schumer “figured out how to work together” to get El-Sayed elected, but left the door open to supporting someone else to lead the chamber: “The question to me is: Who wants to be the leader who’s going to make sure that we deliver on the mandate that we just got? I want to see who else is in the running. I have been very, very committed to somebody like Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who I know has his eyes set on other goals. But let’s see,” El-Sayed said.
In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, Kansas Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton, a moderate Democrat, also indicated that he would stand by his campaign pledge not to back Schumer for majority leader. “I think whether it’s fair or not, Chuck Schumer is seen as a more divisive figure by many people, and I think we need somebody who’s going to bring us together,” Hamilton said.
Maine Sen.-elect Troy Jackson reiterated on Friday that he would not support Schumer. “I’ve already said, I told Senator Schumer I’m going to you know, support somebody else, so that’s no different now,” Jackson said, according to WGME.
South Carolina Sen.-elect Annie Andrews also weighed in on Schumer’s leadership during an interview with Fox News. “I still very much believe it’s time for a generational change on both sides of the aisle,” she said.
Minnesota Sen.-elect Peggy Flanagan said told reporters the day after the midterm election: “I am tremendously grateful for Chuck Schumer’s leadership and what he has done over the last many years and I think it is time for new leadership.”
Scott Colom, the Democrat in the Mississippi Senate race that remains too close to call, has also been noncommittal on Schumer, calling for more geographic diversity among party leadership.
CNN’s Patrick Svitek, Jordan Budney and Logan Schiciano contributed to this report.
Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett this morning made the case for why he should be appointed to the Senate seat opening in his state after Marsha Blackburn won the governor’s race.
“Well, I’m double digits above any of them in polling,” Burchett said about the potential candidates on Fox News’ “The Sunday Briefing.”
He added that he had strong fundraising numbers last quarter and that he has a “statewide network” that would give him a leg up in the competition.
Blackburn will make history as Tennessee’s first female governor. She will decide who will fill her seat in the Senate until the special election to fill it in November 2028.
Burchett, who has represented his Knoxville-area district since 2019, added that he’s “got a good shot” at being selected for the Senate seat.
“I prayed about it,” Burchett said. “I would absolutely take on that role, and if not, I would absolutely run for it in two years.”
GOP Rep.-elect Chris Stigall, who will fill the seat of a retiring Republican in Missouri’s rural 6th Congressional District, said his party has “got to figure out a way forward” after seeing significant losses in last week’s midterms.
Stigall, who is in Washington, DC, for new member orientation, said he hopes to be on the “ground level of figuring out how we can reconnect and better message to the needs of the American people.”
He also said there had been “active campaigning” among Republicans running for leadership positions, but would not say who he plans on voting for.
Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Republicans don’t have the courage to confront why they lost Tuesday’s midterms or the grit to rebound from those losses.
Gingrich referenced his own experiences in wave elections — like the 1994 midterms he led as speaker and the 2010 midterms, when Republicans picked up scores of seats — saying Republicans today don’t have the right approach.
“The Republicans, frankly, right now, don’t have the courage, they don’t have the focus, they don’t have the right level of anger,” he said in an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “We are drifting towards the mid-1960s minority Republican mindset of playing tactical games, hanging out, raising money, playing golf, and being the minority. That’s a very dangerous place to be.”
First, he said, Republicans need to first acknowledge that “we got beaten badly.”
“We got beaten because the American people believed we had failed,” the former speaker said. “This is not complicated.”
Part of what the party needs to realize, he said, is that it did not communicate well with voters.
“But for some reason, they got in their heads that money could replace arguments, and that as long as you had enough consultants getting paid enough money, you didn’t have to have a strategy, you didn’t have to communicate, and you didn’t have to listen to the American people,” he said.
Gingrich encouraged Republicans to prepare a compelling alternative for voters in the next election, instead of just opposing Democrats.
“We can’t just be negative,” he said. “We have to offer a better future with better solutions.”
Newly elected Democrats expressed confidence that they can deliver on their sweeping campaign promises to make life more affordable for voters and to hold the Trump administration accountable.
“We have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time,” Rep.-elect Brad Lander told reporters at the start of an orientation for new House members.
The progressive New York Democrat emphasized the importance of restoring “trust in government,” urging the House to ban members from trading stocks to show “we’re serious that we work for voters and not for donors or ourselves.”
Lander said he believes when House Democrats take back the majority next year they can “right away” begin reversing Republican-passed healthcare cuts and President Donald Trump’s tariffs, while also holding hearings to hold the federal immigration agents who killed US citizens early this year accountable.
