• Hegseth impeachment efforts: GOP Rep. Thomas Massie introduced articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, meaning a vote will have to happen by Wednesday. Hegseth earlier brushed off the effort and said he agreed with President Donald Trump that he’d “do it again” on launching the war with Iran.
• Trump sows doubt: In an abrupt shift from last week, the president is now questioning the results of the midterm elections.
• Latest results: Conservative firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert’s tenure in Congress is over as Ret. Rear Adm. Eileen Laubacher, a Democrat, will flip Colorado’s 4th District, CNN projects.
• On the Hill: Congress returns this week, marking the start of a lame-duck session. With fewer than 25 days in session before the new — and dramatically reshaped — 120th Congress begins, lawmakers have a long list of agenda items.
Updates
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Republican Rep. Thomas Massie introduced articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth a short while ago, which means a vote will have to happen by Wednesday.
Hegseth has faced sharp criticism over the war with Iran in the wake of bruising GOP midterm losses. The defense secretary said he agreed with President Donald Trump that he’d “do it again,” referring to the decision to launch the war.
If you’re just joining us, catch up on the latest headlines:
Retired Rear Adm. Eileen Laubacher, a Democrat, will flip Colorado’s 4th District, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, ending conservative firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert’s tenure in Congress. Boebert’s loss comes after she elected to run in a more conservative district last cycle in an effort to preserve her political future.
Republican Rep. Eli Crane will win reelection to a third term representing Arizona’s 2nd District, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, overcoming an unexpectedly strong challenge from former Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez.
Secretary of State Marcio Rubio defended embattled Hegseth, saying “he’s done a great job,” calling the articles of impeachment against him “unfair.”
Democratic Rep. Eugene Vindman of Virginia backed efforts to impeach Hegseth, calling him the “least competent, least capable, least experienced” secretary the US “has ever had.”
Total trading volume about the potential ouster or impeachment of Hegseth has passed $7.5 million on the prediction markets. Kalshi and Polymarket are both promoting Hegseth-related markets on their homepages as of this afternoon.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the GOP needs to “internalize” the message it received from voters who resoundingly cast Republicans out of office last week and “do things better” in the months ahead. Thune also said he still plans to run for GOP leader, despite calls from some in his party to delay the leadership election scheduled for tomorrow.
Separately, House Speaker Mike Johnson pushed back on the idea that Republicans should “course correct” despite the resounding rebuke of the direction of the country by voters in the midterm elections. “I’m not going to tell the president how to do his job,” Johnson said
CNN’s Sean Lyngaas, Aileen Graef, Manu Raju Ellis Kim, Jennifer Nehrer, Ted Barrett, Lauren Fox, Marshall Cohen, Patrick Svitek, Molly English, Haley Britzky and Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio would not discuss the 2028 presidential race on Monday, refusing to reiterate that he would back JD Vance if the vice president runs despite previously making that commitment.
“I’m not going to discuss 2028. I’m not going to discuss it in any form or fashion,” Rubio said in Paris when asked whether stands by his past comments that he would support Vance.
Rubio declined to detail his rationale for commenting on the topic in the past and refusing to do so now.
“I have that choice. I can make it. There’s things that I am just not going to talk about,” he said, adding that the question could be asked eight different ways but he would not discuss it.
Last year Rubio indicated he would fully back Vance if he decides to run.
“If JD Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee, and I’ll be one of the first people to support him,” Rubio told Vanity Fair.
Newly elected progressives in the House are pushing for aggressive investigations into President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, as at least one incoming freshman from a deep-red district is signaling a more cautious approach.
Rep.-elect Brad Lander said the House should impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as well as FBI Director Kash Patel and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., though he encouraged Democrats to get through their “long list” of legislative priorities before considering a Trump impeachment.
Asked by CNN about concerns that Democrats might go too far with their majority, Lander said American voters chose the party’s “very popular agenda” in last week’s elections.
“I think we heard from the American people Tuesday night is not ‘we love Democrats.’ What they heard was ‘we don’t understand why we’re still in this reckless and illegal war. We don’t understand why we’re still imposing tariffs that are hurting us. We don’t understand why our healthcare premiums are rising and about to get worse because now Medicare and Medicaid are being cut,’” he said.
As Democrats plan a sweeping agenda for investigations into Trump and his allies, Rep-elect Cyril Jefferson said he believes his party needs to exercise caution and hold themselves accountable if things go too far.
Jefferson, who flipped a GOP seat in a district that voted for Trump, told CNN it’s “human nature” to investigate, and “people need to believe in government for democracy to work.”
“If we have to make sure that we’re asking very hard questions along the way, we’ll continue to hold ourselves accountable too. And so if there ends up being a time where folks maybe have gone a little far over and we need to step back, we’ll have those honest conversations and do it because that’s what we American people deserve,” he said.
Secretary of State Marcio Rubio on Monday backed embattled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying “he’s done a great job” as a Republican lawmaker introduced articles of impeachment against Hegseth.
“I work with him, so I see perhaps a side of him that the media doesn’t see and members of Congress may not see,” Rubio told reporters in Paris, where he is attending the G7 foreign ministers meeting.
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky filed articles of impeachment against Hegseth on the House floor Monday, setting the stage for an impeachment vote by Wednesday.
Massie alleged that Hegseth abused the power of his office through his actions in the Iran war and “knowingly executed and implemented unlawful orders to initiate war against a foreign nation.”
