Hegseth to Hold Press Conference Tomorrow Amid Impeachment Threat

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1:06The new Congress isn't even seated yet, but Capitol Hill is already barreling toward the first impeachment showdown. Looks like several Republicans may actually be on board. Good evening, everyone. I'm Laura Coates. I've got my panel here for the hour to break down the fight over Pete Heggs' future and the political battles already brewing just a week after the midterms. I'll talk with Joanna Mendoza, an incoming freshman congresswoman and Marine veteran who flipped a red district in Arizona. You know what? I want you to join me in our coverage. So send us your questions, your comments to CNN dot com slash engage politics.

1:44We'll answer them live on air this hour. You know, in about what, nine hours from now, Pete Hegseth is going to have to go before reporters with his job under threat. Secretary of Defense is holding a rare press conference at the Pentagon tomorrow morning. It wasn't always rare, I should mention, but now it is. And now he's doing it after Republican Thomas Massey once again introduced articles of impeachment against him. A vote could come as soon as this very week. And Hegseth says he's not worried. As of tonight, he still has the support of the man who can fire him. Can you stand by when he had said he was impeached?

2:24Yeah, I'll stand by. So even if he's impeached, you're going to keep him as your defense secretary. He won two wars. He was in charge. We all won. Massey says he carried out a legal axe. You what? Massey says that he's carried out a legal axe. Massey's a loser. Well, Trump may be standing by his defense secretary for now. But when it comes to the president's own words on immigration, well, he's all over the map. Exhibit A. President Trump's interview with 60 Minutes released just yesterday, where he actually second-guessed one of his own policies. So you think your deportation policy went too far?

3:01It was too tough. I think it might be too tough, yeah. What would happen? What does the deal look like with the Democrats? I think ultimately that hurt me. Well, the deal would be we would work something out, and I think that's something that's actually doable. Doable to create some kind of legal status for the landscapers? Yeah. Let the people that are here, and in some cases here for 10 and 15 years, work a deal for them. You think the Democratic Party right now has people in it who would be interested in this kind of deal? I think so, yeah. People have already called me. That all sounds like a pretty big U-turn from what his administration has been saying, doesn't it?

3:41If you've been here five years or 20 years, you still broke our nation's hold. I don't care how long ago it was, you still broke the nation's walls. And you're going to go, we're going to hunt you down, we're going to send you back. If you're in the country illegally, you're on the table. Are you lawfully in the United States? No. If you are not, then you should go home. Now, if you thought Trump's interview last night made it seem like he was changing his immigration policy, well, let me show you Exhibit B. The president's impromptu press conference today at the White House. And there was one word he wanted nothing to do with.

4:18They came in illegally. Many of them have good jobs now. They're productive. Some of them are even paying taxes. And we're seeing what's going to happen. There won't be amnesty. Somebody suggested, will there be amnesty? No. My policy hasn't changed. So which is it? Is he rethinking his immigration policy or doubling down? Well, this might be the tell. The man who built his hardline immigration policy. Well, now you'll call him the White House chief of staff. Here to break it all down, CNN political commentators for Michael Singleton, former senior spokesperson for the Harris-Waltz campaign, Adrian Elrod, advisory board member of the Renew Democracy Initiative, Reena Shah, former DNC vice chair, David Hogg, and lead global security analyst for Washington Post intelligence, Josh Rogan.

5:09Glad you're all here with me. I want to begin with you, Josh, because you're having whiplash. In less than 24 hours, he's gone from admitting his immigration policy was too tough to his administration floating a DACA compromise to an immediate firestorm from his own base. Is he actually trying to change course on this issue? You know, I think what we're going to see here over the next weeks is a ploy by both sides to appear to be seeking a bipartisan solution and cooperation in order to deflect blame to the other side when that bipartisan initiative inevitably fails. Because the fundamentals of the politics haven't changed.

5:50The president obviously appointed the most anti-immigration staffer. He has to be his new White House chief of staff. And he already backtracked on the little bit of room he gave only one day after the 60 Minutes interview. So it's 100 percent predictable that these two sides will not be able to come to some sort of agreement. They're just too far apart. The damage on immigration has already been done. Democrats were elected to oppose the administration's immigration policy, not to join it. Nevertheless, they know that the politics dictate that they should appear to be conciliatory. So it's a kabuki act where both sides pretend to be moving towards the center so that when it all falls apart, they can point the finger at the other side and they'll both be right, quite unfortunately.

