Jobs Surge as Unemployment Falls

0:01Wolf Blitzer: Happening now, breaking news stronger than expected. A brand new report showing signs of resiliency in the economy. This while global stocks are reeling after a massive dip in U.S. markets since the midterms. Plus, one-on-one with Congressman James Clyburn. Presidential hopefuls are already calling the Democratic power broker as the jockeying for 2028 begins.

0:24Pamela Brown: And defiant message Pete Hexeth is speaking out amid growing calls to impeach him.

0:33Wolf Blitzer: You see, they attack me, they attack us, because we are effective.

0:39Pamela Brown: Inside a strategy as more and more Republicans are turning against the defense secretary. And later, arch on pause. A federal judge blocks construction of President Trump's project within an hour of the planning commission, greenlighting the project. So what happens now? Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in the Situation Room.

1:13Pamela Brown: This is CNN Breaking News. And we begin this hour with the breaking news. The U.S. economy added 165 ,000 jobs last month, surpassing expectations. New federal data also showing the unemployment rate dropped slightly. This is the first jobs report since Democrats flipped control of Congress this week. And it's a very, very reassuring sign that just a day after markets plunged in response to fears that Democrats will slow down AI growth once in power. Let's go live right now to CNN's senior reporter Matt Egan. And Matt, you're looking at this very closely. This is a pretty good jobs report, right?

1:51Wolf Blitzer: Yeah, absolutely, Wolf. We were expecting a solid jobs report. This was outright strong. Job growth blew away expectations. Prior months were revised higher, and the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell. Let's go through some of these top-line numbers. 165 ,000 jobs were added last month. Not only is that more than double the consensus, this is higher than even the most optimistic forecaster had been expecting. The unemployment rate was expected to stay at 4.2. It didn't. It went down to 4.1%. And this now marks five consecutive years where the unemployment rate is at or below 4.5%. And when we look at the trend for job growth, what's important to call out here is the fact that September was initially reported as a pretty weak number, but it got significantly upgraded because of some revisions that just came in.

2:39Wolf Blitzer: And we also had August was revised higher as well. So we have three straight months of pretty solid job growth that really did beat expectations. So where are the jobs? Look, the good news is that the job growth has been a lot broader than in the past. Yes, it's health care, but it's not just health care. Professional and business services, that's a super sector that includes lawyers, accountants, and many other knowledge workers. Adding 70 ,000 workers. Transportation, 25 ,000. Manufacturing, 19 ,000. That's nice to see. Also, finance adding 7 ,000 and government 6 ,000. However, there were at least two sectors that lost jobs that we should pay close attention to.

3:18Wolf Blitzer: Construction losing 3 ,000 jobs in October. And also leisure and hospitality down 13 ,000. That was mostly bars and restaurants. So still, though, if you look at these numbers, you might wonder why the midterms were all about the economy. And that's because it's really about affordability. And we didn't really get good news on that front. Wages came in at 3.1%. That did beat expectations, but it's not even close to the estimated inflation rate for October at 3.7%. So that means if you adjust your paycheck for inflation, it's actually shrinking. And that really does underscore why people are frustrated with this economy.

3:55Wolf Blitzer: So, yes, Wolf, good news on job growth. However, the problem on the cost of living remains.

4:01Pamela Brown: Of course, good news today. But yesterday, a sell-off wiped out roughly$2.5 trillion from the tech-heavy Nasdaq as investors feared a Democratic-led Congress could slow down the AI industry. What are we seeing this morning?

4:17Wolf Blitzer: Well, Wolf, thankfully, we are seeing some stabilization after yesterday's train wreck. So the Dow is still down again, down just slightly, though, by 150 points. That's about a third of a percentage point. But a significant rebound for the S &P up by almost 1%. The NASDAQ almost 2 % higher. Now, notably, the AI stocks. All of these AI-related stocks, they all plunged yesterday, but they're all moving sharply higher today. NVIDIA, SpaceX, Palantir, Micron, SanDisk, all of them rebounding after historic losses yesterday. So, look, Wolf, I think we can continue to see the market bounce back and forth as investors try to make sense of what's next in the AI boom and how this election changes things.

5:00Wolf Blitzer: Back to you.

5:01Pamela Brown: All right, Matt Egan, thank you very, very much. Pamela.

5:04Wolf Blitzer: All right, Wolf. Happening now, pressure is mounting around Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth following the GOP losses in the midterms, with the Iran war being one of the biggest factors that influenced the outcome of Tuesday's elections. Many Republicans are pinning the blame on Hegseth for his role in the conflict, and sources said the House could vote on impeaching the Defense Secretary in a matter of days. Meanwhile, Pentagon staff are mounting an aggressive defense of the embattled secretary, and Hegseth himself reacted to his possible impeachment. You see, their policies don't work, so their obsession with political theater, disguised as power, drives them to try to destroy their opponents.

5:44Wolf Blitzer: 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. All right, let's go straight to CNN's Kevin Liptec, who is live this morning at the White House. So where is President Trump standing on the push to oust Hegseth, Kevin? Yeah, and the president says that Hegseth is doing a fantastic job. He says that he is not considering removing him from that post at the moment. But President Trump and Pete Hegseth seem to be the only people defending him amid this uproar after those midterm elections. He has not had, you know, a chorus of defenders among Republicans, which is why I think he put out this video kind of taking matters into his own hands to defend his tenure as these articles of impeachment seem to get closer and closer to being filed.

6:36Wolf Blitzer: Thomas Massey, the Republican from Kentucky, says that he will put those forward as soon as Congress gets back into town. They'll be here next week. And the fear that you hear among White House officials, and I've been hearing this from administration officials is that so many Republicans just feel like they're not going to have anything to lose at this point, either because they lost their election battles or because they will be in such a significant minority in the new year that perhaps there will be enough votes to impeach Hegseth if it comes to that. And so that seems to be what is driving this attempt to defend him.

7:10Wolf Blitzer: And, you know, we have been hearing from people close to Hegseth that he's prepared to defend his record if it comes to it and if he comes before Congress, if he is impeached. And in that video, I thought it was notable. Yes, he's defending his attempts to get rid of senior officials, to get rid of diversity initiatives. What you didn't hear him talk much about was the war in Iran. He says it's a courageous and historic effort, but not really a great deal on the very issue that so many Republicans, including the vice president, J.D. Vance, think lost them the midterm elections. All right, Kevin Liptak, thanks so much.

7:43Wolf Blitzer: Wolf.

7:44Pamela Brown: Also happening now, we're closely monitoring a number of key races that have not been called, at least not yet. Although Democrats flipped control of the House very dramatically this week, the outstanding races will help determine just how strong that majority is. As it stands right now, there are still more than two dozen races that CNN has not yet been able to project a winner in.

8:07Wolf Blitzer: All right, let's go live now to CNN correspondent Tom Foreman, who has a look at which races we're still keeping an eye on. Tom, the polls close Tuesday night. Where do some of these uncalled house races stand right now? Very close. That's where they stand. That's where they're enclosed. Let's take a look at some of them out here. California is going to lead off our list here with California 40. Oh, look at this. It's two Republicans running against each other and both incumbents. How on earth would that happen? Well, this is Orange County, a very conservative part of the state and a place where redistricting ended up pitting them against each other.

8:39Wolf Blitzer: So they have to sort that out. Down in Florida also, which has tended to vote largely in the red, there are some very, very close races there. In one, it looks like the Democrat has a little bit of the lean. In the other, the Republican seems to be doing fairly well down there, but those have to be sorted out in Florida. Move on to Louisiana. We've got another one there that's being sorted out a little bit. You can see the differences there. A lot of possibilities going on here, but still kind of a mess at the moment. North Carolina 1 is another one that is being considered in a state that played a very pivotal role in the Senate battle.

9:14Wolf Blitzer: So in the House, you can look at the North Carolina 1 and see what's going there. And then if you go to South Carolina 1, very red state here. This is Nancy Mace's former district, and that is in close contention right now. Not decided, but you can see a tiny edge to the Democrat there. interesting considering what a firebrand for the Republicans Nancy Mace has been and then Tennessee and Arizona Tennessee a very red state there's a battle going on there in an undecided race and the same for Arizona so in the house those are some of the many that are out there that are

9:47Pamela Brown: just very close Tom what about the Senate and are there any outstanding governor's races

9:51Wolf Blitzer: you're also watching yeah the Senate as we know we've been talking about Mississippi and Alaska Mississippi and Alaska over and over again. They both remain very, very close. There's almost certainly going to be a lot of challenges going on in both places from political operatives and legal teams trying to say they want some form of looking at these ballots again. Bear in mind not every state makes that possible. And in governor's races in Kansas they could wind up with a Democratic governor, which is again a very red state and they are leaning that way right now. It's not decided, but it could go that way.