When asked what he thought of a Republican introducing articles of impeachment against Hegseth, Rubio said:
“I’ve worked with him every single day on many of these topics,” Rubio said. “I’ve seen the work he does, the professionalism he brings to it.”
Retired Rear Adm. Eileen Laubacher, a Democrat, will flip Colorado’s 4th District, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, ending conservative firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert’s tenure in Congress.
Boebert’s loss comes after she elected to run in a more conservative district last cycle in an effort to preserve her political future. But Laubacher, who served more than three decades in the Navy, capitalized on the national headwinds against the GOP and focused her campaign on affordability issues.
The win denies Boebert, an ally of President Donald Trump and one of the most outspoken conservatives in the House Republican conference, a fourth term. Boebert was first elected in 2020, after she upset a fifth-term Republican incumbent in a primary.
In that time, she has emerged as one of the most recognizable, and at times polarizing, faces of the GOP’s MAGA wing, drawing attention from both Democrats and Republicans. Former President Joe Biden, whom she heckled during his 2022 State of the Union address, once billed her as “one of the leaders of this extreme MAGA movement.” The 39-year-old has also been a source of frustration for Republican speakers Kevin McCarthy and Mike Johnson.
Trump endorsed Boebert days before the election, praising her in a Truth Social post as a “MAGA Warrior, who has been with us from the very beginning.” But the pair have also been at odds at times. She drew the president’s ire earlier this year when she campaigned with one of his most vocal Republican critics in the House, Kentucky’s Thomas Massie, in his primary. The appearance prompted Trump to call her “dumb” and “weak-minded” and he threatened to withdraw his endorsement.
Boebert also crossed Trump and House Republican leaders last year when she joined a Democratic push to force the release of the Jeffrey Epstein case files, resisting a White House effort to sway her vote. At the time, GOP leaders opposed the release of the files, citing the potential disclosure of the names of Epstein’s victims.
This wasn’t the first time Boebert faced a tough reelection fight. She won reelection in 2024 by over 11 points, but nearly lost her race in a different district in 2022. She beat Democrat Adam Frisch by only 546 votes.
House Speaker Mike Johnson pushed back on the idea that Republicans should “course correct” despite the resounding rebuke of the direction of the country by voters in the midterm elections.
“I’m not going to tell the president how to do his job,” Johnson said when asked by CNN if the party should course correct given Republicans’ stunning wipeout in the midterms.
“I’m sorry that the voters made the wrong choice. I really do believe that this next two years is going to be a bit of a circus. It’s going to be chaos, and I hate to say that, but I think that’s where the Democrats are going to lead the House, and that’s a great, a great tragedy,” Johnson said, adding if Republicans had remained in the majority, they could have “stayed on course.”
Johnson also condemned the effort by Rep. Thomas Massie to bring articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“Impeaching a Cabinet secretary right now, especially at the Department of War in the middle of hostilities abroad, would be a terrible, terrible look,” he said.
Johnson added he did not think Cabinet secretaries should be impeached for “political gain or for cheap tricks.”
“And I think that’s what this is, and I think everybody knows it,” he said.
Rep.-elect Darializa Avila Chevalier, a Democratic socialist from New York, said she’s still considering whether she’ll back Hakeem Jeffries for House speaker, in a sign of the divides that leadership will have to bridge in the new Congress.
Asked if she plans to vote on Jeffries in January’s speaker election, Chevalier said, “that’s something I’m still weighing.”
“I think it’s going to be a very important vote, and something that I’m trying to make sure that I’ve discuss with my community, discuss with folks who understand the consequences and the significance of this,” she told CNN, not answering whether she had asked Jeffries for specific commitments in exchange for her support.
While Chevalier and a few other newly elected Democrats have declined to publicly commit to backing Jeffries, several incoming members of Jeffries’ majority said they plan to stand behind him, despite their differences on some issues.
Rep.-elect Brad Lander, another New York progressive, told CNN that “there’s times to have fights within your party,” but he believes Democrats should rally behind Jeffries to get things done.
“The agenda that the voters said Tuesday night they want to see is broadly unified across the Democratic Party,” he said, later adding, “there is a strong Democratic majority, so this is a time for strategic, disciplined unity.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the GOP needs to “internalize” the message it received from voters who resoundingly cast Republicans out of office last week and “do things better” in the months ahead.
Thune also said he still plans to run for GOP leader, despite calls from some in his party to delay the leadership election scheduled for tomorrow.
“Don’t try to sugarcoat it. It was a tough election for us,” he told reporters Monday as he walked off the Senate floor. “I think we need to internalize the message that the voters were sending, and rebuild and get ready and get out there and do things better.”
Thune said that the party, which lost races from Texas to Maine, “lost a lot of good Republicans.”
“Those are people who had a real impact on our party and our country, and it will take a while to build that back, but we are ready and prepared to do that,” Thune said.
Pressed by CNN on whether he’s confident he has the support to be reelected leader of the Senate GOP, Thune didn’t answer directly.
“I think it’ll be a very engaged conversation tomorrow among all our members,” he said, adding, “I am running for leader, but I think it’s important that we have that discussion, and we will and everyone will have a chance to weigh in.”
He said he has spoken to President Donald Trump several times since the election, and he also told reporters he looks forward to working with the new White House chief of staff, Stephen Miller.
“Obviously Stephen Miller is a very loyal adviser to the president, and we will look forward to working with him,” Thune said. “Sometimes the players change, but the game is still the same.”
Total trading volume about the potential ouster or impeachment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has passed $7.5 million on the prediction markets.