6:33Yeah, I think Josh is correct. I mean, we've been here so many times going all the way back to the George W. Bush administration. Republicans typically disagree with Democrats on what do you do with those who are already in the country? Do you give them some type of legal status? Do you, I think as Hillary Clinton articulated years ago, do you attach and associate a fine with those who are already here based on the length of time they've been here? I mean, we've seen every type of creative policy proposition proposed by Dems and Republicans, and yet they have never gotten close to this. I mean, once when John McCain, I think, was still living, was the closest we ever finally saw.

7:07People thought, oh, we're going to get there. We're finally going to figure this out. And then it all fell within hours of them finally coming to a resolution. So I don't think we're going to get there. I think the president may be sincere a little bit after recognizing what happened just a couple of days ago. But I think to your point, you look at Stephen Miller, who's who has a history of being a hardliner on immigration. You're already seeing a number of of extremely conservative individuals within the Senate, some in the House, even some influencers who are saying this is not what we voted for.

7:35You have a lot of people. I mean, not just that. You've got a lot of influential MAGA voices who are saying, you promised us, what was the phrasing? Endless war, zero wars, mass deportations are getting endless wars and amnesty instead, even though he is saying no amnesty. I mean, does Trump have a lot more to lose if he compromises or if he refuses to do so here? I think it all goes back to legacy again, because if I'm listening sort of through the lines of what he said, I heard pathway to citizenship. And that will be what? Well, I think pathway to citizenship. I actually think this guy is going to go to that.

8:09I think he knows he can't do the amnesty and he knows his immigration policy has gone too far. And especially when you've got enforcers like Tom Homan, who are like no mercy type of people. He's trying to find that in between so he doesn't come out looking like a total clown because at the end of the day, he wants to be loved. He wants to be remembered. And if he can be remembered for something, even if it was even if it was so far away from where he started, I think he'll do that. But I would implore this administration. I mean, I don't have much faith in them, especially with Stephen Miller day one today, a guy who hates any form of color, especially what's on my skin.

8:41But I will say this. Which of course he would take issue with and deny, as you know. I mean, but, you know, look, actions speak louder than words. I will just say this. We have never addressed the problem of visa overstays in this country. And as the daughter of two legal immigrants who have sponsored many people, spent thousands of dollars. I watched my whole childhood of, yes, chain migration. My parents were able to bring over people who wanted to be here, who joined the workforce right away and did well. But we paid thousands to help those people get here. We did it the right way. So I take great issue with anybody who jumps the line.

9:12But I know what the problem is, and it's visa overstays. There's nobody on the Hill who talks about that anymore. I think once upon a time, Ted Cruz did. And nobody talks about actually getting to the root cause of this awfully broken system. Well, go ahead, David. What's your thought? Is it broken? Of course it is. Honestly, I think it's working just the way it's supposed to. Like, we've built a system where people are, millions of people are put into legal peril, are able to be paid subprime, you know, wages with the threat of deportation. And it is a system that is holding up much of our economy right now.

9:47And it's horrible that it's like that. But that's part of the reason why I don't think this is not going to get solved for a long time. And I hope that I'm wrong. I hope that Trump actually and Democrats actually do fix this system. But I think the reason why there are millions of people in legal peril right now is because it is so much easier to exploit those people and pay them far under, you know, minimum wage and give them awful working conditions across this country. That's why I think we're in this position. I think we can go back and forth all we want of, well, you know, we can talk about overstating visas.

10:16We can talk about all this stuff. But we're not addressing the fundamental underlying economics, which is that there are massive corporations that benefit from undocumented workers in this country, exploiting them and ensuring that they cannot go and seek help when they are under this form of mass exploitation, because they are constantly living under the threat and the specter of deportation. I'll tell you, I certainly seen that in the criminal context, particularly people who have been victimized, that there is a tendency not to report and go because the consequences are far too dire. I want to hear your point, but I also want to get this viewer question.

10:47I want to hear from you as well, Adrienne. We have a viewer question out there. Call me crazy, but I think Miller, being the new chief of staff, only helps Dems politically in 2028, no? Correct. Yes, that is correct. I mean, look, you know, the night that Democrats had, you know, a very historic win on Tuesday night, the next morning or somewhere over the course of the night, President Trump said, I want to work with Democrats. You know, he struck a very conciliatory tone. And then we saw him appoint Stephen Miller. And then we saw him really lean into the MAGA roots that have taken him this far.

