The White House win on Capitol Hill as one of its newest members, Democratic Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed, is here for a live interview. I'm Kaitlan Collins, and this is The Source.
Well, it certainly wasn't the outcome the White House was expecting tonight as House Republicans banded together and defeated that effort by one of their own to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Sources say that both Republican leadership and White House officials were working furiously behind the scenes today to ensure that Congressman Thomas Massie's attempt to rebuke and potentially oust Secretary Pete Hegseth from the president's cabinet wasn't successful. As they voted tonight, Massie ended up being the lone Republican who voted with Democrats on this move. And although you saw President Trump tonight railing against Democrats in his response to what happened on Capitol Hill, as he called it, an exoneration of a great American patriot, it was actually the absence of these 11 Democrats, including Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, who might have helped save Secretary Hegseth from facing that vote on impeachment, even if they did so unintentionally by just not showing up.
On this vote, the yeas are 211, the nays are 204. The motion is adopted.
Now, what this means is that their absences allowed Republicans to send those impeachment articles, all eight of them, to committee. And as you heard from Congressman Massie here last night, that means for now this effort is dead.
The first thing Mike Johnson will try to do is refer this to committee. And I want everybody to know right now, a referral to committee is to kill this bill. It is not to, you know, move this bill forward. Sorry, resolution, this impeachment resolution forward. It's to kill it.
Now, when it comes to this Congress and what's happening over the next several weeks, right now, Massie says this isn't going anywhere else. He's not going to try this again. We do know Democrats could try to revive those same articles of impeachment that he introduced or even file their own when they take control of Congress come January.
Haven't had a conversation with anyone on the floor team about what may or may not happen in terms of the Hegseth resolution, but this is not the end of it. It's just the beginning.
Now, as far as what's playing out down the street at the White House, we're told that the new chief of staff, who was on day two of his job today and who is personally close to Secretary Hegseth, had reassured him that they have his back. And of course, as you've seen with President Trump, though he said the same yesterday, though he does have a history of saying that, only until he doesn't. Meanwhile, at the Pentagon, we saw Secretary Hegseth coming out to do something he has not done since May: hold a press conference. It was almost solely focused on this effort to potentially impeach him and his reasoning of why it shouldn't happen. And as you listen to this press conference and what he was saying to reporters at the Pentagon, I should note he only took questions from a prepared list of what appeared to be only conservative media outlets.
They impeached President Trump over a perfect phone call. And if standing with President Trump puts me in that company, I'll take that company every day of the week. President Trump ended that kind of wokeness and weakness. Biden had let it happen. President Trump said no more. President Trump is willing to do what no other president would. President Trump made homeland security national security because President Trump demanded it. Americans are lining up to serve in President Trump's Department of War.
And not only did Secretary Hegseth liken himself to the past impeachments of President Trump, at one point he also sought to tie his own situation to the rank and file.
It tells them that a single rogue legislator loaded with personal animus for the president can attempt to veto national security decisions made by the duly elected commander-in-chief. It puts a target on the backs of American warriors by signaling that Congress will undermine their missions in real time. This is not patriotism. This is sabotage. Put the secretary on trial today and the men and women who carried out those orders tomorrow. If they want to come for the warriors, they're going to have to come through me.
And we start tonight with some of our best sources here in Washington. Dan Lamothe is a national security reporter for The Washington Post. Jasmine Wright, White House correspondent for The Washington Sun, and CNN political commentator and Republican strategist, Sherelle Singleton. Dan, what's been the reaction coming out of the Pentagon so far tonight?
Some combination of celebration and gloating, up to and including a Pentagon account posting an artificially intelligence-enabled image of Thomas Massie crying. I mean, they're really kind of touting this.
Are they surprised by it?
I don't know that they're surprised by it. I think they're surprised by the way it went. The idea that this did not pass on the backs of 11 Democrats that didn't vote, I think that's unexpected, and I don't know that anybody could have seen that coming.
Yeah. I mean, the reaction among Democrats online so far, Jasmine, seems to be pretty upset. These are the 11 Democrats, as I mentioned a few moments ago, who were not there and are the reason that this was able to not be successful the way that Massie wanted it to go. It includes Steven Horsford, Jonathan Jackson, Pelosi, as I mentioned, Melanie Stansbury who was on House Oversight, Haley Stevens, Frederica Wilson, Marilyn Strickland. I do think among Democrats who have been, you know, in this week of total euphoria since their wins, it is a real question of how they're feeling about how this went tonight, even if it was led by a Republican here.