Kalshi and Polymarket are both promoting Hegseth-related markets on their homepages as of Monday afternoon. There are even super-specific markets where people can bet on which House members would back impeachment and whether the Senate would convict.
The bipartisan push against Hegseth has picked up momentum in recent days. Kalshi traders currently forecast a 71% chance that he’s impeached by the end of the next week.
If the House moves forward against Hegseth, this would be the first impeachment vote in American history in which potentially millions of dollars hang in the balance for people who bet on the outcome.
On prediction markets, users bet on real-world events like politics, sports and entertainment. Critics of the industry have lamented how these companies have seemingly transformed every aspect of culture into a gambling opportunity, raising concerns about addiction and also expanding the potential for insider trading.
CNN has a partnership with Kalshi and uses its data to cover major events. But CNN employees aren’t permitted to trade on prediction markets.
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky filed articles of impeachment against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on the House floor Monday.
A vote would have to happen by Wednesday.
In introducing the articles of impeachment, Massie said Hegseth abused the power of his office through his actions in the Iran war and “knowingly executed and implemented unlawful orders to initiate war against a foreign nation.”
Hegseth, who is set to hold a news conference tomorrow on the matter, has remained defiant, and President Donald Trump has offered his full-throated endorsement of the defense secretary.
After a historic loss in the 2026 midterms, Republican lawmakers and allies have looked for a place to lay the blame — and many have landed on Hegseth.
There will likely be enough votes to impeach Hegseth, which requires only a majority of the House. As long as all Democrats, Massie and a small handful of Republicans are on board, Hegseth will be impeached.
But it’s unlikely the effort would clear the much higher threshold for convicting and removing Hegseth from office — which requires two-thirds of the Senate (and would need about 20 Republicans).
This post has been updated with additional information.
GOP Sen. John Cornyn spoke with CNN on Monday in one of his first interviews since Democrats flipped his Senate seat in a historic breakthrough in Texas.
Democrat James Talarico defeated the GOP nominee, Ken Paxton, who beat Cornyn in the primary with the endorsement of President Donald Trump. The outgoing senator had spent much of the primary warning that the scandal-plagued Paxton, the state’s attorney general, could lose the seat in the general election.
Cornyn said there were “a number of factors” in the election in Texas, which also saw the defeat of Gov. Greg Abbott and other statewide GOP officials.
“One [factor] is obviously the president’s unpopularity and people’s frustration with him,” Cornyn said. “And then Paxton exacerbated it, and I think … the narrative about corruption — he fit right into most people’s concerns there.”
Cornyn said he had expected Abbott to win and help curtail down-ballot losses. “But in this case Paxton was an albatross around the whole ticket, which proved to be disastrous,” he said.
While Cornyn promised to support the “Republican ticket” after his primary defeat, he did not actively help Paxton. Asked Monday how he voted in the Senate race, he declined to say, calling it a “private matter.”
Cornyn said he wants to help Republicans regain power in Texas, pointing to a Wall Street Journal op-ed he wrote after the election with his advice.
“I’ve spent the last 30 years or so trying to build the Republican Party and I think now we’re going to have to go to work to rebuild it,” he told CNN, “and I’d like to be part of it.”
He made clear, however, he does not plan to be involved as a candidate again. “I think I’m done,” Cornyn said.
Republican Sen. John Cornyn said Monday he’s already met twice with James Talarico, the Texas Democrat elected to replace Cornyn in the Senate.
Speaking at an American Bar Association luncheon in Washington, DC, Cornyn said he met with Talarico earlier in the day in the nation’s capital and also met with him Friday in Texas.
“I consider it my responsibility to help him in his transition as the next senator from Texas,” Cornyn said.
Talarico thanked Cornyn for his guidance and praised his service to the state in a post on social media Monday, alongside a photo of the two men shaking hands.
Talarico defeated Republican Ken Paxton in the election last week for Cornyn’s Senate seat, helping lead Democrats to their first statewide victories since 1994. Cornyn lost to Paxton in the primary after President Donald Trump endorsed Paxton. Cornyn did not campaign for Paxton in the general election.
Cornyn congratulated Talarico on election night before most media outlets called the race. Cornyn spoke with Talarico by phone later that night.
“I wish him well. Obviously his politics are different from mine,” Cornyn said Monday.
This post has been updated with additional information.
The results from the GOP’s grand experiment in gerrymandering are in, and it did not go well.
The backstory here is that President Donald Trump encouraged states to redraw their congressional maps to create more Republican-friendly House seats as they headed into midterms. The president’s party usually loses some seats during midterms.
But the blue wave washed over those seats.
1/5 in Texas: Republicans targeted five Democratic seats based in part on their hope that Latino voters who voted with Republicans in 2024 would not pivot back to Democrats. They were wrong and lost four of the five. Democrats also flipped two others.
1/1 in Tennessee: In addition to the Texas seat they won, Republicans did win a seat they redrew in Tennessee. But that’s where the good news ends for them. They’re trailing in another Tennessee seat where no projection has been made.
0/1 in North Carolina. But it gets much, much worse in the Tar Heel state.
Republicans lost not only the seat they tried to gerrymander, but also at least five other seats held by their party, including one held by the chairman of the campaign committee in charge of getting Republicans elected, Rep. Richard Hudson. Democrats may yet flip the seat held by longtime Rep. Virginia Foxx, who trails by 99 votes.
0/4 in Florida: Republicans redrew maps to target four Democrats, but lost all of those races.