10:24Wolf Blitzer: And then, of course, in Alaska, still undecided what's going to happen with the governor's race up there, again, because of ranked voting. The problem is, look at that, there's a big lead for the Democrat, but you add up all the Republicans in ranked voting, and that's more. So, depending on who they chose second, that could decide that race. Just a lot of counting to be done as the days go on and the last ballots come in. All right.

10:47Pamela Brown: We'll stay in close touch with you.

10:49Wolf Blitzer: Thanks for bringing us the latest, Tom. We appreciate it.

10:50Pamela Brown: And still ahead, Democrats will soon have to decide what to do with their new congressional power and who will call the shots. South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn standing by to join us live. That's next as the opportunities and the risks unfold.

11:05Wolf Blitzer: And crumbling coalition, what the numbers show about the cracks beginning to show in President Trump's MAGA base. You're in the Situation Room and we'll be right back.

11:20Wolf Blitzer: Hey, I'm Anderson Cooper. On my podcast, All There Is, we explore grief and loss in all its complexities. My guest is Lil Jon. He's a rapper, DJ, and producer known for hits like Get Low and Turn Down for What. In February 2026, his 27-year-old son Nathan went missing near Nathan's home in Georgia. Three days later, his body was found in a pond nearby. Lil Jon has a memoir that just came out called I Only Shout So You Can Hear Me.

11:49Pamela Brown: It takes time to heal. And I kept myself busy that I didn't let myself mourn. I needed to laugh again. I needed to be silly and interact with people and feel other people's energy and make people happy too. We have to share so other people can see that they can get through it too.

12:09Wolf Blitzer: Talking grief, building community. That's what the podcast is all about. This is all there is. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast. You may have noticed gambling doesn't require a casino anymore. You can just open up your phone. It's designed to keep us coming back or maybe never even leaving in the first place. We're going to talk to Dr. Timothy Fong, co-director of UCLA's Gambling Studies program. You're going to learn what your brain is really chasing when you place a bet. and also importantly, how to keep the game from playing you.

12:46Wolf Blitzer: Gambling addiction, gambling disorder is the hidden addiction. You can't smell it. You can't taste it. You can't see it. You can't have a urine drug test. Who are we talking about here, Professor? Who's the most likely demographic to be affected by this? Literally any single human on earth. Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now wherever you get your podcasts.

13:07Pamela Brown: Just how big were the winning margins for some Democrats? Take a look at these numbers in the Senate. In the Senate race in Texas, James Tallarico got so many early votes that he still would have won, even if none of his voters actually showed up on Election Day. The Democratic senator elect got four point four point four million early votes compared to four point two five million total votes for his opponent, Ken Paxton. The same thing happened in the Georgia Senate race. Democratic Senator John Ossoff got about one point seven. million votes from early in absentee voting compared to 1.71 million total votes for his opponent, Congressman Mike Collins.

13:49Pamela Brown: And in North Carolina in the Senate race there, Democrat Roy Cooper is winning by a whopping 20 points. Yes, 20 points. His early in-person votes were enough for him to beat his opponent, Republican Michael Watley's total number of votes.

14:05Wolf Blitzer: That is very telling, right? And as President Trump prepares for a lame duck presidency, questions are swirling about whether the MAGA era is beginning to fracture. The dust is still settling in some districts, but the overwhelming blue wave saw many Trump and Republican-leaning voters cast ballots for Democrats. According to a CNN voter poll in six key races, one in 10 2024 Trump voters said they had backed a Democratic candidate for Senate. Vice President Vance even noted in an online post that, quote, The main problem isn't turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump fans in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026.

14:44Wolf Blitzer: Join us now for more perspective is one of those voters in Ohio, former Trump supporter Rick Frazier. Rick, just to note for our audience, you were not a casual supporter of Trump. You were among the so-called front row Joes. You were an organizer of that. You would travel to dozens of Trump rallies across the country. Tell us more about your vote on Tuesday and what your reaction is to the outcome of the elections. Well, I think it was quite a turnaround. I wasn't expecting to do what I did, and I didn't see that coming early on. But I did vote Democrat governor in Ohio because I think the ad that Ramaswamy put out was pretty bad.

15:30Wolf Blitzer: and using that against Amy Atkins. I didn't like that. I also voted for Brown for Senator. I thought he was a better choice over the gentleman that he was running against. But then again, on the down ballot and some of the other ballots, I did vote Republican because in the past, I didn't, up until Trump, I voted different ways. I voted for the guy I thought would do the best job. And I'm back to doing that. And I should have been doing that all along. So what has shifted for you? I mean, you were so dedicated to supporting Trump, traveling the country, going to his rallies. What shifted for you?

16:12Wolf Blitzer: I go back to 2015 when he came down the stairs and he said that he was going to drain the swamp and lobbyists were bad. And he also said he had lobbyists. He would never use his lobbyists, even though he had the best lobbyists in the world. Well, it turns out that lobbyists is what drives the elections these days. When you've got Elon Musk putting in over$250 million and you go right on down the line, there's more lobbyists involved now. And the swamp's gotten bigger. So I'm very disappointed in that aspect of it. As well, I was a no-war person. The war is huge right now. Now it's caused chaotic situations throughout the world, not only in our country.

16:58Wolf Blitzer: So the war's huge that wrecked our economy. It's making it hard on people. Then also the Epstein files was a very, very big letdown after setting through so many rallies, hearing people chant, lock them up, lock them up. We're hearing about all the criminals. But when it comes time to settle the issue with the Epstein files, we hear Donald Trump say to Marjorie Taylor Greene, if we do that, it may hurt some of my friends. That was the day that I thought something just isn't square with what's going on. So I had to take a different stance. Yeah, and that's what Marjorie Taylor Greene had reported at the time.

17:36Wolf Blitzer: So I wonder what you think about the president saying now. He has blamed the losses on several factors, one partly being the war with Iran. In another instance, he blamed Fox News. He also said this. Let's listen.

17:48Pamela Brown: I mean, if I were on the ballot, we would have won. You saw the people that were packed, thousands and thousands of people at every rally. And if I was on the ballot, we would have won. But they just, you couldn't transfer that love. There was such love at those rallies. It was an incredible one. We weren't able to transfer the love to candidates.

18:06Wolf Blitzer: Do you agree with the president? If his name was on the ballots, would there have been a different outcome? Well, initially he said his name was on the ballot. So he ended up getting the outcome that he got. You can't have it both ways. You're either on the ballot or not on the ballot. But he's created the mess that we're having right now. His administration has. So he has nobody to blame but himself. What does that mean for others in the administration who may have their eyes to run for the presidency in 2028, like J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio? Do you think that this hurts them? Well, you know, I like J.D., and I like the fact that J.D.

18:47Wolf Blitzer: said he is anti-war, and he spoke out against it a little bit, against the president. So I still like J.D. I met him a few times, talked to him. He's a fellow Ohioan. Marco Rubio's been a politician forever. He will run for president. That's something we know that's going to happen. Right now, we have to wait to see who all is going to run for president. And it's not just going to be those two men. There will be people on both sides. And at that point, I'll have to kick the tires and see who's the best product. Who has the best shot in your view of taking the mantle after Trump leaves? And is there anyone in the current cabinet that would sway you back to the Republican Party?

19:29Wolf Blitzer: Oh, I'm not real sure, you know. I myself, I'm not going to swing toward any party. Like I said earlier, I'm going to go with the best guy going forward. and that's what I used to do in the past. So there won't be an R or a D beside my name. There's just going to be an individual beside my name so I can think for myself and not have to tow a party line. You dedicated so many years to supporting the president and his agenda. How difficult has it been to back out of that community?

20:01Wolf Blitzer: Well, you know, a commitment is based on the things that you're going to get from it. I mean, I expected to get no war. I expected the Epstein thing to be cleared up. And I expected$2 gas. I expected the war in Ukraine to end. Well, none of that's happened. So with all that being said, I'm very disappointed. You know, politics as a whole is a dirty business. You have to be a millionaire to even run these days. I don't know how anybody would not be disappointed with our system. Do you feel misled?

