Defiant Hegseth Says Impeachment Threats “Won’t Work” on Him

0:01Tonight, the fingers point and the knives sharpen. They attack us because we are effective. The MAGA chalking block gets crowded after historic losses. Donald Trump should fire him. Plus, should America's new start include the old guard? One of the first things you need to do is remove that system of seniority from Democratic politics. The left debates replacing its leaders. Also, they backed Donald Trump until the votes came in. Now, some Republicans are quickly backing away ahead of 2028. Food is too high. Gas is too high. It's untenable when you have people going in trading stock. And socialists are now in charge of Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C.

0:47Is this the start of a dramatic change for modern capitalism? Live at the table, Jamie Harrison, David Urban, Sarah Matthews, Jason Rance and Kamel Foster. Welcome to a special edition of Newsnight, Midterm Aftermath.

1:20Good evening. I'm Lulu Garcia Navarro in New York for Abby. Tonight, the so-called blue tsunami is still growing as Democrats reach historic levels with their midterm wins. And while Republicans sift through the wreckage, many of them want to throw Pete Hegseth overboard. Republicans are turning on the defense secretary, blaming him for the war, which many voters spoke out against. Congressman Thomas Massey tells CNN that he plans to trigger a vote to impeach Hegseth when Congress returns next week. Multiple Republican sources tell CNN they expect that vote to pass. Hegseth addressed that threat today.

2:02A 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. Didn't work against President Trump, and it won't work with me. You can rest assured of that. Okay, Trump was asked today whether he was considering any staffing changes, and he said, no, Pete Hexeth has done a fantastic job.

2:44Before we open it up to the table here, we invite you at home to join the debate. Head to CNN.com slash Abby and weigh in. We'll get to some of your comments throughout the show. Has it only been 48 hours since the election? It feels like 48 years. David Urban, welcome to the table. And I'm going to start with you. You're a military man. Should Pete Hegseth be impeached? Listen, obviously impeachment's a political decision. It's a political action. It's not legal. So it's up to the Congress to determine whether Pete Exit gets impeached. The House undoubtedly will move to impeach him. It seems like they have the votes to get it through, as Congressman Massey's alluding to.

3:30If they don't get it done this session, I assure you when they get back in January, they'll have enough votes. And they'll move to impeach. And they'll have an impeachment proceeding in the House. Because, you know, it's not just that they have the votes. It's that some Republicans want him gone. Listen, I'm saying they may have the votes this time with Republicans. They surely will have the votes next time. So it's only a matter of time until it gets impeached. I suspect that it will be not pleasant for him. You think it's going to happen? Yeah, I think it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen.

4:02And it'll go to the Senate. And he's right. It'll be the same fate. you're not going to get 66 members to vote because there's not 66 Democrats. They'll get close. They may have some Republicans join them in the Senate. There may be a few. So he's, you know, when you're, when the war is what's, what's, was stuck in the crux of a lot of people. There's lots of reasons why Republicans lost, but the war is one of them. And when your title, when the name, when the word war is in your title and it's going badly, you might want to think, look for a new job. Thomas Massey, speaking of, who is sort of ginning this up, wrote today on X, if Trump's going to replace appointees like Hegseth, he should do so while he can, get the replacements confirmed in the Senate.

4:49Also, my Hegseth impeachment resolution is a much gentler version of what's coming when Dems control Congress. They'll have hearings and trials. Half of that is obviously correct. I do love that all of a sudden Thomas Massey is the friend of the Democrats. This is an anti-Semitic kook who is a sore loser. He's someone who is the worst kind of Republican. And all of a sudden he's being embraced by the left because he happens to be taking a position that some on the far left hold. You know, he's got it. Pete Hexeth's got another job and it's waiting for him in Tennessee. And if the idea from the left is to try to get rid of him.

5:26Actually, that's not true. Because actually, Marsha Blackburn. They're saying that. Marsha Blackburn. Let me explain to the audience what you're talking about. Marsha Blackburn was going, you know, had been asked. There had been this idea that somehow Pete Hegseth was going to exit stage left and be appointed senator in Tennessee. And CNN has reporting to suggest that that is not going to happen. No golden parachute is waiting for Hegseth. She threw cold water on that, which is, I think, a very smart decision, because that should not be her first act as governor to appoint Pete Hegseth to fill that vacant seat.