11:21So I don't have a lot of faith that he's going to be able to strike a balance here and work with Democrats. I do think he's got this two-year period, the very end of his two terms, to really create some legacy actions and items that will be a part of who he is and a part of his biography. He could certainly work with Democrats across the board. He has no choice because Republicans have so little, if no, power. Of course, appointing Stephen Miller is the antithesis of what he said he was going to do on Tuesday night when Democrats had the historic wins. We'll see how things go, but my guess is it's not going to be a cooperative White House with the Democrats.

11:55Trump is going to lean into his MAGA base, which is disappearing by the day. Well, he's leaning in, by the way, to Secretary Pete Hegseth at this point as well as you guys. You've heard him talk about that, and he is facing something this week. I mean, you could think to yourself, possibly, Josh, why not fire him? Why not ask him to resign? Avoid the spectacle, albeit Democrats feel it's justified. Avoid the spectacle. Avoid the impeachment proceedings. Why not do that? What is his goal of allowing him to stay? You know, in any normal political environment, getting impeached would be a bad thing for a cabinet member.

12:32But in Trump's mind, in Hexack's mind, this is a badge of honor. and what Thomas Massey has done is inadvertently thrown Pete Hegseth the lifeline. A week ago, we all thought he was on his way out the door. Now he's got the full backing of the president and he's making content off of it. And this is the perverse incentive that's built into the Trump administration. When they're under attack, that's when they're in their happy place. And now Trump is forced to back Hegseth. He's got better job security than all of us here at the table because now he can play the martyr. And that's what's about to happen.

13:04So, you know, whether or not you believe Pete Hesedek should be impeached, and I think out of those eight articles, there are some real crimes alleged there that I think could be litigated. But that's not what's about to happen. We're going to have a rushed impeachment. It is mostly for show. And he won't be convicted in the Senate, whether that happens in this Congress or the next. And then he'll have something to brag about in his mind. He'll be able to, again, sort of pretend that all of his misdeeds are just really an attack on him by the woke left. And that will protect him in that MAGA world that he cares about quite perversely.

13:41Do you think in some ways, though, I mean, just for the reason that was whiplash already, what his tone was on Tuesday versus now, President Trump is not known for being consistent in all things. And I could easily foresee a moment when somebody goes from going in the graces to being scapegoated for policy decisions. Don't you think so? I mean, look, anything's possible. I don't know if I would want this distraction. I mean, you mentioned immigration being a consideration for the president in terms of his legacy. I'm not certain if this is the policy that I would focus on in terms of legacy. I'm thinking more like Social Security, Medicare.

14:18Medicare. The war in Iran is part of his legacy. So cost of living, I would agree. I think there's some things. But focus on the war, excuse me, focus on the war in Iran, because that is what he and his vice president and others have looked at, that ties to affordability, that is now part of his legacy. And if Hegseth is threatening with impeachment, how does he reconcile keeping him and preserving his legacy? Well, look, I don't think I would keep him because it's a distraction at this point. And I don't think you have the room nor the political capital for distractions, which is the point I was going to ultimately get to.

14:54I think the president has to look at this and say, look, you've served me for two years. That's great. We have to resolve this. How do you resolve this in a way that doesn't leave Tehran feeling that they're in a stronger position, a stronger posture than before? I'm actually not clear on how this resolves in the next two years. I think you've got to bring the Saudi Arabians to the table here to help us out. The Jordanians have to come to the table to help us out. And the question is, what is their level of willingness to be engaged in those conversations? I'm not sure. So I think you need to have someone who's capable, who knows that part of the world, understands the politics, understands the region and the history to help the president arrive to something more conclusive than what we've seen thus far.

15:34Probably not Jared Kushner. I don't think either of those are the two people. And, you know, if President Trump is going to say everything's going great in Iran, in that case, Pete Hegseth is he's got to stick by Pete Hegseth. in order to maintain that story. So if he's going to perpetuate the lie that the war is going well, Pete Hegg says this is the perfect secretary of defense to continue to perpetuate that lie. Everyone stand by. Still ahead, Todd Blanch issues a warning to Democrats as their list of investigative targets grows by the day, from the Trump family to corporate America. What will it actually take to build these cases?

16:09Tim Heafy did it for January 6th as the committee's chief legal counsel. He's got some advice to share next.

16:28We'll be right back.