20:39Wolf Blitzer: Well, yeah, and if I do, that's my own fault. That's politics. Politics has a lot of theater in it. It seems like politicians are allowed to lie where the average guy isn't. So we're at a disadvantage. People listen to the lies, and many, many people believe them without doing any research. And that was my problem early on. You believed. that I believe, basically, till the point I started looking things up for myself. And that's hugely important. You have to do your studies and understand what's going on. You can't just believe what the politician's saying. Do you think the Trump era is over as we've known it?

21:19Wolf Blitzer: I believe so. I do. I think it's ran its course. You know, it was Make America Great Again. It actually started with Ronald Reagan. You know, we tried it a couple of times. And as far as that goes, to make America again, it shouldn't have a D after it or an R after it. It just should have an A after it for all Americans to make America great again. Rick Frazier, thank you so much. Really appreciate you coming on to share your perspective. It's an important one. Thank you. Well, thank you, Pamela. It's been my pleasure. And it was quite unexpected. Well, life has many twists and turns. And clearly you experienced that yourself and thanks for helping us better understand why.

21:58Wolf Blitzer: We appreciate it.

22:00Pamela Brown: Good to get that perspective. Thank you as well. Excellent work. All right. Thank you. The midterms made history on many fronts and we want to take a moment right now to highlight some firsts for governors. Republican Marsha Blackburn is projected to become Tennessee's first female governor. She's a vocal supporter of President Trump and his policies. She also made history back in 2018 when she was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Tennessee. Democrat Deb Haaland is projected to be the first female Native American governor in the country. She already made history as the first Native American cabinet secretary, serving as interior secretary during the Biden administration.

22:41Pamela Brown: She was also one of the first Native American women elected to Congress back in 2018. In Nevada, Democrat Aaron Ford is projected to be the state's first black governor. In 2019, he became the state's first black attorney general. He sued the Trump administration multiple times. And in Wisconsin, Democrat David Crowley is projected to become the state's first black governor there. President Trump won that state by less than a percentage point back in 2024. Therefore, Crowley actually dropped out of the Democratic primary in July, but then re-entered the race 10 days later. These are just a few of the politicians making history this cycle.

23:22Pamela Brown: And we'll be right back.

23:30Wolf Blitzer: Lawmakers return to Capitol Hill on Monday as Republicans enter their final two months before losing control of Congress in January. Democrats have picked up seven seats in the Senate and will hold a majority of at least 54. Two Senate races in Alaska, Mississippi are still undecided. Democrats will hold at least 253 seats in the House with a net gain of at least 40 wins. Dozens of races are still undecided. Joining us now is the Democratic Congressman from South Carolina, James Clyburn. Thanks for being here. Congratulations on being reelected to your 18th term. What is your reaction to your party's crushing wins over Republicans?

24:10Pamela Brown: Well, thank you very much for having me. Tuesday was a great day. I think that aside from the whole issues of affordability and the accessibility and accountability, what I call the AAAs that's motivating the American people today, we saw a reaffirmation of what has made this country great. I often quote Alexis of Tocqueville's notion that America's greatness is not that she's more enlightened than any other nation, but rather because she has always been able to repair her faults. We made some faulty decisions in the electoral process in recent years. But on Tuesday, this country showed its greatness by moving to repair those faults.

25:00Pamela Brown: And I do believe we have gotten back on track in our pursuit of a more perfect union. And so I'm looking forward to this new Congress. In fact, I was hopeful. I'm hopeful that the current Congress will do some things during this lame duck session to really respond to the American people. We now know exactly what's on their minds. So we ought to conduct ourselves. The Speaker has a chance to really redeem his speakership, which has been a total failure. He has a chance to respond to the American people. And right there in his home state of Louisiana, came within the whisker of electing an African-American United States senator where nobody thought he had a possible chance.

25:53Pamela Brown: Next door, Mississippi. Looks like we're going to elect an African-American United States senator. both running against incumbents. This is what this country is all about. And the speaker has a chance now to take this lame duck session and reconcile not with Democrats, but with the American people.

26:13Wolf Blitzer: And the party is now, the pressure is now on your party come January when it takes control of Congress. What do you want to see as your party's top priority when that happens?

26:26Pamela Brown: Well, I don't know that it's pressure. I think it's an opportunity, an opportunity for us to respond to the American people. I say that the American people move to establish a three-legged stool, accessibility, making the policies of our Congress, of our country accessible. Should we have health care that's accessible, child care that's accessible? Should we have affordability? Should we have energy and housing affordable? And should we have accountability to the American people? We have got to make our leadership accountable to the American people. And I think that's why we ought not be pursuing any impeachment of the president, but we ought to be pursuing some corrections to the chaos, the costs, and the corruption that is running rapid in Washington today.

27:24Pamela Brown: And we can do that by moving to make these people account for their actions. And that goes most especially for HECS and for Robert Kennedy Jr.

27:37Wolf Blitzer: Do you think that they should be impeached?

27:41Pamela Brown: Those two? Yes.

27:43Wolf Blitzer: You do?

27:44Pamela Brown: Yes. Absolutely. We ought not be pursuing any impeachment of the president. I don't think we're going to get to the two-thirds majority in the Senate. So let's not waste time with that. But I do believe that the vast majority of the United States Senate is upset with Hackseth and what he is doing to eradicate women from leadership positions in our military, getting rid of African-Americans. Who would insult the memory of Chappie James, our first full-star African American gentleman, who was one of the greatest fighter pilots this country ever had? What did he do to deserve Hex Seth's vindictiveness?

28:30Pamela Brown: What did he do? What did Jack Robinson do for them to take all of his stuff out of the Department of Defense? How about the Tuskegee Airmen? Would we have won World War II without the heroics of the Tuskegee Airmen? So what is this man talking about eradicating all of their contributions from the archives of the United States military? That is impeachable by any standard.

28:58Wolf Blitzer: So, well, the Constitution has laid out high crimes and misdemeanors, treason, bribery, other high crimes and misdemeanors. So for for Hegseth and RFK Jr., you want to see them impeached. Can you more specifically lay out how they meet that that mark for impeachment?

29:16Pamela Brown: How do you define misdemeanors? These high crimes and misdemeanors. It didn't say all. It said and. And so they don't have to be combined. So there are various things he's done, I think to undermine the effectiveness of our fighting military, firing all these women. And they're responding to what we just had down here in the first congressional district of South Carolina. Ms. McCord has now won that seat in the first district. He fired her early on in the process. and other people that he has gotten rid of are now being responded to by the American people. And what happened there in Mississippi and what has happened in other places, the American people don't like this.

30:12Pamela Brown: I was talking this morning about a song we sang in the church I grew up in. If anybody asks you just who I am, tell them I've been redeemed. That song talks about hate, love replacing hate. That is what we grew up with here in the southernmost part of the East United States of America. And we don't like people insulting us the way they have been doing. And so I think the South is responding with those votes in Mississippi to establish the first United States senator elected from Mississippi. Those other African-American senators were not elected to their positions. They were sent there by the legislature.

30:52Pamela Brown: This will be the first opportunity for Mississippi to elect an African-American United States senator. And I think that's part of us being redeemed here in the South and demonstrating that we won't anybody playing us as the front door shoe cleaners.

31:11Wolf Blitzer: Well, and Colom is ahead right now. They're going through the affidavit ballots, provisional ballots, but he is in the lead. CNN's decision desk hasn't called it yet, but we're very focused on that. It would be historic, of course, if he won, as you pointed out. Just in terms of where you want to see Democrats put their energy, you mentioned you don't want to see Trump impeached, but Democrats have already promised investigations into Trump and his family. Do you support that? And do you have any concerns that that could actually energize Republicans in the future? You know, we've seen what Democratic investigations into Trump has done historically in terms of galvanizing the base.

31:52Pamela Brown: Absolutely, I want to see that. We need to get to the bottom of this corruption and clean it out. It is a growing cancer on our democracy. One family enriching itself at the expense of the American people. We see what I call oil prices, what it's doing to gasoline at the pump. somebody's making money off of all of that. And I just did a video about Trump's sons making all of this investment in these industries that all of a sudden making a whole lot of money while the ordinary working people are paying more money at the grocery store, more money at the gasoline stations, while the other side is reaping all kinds of profits.

32:41Pamela Brown: That is corruption at its core. What we see here today is the worst thing I've seen in this country since Tammany Hall, back when I was a little boy, first reading politics as an elementary school student.

32:58Wolf Blitzer: Your stake goes first on the presidential primary calendar in 2028. Who do you see as your party's frontrunners and what attributes do you believe are essential?