They went 0/2 in Ohio and 0/1 in Alabama.
A December runoff will determine who wins a targeted seat in Louisiana.
Democrats, meanwhile, won all five of the seats they targeted in California.
While gerrymandering does not always work, as this election shows, Texas also has evidence of what it can do. Democrats won the statewide Senate seat, the governor’s mansion and control of the state House. But Republicans will maintain control of a strong majority — 24-14 — of the state’s congressional seats.
Read a more in-depth scorecard from CNN’s Amy O’Kruk and Ethan Cohen.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday he’s not worried about the effort to impeachment him and declined to address Vice President JD Vance’s social media post blaming the war with Iran for the Republicans’ major midterm losses, saying he agreed with President Donald Trump that he would do it again.
He repeated assessments that the administration has given on Iran previously, saying Tehran is “devastated” and that Trump “has the upper hand on any path that he chooses to take.”
Hegseth also said he’d hold a press conference at the Pentagon on Tuesday.
Asked about the impeachment effort, Hegseth said the disagreements in Congress over policy decisions at the Pentagon are “disagreements with success” and that those who take issue with the military operations under his watch are “taking issue with the troops.”
CNN has reported that many Republicans expect an impeachment effort, led by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, to pass. The House could vote on that effort as early as this week.
Asked whether he had enough Republican support to defeat an impeachment effort, Hegseth said, “We’re not worried about that.”
The new class of the 120th Congress, elected less than a week ago, is at the Capitol for new member orientation.
Republican Rep. Eli Crane will win reelection to a third term representing Arizona’s 2nd District, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, overcoming an unexpectedly strong challenge from former Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez.
While President Donald Trump won the district by 15 points in 2024, Republicans spent heavily to retain the seat. Crane spent nearly $11 million by mid-October on his reelection bid, while one of Trump’s super PACs committed to spending another $2 million through Election Day.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer touted Democrats’ midterm victories as he returned to the Capitol on Monday, though he did not answer when pressed by CNN on a potential challenge to his leadership position from Sen. Chris Van Hollen.
“We’re about to become the largest landslide in the history of the Senate since the ’50s, and now we’re ready to roll up our sleeves, get to work and lower costs for the American people,” he said.
Schumer ignored questions about Van Hollen possibly challenging him in Senate Democrats’ leadership elections and on government funding.
It’s been nearly a week since Election Day.
After striking a more conciliatory tone last week, President Donald Trump has today questioned the results of the midterm elections, posting on social media: “Does anybody really believe that this ‘Election’ was honest. How could the Polls be so wrong???”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer slammed Trump’s remarks.
Here’s what else has been going on:
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie told CNN that he intends to introduce new articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth today — which would mean a vote on the matter would have to occur by Wednesday. GOP Rep. Don Bacon told CNN he’s “weighing” whether to back it as he called on the defense secretary to resign.
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said that Trump has encouraged him to work with Democrats, who he said have reached out about collaborating on immigration reform in the new Congress.
A handful of Republicans senators are pushing to delay their conference’s leadership elections, which are scheduled for Tuesday, after last week’s stunning losses in the midterms.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen is weighing a challenge from the left to Schumer for the position of Senate Democratic leader, according to a person familiar with the senator’s thinking.
CNN has called another House race, projecting that Democratic Rep. Darren Soto will win reelection in Florida’s redrawn 9th Congressional District.
A Justice Department official who defended some of the administration’s most controversial policies in court resigned today, marking the fourth senior employee to leave the department since the midterm elections.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican who lost reelection last week, said that he supports rules changes in the state Senate to limit the powers of his Democratic successor.
A political organization launched this morning with the intent of encouraging Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez to run for president in 2028.
CNN’s Heta Flowers, Kit Maher, Manu Raju, Katie Bo Lillis, Ted Barrett, Patrick Svitek, Morgan Rimmer, Michael Williams and Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this reporting.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth could face an impeachment vote this week, which, if successful, would make him the third Cabinet secretary to be impeached.
Impeachment is an allegation of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
In 1876, Secretary of War William Belknap faced impeachment for taking kickbacks.
Belknap was the poster child for the rot in the US government during the Gilded Age. He tried to head off impeachment by resigning in a tearful admission to President Ulysses S. Grant at the White House. He was still impeached, although the Senate failed to convict Belknap.
The most recent Cabinet member to face impeachment was President Joe Biden’s secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas. House Republicans voted to impeach Mayorkas by a narrow margin over his handling of immigration at the southern border.
But the process requires a two-thirds vote in the Senate to convict on impeachment charges, and that has never happened for an executive branch official.
For his part, Hegseth is accused of overstepping his authority in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, breaking the law by making war without congressional authorization, failing to minimize civilian casualties, extrajudicial killings and more.
The articles of impeachment against Hegseth were written, even before the midterms, by Rep. Thomas Massie, the anti-war Kentucky Republican.
Now that Republicans have lost the House and Senate, there is conjecture that some may join Massie and Democrats in voting to impeach Hegseth.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer today slammed President Donald Trump’s suggestion on Truth Social that the election results were not honest, saying it was “inevitable” the president would raise doubts about the GOP’s loss and deriding him as an “unprecedented failure.”
“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,” Schumer wrote on X.
Trump had questioned the results earlier this morning, writing on Truth Social, “Does anybody really believe that this ‘Election’ was honest. How could the Polls be so wrong???” Trump had previously told The New York Times in the wake of his party’s losses last week that he was “absolutely willing” to accept the results.
