… Results continue to come in on undecided races as Democratic majorities around the country continue to grow, while both parties and the Admin react and adjust to the new political reality that America is in a much different place after a blue tsunami in the midterms.
… As cautiously optimistic and hopeful as we all were going into this election, it exceeded all our wildest expectations. First up on the accountability docket is Pete Hegseth.
… Axios: “It’s a de facto motto in the Trump WH: ‘Somebody’s gotta take the fall.’ Lately, that person looks like Pete Hegseth. From the unpopular war in Iran to his bad bipartisan relations with members of Congress, Hegseth’s record has made him the most vulnerable member of Trump’s Cabinet after Tuesday night’s midterm shellacking.
… One Trump advisor: “Hegseth is definitely on thin ice.”
… Before Trump attacked Iran on Feb. 28, Hegseth was the most gung-ho about the conflict, and he gave the rosiest projections about how quickly and easily it would be resolved, according to sources familiar with the discussions.
… By August, CentCom was also asking: “At what point did Hegseth recognize that our original strategy wasn’t going to produce the outcome he expected and pitched?”
… CNN: “Trump may have made the decision to launch the war that tanked voters’ support for the GOP and dealt them a midterm shellacking. But the historic losses are accelerating a push for someone else to take the fall: Pete Hegseth. And the House could vote as soon as next week to impeach the Pentagon’s top leader.
… Many Republican lawmakers and allies alarmed by Tues’s wipeout are moving swiftly to pin blame for the election results on Hegseth, arguing behind the scenes that he played a chief role in convincing Trump to attack Iran with no exit strategy - and no plan for managing the inevitable political fallout.
… House Republicans are expected to vote to directly repudiate the defense secretary in a matter of days. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said he plans to trigger a vote to impeach Hegseth when Congress returns next week - and multiple GOP sources said they expect it to pass.”
… Massie posted: “If Trump’s going to replace appointees like Hegseth, he should do it while he can still get the replacements confirmed in the Senate. Also, my Hegseth impeachment resolution is a much gentler version of what’s coming when Dem’s control Congress. They’ll have hearings and trials.”
… Hegseth issued a bizarre video statement while standing on the steps of the Pentagon:
“In case you've noticed, they're obsessed. A disgruntled, defeated congressman, along with all his Democrat allies, has also dropped sham articles of impeachment against yours truly, just like they tried against President Trump twice.
You see, their policies don't work. So their obsession with political theater disguised as power drives them to try to destroy their opponents. It's all about the politics of personal destruction. It didn't work against President Trump, and it won't work with me. You can rest assured of that.
To the troops: Don't blink. Ignore the noise. Never hesitate. You see, all this is politics.”
… CBS: “Ron DeSantis is being floated as a possible replacement for Pete Hegseth. Under one scenario, DeSantis could be confirmed by the Senate during the lame-duck session and take over as Secretary of Defense when his term as FL governor ends on January 5.”
… FL politics reporter Peter Schorsch: “A top FL lobbyist who has spoken specifically with DeSantis about this and other speculation said that the Governor told them that he would not serve in the Trump admin, even if asked.”
… Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) on Newsmax: “I’m a business guy. In business, if you lose that much of your work to a competitor, you fire people. I think there should be some heads rolling from the WH right now. We need to start with our own house right now. We need new leadership.”
… ABC’s Jonathan Karl asked Trump about Hegseth: “I have every intention to keep him. I get these calls, you know, about him. I don’t understand why.”
… Trump always says things like that right before he fires people.
… Telegraph: “Texas’s astonishing metamorphosis from red to blue made one thing clear above all: money can’t buy you everything. The Republicans’ losing campaign in the Lone Star state was bankrolled by Elon Musk, who poured nearly half a billion dollars into this year’s midterm elections.
… Around $212 million of that went to the campaign of scandal-plagued Ken Paxton, the Republican’s Senate candidate for Texas, making the race the most expensive in American history.
… Around $450 million lighter, he now faces both a tax crunch on his TX business empire and potential federal investigations into his political activities. The Tesla founder’s extraordinary gamble – and extraordinary loss – may render his face the only red thing left in Austin.”
… Margaret Tiedeken, a retired university worker, was taking a ‘victory lap’ around the Austin Capitol building wearing a ‘Talafreako’ T-shirt: “I feel like I’m breathing a different kind of air today. It feels totally different to us in the state. The richest man in the world tried to buy this election, and he failed. It shows that money can’t buy you democracy, and that we the people rose up.”
… Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of TX’s Women’s March org: “I hope he gets in his fucking SpaceX rocket and goes to Mars. That’s what I want Elon Musk to do. I could not be happier that he moved his business from CA to TX, for the sole reason that Texas flipped blue. I hope he leaves our state, I hope he leaves our country, I hope he rots.”
… Some Republicans were crying that Amy Acton let Vivek Ramaswamy’s concession call go to voicemail, claiming it was classless despite the fact that he weaponized Acton being a victim of a childhood sexual assault from her stepfather in the most disgraceful and repulsive ad of the midterms.
… Pediatrician Seema Jilani responded: “Amy Acton letting Vivek Ramaswamy go to voicemail is a lesson for women. You don’t owe people who mistreat you reconciliations, forgiveness or platitudes. You certainly don’t owe people who enable your abuser anything. You owe yourself peace.”
… Axios: “Democrats are on track to take control of a majority of legislative chambers, ending 16 years of Republican dominance over America’s statehouses. If current leads hold, 75% of Americans will live in a state with a Democratic governor, and 53% will live in Democratic trifectas.
… Statehouses are the front line of American federalism, and Tuesday’s gains dramatically expand Democrats’ power to increase minimum wages, protect abortion access, and set voting rules ahead of 2028 for most Americans.