33:10Pamela Brown: Well, everybody in my party is at a crowd on the blocks. We are crowded in the blocks. There is no front runner at the moment. I do believe that we've got a lot of well-qualified people, United States senators. We've got a plethora of governors to choose from. They will be coming to South Carolina and throughout the South. The road to the presidency on the Democratic side runs through the South. They may start here in South Carolina, but they'll be going on to other states as well. And, of course, Michigan is now going to go early in the calendar. So I think that we are going to yield a nominee that's going to be in touch with the American people, be qualified to manage our country going forward.

34:05Pamela Brown: And I think the key word for all running for president is being a good manager. We've got to get out of this soundbite world, seeing how many hits you can get on the Internet. Stop trying to make headlines, but show people how to make headway. How are we going to make their lives more accessible to the American system? How are we going to make their lives more affordable when they get to their consumer issues? And how do we make ourselves more accountable to what this country is all about? And we have got a bunch of candidates that I think qualify well for that.

34:52Wolf Blitzer: Let me just follow up with you. Sure. Just on that point, your endorsement is critical for any Democrat wanting to be president. Can you tell us more about the calls you've been fielding from potential presidential contenders?

35:08Pamela Brown: Well, I've gotten a lot of calls. I don't think I'm going to tell you. Oh, come on.

35:12Wolf Blitzer: You can you can spill here on the show.

35:16Pamela Brown: You're a pretty good interviewer. You know, I've been interviewed by you before.

35:20Wolf Blitzer: Thank you.

35:21Pamela Brown: And I know your roots and I know how well rooted you are in the political process. And so I'm not going to let you entrap me here today. I'm going to just say I've been having some pleasant discussions with a lot of people, and I'm looking forward to talking with them going forward.

35:40Wolf Blitzer: All right, Congressman James Clyburn, I'll leave it there, but we'll circle back with you soon on that question. Thanks so much.

35:46Pamela Brown: Thank you very much. Appreciate you. Wolf. Excellent interview. And there's some breaking news coming into the Situation Room right now. Thomas Markle, the father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, has been arrested in Florida on charges related to child sexual abuse material. Sources are not telling the Associated Press. Let's go live right now to see and then senior correspondent Josh Campbell is working the story for us. What are you learning, Josh?

36:13Wolf Blitzer: Yeah, well, the significant development in this case that we have been monitoring, again, the AP reporting that Thomas Markle has been taken into custody by federal authorities. He had been living in a retirement center near Tampa, Florida. Now, where this all possibly had stemmed from, there was past reporting that the son of Thomas Markle had told Britain's The Sun newspaper that he had previously uncovered a stash of indecent images of underage children in storage boxes and on computer hard drives at his father's house overseas in the Philippines. and had reported him to the Philippine National Police, the Philippine Justice Department, their child abuse unit told CNN that the matter was under investigation.

37:00Wolf Blitzer: Now, Thomas Markle Sr. had vehemently denied the allegations in an interview that he did with Britain's The Daily Mail newspaper. But if you look at kind of where this case, again, probably came from, Markle Jr. had told the Sun newspaper that he had also reported the discovery of material to U.S. authorities. And in October, the FBI actually told CNN that it was aware of those allegations involving Markle Sr., who was a U.S. citizen. It said that the bureau would be providing support as appropriate to the Philippine National Police. And they also said that they would also be investigating any related allegations of federal violations of U.S.

37:39Wolf Blitzer: law. Now, we're sorting out where exactly these U.S. charges are stemming from. Again, he was physically located in Florida, where he lived. I'm told from a source that there was also a possible California connection to this case as well. And of course, U.S. authorities, including the FBI, will routinely work with foreign governments to help prosecute U.S. citizens who are accused of wrongdoing abroad and both here in the United States. Finally, Wolf, for her part, Meghan Markle, she recently said that she was deeply distressed by these allegations involving her father. She had also revealed in a letter that some information had been sent to London police back in 2018.

38:19Wolf Blitzer: We did reach out to a representative of hers today for comment. They're not providing any comment. We're waiting to see what happens next with these U.S. criminal charges against Thomas Markle.

38:29Pamela Brown: All right, Josh Campbell with the latest on this story. Thank you very, very much. And we'll be right back with more news.

38:45Pamela Brown: happening now. Pressure is clearly mounting around Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth following the GOP losses in the midterm elections. Sources say the House could vote on impeaching the Defense Secretary in a matter of a few days for his role in the Iran war. Joining us now, CNN political commentator Maria Cardona and Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project. Maria, as you know, we just spoke with South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn, Very good interview that Pamela did. He supports impeachments against Hank Seth and the health secretary, RFK Jr. First of all, do you agree?

39:20Pamela Brown: Is this where Democrats should be focusing their energy right now when they take over Congress in January?

39:26Wolf Blitzer: I do think that that is going to be a focus in terms of holding the Trump administration accountable for all of the corruption and all of the damage that they've done to the country. Whether both of those are going to be on the on the plate initially, I don't know. You know, that's going to be something that the Democrats will decide. But those two are definitely two of the ones that Democrats think is not just possible, but that the American people really do see them as an indication of the horrible corruption that has happened throughout these two years under the Trump administration. And frankly, for Hegseth, it's also a huge image, I think damaging image for Republicans of the horrendous mistake that the Iran war was.

40:17Wolf Blitzer: And so I think that is what's going to be animating Democrats and Americans across the country to get rid of him.

40:24Pamela Brown: Terry, would impeachments effectively be a gift potentially to the president? could it give fuel to re-energize his base after Tuesday's dramatic losses?

40:33Wolf Blitzer: Well, Wolf, it's been about three days since the election, and Democrats are already, I think, getting off track here. This election was about affordability. It was about, yes, ending the war in Iran. But the war in Iran was really a proxy for all the increases in our cost of living. So I think this is an overstep. I think it's a mistake by Democrats. the focus for everyone, Republicans, independents, and Democrats, needs to be about addressing the cost of living crisis that so many families are suffering from and so many young people. So I'm not surprised by this. It was kind of predictable. I just think it's a little bit, the timing is a little bit.

41:09Wolf Blitzer: But it's not just Democrats that have been calling for his impeachment, right? You have Don Bacon has talked about it. Thomas Massey. Exactly. Or Thomas Massey. And so this is kind is something that is across the board, Terry. And let's remember this election absolutely was about the economy and affordability. It was also about corruption and accountability.

41:31Pamela Brown: Maria, I love you.

41:31Wolf Blitzer: We've been on these shows a bunch, but you just named Don Bacon, Tom Tillis, and Thomas Massey. Those guys are not part of the Republican Party really anymore. They're not? They're not the base. They're not emblematic. They were not talking about costs of living. They weren't talking about the issues that the American people just voted on and sent Democrats I just was one of I'm just saying don't read into Don Bacon and Thomas Massie Tom Tillis is representing the Republican Party. How about this when Mike Johnson let the Republicans go prior to the the midterm elections when there was still a lot to do by this Republican Congress he let them go because impeachment for Hegsteth was on the plate and he did not want that to happened before the midterm election.

42:17Wolf Blitzer: So I guarantee you it will not be just those Republicans. If this does come up, it won't be just those Republicans voting for his impeachment. My main point, though, is that the American people did not send all these Democrats into Congress to impeach Pete Hexeth or RFK Jr. They sent them in there to address the cost of living and to pull back on the Iran war operation and get to a successful completion so that our gas can get down to$2 a gallon again so that it doesn't cost$20 for a burrito and$600 ,000 for a townhome. Well, but you know why gas is so expensive? Because of the folly of the Iran war.

42:53Wolf Blitzer: And who is at the head of the folly of the Iran war in terms of the cabinet? In terms of the cabinet, Pete Hegseth. So that is an indication of accountability. So are we going to go without a Department of War secretary? Who are they going to replace Pete Hegseth with? I mean, you got to be careful about picking these battles. You take out Pete Hegseth, who are Democrats going to allow in there next? We're going to go without a Secretary of War? I have a prediction. I bet you that maybe Democrats don't even need to get to impeachment of Hegseth because Trump will probably get rid of him first.

43:23Pamela Brown: Maybe. We'll see what happens. All right, Maria Cardona, Terry Schilling, to both of you, thank you very, very much. Thanks, Wolf.