• Hegseth impeachment efforts: GOP Rep. Thomas Massie introduced articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, meaning a vote will have to happen by Wednesday. Hegseth earlier brushed off the effort and said he agreed with President Donald Trump that he’d “do it again” on launching the war with Iran.
• Trump sows doubt: In an abrupt shift from last week, the president is now questioning the results of the midterm elections.
• Latest results: Conservative firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert’s tenure in Congress is over as Ret. Rear Adm. Eileen Laubacher, a Democrat, will flip Colorado’s 4th District, CNN projects.
• On the Hill: Congress returns this week, marking the start of a lame-duck session. With fewer than 25 days in session before the new — and dramatically reshaped — 120th Congress begins, lawmakers have a long list of agenda items.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie introduced articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth a short while ago, which means a vote will have to happen by Wednesday.
Hegseth has faced sharp criticism over the war with Iran in the wake of bruising GOP midterm losses. The defense secretary said he agreed with President Donald Trump that he’d “do it again,” referring to the decision to launch the war.
If you’re just joining us, catch up on the latest headlines:
Retired Rear Adm. Eileen Laubacher, a Democrat, will flip Colorado’s 4th District, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, ending conservative firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert’s tenure in Congress. Boebert’s loss comes after she elected to run in a more conservative district last cycle in an effort to preserve her political future.
Republican Rep. Eli Crane will win reelection to a third term representing Arizona’s 2nd District, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, overcoming an unexpectedly strong challenge from former Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez.
Secretary of State Marcio Rubio defended embattled Hegseth, saying “he’s done a great job,” calling the articles of impeachment against him “unfair.”
Democratic Rep. Eugene Vindman of Virginia backed efforts to impeach Hegseth, calling him the “least competent, least capable, least experienced” secretary the US “has ever had.”
Total trading volume about the potential ouster or impeachment of Hegseth has passed $7.5 million on the prediction markets. Kalshi and Polymarket are both promoting Hegseth-related markets on their homepages as of this afternoon.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the GOP needs to “internalize” the message it received from voters who resoundingly cast Republicans out of office last week and “do things better” in the months ahead. Thune also said he still plans to run for GOP leader, despite calls from some in his party to delay the leadership election scheduled for tomorrow.
Separately, House Speaker Mike Johnson pushed back on the idea that Republicans should “course correct” despite the resounding rebuke of the direction of the country by voters in the midterm elections. “I’m not going to tell the president how to do his job,” Johnson said
CNN’s Sean Lyngaas, Aileen Graef, Manu Raju Ellis Kim, Jennifer Nehrer, Ted Barrett, Lauren Fox, Marshall Cohen, Patrick Svitek, Molly English, Haley Britzky and Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio would not discuss the 2028 presidential race on Monday, refusing to reiterate that he would back JD Vance if the vice president runs despite previously making that commitment.
“I’m not going to discuss 2028. I’m not going to discuss it in any form or fashion,” Rubio said in Paris when asked whether stands by his past comments that he would support Vance.
Rubio declined to detail his rationale for commenting on the topic in the past and refusing to do so now.
“I have that choice. I can make it. There’s things that I am just not going to talk about,” he said, adding that the question could be asked eight different ways but he would not discuss it.
Last year Rubio indicated he would fully back Vance if he decides to run.
“If JD Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee, and I’ll be one of the first people to support him,” Rubio told Vanity Fair.
Newly elected progressives in the House are pushing for aggressive investigations into President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, as at least one incoming freshman from a deep-red district is signaling a more cautious approach.
Rep.-elect Brad Lander said the House should impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as well as FBI Director Kash Patel and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., though he encouraged Democrats to get through their “long list” of legislative priorities before considering a Trump impeachment.
Asked by CNN about concerns that Democrats might go too far with their majority, Lander said American voters chose the party’s “very popular agenda” in last week’s elections.
“I think we heard from the American people Tuesday night is not ‘we love Democrats.’ What they heard was ‘we don’t understand why we’re still in this reckless and illegal war. We don’t understand why we’re still imposing tariffs that are hurting us. We don’t understand why our healthcare premiums are rising and about to get worse because now Medicare and Medicaid are being cut,’” he said.
As Democrats plan a sweeping agenda for investigations into Trump and his allies, Rep-elect Cyril Jefferson said he believes his party needs to exercise caution and hold themselves accountable if things go too far.
Jefferson, who flipped a GOP seat in a district that voted for Trump, told CNN it’s “human nature” to investigate, and “people need to believe in government for democracy to work.”
“If we have to make sure that we’re asking very hard questions along the way, we’ll continue to hold ourselves accountable too. And so if there ends up being a time where folks maybe have gone a little far over and we need to step back, we’ll have those honest conversations and do it because that’s what we American people deserve,” he said.
Secretary of State Marcio Rubio on Monday backed embattled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying “he’s done a great job” as a Republican lawmaker introduced articles of impeachment against Hegseth.
“I work with him, so I see perhaps a side of him that the media doesn’t see and members of Congress may not see,” Rubio told reporters in Paris, where he is attending the G7 foreign ministers meeting.
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky filed articles of impeachment against Hegseth on the House floor Monday, setting the stage for an impeachment vote by Wednesday.
Massie alleged that Hegseth abused the power of his office through his actions in the Iran war and “knowingly executed and implemented unlawful orders to initiate war against a foreign nation.”