6:01So I think that good on her for saying that. I would say this. There's always horse trading goes on, right? Exactly. So never say never. And never say never. That's all I would say. That's fair. The point is you could easily frame this as they've gone after him. It's unfair. Don't like how that happened. This was not the intent. But if you're going to do this, I'm going to do the right thing and give him this position because I think he's earned it. there's a way that they're trying to massage a lot of this because it does look like a bad move right out the gate. And it seems kind of shady, I think, to an average person who's not following this.

6:31But I do think that there is an easy avenue for that. I just I don't understand the timing other than Thomas Massey wanting to get one more little stab. Can we go back to the original, though, which is should Pete Hegseth be impeached? I mean, OK, tell me why. Listen, you're going to have a new member of Congress from South Carolina, Three-star Navy Admiral Nancy LaCour, who was fired by Pete Hegseff, not because of just cause, but just because he wanted to fire her. And that is the type of member that you're going to have coming to Washington, D.C. And there are so many examples of Nancy LaCour that are out there, that are in the military, people who have served this nation dutifully.

7:15And they were let go because of Pete Hegseff because of whatever reason. And he woke up that morning and maybe he didn't have a cocktail the night before. I don't know. But he made up a decision and then he fired good people in our military. It's gutted the military and a lot of that credibility. So there are a lot of reasons. And Democrats and Republicans want to get rid of this guy. And if they want to go in and take that anchor and then put that anchor back into the United States Senate, the hearings are still going to happen about what Pete Hetzel did as Secretary of Defense, because it's not the Department of War.

7:48You have to, Congress has to change the name. So, I mean, you've mostly got a bunch of anonymous Republicans who say they're willing to do this. So does this happen before the year is up? Probably not. Does this need to happen? I mean, Pete Hegseth has had this, developed this kind of practiced, arrogant flippancy that he has deployed. Even if you like everything that he has attempted to do with the Pentagon and Department of War, as it's now called, you probably don't like the way that he's gone about doing it. Even the video that he's released now, I mean, I'm defiant, I'm going to fight. The way that he's gone about doing it, the messaging, all of it seems like a bit much and is perhaps attracting a bit more attention to himself than he might like.

8:30The president of the United States is very much on his side, it seems, at least when he's asked about this directly. Certainly a lot of the reporting suggests that even behind the scenes, he's telling Pete that he's his guy. I suspect that he's not going to try to throw him under the bus and take Massey up on his offer right now. Well, and part of it, I think, is because he's defending himself so forcefully, which is what President Trump wants from Pete Hegseth and wants from all of his staff members who might be - But doesn't that seem incredibly tone deaf? Defending himself? No. You have had an enormous shellacking.

9:02The GOP has been wiped out in Texas, in Kansas, in Iowa. And what we are hearing from the president and his team is that it's business as usual. I mean, I'm going to play a little bit more Pete Hegseth talking about why he thinks Democrats are going out after him. But why do the Democrats and the deep state radicals really hate us? Because we tore down their sacred cows one by one and without apology. DEI is a Marxist ideology built to destroy us, so we crushed it. Diversity is not our strength, our unity is. Patriot extremism, it's not a thing. Being trans is a mental illness incompatible with military service.

9:53The press is free in America, but not free to roam our classified spaces here at the Pentagon. Narco-terrorists should die, not be caught and released. And when we say that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon, we actually mean it. I mean, this sounds like, take me back to 2024. This is the greatest hits of a previous election, trans, DEI. This didn't play so well. Yeah, I mean, well, that just shows what his priorities are. At a time when our nation is at war, gas prices are skyrocketing and people are wondering when we're going to wind this war down and get an end to it. that's what Pete Hegseth is focused on, making social media videos, talking about trans people, saying that diversity isn't our strength, which I believe it is, and wanting to do push-up contests and things like that.

10:44I mean, it's absolutely absurd. And I think that he deserves to be impeached for plenty of reasons. I mean, I can think back to Signalgate and him texting war plans and then the botched war that we've carried out with Iran that I don't believe that we should have gotten into in the first place. I think that that was a grave mistake on this president's part. And I think that the president is going to need someone to pin the blame on because we know Trump won't accept responsibility himself. And Pete Hexth would make the perfect fall guy for him. If they want to win back voters who are upset with this country and this president for going back on his promise to be the peace president and not get us into another endless Middle East conflict, I don't think that he wants to accept that.

