The Latest: Congress returns to a changed Washington
Congress is reconvening in a changed Washington, with Trump doubling down on his political threats despite the landmark GOP losses.
President Donald Trump, in his first major interview since his party lost control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections, said he thinks his administration was too aggressive on deportations and that he thinks he can work with Democrats in the new Congress on some kind of immigration deal.
Trump and his Department of Justice are taking a combative stance toward Democrats, signaling intense conflict to come as lawmakers prepare aggressive investigations into the executive branch next year. Trump set the tone, declaring on social media that investigative requests already made by Democrats are “extortion at the highest level, and they should be held accountable.”
Trump said Sunday he was only kidding about making UFC boss Dana White his next White House press secretary after announcing on social media he had offered his close friend the job.
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The closed-door meetings could end up being blame-casting sessions about what went wrong in the elections.
House Republicans are bracing for a contentious leadership battle after Johnson decided to step aside, setting up a showdown between the No. 2 Republican, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the brawling former wrestling coach allied with the hard-right conservatives.
The two men had confronted one another when trying to become House speaker three years ago, but neither was able to win enough support from the Republican rank and file, leading to Johnson’s rise. With the House Republican numbers now shrunken, lawmakers could seek wholesale change in leadership.
In the Senate, Majority Leader John Thune is expected to retain his job as Republican leader, though in the minority after Democrats flipped Republican-held seats, including milestone wins in Texas and Kansas.
At least two newcomers to the Senate — Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan and Adam Hamilton of Kansas — have declined to publicly support Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer’s majority leader bid, but no challenger has emerged.
“I think we need somebody who’s going to bring us together ... somebody who’s going to come with fresh ideas,” Hamilton said Sunday on CNN.
Jeffries, on track to make history as the nation’s first Black speaker of the House, also faces skepticism.
“Every single member here is going to have their individual vote,” said Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, at a Capitol press conference Sunday, flanked by newly elected lawmakers, including a handful from the Democratic Socialists of America.
“What we talked about at orientation today was not about any individual person, but about policy,” Casar said. “How we set a progressive path forward.”
Shares of Nvidia tumbled 8% at the opening bell Monday after the computer chip maker, central to the artificial intelligence race, opened an investigation into reports that CEO Jensen Huang was the “target of a foreign intelligence effort.”
Nvidia’s announcement Sunday followed Huang’s acknowledgment that he had been intimate with a business executive who, according to The New York Times, U.S. intelligence determined was gathering information for China.
Nvidia chips have been a focus of U.S. export restrictions aimed at limiting China’s access to cutting-edge semiconductor technology. China’s Foreign Ministry on Monday called the spying allegations a smear campaign against Beijing.
Trump praised Huang on Sunday, even when asked whether he wished he had acted on intelligence when he was briefed about spying: “I think he’s an honorable guy. I think he probably has an excuse for it. He’s done an amazing job for our country.”
Heading into Election Day, Georgia Republicans held a comfortable 99-80 majority in the chamber. But Democrats surged to victory in last week’s election, winning at least 91 seats – with three still uncalled by the AP.
Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms also won the governor’s race while Republicans retained the state Senate.
National Democrats have been targeting the Georgia statehouse for several elections, hoping to gradually chip away at the GOP’s majorities.
Across the U.S., Democrats flipped control of at least 13 chambers of state legislatures. Not enough races have been called to know for sure who will be in charge in the Alaska Legislature or North Carolina state Senate.
Trump is determined to bring an end to the “horrible” war between Russia and Ukraine.
That’s according to Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, who’s scheduled to begin talks on Tuesday in the United Arab Emirates with Russian and Ukrainian negotiators. Kushner wrote on social media Monday that he and special envoy Steve Witkoff would meet first with leaders from Ukraine and other European nations.
Kusher says the U.S. is “working hard to find a negotiated solution that can deliver lasting peace and create the conditions for a sovereign, secure, and prosperous Ukraine within a more stable European security environment.”
While Trump vowed to end the war within 24 hours of starting his second term, the war is nearing its five-year mark.
Trump defended Hegseth to reporters on Sunday night before he flew back to Washington after spending the weekend at his Florida home.
“He’s guilty of two things, basically winning two wars,” Trump said. “I believe we saved the Middle East and Israel combined. And it’s awfully hard to say let’s impeach somebody who did that.”
Democrats are expected to widely support impeaching him and a number of Republicans have signaled they could join them.
“I’m a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday on ABC.
Jeffries said it’s time for Hegseth to go, and that the secretary “has abused his power, undermined our national security and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran.”
The House and Senate are in session for just six short weeks of a lame-duck sprint to finish up the Republican agenda before the the change of power on Jan. 3, 2027.