Yeah, it's a reality check that governing can sometimes be hard, as is keeping together your coalition. Democrats wanted to get this done this term so that they could focus on their other investigations that they hope to launch the next term. And so, obviously, this is a setback on that accord. But listen, the White House went to work on this. They called around because I think two things can be true here. It is true that Republicans in Congress and both the White House have concerns about Pete Hegseth's leadership, feel that he may have a large part in the way that the Iran war is going, but also that the White House did not want to give Thomas Massie a win here. They did not want to allow him to impeach Pete Hegseth. And so they went around and made sure that their Republican offices and that their Republican congressmen stayed true to what the president wanted them to do. I talked to one source who said it was a real clarifying moment for the White House today after really a week or so of kind of circular fire amongst White House aides. Now they're really realigned with who they say the quote-unquote enemy is, which of course in this case would be Thomas Massie and the Democrats.
Well, and Thomas Massie was here last night. He said he wasn't whipping this personally. He wasn't sure if it was going to succeed, but I do think, you know, Republican leaders had at least expected that maybe some of their members would cross over and vote after that was some discussions last night. And then you have the White House, particularly Stephen Miller, who's pretty good friends and pretty close with the Secretary of Defense, making sure that they can preserve and protect him. I think he walks away more entrenched today, including the White House and even the president with trying to defy Democrats and protect Hegseth by pretty much all any means. Now the question I think for Democrats going into this new session, and I think AOC stated earlier today that the priority is to still attempt this again. And so from Republicans I can guarantee you the messaging and the focus will be instead of prioritizing cost of living and affordability, Democrats have a litany, a list rather, of people that they plan to impeach first and then eventually get to cost of living, which certainly I would argue is not what most of the American people voted for this past Tuesday.
Well, I mean, for the secretary himself, I was surprised he hasn't held a briefing since May, right?
Not that we have briefings that often at the White House either, as Jasmine, sooner than May.
Very well. But the president does make appearances at times, as he did yesterday. What does it say to you that he felt the need to come out this morning first thing at 8:00 to hold this press conference? He seemed to think that House Republicans might vote against him.
I saw two audiences. First and foremost, the president. I mean, I think he wanted to make it clear he was fighting, that he was coming out strong, that he was going to attack the media, that he was going to attack Democrats, and attack Congressman Massie. In addition to that, I think there was a case in that message that specifically policy disagreements maybe shouldn't be litigated through impeachment in this way. And I think that was meant more for the lawmakers and keeping the Republicans together.
One question is, what does it mean for Pete Hegseth's job overall? I mean, the president seems pretty firmly against him right now, or behind him, I should say, because of this effort. He doesn't like when someone who works on his team is attacked in this way. What are you hearing about that?
Yeah, the president is doubling down behind Pete Hegseth. I did hear from one source who basically said that this was a lot of political capital for the White House to put forth just for Pete Hegseth to go through another impeachment process in just a few months, and when the dynamic is different because you will have Democrats leading both the House and the Senate, meaning that that could actually be successful this time. So, a lot of phone calls from the White House.
Expect to get Democrats, I mean Republicans rather, in the Senate to vote with Democrats to impeach him. I mean, how realistic is that?
Well, the one thing that people were watching was Bill Cassidy, Thom Tillis, Joni Ernst, who weren't saying we're definitely not going to do that. They left it open and they don't have anything to lose really. But speaking of what this is going to look like come January, Jim Jordan is now going to be the new leader for Republicans in the House. He won that leadership election behind closed doors today. What do you think that's going to look like?
I mean, look, he rose in politics out of the Tea Party movement, right? He's perceived as a fighter. And I think right now when you look at the bloodbath that we just experienced in the midterms, the party wants someone who can not only draw a contrast against Democrats, the expectation is that there will be hearings after hearings after hearings. And while I certainly respect Steve Scalise and his incredible ability to fundraise, I mean, that's one negative. The question is, can Jim Jordan raise a lot of money to try to expand and grow our minority in '28 and beyond? We'll see. But you do want someone who can fight, and the president, who has a great relationship with Jim Jordan, wants someone who can protect and defend him in the House. So this makes all the sense in the world why they would have affirmed him as opposed to Steve Scalise.
Yeah, we'll see what that looks like. Great to have all three of you here tonight. Thank you so much for joining us. Up next, we have two winners who just made history in the midterms last week. Coming up, first, Wisconsin's first Black governor-elect, David Crowley, is going to join us, his first national television interview since his historic victory. And also, Michigan's Democratic Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed is going to join me here on set to talk about what his party needs to do and also who should lead them.