11:24Do you think Trump cares, though? I mean, I mean, I have seen no evidence since Tuesday that President Trump is either aware of what happened, cares about what happened and is going to react to what happened. I think the answer to all three of those is yes, yes and yes. I mean, I think he knows, he cares and he will react. I think the Hegseth, you know, the video, great camera angle, by the way. You can tell Pete was a former former news guy. Very good shot. Very well framed. And but, you know, when he some of the things he says, you know, are kind of jingoistic and clearly meant to get a rise.

12:00Right. And one of the things he says, though, is very troubling and quite controversial is that is the narco trafficking, the killing of the narco traffickers. You know, these these people are generally considered noncombatants. And there was a memo done that said, no, we're at war. These are combatants and now we can kill them. that is going to be a very contested point and reporting has suggested that some of the people that were killed were not even narco-terrorists so that's going to be a contested point listen this isn't without precedent president obama there are a lot of dirty hands president obama killed a u.s citizen in somalia with a reaper strike killed him without you know without prejudice no no no hearing he was a u.s citizen living in somalia boom you're dead right there was no hearing, there was no impeachment.

12:51So it's a little bit, it's a little bit, you know, sketchy in terms of like throwing stones. But when you go out there and say these people should die and make that kind of statement, there's a lot of folks on the Republican side of the aisle in the military, support the military to think, hey, maybe we shouldn't be doing that with these folks. Normally what they had done, the Coast Guard had done for years is they have 50 cows, they fly in helicopters, they shoot out the engines, they capture these folks, they put them in prison and And they go away. Right now we're smoking them. I don't think it impacts the drug trade at all.

13:22I think it's it's it's performative largely has no impact. Actually, I think cocaine prices have gone gone down since we've been doing this, not up. So it's been ineffective is essentially been ineffective. And it might be and it might be and it might be illegal. Right. And so that is something that if we as Americans, the military, right, does the right thing always. Right. We're the good guys. We're the white hat guys in the United States. And so we've got to walk that fine line. And when they push that line to its gray edge, it's not something people in the military like to do. I don't think that the commanders are super comfortable with that.

13:57I don't think a lot of people, when that story came out about those folks floating around, that's very controversial. I think you'll hear a lot about that. Not a lot of the other stuff, not the push-up stuff. So should he be impeached, in your view, David? Listen, I'm not a member of Congress. I think there's questions that need to be answered, right, about who came. But that was a determination made by a bunch of lawyers, said this can happen, and the military executed it, right? So there are lawyers that need to be held accountable. A lot of people should be at the answer for why that decision was made.

14:26The American people deserve an answer on these things. The Congress deserves an answer. They used to have oversight hearings where people would answer. So, you know, we'll see. All right. We're going to have to leave that there. Next, should Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries really be leading the energized Democrats? the left starts a debate. Plus, the Republicans have already started jockeying for 2028, and their elbows are getting pretty sharp. We'll discuss.

15:07Democrats were so dominant in the midterms that some of their leading candidates would still have won had they received zero, zero election day votes. But should their historic gains be attributed to Democratic leadership or to a broader rebuke of Donald Trump? Despite the massive margins, Jon Stewart says the Democratic old guard needs to go. And that starts with Chuck Schumer. Someone has to meet this moment. You have an opportunity to actually govern. Do it. Take it. And one of the first things you need to do is remove that system of seniority from democratic politics. It is a system and it needs to go.

15:54And by the way, they're already like Chuck Schumer deserves a lot of credit for putting together this. Chuck Schumer fought tooth and nail against half of these people. And even if he didn't, he does not understand the urgency of the moment and what the future demands. I truly believe that.

16:18I think this goes to you. Everyone gets the hot seat at this table. It's totally fine. Listen, I was a House Democratic Caucus leadership staffer for a number of years. I ran the whip operation for Jim Clyburn. I was executive director of the House Democrats. Precisely. Six. And first of all, I get I get frustrated because caucus leadership isn't determined by seniority. Right. Hakeem Jeffries hadn't been in Congress for for more than 10 years or whatever. Chuck Schumer has been around a long time. But Chuck Schumer has gotten the votes in his caucus to elect him as leader. That is why Chuck Schumer is the leader.

