… These Bulletins started exactly one week after the 2024 election with Bulletin #1 and here we are at #500. My how much has changed since then. I started these at a very low time for all of us, but I was determined to detail, chronicle and document every aspect of what was about to happen because I knew how bad it was going to be.
… It was difficult a lot of the time. Obviously most of the news for quite a while was really bad, and with Democrats in the minority it was tough to highlight their accomplishments - although I certainly tried to find silver linings whenever possible. I know these can sometimes be exhausting to read because there is so much, but hopefully you have found being a hyper-informed citizen beneficial.
… If you read these every day, you truly know a mountain of important information about a wide spectrum of issues related to politics. I do my very best to consume a huge amount of news from a wide array of sources to compile and then condense down into a readable format. It is very difficult and time consuming, but at the end of the day when I hit the publish button I have always been proud of the finished product.
… Pete Hegseth held his first “press conference” in 6 months - and it was to defend himself in typical unhinged fashion, ranting and raving about how unjust and unfair the resolution to impeach him is. He only called on 6 people for questions - all from friendly right-wing outlets who lobbed him softballs.
“We will not apologize: These resolutions are a farce. They mock the Constitution. They criminalize the warfighters who execute lawful orders. This process hands our adversaries a propaganda victory.”
“For the first time in American history, a cabinet secretary overseeing America’s military is being attacked not for losing conflicts with our enemies. But for winning them. Condemned not for defeat. But for military victory. Impeachment for success.”
“It tells our enemies that the US will actually punish its own warriors and its own civilian leadership for successfully executing lawful military operations. 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.”
“On the eve of Veterans Day, these resolutions tell every one of them that their service was a crime. Their service was not a crime. These are heroes, and no politician in Washington will tell them otherwise while I hold this office.”
“If they want to come for the warriors, they’re going to have to come through me.”
Q - “JD Vance says the Iran war was a major reason why Republicans lost in the midterms. Do you agree? Hegseth: Uh. I respect the VP and I’m certainly not going to exchange in finger pointing. Thankfully politics isn’t really my thing.”
On Iran: “The media can just never admit the military success. Because you hate the president more than you love our country or our troops.”
“This lame duck period is critically important for funding of our department. $350 billion at a minimum for reconciliation is what we believe is needed to make a generational and historic investment in this dept.”
… Hegseth called on the following media companies:
OANN
Gateway Pundit
Real America’s Voice
Daily Wire
Fox News
Daily Signal
Washington Times
… WaPo Pentagon reporter Tara Copp: “I shouted at least 4 questions that Hegseth did not answer, on whether he takes responsibility for the war; on war crimes; others shouted if he’d become a distraction for Trump. Hegseth only took questions from
Conservative media outlets they brought in after kicking out the Pentagon press corps last year.”
… Trump posted at the end of the event: “Pete Hegseth gets an “A” PLUS, PLUS, PLUS for his defense against a disgruntled, angry, defeated, former Congressman, Thomas Massie, a TOTAL LOSER!”
… Massie:
“I think there’s two categories of Republicans after Nov. 3rd who are more likely to vote to impeach Pete Hegseth. One, I call it the Retirement Caucus. These aren’t people who joined voluntarily. And the ranks of this caucus swelled for Republicans on Nov. 3rd. What do they have to lose?
But more importantly, you have a caucus of people who just barely won their election. They thought they had a political annuity, that they’d go to fancy dinners for the rest of their lives, and they barely won by 500 votes. They’re used to winning by 10,000-15,000 votes. And those folks need to put some daylight between themselves and this admi, between themselves and this war.”
… Speaker Mike Johnson:
“Massie is a disgruntled congressman, and the impeachment effort is a political gambit for attention. I think Hegseth did an extraordinary job. I watched most of the press conference. 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 conflict sends a terrible message to our enemies and our allies, and we are not going to play that game. You don’t impeach a Cabinet secretary lightly. They had no due process. There’s nothing that went into this. This is just purely for people to get attention, and it’s shameful.”
… Rep.-elect Richard Ojeda (D-NC) on the MeidasTouch podcast:
“It bothers me that we have so many people that like to rattle the drums of war, and they have no idea what the ramifications are. There have been a lot of things that have been done wrong that need to be addressed.
You know, we don’t kill people in the Caribbean and just think it’s no big deal. We don’t bomb a school that kills 160-plus little girls and just say that that’s water under the bridge. Crimes have been committed.”
… CNN’s Alayna Treene: “While Trump and Stephen Miller have continued to support Hegseth, there are many senior advisers throughout the admin who have grown skeptical of whether the defense secretary will be able to hang onto his position for much longer, arguing his goodwill with the president will last until it becomes a serious liability.
