Efforts to impeach Pete Hegseth solidify following Democrats’ midterm election victories

Rep.-Elect Zack Mullock speaks to the media outside the AC Hotel during new member orientation on November 8, 2026, in Washington, DC.

An New Jersey mayor who was elected to Congress last week as part of the Democrats’ historic midterm landslide said he ran for office to “make a point,” adding that he didn’t realize he had a shot in the race until around August.

Mullock, the mayor of Cape May, New Jersey, unseated Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who has represented New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District since 2019. He told reporters he probably knows less “than any other elected official” at the orientation.

“I had to Google the salary of a congressman just two days ago,” Mullock said with a laugh.

Mullock said he “got into this race out of principle.”

“I just felt like we needed a new direction in our country — not thinking that I would win, because my opponent has won by like 20 points over the last two races,” Mullock said. “But I just wanted to make a point for my three kids.”

Stephen Miller and his wife Katie Miller attend the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in Washington, DC, on July 24.

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.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, speaks during a press conference at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in Washington, DC, on November 4.

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:

CNN’s Patrick Svitek, Jordan Budney and Logan Schiciano contributed to this report.

Rep. Tim Burchett speaks to the media outside of the Capitol on August 31, in Washington, DC.

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 House Speaker Newt Gingrich testifies before a House Judiciary Subcommittee in Washington, DC, in April 2025.

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.”

US House member-elect Brad Lander speaks to the media outside of a new member orientation in Washington, DC, on Sunday, November 8.

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:

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Top Dem to Blanche: 'We're not going to be intimidated'

Incoming House Oversight Chair Rep. Robert Garcia responded to Todd Blanche after the attorney general told CNN’s Dana Bash that Democrats on the Oversight Committee should be "very worried."

1:21 • Source: CNN

Top Dem to Blanche: 'We're not going to be intimidated'

1:21