16:55He he does the things. Will he stay the leader, I guess, is the question here. And what I want to just votes. Does he? Are you sure? I'm pretty certain that Chuck Schumer has the votes. Now, you know, my personal opinion is my personal opinion. But ultimately, it's all about do you have the votes or do you not have the votes? Well, I want to play, you know, there's a bunch of people coming. Yeah, because there's a bunch of people coming in. I want to play a little compilation of when people are asking this question of what they said today. Here's Senator-elect Annie Andrews and then Cory Booker.

17:31When you were campaigning, you said, we're not going to vote for Chuck Schumer for majority leader. He's going to have a bigger majority now. You still have that vote. I still very much believe that it's time for a generational change on both sides of the aisle. So should he remain as the leader? We're going to have a family conversation. I am a big believer in what we just accomplished and what his leadership has helped deliver. I love Coy Booker. Jimmy, I'm going to do what I did to David to you. Should Chuck Schumer be the leader? Not can he be the leader, but should he be the leader? I think Leader Schumer can make his case for why he wants to be the leader and continue to be the leader.

18:13A lot of non-answers here. That's a good answer. That's a good answer. But ultimately, the caucus is going to have to make that decision. But what is your opinion? Should he be the leader? I mean, listen, if I were elected to the Senate in 2020, I would have been giving you what my vote was, but I wasn't. So listen, I will say this. It sounds like a no. As someone who's worked in the Senate, the U.S. Senate, right, I can tell you. And, you know, people always say there needs to be term limits on members. People don't understand. Like, if you have term limits on members, then people like he and myself become very powerful staffers, right?

18:44Yeah, exactly. Really powerful staffers and then run the place. Chuck Schumer got where he is because he's a wily old coyote, right? Maybe that's a bad analogy. Wile E. Coyote gets beat by the roadrunner all the time. He does. He's a wily guy. You're kind of making the opposite argument. No, but he's a wily guy. He knows how to make things work. Nancy Pelosi didn't remain in power for so long because of seniority. She remained in power because she would punish people with a hammer if they didn't follow. I think it's easy to overstate Schumer's role in the midterm success. But it's also important to acknowledge that Democrats are very concerned about overplaying their hands in the opposition, so to speak, after the election.

19:30And Schumer was there to be a steady hand, reaching out to the administration, trying to have conversations in a sensible way, and really helping the Democrats steer clear of the kind of scandals that might have actually cost them this windfall. I might have an opposing view, I guess, to this table then. And not that I'm anyone who Democrats should listen to in terms of who should be their party leadership as a former Trump staffer turned critic. But what I will say is that speaking for the voters, they wanted change in this election. That is something that is undeniable. And so many young people came out to vote for young candidates.

20:05And I think that real change happens when there's a change in leadership. So I think that that is what voters want to see. But you can't beat someone with no one, right? You've got to have an alternative. Well, you have to have an alternative. And the real question here, and what I think I'm hearing when I listen to Jon Stewart talk, is not this conversation about whether it should be someone older or someone younger. It's whether or not they should be a kind of dyed-in-the-wool progressive versus someone who is a more moderate candidate. And I think that is the perhaps potential Achilles heel for Democrats going forward.

20:35If they over-presume what their actual mandate is here and who ought to be the centerpiece of the world. Let me be clear. I don't think that it should be a progressive by any means. It needs to be someone, like you said, who's able to cut deals and understands that they need to show that to voters because voters didn't elect them to just go after Trump and be Trump, Trump, Trump. They actually want them to govern and get things done. So it needs to be someone who's capable of that. One of the big lessons of this election, that your coalition can evaporate within one cycle if you do not, you know, serve their needs.

21:13I mean, look at what happened in this election versus the last election. The shift towards Democrats from 18 to 29 year olds, 33 percent from 30 to 44 year olds, 24 percent. young voters shifted to Democrats in unprecedented numbers. They came out to vote young, diverse voters. These were people, young men in particular, that Trump had dominated. They came over to the Democrats. You can lose those people just as quickly. But Democrats have an optics problem, I think, with this in the sense that, because I agree mostly with what you said, but I think the implicit statement from John Stewart was, yeah, they are too old.