… A former Trump advisor: “The president will back him to a point. But he may be forced to remove him once it’s no longer tenable. There are varying views in the West Wing on how long that will be.”
… Punchbowl: Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) just went off on Hegseth, and left open the possibility of voting to allow an impeachment trial to proceed. Ernst slammed the ‘lack of info’ to Congress on the Iran war and seemed to accuse Hegseth of deceiving Trump/Congress about the war.
“I question whether the info that is coming through the secretary out of the Pentagon has been accurate, and the way he is portraying the war to the president. If there is deception coming from our Pentagon and being transmitted to the President, I would want to know that. Now, will that be part of this impeachment? I don’t know. But I have some serious questions.”
… WaPo: “Several US military aircraft left a British air force base in England on Monday - the second time US military assets have redeployed from British bases in two months. 3 Osprey helicopters, which are used by US Special Operations Forces, and 10 KC-135R Stratotanker refueling aircraft were redeployed to other bases in Britain as well as Spain and Germany.
… The WSJ reported that US aircraft were evacuated in the wake of a threat from Iran. The exact nature of any potential threat and the reasons behind the move remain unclear.”
… Axios: “Trump, with the clock ticking and congressional investigators closing in, plans to govern even more imperially, hell-bent on stretching executive power, targeting those on his enemies list, pardoning allies, and daring the courts and Congress to slow him down. The playbook:
Restore MAGA. Two years ago, MAGA - mostly its network of podcasts, YouTubers and online activists - was a powerful, united force in media and politics. Today it’s a hot, divided mess. Trump’s attention to his base drifted. Now Vance and Miller desperately want to rebuild and rev up MAGA.
Rule by pen. Miller, Vought and WH lawyers have been drafting executive actions to govern without Congress, with DOJ opinions ready to defend them. Remember: Vought was an architect of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint for maximizing executive power in Trump II.
Target enemies. Before, it was pure payback. Now, it’s also a preemptive warning that the Trump admin will target anyone, including elected members of Congress who target them. Trump ally Roger Stone told us: ‘Many Democrat lawmakers are going to find themselves under indictment and fighting conviction. Watch.’
More monuments. Trump’s pharaonic need to gild the WH, build a ballroom, erect a triumphal arch and slap his name on buildings is also an exercise in raw power.”
… NYT: “Alina Habba’s $50 million contract was terminated last week. The company fired her for ‘failure to perform duties.’ She will keep $6.5 mil in salary and $8 mil signing bonus. The firing came days after The Times reporting prompted a Trump outburst.”
… So she gets a $14.5 million bribe from her new “boss” instead of a $50 million bribe to secure a pardon from Trump as her penalty for not giving Trump his cut. And she doesn’t have to even pretend to work now. My bet is the other $36 million went into Trump’s pocket somehow. Habba needs to be hauled in front of Congress while we are doing all this oversight stuff.
… Axios reporter Andrew Solender: “Huge applause in the Dem caucus meeting for Rep-elect Eileen Laubacher, the Democrat who beat Lauren Boebert. The House Dem caucus meeting this morning is ecstatic. ‘It took a long time to get everyone quiet to start because there are so many of us and we’re all SO EXCITED,’ one member tells me.
… Rep. DelBene joked that someone told her the food line is long and she said “you’re welcome.” One House Democrat tells me a new member asked them if caucus meetings are always this jubilant, comparing it to the State of the Union. ‘We haven’t been this happy in a long time,’ the returning member replied.
… Meidas reporters Scott Macfarlane and Pablo Manriquez interviewed several Democrats in the hallways:
Rep.-Elect Rebecca Bennett (D-NJ): “People would always ask me what it was like to be a helicopter pilot as a woman. And I would always say, ‘The helicopter doesn’t know what gender it is. You just got to get the job done.’ And I’m very proud to have been part of a small group of women. When I was in the military, only 6% of women were naval aviators, and I was also the 18th woman to be a Navy test pilot.
And so, ultimately, we should be recruiting our best and brightest from every background and every walk of life. And that’s part of the beauty of the military, is that we’re a melting pot of the entire country.
And the fact that we are seeing Pete Hegseth single-handedly target women and people of color, again, is making our military less effective, and it is harming our national security.”
Q to Rep.-Elect Dan Koh (D-MA): “Trump said he may with Democrats on a pathway to citizenship for certain categories of undocumented immigrants. Koh: My mom used to always say: Look at what people do instead of what they say. When you’re appointing a xenophobic jackass like Stephen Miller as your chief of staff, who said that we were being invaded when it comes to immigrants, who celebrated legal immigration going down, then we clearly know what Trump actually means.”