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17:25Department of Justice lawyers represent members of the executive, and the fact that Congressman Garcia is critical of that shows a remarkable lack of understanding of how government works, and I would be very worried if I was a member on that committee. That's the Attorney General Todd Blant sending a certain warning to Democrats vowing to investigate the Trump administration. Of course, that was Sunday. As you know, opinions can change quickly in Trump world. Here's Blanche today, 24 hours after saying that. Congress has, you know, oversight authority. It always has. It always will. The Department of Justice, the federal government works with Congress to address questions they have, whether it's through subpoenas or letters.

18:08And so we're not going to stop working with Congress or or allowing them to conduct their oversight responsibilities. And nothing I've said this weekend or in the past should suggest otherwise. My next guest is all about investigating Trump in his inner circle. He was the lead investigator for the January 6th committee and a former federal prosecutor. And Tim Heafy joins me now. Tim, good to see you. How do you interpret what Blanche said? Yeah, Laura, look, he's trying to walk a fine line between acknowledging appropriate congressional oversight and trying to send a message that the Department of Justice will be prepared to step in and try to assert some sort of privilege or step in the way of congressional oversight of other executive agencies or third parties.

18:58He can't write off Congress. Congress, as he acknowledges, has an oversight role. And he himself, my guess is, will be called to testify before Congress. But it sounds like he's forecasting a fairly robust defense of other executive branch officials or even third parties, government contractors, which would be sort of unusual given past practice. Well, we already know some House committees are looking for new counsel to join next Congress. You were on the January 6th committee. You know, people are looking at the balance and the needle threading that you have described and wondering what it would actually take in terms of manpower, time, focus and the scope of the investigation for Democrats to actually be successful in the investigations.

19:42What does it take to pull it off? Yeah, Laura, look, it takes resources and it takes coordination. I mean, one of the things I heard Congressman Garcia say, I think on CNN this weekend, was that there's already been some discussion with the protective potential leadership of the House and other committee chairs, essentially dividing the playing field as to which committees will take which investigations. That's crucial because, again, limited bandwidth and you can't look at everything. You don't want to be a mile wide and an inch deep, right, to be effective. I think Congressman Garcia's committee, Congressman Raskin's committee will focus on certain patterns and try to develop sort of significant facts about those patterns instead of casting a wide net and trying to focus on absolutely everything that the administration has done.

20:31I want you to unpack further for the audience the idea of privilege and why you believe what Saad Blanch had to say indicates that privileges will be asserted and how they intend predictably to try to guard against that. Yeah. So when a witness is given a letter from Congress or a subpoena, he or she or it, if it's an entity, can comply or can assert some sort of privilege, just like any other proceeding. It could be a Fifth Amendment privilege if the cooperation might get you in trouble. It could be something called executive privilege that the White House maintains to preserve the integrity of communications between the president and his top advisors.

21:13What I have heard is that this administration will take a very, very wide interpretation of executive privilege and potentially assert it, not just when White House officials are subpoenaed, Laura, but when third parties who had communications with the White House are subpoenaed. The White House may step in and say, hey, you're not entitled, Congress, to access that because that's covered by executive privilege. Ultimately, that's a question for the courts. I think you'll see a lot of litigation over the scope of executive privilege. and we'll see how that goes. I think the administration's view that absolutely everything that touches the White House is covered by executive privilege is unlikely to survive the scrutiny of courts of law.

21:53But what you describe takes time to litigate those issues, to go to court, could possibly lead to a protracted proceeding. Just give me your ballpark figure here, Tim, in terms of the amount of time you think it would take to not be a mile wide and an inch deep, an investigation that has this type of scope with privileges at stake? Yeah, look, Laura, the ultimate measure of the effectiveness of a congressional investigation are the facts that it develops. That is what will ultimately judge the efficacy of this or any Congress. I think there are a lot of facts out there that we already know from reporting, from private litigation, that they will start with that will establish a sound evidentiary foundation.

22:37They run the risk of if they're fishing, if they're going beyond facts that will be corroborated and stand up. But in two years, when this Congress sunsets, their ultimate effectiveness will be judged on the facts that they have been able to uncover. I think it's a target rich environment. We'll see how well they do in uncovering those facts. Indeed, Tim Heafy, thank you so much for joining. I want to bring back my panel to the conversation. There's a viewer question of your comment. Excuse me. Here it is. Investigations won't put money back in our pockets. The voters want economy to get better and stop the war, to get bills passed, give the president awards, monuments and name the bills after him.