21:54You have someone who is very old. He carries himself old. He looks old. And you just had a whole bunch of exciting younger people get elected. It doesn't mean you should put a younger person into that position. But there was clearly a pushback to the establishment. And this is a guy who's the king establishment. And what I don't think Chuck Schumer wants to deal with and the Democrats shouldn't want to deal with, which is why I kind of hope it happens, is that you don't want a whole bunch of people saying, no, he's not my leader. The new batch of these senators who come in and say, no, I'm voting against this person, even if Chuck Schumer has the numbers, it's not just about the numbers.

22:28It's about whether or not it's going to seem chaotic from the beginning. And that was a real problem on the House side for Mike Johnson. It was a slightly different dynamic going on. But do you really want that to be the first few days? I submit this. I submit this. It is irrelevant who the leader is. What people want to see in America is what H.R. 1 is, right? If the Democrats come out and they move a bill, whether it's the Stock Act, whatever it is, they have to show progress immediately. If they could pass a bill and get it to the House and get it to get it to the Senate, get it passed, that shows progress.

23:03It doesn't matter. I cannot even tell you how much I disagree with what you just said, that it doesn't matter who the leader is. I'm not telling you, that's an optics matter. It does matter because only someone who could cut deals, right? Because you're not going to pass a bill in the Senate. You're not going to get 60 votes unless you can cut a deal. And if you put some progressive in their ideologue who's not going to want to negotiate, you're dead. Well, there's been one Democrat name that I've heard be spoken, Van Hollen. Van Hollen. You'll know if there's an actual threat if he comes out and says, yeah, maybe I am interested.

23:36Chris is running for president. He's not running for... Everyone is running for president. Well, you can't run for president and also be the leader at the same time. In the end of the day, this is what people want. Do I have more money in my pocketbook? Are my bills going down? Is my salary going up? Is my housing prices going down? And so there was something. The leader of the Senate is also going to have to negotiate with Donald Trump. There's going to be a lot of things that they're going to have to do. And it's not just optics. But the optics matter, and the position of Schumer, there's just been a lot of people calling for him to step down.

24:17The question is, is it about your age, or is it your ideas and your strategy? Those things are old. It's everything. American people want to see, the people who voted these folks out, and who voted the new people in, they want jingle in their pocket. That's exactly right. And they want to see no insider trading. Just look at look what the polls say, right? The young people, the way the demographics break down, those are people who are impacted the most by the economy. They want someone who knows what a meme is. I mean, part of what AOC is doing is she knows how to speak to younger audiences. And Chuck Schumer doesn't know how to use his iPhone.

24:53Well, he doesn't have an iPhone. We have to flip phone famously. We're going to have to leave it there on that note. Next, the Republican presidential hopefuls are already surprise, surprise, jockeying for position. We'll take a look at the early field and how they are dealing with the president.

25:23Has this week's political earthquake reshaped the 2028 landscape for Republicans? J.D. Vance, who many viewed as Donald Trump's successor, appeared to test drive his own future platform just hours after his party's major losses and rallied angry Republicans to get back to the work of saving our country. But here is what President Trump said about his own VP's bid when asked about it. We'll see what happens. Everybody, you don't know who's talking about running. You can have people running. You're going to have a lot of people, maybe a lot of people running. Maybe nobody's going to run. Maybe he won't run.

26:06Meanwhile, other potential GOP hopefuls were quick to publicly diagnose what went wrong and lay their own stake in the ground. We really got blasted into oblivion. And Florida's kind of the last one standing because Texas had been our other big anchor. Florida and Texas, certainly for the last 20, 25 years. And now we are really the last one. As we sit here today, I am the only statewide elected Republican who remains in Texas. We will bring Texas back. I am filled with hope and optimism. Texas will be red again. But it is always darkest before the dawn. And morning is coming. Or as David Irvin said, sometimes it's a train actually coming down the tracks.

27:09Sarah, what exactly do you think the chances are that J.D. Vance becomes the nominee in 2028? None. Absolutely zero. I won because he's a terrible candidate and has the charisma of a wet sock. But on top of that, I think that Tuesday's Tuesday night's results proved that people are rejecting this administration in their record of failure. People are pretty angry with the president and I believe the entire administration. So even though people are also floating Marco Rubio, I think that he's going to have a tough time making a presidential run in 2028 as well, because they're tied to these policies.