Rep.-elect Scott Wiener, who will fill retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat in California, echoed that House Democrats can deliver on affordability and accountability, but he emphasized, “the highest priority has to be lowering people’s cost of living.”
“We need to do both. We can walk and chew gum, but lowering people’s cost of living is the most important thing,” he said.
Incoming Democratic members broadly expressed support for Hakeem Jeffries to become House speaker in January, despite the wide range of views in the caucus.
Lander, who unseated a moderate Democrat in his primary, said he has received “hundreds” of emails from constituents encouraging him to oppose Jeffries due to policy differences over issues like Israel.
“Look, there is a time for fights within the party,” he said, explaining that he expects to support progressive Democratic candidates in the 2028 presidential primary, but “right now we need disciplined, strategic unity across the party.
“A leader who has built consensus, won the support of his colleagues, and can hold us together is critical at this point,” he said.
While many House Democrats, including Jeffries, have voiced support for impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, there seems to be less of an appetite to impeach Trump immediately.
Lander pointed to the “big agenda” Democrats have committed to, adding “if we get through all of that, come back and ask me again whether we should impeach the president.”
Democratic Rep.-elect Nancy Lacore, whom Pete Hegseth removed as chief of the Navy Reserve last year, called him the nation’s “most unqualified” defense secretary ahead of a potential impeachment vote.
Lacore said the impeachment issue should “be handled before I get there” but “it’s all part of the problem with the corruption and the lack of strategy” with the war in Iran.
The incoming congresswoman representing South Carolina’s 1st District was part of an officer purge under Hegseth, many of whom were women or people of color.
“I was never given a reason when I was removed from my position in August of 2025. I don’t think any of the other generals and admirals were ever given reasons either. And frankly, at this point, it doesn’t really matter. You know, it opened a door for me to do what I’m doing now and continuing my service in Congress,” Lacore said.
Going forward, she said the US needs to “end this war because that has driven up costs extraordinarily high across the district and the country.”
A former adviser to President Donald Trump on Sunday expressed confidence that the president’s incoming chief of staff could facilitate compromises between the White House and congressional Democrats, even as many are questioning his ability to do so.
Jason Miller, a longtime Trump confidant, said he was in a meeting with White House officials last week discussing paths forward, with Republicans set to be out of power in Congress. Miller said incoming chief of staff Stephen Miller was also part of those talks, and that potential areas of agreement between the two parties could include passing a ban on stock trading for members of Congress and making Trump’s prescription-drug cuts permanent.
“There are so many things that President Trump and Democrats can team up on,” Miller said on Fox News. “Stephen’s the one who can figure out how to get it done.”
The comments come as Democrats, and even some Republicans, have blasted the president’s chief of staff pick, claiming that Stephen Miller’s track record of hardline stances on issues like immigration won’t be conducive to compromise in a divided government.
Meanwhile, Jason Miller urged Republicans to take advantage of their remaining time in control on Capitol Hill. He said they should eliminate the filibuster to pass legislation and confirm judges without Democrats’ support.
He said the “Republican Senate really needs to get their act together — use the nuclear option, get the rest of the president’s agenda through during the short stretch. They have to do it.”
Rep. Robert Garcia, who is set to lead the House Oversight Committee when Democrats take control of Congress next year, responded after Attorney General Todd Blanche said earlier that members of the House Oversight Committee should be “very worried.”
Blanche’s comments came after President Donald Trump said that he would have the Department of Justice look into threats of “impeachment and many other forms of punishment” by Democrats against certain members of his administration, companies and donors to his ballroom project.
In response, Garcia said “we’re not going to be intimidated.”
Listen to more of his response in the video below:
Florida Gov.-elect Byron Donalds urged Republicans to focus on lowering healthcare costs after his party suffered significant losses in Tuesday’s midterms.
“If Republicans, in my view, want to be serious about anything, we have to start having this real political conversation and economic conversation around healthcare to stabilize healthcare costs, lower healthcare costs,” the outgoing congressman said in an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” describing the issue as the next “battle line in American politics.”
Concerns around high prices were what Donalds said he heard most from voters as he campaigned around the state, something he thinks Republicans need to “get back focused on.”
“The mission for Republicans is to get back focused on just on the cost of living for the people of this country,” he said.
He also disagreed with Vice President JD Vance’s claim that the Iran war is the main reason Republicans suffered in the midterms.
“I think it’s a little bit broader than that,” he said. “At the end of it all, it’s about gas and groceries.”
Affordability, Donalds said, will be his focus as he begins his term in January. He said he’ll leave presidential politics — including whether Vance can realistically separate himself from the war — up to the vice president and President Donald Trump.