23:19You'll get everything passed. OK, who wants to say you're who giggled? You got to address it. Look, I think that is the risk that and we've talked about this, the risk that Democrats have. Like, how far do you go with accountability, which I do recognize that many Democratic voters expect, while also focusing on the number one issue in the hearts and minds of many voters' cost of living, gas prices, affordability, access to affordable housing, the ability to purchase your first home. How do they balance that? And I do think they run the risk of it being overshadowed by focusing too much on what they call keeping people accountable.

23:54But, you know, you have been on the ground. All of you have really been talking about these issues. David, from what you're seeing, is a focus, at least in part, on impeachment proceedings or accountability, is that mutually exclusive to the issues of affordability? We've got a big caucus. We have a big caucus with many members that are out there that can do many things at the same time. I think, you know, earlier today I saw a comment by Congresswoman Jayapal that I think summed it up well. And she talked about the three C's that we need to focus on. Corruption, cruelty, and, oh my God, what was the other one?

24:27Costs. Costs. Thank you. It's late at night. It's been a long week. But the point is, we can focus on all those things at the same time. And we've also seen the monumental effects that somebody like Congressman Robert Garcia, who, by the way, is pretty young for being the head of a committee at 48 years old, has been able to do with the Epstein files. People want to know about that out there. That's been one of the most talked about stories because people know that their government is corrupt. They know that there's things going on behind the scenes that they don't know about. and they need to know about and they deserve to know about.

24:59So we can do all these things at the same time. We can both talk about why gas prices are so high, which is because of an illegal war that our president dragged us into that he said wasn't a war for several months and now admits is a war that has cost American lives, caused prices to go up, and also talk about the fact that there are Americans getting literally shot and killed in the street by our own government and it's secret police that are literally roaming around D.C. right now kidnapping people off the street. And when they ask them, who are you, what are you doing? They won't even respond to them.

25:31I want to talk about this is obviously larger issues about, I'm assuming you're talking about ICE and INS activities and immigration. That's been an issue all across the country. But there have been some Democrats who've been skeptical about the balancing of focusing on investigating Trump and wrestling with, and I do mean wrestling with a lot of the issues that are at stake as well on accountability. In fact, here is now Senator-elect Hamilton on that very point. If I spent the next two years, my first two years in the Senate in investigations, I'd be deeply disappointed. I want to get to work helping the people in my state and helping the people across the country.

26:08So what I'm interested in is, yes, let's get guardrails put in place so that we don't see these kinds of things happen again, but let's focus on helping the American people. How do you balance it as a Democrat coming in, knowing you have this majority control and yet you don't want to spin your wheels for two years. Yeah, well first of all, hats off to Senator Hamilton or Senator-elect Hamilton for giving the response that anybody who just slipped a seat in a red state for the first time in a hundred years should give. That's exactly what he should have said. It's very perfect. But look, I mean, going back to what David said, we are a large caucus.

26:41Leader Jeffries, Speaker-elect, soon to be Speaker-elect Jeffries is going to have 259 to 260 members of his caucus. There are people who will conduct oversight. There are people going to be focusing on an affordability agenda. They're all going to be focusing on the same thing in that sense, but we can do both. And it's what the American people expect. Now, when we talk about affordability, yes, that is important to lower costs and lower prices and to enact legislation that will reduce the tariffs or get rid of the tariffs, restore health care subsidies, all the things that we've talked about.

27:11But you also, in order to lower prices, have to conduct oversight. That is just plain and simple the way it is. And then, yes, there are those issues where there are, you know, women, millions of Americans, but also, of course, the victims of Jeffrey Epstein who want to see, you know, their, their, to see their rights restored as victims to, you've covered so well, these crimes. So there is a way to do it all. Now, what we know Trump is going to do is Trump is going to say anytime there's an oversight hearing, anytime there is accountability that has been restored in the administration by this Congress, Democratic Congress, he's going to say that's all we're doing, that's all we care about.

27:47So Democrats have to make sure they're getting their message out in a very effective way to show what they're actually doing for the American people beyond oversight. And the other thing that we – sorry. Oh, I was just saying this conversation is making me miss my staff for days. The other thing that we need to remember, too, though, is that the accountability is also part of an electoral strategy. The largest one of the largest swings that we saw among voters wasn't just Latino voters across the board. It was actually predominantly Mexican-American voters, in particular in places like California's 22nd congressional district, where we saw a district that Trump won by four is now probably going to be won by our candidate that we supported at Leaders We Deserve by over potentially over about 30 percent or 20 percent.