27:47It's the same issue that Kamala Harris had where she couldn't distance herself from Biden. And she didn't do it when she was asked to on The View. Obviously, we all remember that moment. And she should have tried to at least distance herself. And that's what we're seeing J.D. do, where he posted this lengthy tweet on X saying all the failures of the administration. But it's like, hmm, you realize that you're in charge. These are your failures. You own them. You can't really distance yourself from you guys starting a war or imposing tariffs that made the cost of everything go up or not releasing the Epstein files.

28:22I mean, I could keep going, but I think that he his there's no chance of him being president. And so I hope that it was worth it for him. You know, I'm someone who believes that he sold his soul. He went from calling Trump America's Hitler to being his vice president. And so I think that, you know, was it worth it, J.D.? Doesn't look like it was. And so but I think that a lot of the administration folks are also going to have a hard time with it. Marco Rubio included. Jason, Marco Rubio will have no problem whatsoever. And when you talk to Democrats privately, they all pretty much say the same thing is that they don't want to go up against Marco Rubio.

28:58They'll obviously tie him to the president. There's no doubt about that. But when you compare Rubio and Vance, Vance is more clearly tied to this than Rubio. Whether or not that's fair doesn't matter. The perception is he's the adult in the room. And when he speaks, he does inspire a lot of people. And he's likable. But Ron DeSantis is another name that is going to be a really big contender here. He has run Florida. He went from winning by 0.4 percent to becoming the most popular figure in Florida politics. And he's been able to turn that state around to the point where folks are flocking to move to Florida.

29:34He has to appeal to Ron. But why did his, you know, push to become president fizzle? I mean, because he was going up against President Trump and that was not easy. But the good news for DeSantis is that he's able to not alienate the MAGA base. He still appeals to them while still also appealing to conservatives. If DeSantis doesn't try to run like he did before and try to be Trump light, then I think that he actually stands a very good chance in 2028. And he has the perfect case to make. I mean, his state was the only state that held the line. He will make the case. He's made it already today.

30:15He said Trump is a generational politician, once in a generational talent. Nobody can ever fill the void. And those things are all factually correct. And he's like, I think we need to have somebody focus on policy. He's a policy wonk. People, you know, they want good policy. Marco Rubio, on the hand, is the king of memes. To your point, if memes, you know, memes rule the next election, Marco Rubio, every you know, he's in every meme about everything from from the Pope. To this point, though, I want to play a little bit of Ron DeSantis. He was asked if Republicans should move away from Trumpism.

30:48And this is what he said. President Trump is a unique figure in American political history because he had a unique brand. And the reality is, is there's nobody in our party, you know, that has that outsized persona and brand. And so how do you then go going forward? I think it's got to be, you know, based on what are we trying to accomplish? What do we stand for? I think we're going to move into an ideas based future because I don't think there's anybody that would be able to take up all the oxygen in the room the way the president can. All the oxygen in the room. It's a little bit of a double edged.

31:28Can I just remind us, in 2015, the late Lindsey Graham said, if we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed and we will deserve it. Right. We saw this election. These guys who are running in 2020 are going to have a choice because you also know Donald Trump is he is not going to go away. Either you're going to have to rubber stamp him and he will be all for you. Or if you decide to venture off of that territory, Donald Trump is going to destroy you. J.D. Vance just ventured off of that territory with that tweet. And that was done with, presumably, the knowledge of the president, at least to an extent.

32:06Listen, J.D. Vance is damaged goods. Oh, I agree. I think Vance is harmed. When he doubled down on Vivek's ad, that killed any chance for him to be president of the United States. Yeah, it's just unwisely permanent. And I will say that Newt Gringrich agrees with you because he offered up this damning 2028 outlook. He wrote, if the administration had won a big victory, Vice President J.D. Vance would have had an enormous argument to be the inevitable nominee. Now, with this go slow strategy blowing up in Iran, his defense of Vivek Ramaswamy's horrible, inhumane ad featuring his opponent's mother attacking her own daughter, a good bit of the luster has come off the bloom.

32:44The number of people who want to draft Secretary of State Marco Rubio is staggering. Donald Trump likes a competition, and he will go with the person who he thinks he's the apprentice. I don't think he's the kingmaker at this point. Look, DeSantis, of all the people we've talked about, DeSantis is the only one, I think, that has a viable shot. He was over there in Florida getting the job done, doing great things for his state in general. He has a good resume to run on. His actual statements subsequent to the defeat, he's talked openly about the one issue beyond affordability, corruption, in a very clear and coherent way that J.D.