Democratic Texas Rep.-elect Bobby Pulido said he would like to work with President Donald Trump on immigration reform, after unseating a GOP incumbent in the midterm election.
“I want to convince him that, honestly, we need immigration reform for all of us,” Pulido said on MS NOW’s “Connect.”
Pulido, a Tejano singer and Latin Grammy award winner, won Texas’ 15th Congressional District, spanning from San Antonio to the Mexican border. Republican Monica De La Cruz had flipped the majority-Latino district in 2022.
The district voted for Trump by 18 points in 2024. Pulido said immigration is not the sole reason for the change in voting habits.
“Immigration for us is tied to our economy,” Pulido said.
The Democrats are already on track for the House’s largest majority in decades, projected to hold at least 254 seats as of the morning of November 8.
The last time any party won more than 250 seats was the Democrats in 2008. In 18 races, the winning party is yet to be determined.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie told CNN that he plans to trigger an impeachment vote this week against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whom many GOP lawmakers and allies blame for the party’s historic midterm losses.
Several GOP sources said they expect it to pass.
Hegseth has urged troops to “ignore the noise” in a video posted to social media yesterday, insisting the Trump administration is more “more resolute than ever to finish what we have started.”
“To the troops: Don’t blink, ignore the noise, never hesitate. You see, all this is politics. You do real things, so stay the course,” he said in a video filmed outside the Defense Department. “And as always, President Trump leads the way. And I’ll assure you, we have only just begun to fight.”
The message comes two days after Hegseth posted a similar video in which he compared his situation to President Donald Trump’s own impeachment.
Trump has expressed confidence in Hegseth, telling reporters this week that the former Fox News anchor was doing a “fantastic job” at the Pentagon.
Remember: Massie announced in September he would force an unprecedented vote to impeach Hegseth over his handling of the US war with Iran. His resolution carried special procedural powers, starting with a legislative clock that required GOP leaders to bring it to the floor within days. House Speaker Mike Johnson adjourned the chamber early to stave off the vote ahead of the midterm elections.
CNN’s Maureen Chowdhury, Lauren Fox and Sarah Ferris contributed to this report.
Democratic Ohio Rep.-elect Brian Poindexter said he has not heard from his opponent Rep. Max Miller after defeating him in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
“He didn’t call, unless he called me from a private number,” Poindexter said on MS NOW’s “The Weekend.”
Poindexter, who ran focusing on both affordability issues and Miller’s character, unseated the embattled congressman in an Ohio district President Donald Trump had won by more than 10 points two years ago.
Miller has been locked in a bitter custody battle over his daughter with his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, the daughter of GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno. Emily Moreno has accused her ex-husband of abuse, including claiming Miller held a gun to her head when changing their daughter.
While Miller has denied the allegations and requested a House Ethics Committee investigation into the matter, party officials sought to push him out of the race over the summer in a bid to retain the seat. Miller, however, refused and will leave Congress in January.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the results of the midterm elections signaled an opportunity for the newly elected Democrats to deliver on progressive goals.
The mayor highlighted affordability as a unifying issue for voters across the country.
“It speaks to the fact that working-class Americans, wherever they live, are having a hard time making ends meet no matter how hard they work,” he added.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he expects House Democrats to provide “incredibly strong” support for GOP Rep. Thomas Massie’s effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Jeffries, who is expected to become House speaker in the next Congress, told ABC’s “This Week” that he’ll be a “hard yes” on Massie’s resolution, which the Kentucky Republican plans to force to the floor for a vote when Congress returns this week.
“The so-called secretary of defense has abused his power, undermined our national security, and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran, which has skyrocketed prices on the American people and made the country less safe. Pete Hegseth has got to go,” Jeffries said.
The New York Democrat said his caucus will discuss the impeachment effort in the coming days and he believes “there will be incredibly strong support for that resolution.”
Jeffries has notably taken a much more cautious public stance on whether House Democrats would try to impeach President Donald Trump, telling CNN’s Manu Raju last week that it is not something he’s been talking about with members.
He also called Trump’s selection of Stephen Miller to be the next White House chief of staff an “awful choice,” predicting “there’s not going to be any opportunity” for Democrats to work with Miller.
“We’re committed to forcefully pushing back against the extremism that they may try to continue to unleash on the American people. And we’ve got a firewall in the House and a firewall in the Senate, thanks to the American people,” he said.
Michigan Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed on Sunday said he is open to meeting with President Donald Trump to discuss how they “can serve the Michiganders,” despite the two men trading insults as the Democrat ran for office.