When asked what he thought of a Republican introducing articles of impeachment against Hegseth, Rubio said:
“I’ve worked with him every single day on many of these topics,” Rubio said. “I’ve seen the work he does, the professionalism he brings to it.”
Retired Rear Adm. Eileen Laubacher, a Democrat, will flip Colorado’s 4th District, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, ending conservative firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert’s tenure in Congress.
Boebert’s loss comes after she elected to run in a more conservative district last cycle in an effort to preserve her political future. But Laubacher, who served more than three decades in the Navy, capitalized on the national headwinds against the GOP and focused her campaign on affordability issues.
The win denies Boebert, an ally of President Donald Trump and one of the most outspoken conservatives in the House Republican conference, a fourth term. Boebert was first elected in 2020, after she upset a fifth-term Republican incumbent in a primary.
In that time, she has emerged as one of the most recognizable, and at times polarizing, faces of the GOP’s MAGA wing, drawing attention from both Democrats and Republicans. Former President Joe Biden, whom she heckled during his 2022 State of the Union address, once billed her as “one of the leaders of this extreme MAGA movement.” The 39-year-old has also been a source of frustration for Republican speakers Kevin McCarthy and Mike Johnson.
Trump endorsed Boebert days before the election, praising her in a Truth Social post as a “MAGA Warrior, who has been with us from the very beginning.” But the pair have also been at odds at times. She drew the president’s ire earlier this year when she campaigned with one of his most vocal Republican critics in the House, Kentucky’s Thomas Massie, in his primary. The appearance prompted Trump to call her “dumb” and “weak-minded” and he threatened to withdraw his endorsement.
Boebert also crossed Trump and House Republican leaders last year when she joined a Democratic push to force the release of the Jeffrey Epstein case files, resisting a White House effort to sway her vote. At the time, GOP leaders opposed the release of the files, citing the potential disclosure of the names of Epstein’s victims.
This wasn’t the first time Boebert faced a tough reelection fight. She won reelection in 2024 by over 11 points, but nearly lost her race in a different district in 2022. She beat Democrat Adam Frisch by only 546 votes.
House Speaker Mike Johnson pushed back on the idea that Republicans should “course correct” despite the resounding rebuke of the direction of the country by voters in the midterm elections.
“I’m not going to tell the president how to do his job,” Johnson said when asked by CNN if the party should course correct given Republicans’ stunning wipeout in the midterms.
“I’m sorry that the voters made the wrong choice. I really do believe that this next two years is going to be a bit of a circus. It’s going to be chaos, and I hate to say that, but I think that’s where the Democrats are going to lead the House, and that’s a great, a great tragedy,” Johnson said, adding if Republicans had remained in the majority, they could have “stayed on course.”
Johnson also condemned the effort by Rep. Thomas Massie to bring articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“Impeaching a Cabinet secretary right now, especially at the Department of War in the middle of hostilities abroad, would be a terrible, terrible look,” he said.
Johnson added he did not think Cabinet secretaries should be impeached for “political gain or for cheap tricks.”
“And I think that’s what this is, and I think everybody knows it,” he said.
Rep.-elect Darializa Avila Chevalier, a Democratic socialist from New York, said she’s still considering whether she’ll back Hakeem Jeffries for House speaker, in a sign of the divides that leadership will have to bridge in the new Congress.
Asked if she plans to vote on Jeffries in January’s speaker election, Chevalier said, “that’s something I’m still weighing.”
“I think it’s going to be a very important vote, and something that I’m trying to make sure that I’ve discuss with my community, discuss with folks who understand the consequences and the significance of this,” she told CNN, not answering whether she had asked Jeffries for specific commitments in exchange for her support.
While Chevalier and a few other newly elected Democrats have declined to publicly commit to backing Jeffries, several incoming members of Jeffries’ majority said they plan to stand behind him, despite their differences on some issues.
Rep.-elect Brad Lander, another New York progressive, told CNN that “there’s times to have fights within your party,” but he believes Democrats should rally behind Jeffries to get things done.
“The agenda that the voters said Tuesday night they want to see is broadly unified across the Democratic Party,” he said, later adding, “there is a strong Democratic majority, so this is a time for strategic, disciplined unity.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the GOP needs to “internalize” the message it received from voters who resoundingly cast Republicans out of office last week and “do things better” in the months ahead.
Thune also said he still plans to run for GOP leader, despite calls from some in his party to delay the leadership election scheduled for tomorrow.
“Don’t try to sugarcoat it. It was a tough election for us,” he told reporters Monday as he walked off the Senate floor. “I think we need to internalize the message that the voters were sending, and rebuild and get ready and get out there and do things better.”
Thune said that the party, which lost races from Texas to Maine, “lost a lot of good Republicans.”
“Those are people who had a real impact on our party and our country, and it will take a while to build that back, but we are ready and prepared to do that,” Thune said.
Pressed by CNN on whether he’s confident he has the support to be reelected leader of the Senate GOP, Thune didn’t answer directly.
“I think it’ll be a very engaged conversation tomorrow among all our members,” he said, adding, “I am running for leader, but I think it’s important that we have that discussion, and we will and everyone will have a chance to weigh in.”
He said he has spoken to President Donald Trump several times since the election, and he also told reporters he looks forward to working with the new White House chief of staff, Stephen Miller.
“Obviously Stephen Miller is a very loyal adviser to the president, and we will look forward to working with him,” Thune said. “Sometimes the players change, but the game is still the same.”
Total trading volume about the potential ouster or impeachment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has passed $7.5 million on the prediction markets.