43:30Wolf Blitzer: All right, here's what's coming up all new at the top of the hour. New video of a gunman's deadly attack on a bank and the hero security guard who stopped him. what we're learning about the potential motive. Plus, new reporting on the future of President Trump's Supreme Court. Now the Democrats hold a massive majority in Congress. And pandas. Get ready for the panda puns, because why not? It is Friday. Ping, ping, and foo, schwang. Go public. That's all new next hour.

44:06Wolf Blitzer: happening now ballot battles inside the growing fight over vote counting as republicans and democrats anxiously await the winner of key and incredibly close senate races and later republican

44:18Pamela Brown: regrets white house officials discussed a path forward after the massive midterm setback we have new CNN reporting about that meeting. Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in the Situation Room.

44:42Pamela Brown: Happening now, the Defense Department going on offense. Defiant Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pours fuel on the fire of potential impeachment with a very defiant social media post amid rumors that he could soon potentially lose his job.

44:58Wolf Blitzer: A disgruntled, defeated congressman, along with all his Democrat allies, has also dropped sham articles of impeachment against yours truly. Just like they tried against President Trump twice. You see, their policies don't work, so their obsession with political theater disguised as power drives them to try to destroy their opponents. It's all about the politics of personal destruction. Didn't work against President Trump, and it won't work with me. You can rest assured of that. And we're also hearing from a growing number of Republicans who are turning against Hexath and GOP leaders after the party's epic losses in this week's elections.

45:41Wolf Blitzer: I'm a business guy. And if in business, all of a sudden you lose that much of your work to your competitor, you're going to fire people. In fact, I think there should be some heads rolling from the White House as well right now. All right. CNN's Brian Todd is here in the Situation Room. And Brian, you've been digging into Hexeth's tenure at the Pentagon. This is not the first time he's been under fire. The number of controversies is almost hard to count at this point, Pamela. The real question now is whether the Iran war, on top of all the chaos and vitriol created by Pete Hexeth during his tenure at the Pentagon, will finally now be enough to push him out.

46:18Wolf Blitzer: Pete Hegseth has been a lightning rod since shortly after he ascended the steps of the Pentagon. In March 2025, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic reported that he'd been accidentally looped into a Signal group chat in which Hegseth shared details of attacks in Yemen just before they occurred. There were immediate calls for Hegseth to be fired. He denied wrongdoing, launched a crackdown against suspected leakers, and survived. Look, the president likes Hegseth. They have a great relationship, and he's been able to survive every controversy as a result. But the president only likes you until he doesn't.

46:52Wolf Blitzer: Early on, Hexeth laid out his vision of what he called the warrior ethos, with what many thought was a fixation on the physical appearance of American troops. He reveled in joining them in PT workouts, often on camera. I decided to do PT with the troops. He called for regular reviews of troops' fitness, body composition, and grooming, with an emphasis on the elimination of beards. He launched an initiative calling for annual screening for testosterone deficiency among U.S. troops, saying it was about keeping them strong and resilient and preparing them for the rigors of the battlefield. Hegseth drew criticism from Democratic and Republican lawmakers for firing more than two dozen senior generals and other officers across the military, some of whom were very highly regarded, and many of whom were fired with little or no explanation from Hegseth.

47:37Wolf Blitzer: He's also been accused of firing, or failing to promote, women and people of color. All of these moves amounting to what many call Hegseth's culture wars inside the Pentagon, going as far as using a slur to describe transgender service members as he outlined his continued efforts to reshape the force. We are no longer the woke department or the weak department. Simple translation of that, no fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals, just warriors. Even with all that, the signal most inescapably contentious controversy surrounding Pete Hegseth is over a war that his boss said would only last weeks and is now in its ninth month, a war that critics say Hegseth cheerleaded.

48:23Wolf Blitzer: We'll negotiate with bombs. And that he shamelessly spun. We're winning decisively and on our terms. All of which led to sometimes vicious confrontations in Congress. I heard failure. The word hurt. I heard exactly what you said. how I use the word failure. Because I use the word failure to their leaders. You, sir, are the failure. You don't have a long-term plan to actually win this war. Win the war. The men and women are going to be able to do it, but they need to have leadership. When will you show leadership? Why don't you show some leadership and stand up for your fellow Democrats who won't fund the troops?

49:01Wolf Blitzer: Now, in the immediate aftermath of Tuesday's Democratic victories in the midterms, a person close to Pete Hegseth told CNN that he does expect to stay in his role and he's prepared to fight any attempts to impeach him. But the movement to impeach Pete Hegseth and others is growing. Congressman James Clyburn, a prominent Democrat from South Carolina, said on the Situation Room just last hour that both Pete Hegseth and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should be impeached. So, guys, we're going to have to see whether these impeachment efforts really bear fruition. The efforts against Pete Hegseth could come as early as maybe next week in the House.

49:37Wolf Blitzer: So we're going to see how this goes. Yeah, it was really interesting. Representative Clyburn said he does not think Trump should be impeached. Right. But he was unequivocal about Hagseth and RFK Jr. So we'll see how this all plays out. Brian Todd, thank you so much.

49:49Pamela Brown: There will be dramatic developments in the coming days, no doubt about that. Also happening now, the unwavering spotlight on Mississippi. National Party operatives, lawyers, and grassroots activists are descending on that state to observe the vetting of provisional ballots, with the Senate race still too close to call there. Democrat Scott Cologne holding a razor-thin lead over Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith with thousands of votes yet to be counted. Joining us now is Taylor Vance. He's the politics reporter for Mississippi Today. Taylor, good morning. Thanks very much for joining us. The Magnolia State, as you well know, is used to being in the national spotlight for the issue of closed elections.

50:29Pamela Brown: What are you hearing from people there now?

50:34Wolf Blitzer: Well, thanks. Thank you for having me. I think what we're hearing now is that local election officials are trying to process these provisional ballots. Here in Mississippi, we call them absentee ballots. You know, I think these election officials are not used to this level of attention. And they, I think, are doing their best to make sure that they get everything right, especially with a close race like this. you know, we're hearing from the Cologne campaign that they are pretty confident and like the position that they're in right now. His lead continues to grow. He is just under about a 2 ,000 vote lead right now.

51:16Wolf Blitzer: You know, the state GOP chairman, Mike Hurst, yesterday said that he thinks that, you know, they're still confident when the rest of the provisional ballots are counted that he thinks that they will remain victorious. You know, he said that when that a lot of these outstanding ballots, the counties that they're from, he thinks that they're in, you know, traditionally Republican areas. But when we asked him to identify some of those counties, he declined to do so and didn't really provide much evidence for those claims. So we will we will see where that's headed.

51:53Pamela Brown: With Mississippi under such intense scrutiny right now, What's the strategy for both parties during this vote count?

52:03Wolf Blitzer: Well, I think both campaigns are lawyered up right now, which is no surprise. You know, we don't know if there will be litigation filed over this. But, you know, Scott Colom has said he wants to make sure that every vote is counted, or excuse me, that every legally cast vote is counted, and he wants to protect this process and ensure that the law is followed. I think the strategy from the Hyde-Smith campaign is going to really scrutinize and see if there may be any ballots that they believe should not have been accepted. And if so, they might try to follow a legal challenge over that. But both campaigns are getting pretty lawyered up right now, and this may be headed to court.

52:51Pamela Brown: Taylor, I want to play part of Scott Colombe's ad that his campaign aired during the race. Listen to this and watch.

52:59Wolf Blitzer: The price of beef continuing to go up.

53:02Pamela Brown: You know, you have so many proteins to choose from. Pick another protein? S***. I'd rather pick another senator instead.

53:10Wolf Blitzer: Pick another protein? She done lost her damn mind. I'd rather pick another senator.

53:18Pamela Brown: So what was the impact of that ad on Mississippi voters? What do you think?

53:25Wolf Blitzer: Yeah, I mean, I think, number one, that regardless of the outcome of the election, I think that's going to go down as probably one of the best political ads in Mississippi history. And, you know, it was produced by a native Mississippian. And I think it was it was just very genius. And I think it resonated with a lot of people is because it's just so classic Mississippi. I mean, you have Southern accents in that ad. I think part of it was filmed in a Dollar General, and I think it resonated with a lot of people. But, you know, I think that was the two things were really the turning point, I think, in this election.

54:05Wolf Blitzer: Number one, it was the comments that Senator Hyde-Smith made in an interview about the high price of beef. And the craziest thing about it is she's a cattle farmer. And her response to it was to the question was, well, there are many, many proteins you can choose from. And not only did she double down, she's tripled down and defended those comments. And I don't even think that she really understands why people were upset at those comments. I mean, it was sort of like a let them eat cake type type of comment. And I think the Cologne campaign seized on that, produced this ad. And it was just such a clear cut, I think, direct sort of response to this in a way that just really resonated with voters.