33:20Vance simply can't do. To date, J.D. Vance apparently is still unaware of there being any kind of whiff of corruption surrounding the administration he works for. It's just not credible. And even Ted Cruz, who used a very strange phrase in his video that this was a Watergate-esque repudiation, couldn't find a way to talk about corruption, a real tangible issue that voters care about in a way that actually made any sense. But just like the Democrats will have a multitude of candidates, if there's an opening, everyone's in the pool. You're going to have everybody who's ever dreamed of running for president.

33:53On the Republican side, Nikki Haley's back in the pool. Christie's in the pool. everybody's going to throw their name in. On that list, Duke Gingrich says Pete Hegseth. He mentions Pete Hegseth's name. I can't believe it. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. There'll be a large group of people on the stage, just like there's going to be in the Democratic primary. And I think that's good for both parties. I think that's good for Republicans. I agree. People have this debate and have an open, you know, and the best, let's have the best candidate win. I want that. Everybody wants that. And the big question remains, Donald Trump, how much influence will he have in that process?

34:29As he points out, I think to the day Donald Trump dies, he will have a large influence in Republican politics. He is a unique figure and it will go down in history, like him or not. And I'm not sure that it might bode well for Republicans in 2028. Next, Democratic Socialists will soon be in charge of Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. And New York City's mayor, Zoran Mamdani, calls it a new dawn in America. We'll discuss.

35:10Zoran Mamdani now has some company. CNN projects that Nithya Rahman will win the Los Angeles mayoral race and Janice Lewis-George will be the next mayor of Washington, D.C. Taken together, it means the nation's two largest cities and capital will be led by democratic socialists next year, and they aren't alone. Seven DSA congressional candidates rode to victory in reliably blue districts across the nation this week, and they're demanding serious changes to American society. Energized by the victories, here's Mayor Mamdani. This country has elected a new generation of leadership. A generation with a mandate to lower the cost of living, to build, not bomb, to never betray the working people who entrusted them with power.

35:58Foot on the gas. This is the moment where we are seeing people across this country vote for a politics that will mean something. It's a new dawn in America. It's a new day in America. A lot of discussion of dawn here, by the way. Is this a good thing? I mean, it's interesting that there are mayors doing this. Mayor Mamdani is extremely popular. You know, they're calling them sewer socialists, socialists who are actually trying to get things done. And so, you know, is it a bad thing that some of these mayors are going to be taking on some of the thorniest issues in our American cities? They're charismatic, they're energetic, and they have very fanciful ideas in a number of cases.

36:47I mean, Mayor Ramdhani is a guy who is obviously very popular, who lots of people want to hear from. But state-run grocery stores, free buses, any number of other eccentric ideas that are being articulated by these folks. I mean, listen, Medicare for All is something that is very popular among Democrats. But I can tell you that health care becomes so much more expensive and ineffective in ways that matter consequentially when it is, quote unquote, free. I think those are realities that Americans are going to find themselves getting familiar with very, very quickly. And competent people on the other side can talk about this stuff in ways that aren't merely sensationalist.

37:25They're going to talk about Denmark. They're going to mention all of these other places where particular kinds of policies have worked for those places. but they cannot piecemeal be brought over to the United States unless you plan to raise taxes on people who make$70 ,000 a year to 50 or 60 percent. I just want to bring back the demographics of what we just saw, which was young people. And not only that, what happened under the Trump administration was that health care became what was unaffordable is now wildly unaffordable. I mean, this is just talk to anybody about this. you cannot get your co-pays now to cover anything.

38:06You cannot get health care. You are waiting in line forever just to see a doctor. It is very, very difficult, and it is a big issue in this country. Well, that's not to be clear. I think you're exaggerating quite dramatically. Yes, I have. I've been able to get doctors in a city. I've been able I was in the emergency room a few months ago, and I was there for like 45 minutes in Seattle. It was a little bit busy. I'm just simply saying there are issues. There's no doubt about that. But this idea that you can't find a doctor, that's obviously not true. It's not that you can't find a doctor, but that people are hugely dissatisfied.