Kalshi and Polymarket are both promoting Hegseth-related markets on their homepages as of Monday afternoon. There are even super-specific markets where people can bet on which House members would back impeachment and whether the Senate would convict.
The bipartisan push against Hegseth has picked up momentum in recent days. Kalshi traders currently forecast a 71% chance that he’s impeached by the end of the next week.
If the House moves forward against Hegseth, this would be the first impeachment vote in American history in which potentially millions of dollars hang in the balance for people who bet on the outcome.
On prediction markets, users bet on real-world events like politics, sports and entertainment. Critics of the industry have lamented how these companies have seemingly transformed every aspect of culture into a gambling opportunity, raising concerns about addiction and also expanding the potential for insider trading.
CNN has a partnership with Kalshi and uses its data to cover major events. But CNN employees aren’t permitted to trade on prediction markets.
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky filed articles of impeachment against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on the House floor Monday.
A vote would have to happen by Wednesday.
In introducing the articles of impeachment, Massie said Hegseth abused the power of his office through his actions in the Iran war and “knowingly executed and implemented unlawful orders to initiate war against a foreign nation.”
Hegseth, who is set to hold a news conference tomorrow on the matter, has remained defiant, and President Donald Trump has offered his full-throated endorsement of the defense secretary.
After a historic loss in the 2026 midterms, Republican lawmakers and allies have looked for a place to lay the blame — and many have landed on Hegseth.
There will likely be enough votes to impeach Hegseth, which requires only a majority of the House. As long as all Democrats, Massie and a small handful of Republicans are on board, Hegseth will be impeached.
But it’s unlikely the effort would clear the much higher threshold for convicting and removing Hegseth from office — which requires two-thirds of the Senate (and would need about 20 Republicans).
This post has been updated with additional information.
GOP Sen. John Cornyn spoke with CNN on Monday in one of his first interviews since Democrats flipped his Senate seat in a historic breakthrough in Texas.
Democrat James Talarico defeated the GOP nominee, Ken Paxton, who beat Cornyn in the primary with the endorsement of President Donald Trump. The outgoing senator had spent much of the primary warning that the scandal-plagued Paxton, the state’s attorney general, could lose the seat in the general election.
Cornyn said there were “a number of factors” in the election in Texas, which also saw the defeat of Gov. Greg Abbott and other statewide GOP officials.
“One [factor] is obviously the president’s unpopularity and people’s frustration with him,” Cornyn said. “And then Paxton exacerbated it, and I think … the narrative about corruption — he fit right into most people’s concerns there.”
Cornyn said he had expected Abbott to win and help curtail down-ballot losses. “But in this case Paxton was an albatross around the whole ticket, which proved to be disastrous,” he said.
While Cornyn promised to support the “Republican ticket” after his primary defeat, he did not actively help Paxton. Asked Monday how he voted in the Senate race, he declined to say, calling it a “private matter.”
Cornyn said he wants to help Republicans regain power in Texas, pointing to a Wall Street Journal op-ed he wrote after the election with his advice.
“I’ve spent the last 30 years or so trying to build the Republican Party and I think now we’re going to have to go to work to rebuild it,” he told CNN, “and I’d like to be part of it.”
He made clear, however, he does not plan to be involved as a candidate again. “I think I’m done,” Cornyn said.
Republican Sen. John Cornyn said Monday he’s already met twice with James Talarico, the Texas Democrat elected to replace Cornyn in the Senate.
Speaking at an American Bar Association luncheon in Washington, DC, Cornyn said he met with Talarico earlier in the day in the nation’s capital and also met with him Friday in Texas.
“I consider it my responsibility to help him in his transition as the next senator from Texas,” Cornyn said.
Talarico thanked Cornyn for his guidance and praised his service to the state in a post on social media Monday, alongside a photo of the two men shaking hands.
Talarico defeated Republican Ken Paxton in the election last week for Cornyn’s Senate seat, helping lead Democrats to their first statewide victories since 1994. Cornyn lost to Paxton in the primary after President Donald Trump endorsed Paxton. Cornyn did not campaign for Paxton in the general election.
Cornyn congratulated Talarico on election night before most media outlets called the race. Cornyn spoke with Talarico by phone later that night.
“I wish him well. Obviously his politics are different from mine,” Cornyn said Monday.
This post has been updated with additional information.
The results from the GOP’s grand experiment in gerrymandering are in, and it did not go well.
The backstory here is that President Donald Trump encouraged states to redraw their congressional maps to create more Republican-friendly House seats as they headed into midterms. The president’s party usually loses some seats during midterms.
But the blue wave washed over those seats.
1/5 in Texas: Republicans targeted five Democratic seats based in part on their hope that Latino voters who voted with Republicans in 2024 would not pivot back to Democrats. They were wrong and lost four of the five. Democrats also flipped two others.
1/1 in Tennessee: In addition to the Texas seat they won, Republicans did win a seat they redrew in Tennessee. But that’s where the good news ends for them. They’re trailing in another Tennessee seat where no projection has been made.
0/1 in North Carolina. But it gets much, much worse in the Tar Heel state.
Republicans lost not only the seat they tried to gerrymander, but also at least five other seats held by their party, including one held by the chairman of the campaign committee in charge of getting Republicans elected, Rep. Richard Hudson. Democrats may yet flip the seat held by longtime Rep. Virginia Foxx, who trails by 99 votes.
0/4 in Florida: Republicans redrew maps to target four Democrats, but lost all of those races.