54:50Wolf Blitzer: And it just it just makes you laugh. And I think I mean, that that was that ad was one of the turning points in this race.

54:58Pamela Brown: All right. Taylor, Taylor Vance, thanks very, very much. Taylor is the political reporter for the Mississippi Today paper. Thank you very, very much, Pamela.

55:07Wolf Blitzer: All right. Wolf still ahead GOP gut check we're gonna ask a party strategist about the soul searching on Capitol Hill and in the White House after Republicans gotten mopped up in the midterms

55:17Pamela Brown: and later conserving the conservatives why the election losses are fueling a new wave of Republican anxiety right now about a Supreme Court that often rules in President Trump's favor lots going on you're in the Situation Room

55:38Wolf Blitzer: Well, Republicans are now facing a reckoning as they're about to be the minority in Congress. They reportedly have pressured President Trump to change course on some policies linked to the midterm losses like Iran and tariffs. But they're also talking about what comes next for the party. In the next two years, we need to do two things. One, fight the madness. This entire two years, everything that we did on the floor was to protect the mods, the moderates, yet ignoring conservatives and what our plans were and what we thought we needed to accomplish.

56:12Pamela Brown: I was asked by the BBC, so should the Republican Party go back, you know, reject Meg and go back to the old Republican Party? No. The old Republican Party sucked.

56:21Wolf Blitzer: While the American people were saying groceries is high, gas is high, health care is high,

56:26Pamela Brown: you're not listening. What you saw in D.C. was self-dealing and corruption and celebrating.

56:34Wolf Blitzer: There's also speculation growing about potential changes among top Trump administration officials. Republican strategist Mark Williams is here in the Situation Room to further discuss. So what do you think the main priority should be for the party to recover from this week's losses? Well, I think they've got to figure out what actually happened. And you've got to figure out which voices are going to be the main ones that are going to be out there kind of telling the Republican story. I don't know that the answer is, hey, we need to be more conservative. at the end of the day, you end up losing these because you lose in those in those moderate districts.

57:03Wolf Blitzer: And I think that's what we saw, though. The map says that Republicans lost in all the districts. You know, they've got to get their hands around affordability. I spent, you know, better part of a year and a half in and around Capitol Hill trying to tell Republicans, look, these tariff policies are going to be bad at some point. It'll be an albatross around our neck come election time. But this was the president's economic policy. And sometimes and, you know, we saw with Democrats during the Biden administration, you have to kind of stay tethered to what the White House is pushing. So they've got to kind of have those hard internal conversations about what that path forward.

57:35Wolf Blitzer: But I think more importantly, who are going to be the leaders and the messengers for the next two, four, four years? Because we've been in this situation before. When I came to D.C., we lost the 06 midterms and then the 08 presidential. And the articles are being written. Oh, my gosh, it's an extinction event for Republicans. And then what happened was the 2010 Tea Party movement. So it's not the end of the line for Republicans. They'll be back, but it's going to take some introspection for sure. Do you think, though, that Republicans in Congress should be less tethered to the White House in these next couple of years?

58:07Wolf Blitzer: I think on some policies, they're going to have to be. And on some, I think, you know, when it comes to, you know, whether we kind of the push and pull on the border. Right. So do they have the hard conversations on, you know, what does internal enforcement look like versus, is, hey, we stopped all the flow of illegal immigrants across the border. So I think on some of those, they're going to have to figure out what is actually good for the citizenry and what is good for Republicans in the next several years. What changes do Republicans, or what do you want to see in terms of inside the Trump administration?

58:40Wolf Blitzer: Do you think some heads should roll? I mean, look, we were just talking. I'm a big college football fan. If my college football team goes out and loses 60 to nothing, somebody's getting fired. Right. And so I think there needs to be some conversations about what exactly went wrong. I know there's going to be huge conversations next week and the next couple of weeks about Pete Hegseth and, you know, what happened in and around the Iran war and how culpable was that for the for the losses that that we we sustained. So there will be. And I mean, we've seen and watched this Trump movie for the past decade now.

59:14Wolf Blitzer: He's fine with with firing people. And I assume he's going to he's going to probably fire someone in the near future. What do you think all of this means for 2028 and who ends up running for Republicans? Do you think it hurts J.D. Vance's and Marco Rubio's chances? It'll be interesting to watch how they try to distance themselves from what happened on Tuesday. They already are. They're trying to. Look at J.D. Vance saying it was all because of the war. Well, and that's a necessity, right? So he's got a little bit of time, a little bit of leeway. But will the base really accept that? I know the base really likes JD, but what does the base look like now after Tuesday?

59:52Wolf Blitzer: You know, I saw the interview earlier and we talked about it. The front row Joe guy who was a multi-time Trump supporter who at the end of the day ended up voting Democrat in this election. How do we get those people kind of back in the tent and back on board? Can JD make the appeals to those folks to get kind of back on the Republican train in 2028? It'll be difficult, but I think JD has skills. At the end of the day, he's a talented politician, but it's certainly a fine line that he's going to have to walk. Who else do you think should be the face? Because you heard former House Speaker Newt Gingrich saying the scale of the Republican defeat is so great that it makes the race for the GOP presidential nomination wide open.

1:00:28Wolf Blitzer: It is. It is. You know, if you would ask me two weeks ago, I'm like, is J.D., it's Marco. And, you know, everyone else is running a close kind of third and fourth. But then now I've seen, you know, Glenn Youngkin's name out there. I thought he did a really good job in Virginia. You know, I think we'll end up seeing a field that I thought was going to be very narrow become very, very large. And so I anticipate the Democratic field will be 15 large, maybe more. I think that's probably what we'll see on the Republican side. All right, Mark Williams, thank you. Appreciate it. Wolf.

1:00:58Pamela Brown: All right, thank you from me as well. Coming up, why Tuesday's beatdown as Republicans worried about the U.S. Supreme Court. The party is zeroing in on two justices.

1:01:14Pamela Brown: New CNN reporting here in the Situation Room. Multiple sources now telling us that conservative justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas have no, repeat, no plans to step down. Now the Democrats have flipped control of the U.S. Senate. The window for President Trump to replace either justice with another conservative is swiftly closing. Some Republicans are concerned because both men are well into their 70s. CNN senior legal analyst Ellie Honig is here with us in the Situation Room. So, Ellie, do Republicans have a valid worry here?

1:01:47Wolf Blitzer: For sure, Wolf. I think Donald Trump has picked his last Supreme Court justice. Now, had there been a vacancy at any point over the last 22 months, and people were primarily focused on Alito and Thomas, then Donald Trump could have chosen a replacement, and that person almost certainly would have sailed through the U.S. Senate. But now the tables have turned. Now Democrats are taking control and they still remember the Mitch McConnell double cross of 2016 when he blocked Obama's nominee for 293 days and 2020 when they confirmed Amy Coney Barrett eight days before that election. Democrats remember that and they're looking for revenge.

1:02:22Wolf Blitzer: We've seen leading Democratic senators say explicitly Chuck Schumer, Richard Blumenthal, Ruben Gallego said specifically we are going to do to them what McConnell did to us. So I think that that window has closed. I don't think we're going to see Donald Trump get another Supreme Court nominee through, even if there is a vacancy.

1:02:39Pamela Brown: As you know, there's still, what, about two months before Democrats are the majority in the Senate and officially take control of the Senate. Could any of these justices retire now and presumably before the Democratic majority emerges, Trump could get somebody else confirmed?

1:02:56Wolf Blitzer: Theoretically, yes. There's nothing in the law or Constitution preventing Alito or Thomas or anyone else from resigning today. But it's good to see our new reporting because I've been speculating up till now that that would absolutely not happen. And I think our reporting confirms that it would be so obviously and conspicuously political for an Alito to retire now in the wake of these midterms. As much as these justices like to claim we're not political, many of them do time their retirements. But I think for Alito to do this would be a mark for him that he could not escape. I don't think it's at all likely that we see a retirement between now and January.

1:03:30Pamela Brown: Put this into a little bit more context for us. What lessons of history would play out here?