For the first time in nearly two decades, a majority of the nation's governors will soon be Democrats. Yes, come January, roughly 75% of all Americans will have Democratic governors. Across the map, if you look at those victories from last week, at least 28 states are going to be held by a Dem, five of which flipped from Republican control, of course, including states like Texas. And Democrats could pick up two more if they end up winning in Kansas and Alaska. The races still haven't been called there yet, so we're still tracking those. But one of the biggest nail-biters that we followed for Democrats as they were fighting to hold on to the governor's mansions that they already had this year was in Wisconsin. The former Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley defeated Trump-backed Congressman Tom Tiffany there. And once he is sworn in, he's also going to make history as Wisconsin's first Black governor. And Governor-elect David Crowley is back here tonight. And thank you, sir, for being here. A big part of your message had to do with affordability and talking about how you understand the plights that people in your state feel firsthand. When it comes to now what that looks like from campaigning to governing, what is your plan as soon as you take office? Do you have a day one initiative that you're going to roll out to address that?
Well, first and foremost, thank you for having me, Kaitlan, and so glad to be joining you and your listeners this evening. But as many people may know, you know, when you're focusing on the campaign versus governing, campaigning is the easy part. Now it's our time to make sure that we're tackling the issues that we heard all across the Badger State, which is tackling affordability. How do we make groceries, how do we make housing, child care, and health care that much more affordable? And we've already started having those conversations. So I just met with our assembly leaders and our Senate leaders just today to start those conversations. But right now, we are focusing on getting our transition team in place to make sure that we'll be ready on day one.
And of course, one thing that you have to do when you're governing is also work with the federal government at times. And we've seen Tony Evers, you know, he's clashed with President Trump before when it came to ICE, to tariffs that were impacting manufacturers and farmers in your state. We've heard some new Democrats here in Washington talking about ways they can work with the White House. What do you think will be your approach on that level?
Well, it's going to be the same that I've approached governing even as a county executive. Doesn't matter what side of the aisle that you're on. If you're willing to come to the table to make sure that we are making a positive impact on the lives that we represent, that's what I'm going to be focusing on. And when there are times that we have to push back, we're absolutely going to push back. We're always going to fight back. But what's more important for me and Democrats here in the state of Wisconsin is how do we push forward? How do we actually deliver for the six million residents that call Wisconsin home? Because they've been getting the short end of the stick because we've had a Republican-controlled legislature for more than 15 years. And so this is a great opportunity to make sure that we do exactly that. And so I look forward to creating an even better partnership with the federal government to make sure that we can do that. And the fact is that, you know, prior to this election we only had two congressional members and now we just flipped two more. So now we have four congressional seats, and I want to make sure that we're partnering with them to bring back as many resources as possible.
So you think that there could be some ways that you could work with the federal government?
You know, I think there are ways that we can work with everybody, you know, and I know that there's a lot of rhetoric, a lot of pushback, and particularly that comes from the Trump administration. But I have been excited by the fact that, you know, we have flipped so many congressional seats across this country as well as Senate seats, which lets you know that we're going to have Democrats who are going to be on the offense for the first time pushing back against the Trump administration. But again, we have to push forward, and my goal is to make sure that we can partner with the federal government to make sure that we can fill many of the holes that were created by this Trump administration with the fact that we have a brand new Congress coming in.
Well, one thing that we're going to see going into effect quite soon here across the nation is a result of the so-called one big beautiful bill, which are these big federal Medicaid cuts and work requirements that are coming into play for that. They're set to take effect in January, of course, right when you're taking office. What impact is that going to have on your state?
Well, we know that this is one of the reasons why I ran for governor, you know, because I know what families are going through. And when you take a look at the state budget, there's going to be many gaps, many holes in this budget due to the cuts that we have seen from the big ugly bill and from this Trump administration. And so I'm looking forward to working with our brand new Democratic trifecta legislature to make sure that we can do exactly that. And the way that we do that is, one, we have to increase our revenues. And we can do that by finding new ways, for example, you know, legalizing marijuana. You know, we are one of the very few states in the Midwest that has not legalized it, and we're even losing tens of millions of dollars to our neighbors to the south in Illinois, Minnesota, and Michigan. And so our goal is to make sure that we can grow our economy, grow our business, but at the end of the day, we have to take care of our people. And we have to make sure we do that by lowering their costs no matter what they're paying for.
Well, some Democrats have been skeptical of what you've wanted to do to expand Medicaid and your promise to do so on the campaign trail. That includes the chair of your state's Democratic Party, who said that he thinks you were clear-eyed that while we want to expand Medicaid, that may not be the expansion that has often been talked about previously. Can you tell us what your definition of expanded Medicaid is?