… Hakeem Jeffries: “House Democrats have won 258 seats and counting. This is the largest majority that any party has had this century. News of our demise was greatly exaggerated.”
… Rep. Jim Jordan (R-IN) defeated Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) as the new Republican leader of the House by a vote of 106-73. With Stephen Miller elevated to WH COS, and now Jordan’s promotion, Republicans have obviously learned nothing from the midterms. That vote total also indicates that Republicans continue to struggle to get members who lost their elections to return to work in DC during the lame duck session.
… John Thune was reelected as Republican leader in the senate.
… Politico: “A major labor union is telling Sen. Chuck Schumer it’s time to go. The Intl Assn of Machinists and Aerospace Workers sent him a letter Monday urging him ‘not to seek another term’ as Senate Democratic leader - making the 600,000-member union the latest voice to join the push for a leadership shakeup after last week’s elections.
… IAM President Brian Bryant:
“After thoughtful discussions with our IAM Union Executive Council, we believe this is the right moment for a new generation to lead Senate Democrats. This week’s elections sent a clear message: working people are demanding change.
This moment will require fresh ideas, new energy and a new generation of leadership. The IAM Union is through with any member of leadership, in any political party, who stops one iota short of being a ferocious, unyielding and unbending champion of working people.”
… Schumer’s potential challenger Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) to MS NOW: “We have two members in that room, newly elected senators, who would not be there if Schumer and the DSCC had had their way. And, you know, Schumer and the DSCC sided with the crypto industry and AIPAC against these candidates.”
… Rachel Maddow was a guest on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart:
Stewart: “I get pessimistic when I see status quo leadership in place that has disappointed in the past. What will be different now? What would you need to see from Democratic leadership to show they’re moving with purpose and urgency? Give me a few things.”
… Maddow:
I think they should not only investigate what ICE has been doing, they need to defund ICE.
They should impeach not only Pete Hegseth, but Todd Blanche.
They need to do something on health care that will stop the president from taking away people’s health insurance. There’s 4 million kids in America right now who aren’t covered by health insurance. Maybe we can’t go for Medicare for All right off the bat, but maybe we can go Medicare for All Kids.
They can use the power of the purse to stop the Iran war.
Stop Members of Congress from stock trading.
Prevent people who have federal contracts from making political donations.”
… Politico: “The massive Democratic House victory last week has transformed what might have otherwise been a fraught effort for Hakeem Jeffries to secure the speaker’s gavel, where a smaller majority could have empowered a tightknit block of hard-left holdouts.
… Jeffries boasts strong backing around the caucus, with power bases in the Congressional Black Caucus, which is projected to have more than 60 members next term, and the New Democrat Coalition, which is tracking toward more than 140 members. Support from these two groups alone already puts Jeffries close to the 218 votes he would need in January.
… Plenty of top progressives are endorsing Jeffries, too. Rep. Greg Casar, the Congressional Progressive Caucus chair, is voting for him, as is the group’s influential former chair, Rep. Pramila Jayapal. Rep. AOC, perhaps the best-known face of the party’s leftist wing, is also backing Jeffries.
Reminder there is no Bulletin tomorrow because I do my weekly podcast Uncovered on Wednesdays, where we do a deeper dive into the top stories of the week. Thank you to all who watch, read, share and subscribe to our work! If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.
… Matt Stoller, director of the American Economic Liberties Project:
“Dem members of Congress and base voters see Hakeem Jeffries very differently. I’ll try to make the case FOR Jeffries, from the perspective of members. Ironically, they like him for the same reason voters don’t, which is that he’s nice and passive. He’s NOT Nancy Pelosi.
If she liked you, you could do anything. If she didn’t. you got virtually nothing. She was in charge. When committees selected new members, Pelosi had a big say. When legislation needed to be finalized, that was Pelosi’s call and her advisors choosing which lobbyists to listen to. She raised money, she allocated favors, handed out metaphorical parking spots. She knew everything.
The upside is that Pelosi could whip close votes, and could rule the House. She was able to save the ACA when Obama was ready to give up on it, because of her centralized control of the House. She governed. In some ways, she sort of saved
the Obama admin. If you liked the direction she wanted to go, you were happy. If you didn’t, you were not. But there were a few significant institutional downsides.
But Jeffries is completely different as a House leader. He doesn’t track very much, he doesn’t know what is happening in every corner of the caucus, and he doesn’t have strong views. He won’t set a direction. He’ll listen, he will act if there’s a consensus, but otherwise will sort of let things play out. You can talk to him about your concerns, he’ll listen and be sympathetic. No one is worried about crossing Jeffries.
The downsides to Jeffries are pretty clear. He’s widely disliked as a public speaker, he makes the Democratic Party look bad because he clearly doesn’t
