Vance calls impeachment effort ‘ridiculous show’ as House prepares for key vote in effort to oust Hegseth
Vice-president JD Vance has also joined the chorus of top Republicans blasting the impeachment effort against the defense secretary.
“Has Pete Hegseth committed impeachable crimes? The question is absurd and the answer is: obviously not,” Vance said on social media. “Like so much of Congress, impeachment has become a ridiculous show that stands in for actual policymaking.”
He echoed Hegseth’s argument at the Pentagon earlier today, and said that impeachment was not the correct avenue for pushing back against policy disagreements.
“Legislation is hard. Impeachments are easy (and ultimately, inconsequential). The irony is that legislators are most angry at Pete on the issues where he’s most correct: repositioning forces away from Europe/Ukraine and reorganizing the general officer corps,” Vance added. “This isn’t about Iran, this is about the fact that Pete took on the bureaucracy at the Pentagon.”
Key events
Republican Jim Jordan wins party election to become House minority leader of next Congress
Congressman Jim Jordan, a Republican hardliner from Ohio, has won the election to become the next House minority leader in Congress.
Jordan beat Representative Steve Scalise, the current majority leader, by a vote of 106-73 to lead Republicans from January.
US Senate race in Mississippi on knife’s edge as Democrats eye latest midterm pickup
With 97% of the votes counted, Democrat Scott Colom is leading Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith by 2,575 votes in the nail-biting US Senate race in Mississippi.
Democrats are eyeing the Magnolia state as their eighth pickup in a midterms cycle where Republicans were blown out of Congress.
The state counts any ballots received by 10 November, as long as they were postmarked by election day – so we hopefully expect a call soon.
On Capitol Hill today, Hyde-Smith told reporters that she’s feeling “very optimistic” despite the lag.
“They’re still counting. We’ve got a few thousand out, so we’re feeling very optimistic,” she said, but refused to answer why the contest is so close. A reminder that Mississippi hasn’t elected a Democratic US senator since 1982. If Colom wins he’d also be the first Black man elected to that position since the Reconstruction era, 145 years ago.
Ariana Baio
A new statue mocking Donald Trump was installed on Washington’s National Mall on Monday, this time poking fun at bone spurs that the US president was diagnosed with, which allowed him to defer the Vietnam war draft.
Just two days before Veterans Day, the gilded statue – titled The Foot Soldier – appeared near the National Gallery of Art’s Sculpture Garden. Created by the Secret Handshake, a group of anonymous artists, the statue depicts Trump sitting down while rubbing his bare foot.
“We honor the service and sacrifice of our commander in chief, Donald J Trump. He’s a soldier in spirit who marched to the front lines of dodging the draft, armed with a perfect diagnosis of bone spurs,” a plaque on the statue reads.
The art piece refers to allegations that Trump dodged the Vietnam war draft in 1968 by receiving a diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels after he graduated from college.
“We salute a leader who knows you can’t spell sacrifice without ‘I,’ and a warrior who reminds us that sometimes when you’re called to stand up, it’s best to just sit down and rest your feet,” the plaque read.
“Toey”, a 6ft-tall mascot of a toe suffering from bone spurs, stood next to the art installation serving as an interactive element, the Secret Handshake said in a statement.
“Draft dodger? I hardly know her,” a person dressed as Toey told the Washington Post. “I’m the biggest toe. The hugest toe. Huge. Hugest toe. Largest toe that anyone’s ever seen.”
Democrats, who plan to continue the Epstein investigation in the next Congress, slammed the GOP-led inquiry.
Ranking member Robert Garcia said in a statement:
Oversight Republicans have released a report based on an incomplete investigation and zero public hearings on Jeffrey Epstein. The Department of Justice continues to illegally withhold over 2.5 million pages of documents, there’s been no investigation of Ghislaine Maxwell’s transfer, and Attorney General Todd Blanche has yet to testify about his role in the largest government cover-up of the modern era.
We will not allow the President and his allies to dismiss this investigation. We intend to hold real public hearings uplifting survivors and asking tough questions of the powerful men who associated with Epstein, including Donald Trump. Our work is just getting started.