… The party is set to flip 12 legislative chambers, dismantle 5 Republican state trifectas, shatter 11 GOP supermajorities and build 12 of its own. If leads hold, Democrats will control the governor’s office and both chambers in 5 of the 7 2024 presidential battlegrounds: AZ, MI, NV, PA and WI. They have also broken GOP one-party rule in the 6th (GA) and flipped the House in the 7th (NC).
… Democrats flipped 5 GOP-held governorships (GA, IA, NV, OH and TX) and lead in AK.”
… Politico: “Trump went all-in on an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting push to protect the GOP’s House majority. The blue wave washed right over it. In a normal year, Republicans’ multi-state push to redraw seats should have handed them as many as a dozen extra seats.
… But in a historically large wave year - Democrats are on pace to win the national popular vote by roughly a 13-point margin - Republicans ended up netting just two seats.”
… One TX Republican strategist: “Calling it a dummymander is generous. This was more like moron-mandering. We went for 5 seats, won none, killed an incumbent, and handed Democrats a reason to turn out. Was living with Henry Cuellar really that hard?”
… CA Republicans were confronting the prospect of holding just 4 out of 52 House seats statewide in a state with 5.7 million registered Republican voters. That near-extinction was a direct result of Proposition 50, the gerrymandering campaign that Gov. Gavin Newsom and national Democrats launched to counter the TX redraw.
… Dave Gilliard, a Republican consultant who worked for numerous CA candidates: “This is a disaster for the Republican Party. Obviously, Trump picked a fight he couldn’t win.”
… Fox host Laura Ingraham on her show: “Losing in politics - it’s always a gut punch. Losing this bad, it’s a gut punch immediately followed by an uppercut and then a roundhouse kick. The results in Texas alone make you want to cry.”
… Semafor: “Senate Republicans are staring into the abyss. It could be very difficult for them to reclaim the chamber in two years, especially if Democrats win still-uncalled races in MS and AK. Those seats may not be decided for days, and would represent the potential 55th and 56th seats of a Democratic majority - the largest since the first two years of Barack Obama’s presidency.
… Republicans’ top Senate pickup opportunities in 2028 are AZ, GA, OH, NH, PA, and NV. Democrats have solid winning streaks in all of those states except PA and OH. It could get even worse for Republicans trying to take the chamber back in two years: Democrats have pickup opportunities of their own in WI and NC, and GOP-held seats in SC, IA, KS and AK.”
… NYT: 6 days before the election, more than two dozen of Trump’s top strategists logged onto a private video call. The mood was grim. “Do you want the white pill first, or the black pill first?” asked Tony Fabrizio, the president’s chief pollster.
… Tim Saler, one of the Republican Party’s top data consultants, laid out two scenarios. In the first, the $400 million MAGA Inc. super PAC was reaching the voters that it had wanted and expected to vote. “That’s the optimistic scenario,” he said. The other was a wipeout.
… Former Trump campaign manager James Blair, who led midterm strategy for the Republicans, drew some laughs on the call when he compared the midterms to impending death: “I’m getting my affairs in order. I suggest everybody else do the same.” For roughly 30 minutes, the call ran on gallows humor: funeral arrangements, prison food, presidential pardons, even a brief riff on fleeing the country.
… Blair: “At least Bibi won. He’ll protect us.”
… Fabrizio: “Maybe we could get asylum in Israel.”
… Rachel Maddow: “Black women won every single one of these races in GA - governor, secretary of state, attorney general, agriculture commissioner, insurance commissioner, school superintendent, labor commissioner and public service commissioner.”
… Rep. Katherine Clark, who will become House Majority Leader when Jeffries becomes Speaker: “Our first bills and acts are going to be about lowering costs. That is why we promised the voters. The voters have really conducted a peaceful revolution in this country.”
… Sen. Elizabeth Warren in an Op Ed for TIME: “Some Democrats have already argued that it’s wasted energy to send bold policy changes to the WH. I think that’s just plain wrong. Trump says he welcomes the nickname ‘Mr. Veto.’ Well, let’s test that out by passing legislation the American people support to make life more affordable and our govt less corrupt.”
… NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani to Ben Meiselas:
“We cannot mistake last night as the end of the story. Last night creates an opportunity for us, and now it is up to us as the Democratic Party to fulfill that opportunity and deliver on hope in a way that Americans can live, breathe, and feel every single day.”
“This is our opportunity to understand that there is only one majority in this country, and that’s the working class. Whether you’re a working-class American who’s living in CA, whether you’re living in MN, whether you’re living in TX or SC, you deserve dignity that you can actually measure and feel in your life.”
… Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA) announced he will not run for senate against Sen. John Fetterman. Rep. Chris Deluzio and former Rep. Connor Lamb are expected to run against him in the primary. If Fetterman even runs. I don’t think he will.
On my weekly podcast Uncovered, of course I couldn’t resist a Michael Jordan-style dunkfest on Trump and Republicans after all we have endured up to this point. But we also spent quite a lot of time talking about the short and long-term implications of this historic election - especially across the south.
It has certainly changed the complexion of so many things, including the 2028 presidential election picture. You even have Republicans now talking about abolishing the electoral college and going to a popular vote because of how the map looks to them!
I really think we have a lot of takes on this election that I know I haven’t seen or heard anywhere else. Link to the show is here. A link to the election day Bulletin is here.
… 4-time Paralympian Josh Turek,who just won the senate election in IA, who is in a wheelchair: “It will be beautifully poetic when we fill Sen. Tom Harkin’s seat with someone who is only there because of the work he did on the ADA. And we’ll do it because of all of you!”
… Washington Examiner’s Byron York: “The AK vote count crawls along. Peltola’s lead