28:26A massive overperformance in a district that's predominantly. There's a process problem here when you get to the Senate. I mean, this all sounds great and perfect in theory. You can pass as much stuff as you want in the House. You need 60 votes to get stuff done in the Senate. And if Republicans deem Democrats as being overzealous in what they call holding people accountable, the president, etc., most of what they deem possible will not be possible. And so I think you have to keep that in mind. And that will ultimately fall on Democrats because they will be in the majority. Well, here's the good news.

28:57We have state legislatures. where we can expand Medicaid for literally millions of people right now because we've won. Everyone stand by. We have more to talk about. I know we want to talk about it. But up next, she flipped a Republican-held seat in a critical Arizona district. Now she's here in Washington as the first female Marine elected to Congress. So what's her party's battle plan for day one? I'm going to ask her here in the studio next. Plus, Hakeem Jeffries preparing to lead his party as speaker, even as he faces questions about just how much support he'll get. That sounds like you don't have it nailed down.

29:33Is that right? You think I don't have the vote nailed down? I'm asking you. You're the vote counter. Do you?

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30:20More than 100 newly elected lawmakers have arrived on Capitol Hill to begin orientation, making it the largest incoming House freshman class since 1933. And tonight we are sitting down with one of them, Democrat Joanna Mendoza, who flipped a critical border seat in Arizona. And she's a 20-year military veteran, the daughter of farm workers, and now the first female Marine ever elected to Congress. With me now, Congresswoman-elect from Arizona's 6th House District, Joanna Mendoza. Thank you so much for being here. Congratulations on your victory. Thank you so much, Laura. It still doesn't seem real.

31:01I'm sure. I mean, it's been not even a full week. And here you are, Congresswoman-elect, making history. And you flipped one of the most competitive districts in the entire country. Yeah. Why do you think it resonated? Well, look, I mean, I think my experience growing up in a working family who often struggled. I mean, my parents worked really hard as farm workers. They still couldn't make ends meet. So we often use the programs that families still use today, the same programs that under this administration and MAGA Republicans voted to cut. SNAP, Medicaid, I mean, those are a hand up for a lot of families, especially families like mine.

31:40And so there's just a lot of suffering. You know, we've toured every corner of the district talking to folks. And what we keep hearing is they just want to be able to afford rent, to be able to provide food for their families, and have a little nest egg for retirement or even just a vacation with the family. And that's not possible right now. Even the prospect of retirement. Oh, my gosh, it's scary. It seems very scary. I mean, it's almost unattainable to most people in our country, surprisingly. And yet everyone's wondering about H.R. 1. I'm always wondering what is going to be, in your mind, the number one priority?

32:18Because we know affordability as a concept. We know the necessity of it. And we've heard that the voters want it resoundingly. What is the most important priority you're going to go forward with? We need to give the American people relief. I mean, it's costs. We need to bring those costs down. And I think we can start with reinstating programs like SNAP and making sure that Medicaid, you know, isn't fully cut. But folks are going to experience that here towards the end of the year in a time where, you know, you get sick, the flu season. And in Arizona, I mean, in our state, in this district, there are a lot of families on access.

32:57So I think we can start there. I mean, reinstate the ACA subsidies. You know, there's a lot of folks who their premiums went up and they just forwent a health care plan because they just couldn't afford it. Hakeem Jeffries, people believe he has the votes, the experience to become the historic Speaker of the House. And yet there are many who are wondering whether everyone's on board with that. Do you believe that Hakeem Jeffries is the right person to lead? Well, look, in this time, in this crisis in our nation right now, I think it's admirable that he is stepping up to do this. I mean, don't see anybody else talking about wanting to become, you know, the next speaker.

33:40And after following, you know, Speaker Pelosi, I mean, anyone who fills that position is going to have big shoes to fill. But if anyone can do it, it's him. I mean, and he's already stepping up. I mean, look at the historic wins that we've seen across the nation this election cycle. I mean, districts that we didn't think we'd be able to flip. And we did. And so, you know, I was talking to a couple of the new member elects and they say, you know, well, you know, we think that, you know, everyone deserves a chance to succeed or fail. And so a lot of folks are calling for him to, you know, give it a shot and see what happens.