House oversight Republicans say government ‘failed’ survivors in final report on Epstein investigation
Earlier today, Republicans on the House oversight committee released a sharply critical 136-page report summarizing the findings of its 15-month-long investigation into the federal government’s handling of investigations into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Rebuking the government’s handling of the criminal case against Epstein and its release of the files related to it, the committee recommended that the Department of Justice renew its investigation of the disgraced financier’s associates.
“The federal government has failed the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s horrific crimes for decades,” oversight chair James Comer said in a statement.
The committee found that the crimes committed by Epstein after 2005 “could have been prevented and justice served had it not been for the failures of investigators and federal prosecutors in South Florida and Washington DC.”
It also found that Donald Trump was not implicated in Epstein’s crimes and accused Democrats of being “obsessed” with trying to implicate the president.
The committee also accused the US and foreign governments, and major financial institutions, of failing to respond to “clear indicators of human trafficking and immigration fraud.” Despite identifying suspicious transactions that “bore hallmarks of human trafficking and illicit financial activity”, institutions allowed Epstein to “use fraudulent decoy flights and refundable or dummy itineraries to transport foreign women across borders directly to his residences,” the report says.
The report calls on the justice department to interview or reinterview “key witnesses” who were part of Epstein and Maxwell’s inner circle, to investigate further allegations, and to establish a proper process for survivors to access their un-redacted records.
It also urges Congress to pass legislation sponsored by Comer that would allow witnesses and survivors of sexual abuse to speak freely about it, by non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements.
As we reported earlier, Pete Hegseth has dismissed moves to impeach him over alleged abuse of power in the Iran war as “a farce” that would fail. The US defence secretary made the comments during a press conference this morning, a day after Thomas Massie, Kentucky’s Republican representative, introduced eight articles of impeachment against him. Here’s the clip:
As we bring you the latest on the effort to impeach defense secretary Pete Hegseth, my colleague Anna Betts, has put together a primer about what to know about the push to oust Hegseth, and what happens next as we prepare for today’s key vote.
Vance calls impeachment effort ‘ridiculous show’ as House prepares for key vote in effort to oust Hegseth
Vice-president JD Vance has also joined the chorus of top Republicans blasting the impeachment effort against the defense secretary.
“Has Pete Hegseth committed impeachable crimes? The question is absurd and the answer is: obviously not,” Vance said on social media. “Like so much of Congress, impeachment has become a ridiculous show that stands in for actual policymaking.”
He echoed Hegseth’s argument at the Pentagon earlier today, and said that impeachment was not the correct avenue for pushing back against policy disagreements.
“Legislation is hard. Impeachments are easy (and ultimately, inconsequential). The irony is that legislators are most angry at Pete on the issues where he’s most correct: repositioning forces away from Europe/Ukraine and reorganizing the general officer corps,” Vance added. “This isn’t about Iran, this is about the fact that Pete took on the bureaucracy at the Pentagon.”
Johnson slams Hegseth impeachment effort as a ‘political gambit for attention’
Mike Johnson, who is in his final weeks as House Speaker, before he becomes a member of the minority party in Congress, said that Thomas Massie – the outgoing Republican who is spearheading the impeachment effort against Pete Hegseth – is a “disgruntled congressman”.
Johnson called the move to impeach the defense secretary “a political gambit for attention”, and commended Hegseth’s performance at his press conference earlier today, where he blasted the attempt to remove him from office.
“I thought he did very well. I expect that we’re going to defeat that one way or the other, and we’ll get on with the business. The idea that you would impeach the Secretary of War at a time of international conflict sends a terrible message to our enemies and our allies, and we’re not going to play that game,” Johnson said. “There’s nothing that went into this. This is just purely for people to get attention, and it’s shameful.”
Republicans hold leadership elections ahead of losing control of Congress in new year
Republican lawmakers in the House will hold leadership elections today, ahead of the GOP becoming the minority in the new Congress.
In the House, current Speaker Mike Johnson said he would not run for minority leader, setting up a contest between Representative Steve Scalise (who serves as majority leader) and Congressman Jim Jordan, a hardline conservative.
Speaking to reporters, the outgoing moderate Don Bacon said that it is time for a new leader of the party to step forward. “Mike Johnson is my friend, but it was: ‘Hey, the president and I are in the same party. I want to help deliver his agenda’. I think the founders wanted this to be more of a check and balance,” Bacon added.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, members are discussing the possibility of postponing their leadership elections in order to further discuss the fallout after the Republican bruising in the midterm elections. On Monday, Senator Ron Johnson, of Wisconsin, sent a letter to party leadership calling to delay the vote. As of now, there is no clear challenger to Senator John Thune, who currently serves as majority leader.