They went 0/2 in Ohio and 0/1 in Alabama.
A December runoff will determine who wins a targeted seat in Louisiana.
Democrats, meanwhile, won all five of the seats they targeted in California.
While gerrymandering does not always work, as this election shows, Texas also has evidence of what it can do. Democrats won the statewide Senate seat, the governor’s mansion and control of the state House. But Republicans will maintain control of a strong majority — 24-14 — of the state’s congressional seats.
Read a more in-depth scorecard from CNN’s Amy O’Kruk and Ethan Cohen.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday he’s not worried about the effort to impeachment him and declined to address Vice President JD Vance’s social media post blaming the war with Iran for the Republicans’ major midterm losses, saying he agreed with President Donald Trump that he would do it again.
He repeated assessments that the administration has given on Iran previously, saying Tehran is “devastated” and that Trump “has the upper hand on any path that he chooses to take.”
Hegseth also said he’d hold a press conference at the Pentagon on Tuesday.
Asked about the impeachment effort, Hegseth said the disagreements in Congress over policy decisions at the Pentagon are “disagreements with success” and that those who take issue with the military operations under his watch are “taking issue with the troops.”
CNN has reported that many Republicans expect an impeachment effort, led by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, to pass. The House could vote on that effort as early as this week.
Asked whether he had enough Republican support to defeat an impeachment effort, Hegseth said, “We’re not worried about that.”
The new class of the 120th Congress, elected less than a week ago, is at the Capitol for new member orientation.
Republican Rep. Eli Crane will win reelection to a third term representing Arizona’s 2nd District, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, overcoming an unexpectedly strong challenge from former Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez.
While President Donald Trump won the district by 15 points in 2024, Republicans spent heavily to retain the seat. Crane spent nearly $11 million by mid-October on his reelection bid, while one of Trump’s super PACs committed to spending another $2 million through Election Day.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer touted Democrats’ midterm victories as he returned to the Capitol on Monday, though he did not answer when pressed by CNN on a potential challenge to his leadership position from Sen. Chris Van Hollen.
“We’re about to become the largest landslide in the history of the Senate since the ’50s, and now we’re ready to roll up our sleeves, get to work and lower costs for the American people,” he said.
Schumer ignored questions about Van Hollen possibly challenging him in Senate Democrats’ leadership elections and on government funding.
It’s been nearly a week since Election Day.
After striking a more conciliatory tone last week, President Donald Trump has today questioned the results of the midterm elections, posting on social media: “Does anybody really believe that this ‘Election’ was honest. How could the Polls be so wrong???”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer slammed Trump’s remarks.
Here’s what else has been going on:
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie told CNN that he intends to introduce new articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth today — which would mean a vote on the matter would have to occur by Wednesday. GOP Rep. Don Bacon told CNN he’s “weighing” whether to back it as he called on the defense secretary to resign.
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said that Trump has encouraged him to work with Democrats, who he said have reached out about collaborating on immigration reform in the new Congress.
A handful of Republicans senators are pushing to delay their conference’s leadership elections, which are scheduled for Tuesday, after last week’s stunning losses in the midterms.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen is weighing a challenge from the left to Schumer for the position of Senate Democratic leader, according to a person familiar with the senator’s thinking.
CNN has called another House race, projecting that Democratic Rep. Darren Soto will win reelection in Florida’s redrawn 9th Congressional District.
A Justice Department official who defended some of the administration’s most controversial policies in court resigned today, marking the fourth senior employee to leave the department since the midterm elections.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican who lost reelection last week, said that he supports rules changes in the state Senate to limit the powers of his Democratic successor.
A political organization launched this morning with the intent of encouraging Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez to run for president in 2028.
CNN’s Heta Flowers, Kit Maher, Manu Raju, Katie Bo Lillis, Ted Barrett, Patrick Svitek, Morgan Rimmer, Michael Williams and Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this reporting.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth could face an impeachment vote this week, which, if successful, would make him the third Cabinet secretary to be impeached.
Impeachment is an allegation of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
In 1876, Secretary of War William Belknap faced impeachment for taking kickbacks.
Belknap was the poster child for the rot in the US government during the Gilded Age. He tried to head off impeachment by resigning in a tearful admission to President Ulysses S. Grant at the White House. He was still impeached, although the Senate failed to convict Belknap.
The most recent Cabinet member to face impeachment was President Joe Biden’s secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas. House Republicans voted to impeach Mayorkas by a narrow margin over his handling of immigration at the southern border.
But the process requires a two-thirds vote in the Senate to convict on impeachment charges, and that has never happened for an executive branch official.
For his part, Hegseth is accused of overstepping his authority in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, breaking the law by making war without congressional authorization, failing to minimize civilian casualties, extrajudicial killings and more.
The articles of impeachment against Hegseth were written, even before the midterms, by Rep. Thomas Massie, the anti-war Kentucky Republican.
Now that Republicans have lost the House and Senate, there is conjecture that some may join Massie and Democrats in voting to impeach Hegseth.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer today slammed President Donald Trump’s suggestion on Truth Social that the election results were not honest, saying it was “inevitable” the president would raise doubts about the GOP’s loss and deriding him as an “unprecedented failure.”
“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,” Schumer wrote on X.
Trump had questioned the results earlier this morning, writing on Truth Social, “Does anybody really believe that this ‘Election’ was honest. How could the Polls be so wrong???” Trump had previously told The New York Times in the wake of his party’s losses last week that he was “absolutely willing” to accept the results.
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