1:03:35Wolf Blitzer: So if you look back the last 30-some years, the last seven Supreme Court retirements, only talking about retirements here, have coincided with presidents of the same ideology. So liberal justices have retired with Democrats in office, and conservative justices have retired with Republicans in office. Now, though, there's a big problem because the Senate is not going to approve anyone Donald Trump puts forward. And Wolf, the last justice not to follow that pattern, you have to go back to 1991, when Thurgood Marshall actually retired during George H.W. Bush's presidency, was replaced with Clarence Thomas.

1:04:13Wolf Blitzer: Thurgood Marshall was criticized at the time by liberals who said, why don't you hold on and see what happens in 1992? Turned out, of course, as you know, Bill Clinton wins. And Thurgood Marshall actually lived until four days into Bill Clinton's presidency. He lived until January 24th, 1993. So if he had held on, that wouldn't have been Clarence Thomas. That would have been a Bill Clinton nominee. So there's big historical stakes with these things.

1:04:34Pamela Brown: We'll see what happens. We're also getting some breaking news coming into the Situation Room right now, Ellie. And another Department of Justice senior official is resigning, marking the third since the midterm election. John Eisenberg, who's led the Department of Justice's National Security Division, resigned today. What kind of challenge could these departures be for the administration with the new Democratic Senate? So two types of challenges.

1:04:59Wolf Blitzer: First of all, some of these high-ranking positions at DOJ require Senate advice and consent. And so I don't know whether Democratic senators might be more open to approving a new DOJ official to replace these folks than they would be a justice, but that's going to be a political challenge. Beyond that, we're seeing continued loss of expertise and experience at the top levels of the Justice Department. John Eisenberg is a person who's been a prosecutor for a long time and knows what he's doing. And like any other organization, when you lose talented, experienced people, it takes its toll on the efficacy of that department.

1:05:33Pamela Brown: Yeah, Hermie Dillon left her post at the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. So top officials are leaving. Could the president install acting leaders to do the job for the rest of his term?

1:05:43Wolf Blitzer: He can. There is some flexibility to impose acting leaders. There are time limits on how long those people can serve for, usually 180 or 210 days. But, yes, you can install an acting. And again, that's a difference between the judiciary. There's no such thing as an acting judge or an acting justice. But yeah, he can fill the gap with acting leaders in the intermediary. But those people don't have the same political accountability and political legitimacy as a fully confirmed official might have.

1:06:07Pamela Brown: We'll see what happens. All right. Ellie Honig, as usual, thank you. Thanks, Will. Very, very much.

1:06:11Wolf Blitzer: Good to see you, Ellie. All right. Just ahead, a big win and a big battleground. Michigan's Democratic governor-elect has a chance to put her party's agenda into action. We'll ask Jocelyn Benson about it next. in the Situation Room.

1:06:30Pamela Brown: All right, stand by for a CNN projection.

1:06:37Pamela Brown: CNN projects that Republican Anthony Constantino will win New York's 21st district, keeping the vast northern New York district in GOP hands. Constantino, who is CEO and founder of the company The sticker mule will defeat Democrat Blake Ginadine. A dairy farmer, Konstantino, will replace GOP rep Elise Stefanik, who launched a short-lived gubernatorial campaign in late 2025. The House balance of power right now is 253 Democrats to 160 Republicans. Pamela.

1:07:14Wolf Blitzer: Well, Wolf, for the first time in two decades, Democrats have won a majority of governor's races, and that includes Michigan. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson beat Republican Congressman John James to replace the term limited governor, Gretchen Whitmer. And Governor-elect Benson joins us now. First of all, congratulations on your win. Thank you so much for making time with us. It's been such a big week for you. You won by 11 percentage points. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure you have not gotten much sleep. So thanks for carving out time for me and Wolf. But, you know, I'm wondering where you're thinking about putting your energy now.

1:07:50Wolf Blitzer: You made a lot of promises on the trail. Where will you focus your energy first? Well, first, thanks for having me. Yeah, we've been hard at work. You can hear I'm losing my voice, talking to people and setting up our plans to now act on the promises we made on the campaign trail to reduce costs, to grow our economy and increase while paying jobs and make sure government is working well. So I spoke to my transition team today and I said, never forget why we're here. We have a mandate, a mandate from the people of Michigan to make their lives better. You need to think about the woman in Saginaw who's working four jobs to make ends meet and do right by her.

1:08:29Wolf Blitzer: So we enter this moment focused on getting things done and delivering, recognizing that the record breaking turnout. We saw this was our highest ever turnout in a midterm election in Michigan. That comes with a mandate for change, a mandate to improve people's lives, a mandate to drive down costs. And we are actively working to identify ways we can do that on day one. Michigan Democrats won the trifecta in these midterms, winning your governor's seat, of course, but also control of the statehouse and Senate. How do you plan to take advantage of that? Well, you know, I met with the Senate Democratic Caucus and the Senate at the New House Caucus yesterday.

1:09:09Wolf Blitzer: They also elected historic leadership of the first South Asian speaker for our statehouse and a Latino gentleman from Darren Camilleri to lead the state Senate. So we are seeing historic elections within those caucuses that also reflect that mandate to improve our schools. Darren Camilleri is also a teacher, a former teacher, as am I. So we're going to prioritize improving public education in this state. But the opportunity we have with a historic trifecta, a governing majority that will enable us to get things done, gives us a responsibility as well to deliver results. And those were my remarks to them yesterday, to never forget who we're working for and to think big and bold and transformational in working to right-size our economy and ensure every voice is at the table as we make government work for everyone.

1:09:59Wolf Blitzer: As Secretary of State, you administer Michigan's election. So I want to ask you about the Democrats' key Senate race there. Abdul El-Sayed defeated Republican Mike Rogers in an extremely bitter contest, as you well know. He will become the first Muslim U.S. senator. Do you think he'll be under more scrutiny? Well, I talked to Abdul often throughout the race and reminded him that he was on the cusp of making history. And that is never an easy path for anyone breaking down those barriers. So I think he recognizes that moment and that responsibility. And also that he represents an entire state, a purple state, people from both sides of the spectrum who I know as governor, I will be committed to working for.

1:10:39Wolf Blitzer: And I expect him as senator to fully representing as well and recognizing that across the spectrum, folks want us to come together to lower their costs. I know that he's going to Washington with that mandate as well and will work well with our senior senator, Alyssa Slotkin, to similarly deliver from Michigan. As you know, Haley Stevens endorsed the GOP Senate nominee, Mike Rogers, just before. Do you think that helped to hurt El-Sayed? And do you welcome her in Michigan as a Democrat? Yeah, I've known Haley for a long time and will always welcome anyone who wants to be a part of our work to reduce costs and grow our economy.

1:11:16Wolf Blitzer: But I would say the impact was really to unify our party even more because it was it was a moment 48 hours before Election Day where we all were working hard to to get our message out to voters. And we just doubled down on those efforts. And then what I saw among voters is that they just want to talk about our plans to lower costs. Who's endorsing who didn't matter as much as just who has the plan to make their lives better. And that's why I thought I think you saw such historic wins in Michigan and all around the country on Tuesday. There's already a lot of talk about 2028 and the presidential race.

1:11:53Wolf Blitzer: What do you think should be the lessons learned from this midterms in terms of what Democrats should focus on as they look ahead to 2028? And are there any people in your mind that you think should be the frontrunners? Well, I'll say that what we saw in this battleground state of Michigan, knowing that the path to the presidency in 2028 goes right through our state, is that voters want leaders who will deliver, who actually have a plan to improve their lives and will have a record, a track record as well on delivering results. I do think governors are uniquely positioned with that message to say, here's my vision and here's how I've delivered in my respective state.

1:12:30Wolf Blitzer: But above all, this is a moment in this election, I think, marks the beginning of the moment of the post Trump era for our nation. And my hope is that the 2028 slate of presidential candidates will come to Michigan often and make their case to the people of our state of their plans to improve our lives and mark this post-Trump era in a way that does away with the chaos and the cruelty and just focuses on bringing people together and improving people's lives. I think any candidate with that forward-looking message will do well in a purple state like ours. All right, Michigan Governor-elect Jocelyn Benson, thank you and best of luck with your voice.

1:13:06Wolf Blitzer: lots of tea. Thank you so much.

1:13:10Pamela Brown: Congratulations from me as well. Coming up days later, Senate races in Alaska and Mississippi are still too close to call. And one of those contests is not poised to end up in court. We're going to ask an election expert about what to expect. That's Next.

1:13:32Pamela Brown: Breaking news. Democratic Senate candidate Scott Cologne just spoke in Jackson, Mississippi. Cologne holds a razor-thin lead over Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith. See that senior reporter, Andy Greyer, is on the scene for us. Andy, tell our viewers what you're hearing and what you're seeing.