34:13Including you? The support of him? I would say yes. Yes. And, you know, I get asked about this all the time. And usually what I say is because it's true is like I'm just focused on trying to get, you know, my head straight and get my my bearings about myself. But I think right now our country needs good, solid leadership. And, you know, if he's up to the task, well, then who am I to say no? Secretary Hegseth faces an impeachment vote this week, as you know. If it fails in the Senate and lands back in the House next year, would you vote to impeach him? 100%. I mean, he has blood on his hands. You know, when people are talking about the war on Iran in terms of gas prices, in my district, we have a lot of military families, veterans, about 80 ,000 veterans call Arizona 6th home.

35:01And, you know, during this election cycle, and especially when the war in Iran first started, we were hearing a lot from parents who were just terrified that, you know, their kids who are serving right now would get sent to Iran. And in some cases, I talked to parents where their kids were pending orders are already there. And, you know, they just, in tears, terrified that their kids are going to come back in flag-draped coffins. Not to mention the military families that were turned away in Bahrain. I mean, we're talking about the special trust and confidence of men and women who have volunteered to give their life and service for this country.

35:35I mean, I did that for 20 years. I led Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, you know, with that leadership comes responsibility. And the responsibility is that you have to make decisions that may potentially put people in danger, but you have to be responsible and not reckless. And what we've seen from him is that he's just, you know, carrying out an agenda that this president wants instead of really actually looking at the people that are serving our country and taking care of them the way that he should be as a leader. Congresswoman-elect Joanna Mendoza, thank you for coming. Appreciate it, Laura.

36:08Thank you so much. Up next, has the blue wave drowned out the GOP's chances at the White House in 2028? or new reporting on what some Republicans are now telling not just J.D. Vance, but anyone thinking of running as a Republican.

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37:30I don't know why you're wasting your time. I'm not going to talk about, yeah, I'm not going to talk about 2028 any longer. I'm just not going to talk about 2028 anymore. But I'm just asking about a comment you've made. And I'm just telling you that, OK, here's my answer. You ready? I'm not going to discuss 2028. I'm not going to discuss it in any form or fashion. Whether Marco Rubio wants to talk about it or not, the countdown to 2028, it's already begun. But after last week's results, some GOP insiders are worried their party's chances in 2028 are not worth talking about. All but over. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Vice President J.D.

38:05Vance has yet to make up his mind even about running, adding, quote, some political allies have told the vice president that they no longer believe any Republican could win a presidential election in two years. As for President Trump, well, so far, he is staying out of it. I assume you're going to endorse someone for that. Probably, not necessarily. What would make you, what are you thinking about when you decide whether or not to endorse someone? We have a tremendous bench. Who would be on the list besides the vice president? Well, I think Marco's great. There are many others, and I'd rather not mention their names.

38:42There's some senators that are excellent. I know them all. I like them a lot. So I may or may not get involved. I don't know. Maybe I'm better off not getting involved. My panel is back with me. Let me start with you, Rena, on this, because if the president keeps his word or questions whether his involvement is useful or not, I mean, is there a Republican nomination? Anyone's ball? I think it's anyone's ball because right now J.D. Vance is running, whether he's saying it or not. He's not hiding anything. Everything he does is a 2028 audition from the travel to the loyalty to even the fights he picks.

39:15And the thing is that he needs Trump's blessing to win a primary, but he needs distance from Trump in order to win a general. And he can't have both. So right now I see J.D. Vance running for Trump's approval. And that's a very bad thing because he clearly does not have it. So I say, hey, Republicans do the right thing and get somebody fresh up in there. Who is that? I mean, I don't know. Probably someone we're not thinking of. I mean, when you think about it, you really have a year, right? Because you're going to probably start seeing serious candidates make clear their plans for 2028 come after summer of 2027.

39:51That's not a lot of time. Democrats control most of the battleground states. They have significant representation across the South, which is a formally stronghold for Republicans. It's going to be really, really tough. Having worked on three presidential campaigns, I don't necessarily disagree with some of the pronouncements from some of those strategists. That's why my focus is gearing towards 2032, where I think we can run a more competitive candidate and also have better odds of winning back the Senate. So who's the Democratic hopeful or hopefuls? There's a lot. I mean, how about Ossoff? Well, I mean, look, if we learn anything from Barack Obama, I worked on Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2008 during the primary.

40:25If we learned anything, it's like you see the moment. This may be Ossoff's moment. It may not be his moment in 2032. So this and he is hot. He is on top of the world, especially among the Democrats. But look, we've also got five or six governors who may run. We've got a couple of really outstanding senators who may run. We have some people like Rahm Emanuel who are, you know, not currently in elected office, but have a lot of leadership behind them who may run. And so I feel very good about our bench as a deep bench. But going back to the Republicans, I mean, look, if I have a Brian Kemp or sort of an old school conservative Republican who not only did not lean into the MAGA wing of the party, but also embrace the fact that they are conservative, I would look at this moment and say this might be my moment to run.