Ted Cruz: ‘Hegseth will step down voluntarily, or Trump will fire him’
Republican Senator Ted Cruz said that the impeachment effort against Pete Hegseth will either mean the defense secretary will “step down voluntarily, or Trump will fire him”.
On an episode of his podcast, Cruz said that it was “extremely likely, if not certain,” that the House will vote to impeach Hegseth.
Today, the House is poised to vote on a procedural motion on Pete Hegseth’s impeachment later today.
As I flagged earlier, that means lower chamber lawmakers will vote on whether to refer Thomas Massie’s resolution to committee for further investigation, or table the measure entirely. If they don’t get enough votes (a simple majority) for either of these options, it will then go to the House floor for a full vote.
If the House were to successfully impeach Hegseth, it will then head to the Senate – where the upper chamber would need 67 votes in order to remove the defense secretary from his position.
Dan Milmo
Nvidia and its chief executive, Jensen Huang, have been accused of misleading shareholders in a lawsuit over the Chinese spying scandal engulfing the $4.3tn company.
The legal action came as Donald Trump said the FBI was investigating Huang’s affair with an alleged Chinese spy.
According to a complaint filed in federal court in California, Nvidia and Huang misled shareholders in connection with the executive’s alleged affair with Alice Huang, a former executive of Singapore-based Megaspeed, who is not related to him.
The lawsuit claims both parties did not disclose that the matter raised national security concerns that threatened the chipmaker’s reputation and business prospects.
The New York Times reported on the alleged relationship last month, and said US authorities had concluded Alice Huang was a Chinese intelligence asset.
Nvidia described its executive’s interaction with Alice Huang as “not unusual or unexpected” in a comment submitted to the New York Times last month, adding that “meetings with customers are part of a CEO’s job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year”.
On Sunday, Huang admitted he had been “unfaithful” to his wife, without identifying the person involved in the affair.
The lawsuit claims the NYT statement was “materially false and misleading at the time it was made because Jensen Huang had an affair with Alice Huang.”
Donald Trump is in Washington today.
As of now, the president has no events open to the press on his schedule. While he’ll spend most of the day in closed-door meetings, he’ll take part in signing time at 3.30pm ET, and we’ll let you know if that opens up to reporters.
Following Pete Hegseth’s press conference, Donald Trump issued a brief, and glowing, assessment of his defense secretary’s performance, while blasting the Republican representative who is moving to impeach him.
“Pete Hegseth gets an ‘A’ PLUS, PLUS, PLUS for his defense against a disgruntled, angry, defeated, former Congressman, Thomas Massie, a TOTAL LOSER!” the president wrote on Truth Social.
One quick note – since Thomas Massie introduced his articles of impeachment on Monday, the House now has until Wednesday to take them up.
The lower chamber can hold a vote on the House floor, decide to send the resolution to committee (for further investigation) or table the measure entirely.
A vote could come as soon as today. We’ll keep you updated.
Hegseth says Iran war was a ‘necessary undertaking’ despite Republicans blaming conflict for midterms defeat
After several Republicans, including vice-president JD Vance, said that the party’s shellacking in the midterm elections was due to the ongoing Iran war and spike in prices as a result of the conflict, Hegseth danced around whether he agreed.
“I respect the vice-president greatly, and I’m certainly not going to exchange in any finger pointing. And thankfully, politics is not really my thing,” the defense secretary said. “But I agree with what the president said when he said: ‘hey, if if I had to do this all over again, would we do it again? Absolutely.”
Hegseth referred back to secretary of state Marco Rubio’s sentiment that the war, now in its eighth month, is “not necessarily popular, but it may have been necessary”.
“That’s certainly how I feel. It was a necessary undertaking,” Hegseth added.
A point that Hegseth has repeated throughout his briefing is that Thomas Massie’s resolution is merely a “policy disagreement” that defense secretary said should be solved by legislation and debate.
Hegseth also used his time today to disparage the media for ignoring military successes. “You hate the president more than you love our country, or our troops,” he told reporters at the Pentagon.