1:13:51Wolf Blitzer: Well, Wolf, Colom just spoke to us where he said he is still feeling increasingly confident that as more votes come in and are counted that they will continue to tip in his favor. He argued that Cindy Hyde-Smith, the Republican senator, needs to come out and make her case that while Colom has been doing a number of events that I've attended, we have not seen the Republican senator in action. He's asking where is she in all of this. Meanwhile, the Republican campaign has been projecting confidence as well. Republican lawyers held an event yesterday where they said they have 50 lawyers spread out across the state and they are ready to watch every legal vote be counted.

1:14:28Wolf Blitzer: Coulomb said that he's heard from folks that some people are having issues getting their ballots counted because right now across the state, county officials are going through these affidavit ballots known as provisional ballots, trying to figure out which can be counted and which can't. And that could be the ballgame in this very razor-thin race. And both campaigns are watching this very, very closely. Republicans have sent letters to county officials saying that they need to preserve those ballots and keep them separate, whereas Cologne says that's a desperate attempt. Take a listen to what he told us just a moment ago.

1:14:59Pamela Brown: Right, right. At some point, you have a legal obligation above your partisanship. So you understand the process. You understand the law. You need to make sure you're actually following the law and not violating the law. And so I would just encourage them to do the right thing. I mean, I have faith that the process will be followed correctly. And everybody just needs to calm down, follow the law. It's very clear where the direction it is. And, you know, ultimately, at some point, the senator needs to speak out. Where is Cindy Highsmith? Where is her? Why can't she speak for herself? Why does she got to have Chairman Hurst speaking for her?

1:15:34Pamela Brown: We want to hear from her. She needs to answer questions. What is her path to victory? She doesn't have one. Chairman Hurst knows that. I know that. The people of Mississippi have spoken. We all know where this is going.

1:15:47Wolf Blitzer: Now, it could be days before we know a final result because officials are working overtime to try and deal with the massive amount of ballots that they're dealing with. But it's truly an unprecedented situation that we're dealing with. In ruby red state of Mississippi, a state Trump carried by 23 points. And this race is still too close to call.

1:16:04Pamela Brown: Right now, Scott Colom is about 2 ,000 votes ahead. We'll see how that winds up. So Annie Gray, you're live from Jackson, Mississippi. Thank you very, very much. David Becker is here with me in the Situation Room. He's the founder of the nonpartisan nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research. David, there's a big focus, as you know, right now on these outstanding so-called provisional ballots, also known as affidavit ballots in Mississippi. Walk us through what this means.

1:16:31Wolf Blitzer: So when someone has to vote an affidavit ballot or a provisional ballot, what that basically means is there's something with their voter registration or some other issue that prevents them from just casting a ballot, and they need to have that ballot verified before they can actually tabulate it to count it. And in Mississippi, what that might mean is the voter might have been inactivated off of the voter lists, and in some cases, maybe inaccurately inactivated, and so they weren't on the voter list as an active voter. It could also mean they didn't bring an ID, as was required in Mississippi, and they might need to go back to the county clerk and present that.

1:17:05Wolf Blitzer: But what we're seeing is there might be around 15 ,000 of those ballots day-wide, they're working through. Those just take longer, as you can imagine. And there's also another class of ballots that are coming in, Wolf. There's late-arriving mail ballots. In Mississippi, ballots that were voted on or before Election Day but delivered by the post office up until next Tuesday should be counted under Mississippi law. In fact, there was a Supreme Court case just earlier this year that validated that approach from the state of Mississippi. So some of those might come in as well. But as we're seeing that progress, we are seeing Cologne's lead increase slightly, so it may be that that trend continues.

1:17:40Pamela Brown: Yeah, we've seen an increase very, very slightly over these past few days. On what grounds could we see a legal challenge there?

1:17:46Wolf Blitzer: Well, I think there's a variety of grounds that we could see, and I should stress that would be entirely normal. What we're seeing down in Mississippi in a really close race is exactly what we would expect to see. The parties in the campaigns lawyer up. Everything is being done, as you can see, with absolute transparency. You see, there's observers at every part of the process. The lawyers are watching every part of the process. That's appropriate. We have that race is very close. The Alaska race is very close, too. And if there is litigation, it will probably be done under mostly state law, likely in state courts, if there are legitimate grounds.

1:18:19Wolf Blitzer: But if the margin is over 1 ,000 votes for sure, that's almost certainly not going to be made up in some kind of court argument. There, to my knowledge, has never been a statewide race anywhere in the United States in its history that has been overturned by the courts with a margin of more than 1 ,000 votes.

1:18:33Pamela Brown: Right now, Columbus winning by almost 2 ,000 votes. Let's talk about Alaska. As you point out, that's another state that we're following very closely right now, the Senate results there. What's taking so long to count the ballots in Alaska?

1:18:45Wolf Blitzer: So Alaska is a unique state. I spent a lot of time up there with election officials, and there's a lot of remote voting in Alaska. And so they're bringing in ballots from all over the state, this large state. They've also got a very high percentage of military voters in Alaska. And so those military ballots are going to come in, too. They're mailed in. Yeah, and they're going to make sure to count all of those ballots. And then lastly, they've got ranked choice voting. So they're going to collect all of those ballots, tabulate them. And I believe it's November 18th where the ranked choice ballots would start being tabulated if one of the four candidates does not receive 50 percent or more.

1:19:18Wolf Blitzer: If a candidate receives more than 50 percent, the election is over at that point and we'll know. I think it'll still take several days for them to look at all of the ballots, and that's totally normal in Alaska. I should also note, literally ballots are being counted in every single state and county in the country right now still. It's just that the races aren't as close, and they've already been decided. So ballots are still being counted. Military ballots are still coming in. That's entirely normal.

1:19:40Pamela Brown: And we just showed our viewers, Mary Paltolo, the Democratic candidate, is ahead by a little bit more than 600 votes right now. Six hundred and, what, 37 votes right now.

1:19:51Wolf Blitzer: Right. And, you know, we'll see whether that's that margin is going to be important, but also the margin between whoever is in the lead and 50 percent is also going to be important. Because if who is ever in the lead gets to above 50 percent, then they don't have to go to the ranked choice aspect of the election, which would start late next week.

1:20:08Pamela Brown: So we'll see what happens in Alaska and Mississippi and continue our conversation. David Becker, thanks for all the good work. Appreciate it very, very much.

1:20:15Wolf Blitzer: Thank you, David. All right. Finally this week, something to cleanse the palate, shall we say, after a week of non-stop politics. There is no better way to do that than with this, pandas. The wait is finally over for Zoo Atlantic guests to get a double dose of pandemonium with this morning's debut of their new giant panda exhibit. It's one of only three zoos in the U.S. where you can get an up-close look at the gentle giants on loan from the Chinese government. The pair arrived in the U.S. in September, two years after the zoo returned four of them to China. I already feel like my cortisol levels went down looking at that.

1:20:53Wolf Blitzer: It's good for us all. I love those pandas.

1:20:55Pamela Brown: We used to go see them at the Washington Zoo all the time. Yeah. We miss them. All right. Thanks very much for joining us this morning. You can always keep up with us on social media at Wolf Blitzer and at Pamela Brown CNN.

1:21:07Wolf Blitzer: We'll see you back here Monday morning and every weekday morning at 10 Eastern for two hours. Inside Politics with our friend and colleague, Dana Bash, starts after a quick break. Have a wonderful weekend.

1:21:39Wolf Blitzer: And I'm Ari Shapiro and it's engagement. And we get to talk about what we're obsessed with, what we're engaged with, what we need to process with a friend. Her name is Amy O'Dell. She is a fashion writer, blogger. But the thing is, she's a journalist who's written about the sacred cows of fashion. And yes, I mean, Gwyneth Paltrow and Anna Wintour. She has done biographies of both. And she is also the sort of rare fashion writer who at this point kind of outside the system. And so the question that we're going to try to tackle is... Is fashion terrible now? Well, no, I mean, I would phrase it as how do you develop a personal style in the age of AI slop.

1:22:17Wolf Blitzer: You know, on social media, like creators have to try a whole bunch of different things and see what catches and then they make it over and over and over again. The same thing happens with clothing. So they're sort of seeding the market, seeding the internet with all of these different ideas and then they can see what sells and then they can just make them really fast. Follow Engagement Party. Wherever you get your podcasts.