38:39People might be dissatisfied and people do have to respond to that. But it's not just dissatisfied. It's that health care, what they are putting out here is that health care is a right, that you should not die in this country for lack of being not able to afford. But that's not They're saying health insurance coverage is a right, which it is not. Health care coverage you can get. You might not be satisfied and we might have to do some more things on the bottom end of all of this. I think that that's true. But this idea that you're going to say we should go to a socialized form of medicine, point to other countries that have that.

39:13And you're waiting in lines well longer than what you just described. What is the Republican answer to that? I mean, because what we've seen in the Trump administration is literally just taking health care away from many people in this country without really putting forward any vision. And closing rural hospitals. And we've been waiting on the Republican health care plan for over a decade now. This is true. And they have not produced one yet. But I will say that, you know, if Democrats want to pass something like Medicare for all, like maybe they give Trump some made up award and maybe he would sign something like that into law.

39:42But I really do think, though, that if they wanted to do something like that, they'd be overplaying their hand a bit. I think that voters don't want to see them just go totally far left progressive agenda. I know there are progressives within the party who want that. But I think that overall, the reason that they had these massive victories in some of these ruby red states, these people don't want to see a totally far left agenda. Last thought to you, Jamie. Yeah, I think what voters really want, I don't think they're really caught up in the socialism versus capitalism, because most people are like, all that is academic stuff.

40:18They can't define it. Yeah, they can't really define it. What it is is it's too expensive, and I can't live. And these people sound like they have some idea that is going to make it less expensive for me, so if they're going to do that, then I'm going to try them out. And I think that's where the American people are. And let's wait and see if Mayor Mondami actually does anything. Yeah. Right. Is one he's in how many this a year? Let's wait for it. Let's wait for a year. He would argue he's already fulfilled his campaign promise. Next, we'll react to your feedback from CNN dot com slash Abby.

41:02Now, my favorite part, viewer feedback from CNN dot com. dot com slash Abby. What did y 'all say? All right. I think this is one. This is one that's going to you, David Urban, who might be the top three replacements for Hexeth if if indeed he leaves. Oh, well, interesting. If I would think that depending on the outcome of the Dan Sullivan race, I'd say Dan Sullivan could get confirmed. He's a U.S. senator. Look for someone who's already been in kind of roles. Ryan McCarthy was the secretary of the army in the previous administration, highly thought of. Mike Waltz at the UN, highly thought of. So those are top three names at the top of my list.

41:42Tom Cotton. Tom Cotton. But he didn't want it the first time. But things change. All right. More on this. As someone who served in the U.S. Navy, one person writes for eight years, I believe it will take years to undo the damage Hexeth has done at the DOD. Another viewer says, I honestly don't think Trump is capable for another two years. I truly feel he most times has no idea what is going on. And I actually, I understand that you are shaking your head, but there was something pretty remarkable about the day after the shellacking, he decides to go out in front of the nation and talk about the ballroom yet again.

42:24I do think he's incognitive inclined, but I think he also just doesn't care about the future of the Republican Party. He's only ever cared about himself. So I think that's why we saw the indifference to the results. Clearly, he's not indifferent to the results. He's taking calls the same night. Well, he cares more about the ballroom than he does about the future of the Republican Party. He was on TV the night that it happened, and he was answering questions for about 25 minutes, and it was a sobering interview. You might not like the guy. Talked to Fox. He called him next morning. Yeah, he's very active on this.

42:50So why go in front of the ballroom, then? Why do that? He wants to change the narrative. If people showed how upset they were. Because, yeah, it's part of changing the narrative, but it's also something he likes. He did the proclamation today that basically said the biggest issue in front of the American people, he needs a proclamation to say that the next person that becomes president can't change his decorations in the white. Well, another viewer agrees with you, Jamie. Trump is more concerned at this point about the next president taking down all of his fake gold stuff in the Oval Office. We're going to end with a couple more.

43:21Sarah Matthews is incredible. I wish she would run for office. Any plans, Sarah? I think this is a moment to announce it. No plans at this time, but never say never. I love my state of Ohio, and I was really proud of them to see them reject Vivek Ramaswamy after his vile attack out against Amy Acton, but no plans. All right, we got to go. We got to leave it there. Even though one person said, is Camille wearing Lulu's glasses from last week? The answer is no. Before we go, you can stream the show live or watch On Demand anytime with an all-access subscription. And thank you for watching Newsnight.

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