41:05So you want our good candidates to run now, right? I don't think so, Adrian. I don't think so. We're holding our good candidates. Well, the straw poll that came in, I mean, he topped it. John Ossoff topped the straw poll, followed by AOC, by the way, with 17%. I mean, just look at that for a second. This is Crooked Con, a thing that happened over the weekend. Just look at that. I mean, you've got Ossoff, AOC, Buttigieg, and then you've got others who were in the single digits after that. Perhaps people are surprised by Gavin Newsom being at the very end of that. People thought he'd have a lot of momentum about a year ago.

41:39What do you think about this, David? and you look at that straw poll and look ahead to what voters have been asking for on the ground, you talk about change, about not having the status quo. Does that look right to you? Yes. I think it's probably going to come down to John Ossoff. It's going to come down to three people, I think. I think it's going to be Pete, I think it's going to be John Ossoff, and I think it's going to be AOC and who it ends up being. I think it's going to be determined more than anything by how bad the economy is come 2028. The worse it is, the more likely it's going to be AOC.

42:09I don't think you get Barack Obama without the recession right beforehand. People are going to look for more and more radical change as the economy gets worse. And if Trump blocks everything that Democrats try to do around the affordability crisis, we could see an AOC presidency come up and, you know, potentially some others. But what's really exciting to me about all that is those people were actually, you know, are not born in the mid 20th century. You know, there is a truly new generation coming into D.C., both in Congress and potentially into the White House in a few years. But I also want to caution Democrats that think that we're all set here, that this tsunami was amazing.

42:44Our approvals are barely better than Republicans as a party. This was a rejection of Donald Trump and them giving us a chance to lead the country to a better place. But if we fumble that, we could find ourselves in the place that Republicans find themselves in today. But in 2028, we have to deliver. We can do the investigations and deliver. And we shouldn't get caught up in the idea that we can only do one or the other. But we've got to make sure we do things like raise the minimum wage, we repeal the tariffs, and we actually fight to get real accountability from them. How do you do this without the majority in the Senate?

43:14Well, you look at your state legislatures where now we represent over 70 % of the American people. Everything you mentioned. Right there, you can expand Medicaid for millions of people automatically. But how without a bipartisan share? You can raise the minimum wage state by state. You can raise the minimum wage, and we can do that every single day. If we copied the strategy of Mayor Mom Donnie, specifically his communication around every single day saying this is how I'm using government to actually work for you and not special interests. So you'd bypass. But wait, hold on. Well, I don't think he's talking about legislatures, but I want to ask you about this issue.

43:48I mean, is it the appearance? I'm not talking about performative politics. But even if you can accomplish things in the Senate, even if there is a veto from the president, which I'm sure he will use it. are voters asking at least the effort that you try? Yeah, because look, we have a significant majority in the House and we have a significant majority in the Senate. So we can pass legislation. We can pass uniform legislation, cohesive legislation by the House and the Senate all day long. Trump can also veto everything we're doing all day long. But to David's point, yes, we do believe that Trump will probably veto a lot of the things that we've passed.

44:21We have to at least show that we're trying. And then we can actually go down to the states where we do have a significant majority of the state legislatures and actually deliver on some of these promises, while, of course, still trying to work with the president as much as possible to get some of these things done for the American people. I'm looking for policy, but we all know that campaigns take money, and every Republican candidate in the short term is going to be running for Trump's approval because that money is tied to that. And for the Democrats, they're going to have to run on the record.

44:43And my bet for 2028 is the Democrat who runs on their record, likely Ossoff, is going to be more successful, and they're going to have to do the smart move, which is to let the party come to them. Well, and also, Reena, really quickly to your point. I mean, there are a number of Republican senators who are up for reelection in twenty twenty eight and very reddish, purplish states who are going to need to work with Democrats. So we may not have a veto proof majority, but we will get, I think, 60 on a number of. Is Trump going to be cognitively there come twenty twenty eight? He's bragging about how he's doing on these cognitive tests.

45:15That's a whole other conversation. Indeed it is. Thank you, everyone. Remember, you can stream my show live on the CNN app. scan the QR code on your screen or go to cnn.com slash all access to learn more. Thanks for watching. You know who's coming up? The story is with Alex Michelson.

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