“I’ve never met the man. He is the president of the United States. I am the US senator-elect from the state of Michigan. I am happy to meet with him, like I’ll meet with anyone who can advance the goals I ran on to get money out of politics, put money in pockets, pass Medicare for all,” El-Sayed said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“If (Trump) wants to act serious, we are happy to work alongside him to actually address these issues,” El-Sayed added. “But if he wants to continue to fool, he will hire people like Stephen Miller to run the White House. And he gets to choose where he goes next.”
Trump frequently attacked El-Sayed’s Muslim faith in the lead-up to the midterms. El-Sayed has called Trump an “unserious fool” and Vice President JD Vance a “coward” since winning his race last week.
The senator-elect said no plans are in the works for a meeting.
On his relationship with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, El-Sayed said the two “figured out how to work together” to get El-Sayed elected, but he left the door open to supporting someone else to lead the Senate next year.
“The question to me is: Who wants to be the leader who’s going to make sure that we deliver on the mandate that we just got? I want to see who else is in the running. I have been very, very committed to somebody like Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who I know has his eyes set on other goals. But let’s see,” El-Sayed said.
Democratic Kansas Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton said President Donald Trump’s decision to elevate Stephen Miller to White House chief of staff is concerning, describing the move as “doubling down” despite Democrats’ huge wins in the midterms.
“I’m actually surprised that he did that because the election was a repudiation of so much of what Trump has stood for, and I think so much of that was designed by Stephen Miller. So the idea of making him chief of staff seems really odd to me, and it’s concerning,” Hamilton told Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“It feels like a doubling down on what the first two years of the Trump administration have done,” he added.
Trump announced Friday in a Truth Social post that Miller, a longtime aide who orchestrated Trump’s immigration agenda, will be stepping into the role Monday, replacing Susie Wiles.
In the interview, Hamilton, a moderate Democrat, also indicated that he would stand by his campaign pledge not to back Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to lead his party as Democrats take power in the Senate.
“I think whether it’s fair or not, Chuck Schumer is seen as a more divisive figure by many people, and I think we need somebody who’s going to bring us together,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton last week became the first Democrat elected to the US Senate from Kansas since 1932.
Republican Rep. Marlin Stutzman this morning called for President Donald Trump to fire new White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, arguing that it is time “to listen to the American people” after the GOP “got beat badly” during the midterm elections.
Miller “is not liked out here in the Midwest by people, they don’t like his tone,” Stutzman said. “They believe that he didn’t offer up a better solution, a more comprehensive solution on immigration, and that’s why I think it was a bad mistake.”
When pressed by Raju if Miller should be fired, Stutzman said: “Yes.”
The Indiana congressman also addressed allegations made by former top health adviser Calley Means about outgoing White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
During an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Means — a close ally of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — accused Wiles of blocking policy measures in exchange for campaign donations.
Stutzman said those allegations should be investigated and tied it back to Miller.
“He was the deputy chief of staff,” he said. “He was in, he’s been in the White House all along.”
Rep. Robert Garcia, who is poised to lead the powerful House Oversight Committee when Democrats take control of Congress next year, vowed to mount an “aggressive” investigative approach, despite President Donald Trump pushing the Justice Department to look into them.
“The days of us not fighting back are over. This idea that we’re every single time not going to actually take on that fight is over,” Garcia told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” this morning.
The California Democrat accused Attorney General Todd Blanche of “threatening” lawmakers on the panel with investigations in an attempt to stop them from conducting oversight, adding, “We’re not going to be intimidated.”
“All he wants to do is protect Donald Trump, is protect Donald Trump’s Cabinet and administration officials. That is not his job,” he said. “He also needs to be reminded that oversight is going to do our job.”
Garcia called the DOJ’s stance “ridiculous,” adding, “they’re so thin-skinned.”
Laying out a broad agenda for his committee, Garcia listed Trump’s top advisers and family members, as well as Elon Musk among the targets for investigations.
He said oversight lawmakers believe that Stephen Miller, whom Trump named Friday as the new White House chief of staff, has “been at the center of actions that are unconstitutional, unjust, and possibly illegal.”
He called the Trumps the “most corrupt family to ever be in the Oval Office in the White House,” telling Bash that Donald Trump Jr. and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner should be “expected to answer questions” before the committee.
And Garcia said the panel is already looking into allegations by a former top Health and Humans Services adviser that outgoing chief of staff Susie Wiles blocked some health policies to protect corporate interests.
“The fact that political donations could have had an impact here is serious and should be investigated,” he said.
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