Leadership elections and a government funding package are all priorities ahead. But a first order of business is expected to be a resolution to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie pushed the impeachment resolution over the objections of House GOP leadership amid growing momentum to hold Hegseth accountable for the Iran war, which many Republicans blame for the party’s midterm election wipeout.
House Speaker Mike Johnson had tried to prevent an impeachment vote September and abruptly halted proceedings by sending lawmakers home early.
It’s unclear if Johnson will be able to slow the impeachment drive now, unless he decides to adjourn the chamber again.
“This country sent a clear message from coast to coast, and that message is they’ve had enough of what’s gone on,” said Rep.-elect Daniel Biss, D-Ill. “They’ve had enough of Donald Trump. They’ve had enough of MAGA. And critically, they are ready to transform who holds power, and what they do with it.”
Republican Rep.-elect Chris Stigall of Missouri said voters sent a loud message, “and I hope, as a new member, I can be on the ground level of figuring out how we can reconnect.”
For starters, he said, the GOP needs to understand that the economy is not where it needs to be. “Six-dollar diesel, I will tell you, for the farmers in my district, that is a tough pill to swallow.”
Congress is reconvening in a changed Washington, with Trump doubling down on his political threats despite the landmark GOP losses.
The halls of the Capitol will swell this week with the collision of incoming and outgoing lawmakers, as the newcomers attend orientation sessions while the retiring lawmakers start to clear out. It’s creating a jumble of split-screen moments reflective of the new political landscape.
Dozens of jubilant Democrats, families and suitcases in tow for freshman orientation, appeared emboldened by the party’s sweep of power. The trickle of Republicans coming in spoke soberly of the GOP’s vast challenges ahead.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that Trump launched the war against Iran even if it was not “necessarily popular” to safeguard the world from the country’s nuclear ambitions.
He would not comment directly about the Republican wipeout in Tuesday’s elections, which delivered a resounding rebuke to Trump. The unpopularity of the Iran war and its impact on gasoline prices and other parts of the economy helped Democrats seize control of Congress.
Asked about Vice President JD Vance’s social media post last week that largely blamed the war for the Republican losses, Rubio told reporters that Trump “identified a very real threat” in Iran and worked to stop the Islamic Republic from pursuing a nuclear weapon.
“He addressed it even though oftentimes the right thing to do for the country — confronting difficult challenges for the security of our country — doing it isn’t necessarily popular, but necessary,” Rubio said in Florida before heading to a Group of 7 foreign ministers meeting in Paris.
Trump said Sunday he was only kidding about making UFC boss Dana White his next White House press secretary after announcing on social media he had offered his close friend the job.
After his party’s deep losses in Tuesday’s midterm elections, Trump shook up his administration on Friday by replacing his chief of staff and followed up on Saturday with a post that said he had offered the press secretary job to White. On Sunday, Trump said it was “just a little fun.”
“I was kidding, but I think Dana likes the idea, and he is a very capable guy,” Trump said, speaking to reporters in Florida before departing for the White House. White is set to visit him at the White House on Monday.
Trump does not currently have a press secretary after briefly giving the job to Katie Zacharia, who faltered behind the lectern and in interviews, and left the post after five days.
Trump and his Department of Justice are taking a combative stance toward Democrats after their election victories in the midterms, signaling intense conflict to come as lawmakers prepare aggressive investigations into the executive branch next year.
Trump set the tone, declaring on social media that investigative requests already made by Democrats are “extortion at the highest level, and they should be held accountable.” Attorney General Todd Blanche echoed the Republican president and said criminal investigations of Democrats are possible.
“They are not allowed to just go around threatening existing members of the administration, to go around threatening companies, and that’s what President Trump is extremely worried about and he should be,” Blanche said as he and congressional Democrats appeared on the Sunday news shows to discuss the repercussions from last week’s elections.
Rep. Robert Garcia, who is poised to chair the powerful House Oversight Committee in the next Congress, is preparing investigations into what he calls the “Trump crime family.” He said Democrats are not going to be intimidated.
Democrats have made clear that impeachment is an option.
President Donald Trump, in his first major interview since his party lost control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections, said he thinks his administration was too aggressive on deportations and that he thinks he can work with Democrats in the new Congress on some kind of immigration deal.
Trump said his deportation policy was part of the reason Republicans lost, telling CBS’s “60 Minutes” in an interview that aired on Sunday: “I think it might be too tough, yeah.”
He added that he thinks he could reach an agreement with the new Democratic majority. “The deal would be we would work something out. And I think it’s something -- I think that’s something that’s actually doable,” he said in the interview.
Trump did not give specifics about what that deal would look like — and shortly after taping the interview on Friday, Trump named the key architect of his hard-line immigration agenda, Stephen Miller, as his new chief of staff.
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