Trump: Will Stand By Hegseth if He’s Impeached

0:00Every day, animals across the country face abuse and neglect. And every day, the ASPCA shows up to rescue animals in crisis. But they can't do it alone. Visit ASPCA.org slash need. Become a donor today to provide the care and shelter these animals urgently need. And for a limited time, the ASPCA will send you a free gift as a special thank you. Visit ASPCA.org slash need. Tonight, what President Trump told me about those efforts to impeach his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, as the Republican who is leading that charge is here with me. I'm Caitlin Collins, and this is The Source.

1:00Less than a week after voters delivered their verdict on the Iran war at the polls, President Trump is now staring down a revolt that could result in the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth's impeachment, potentially as soon as tomorrow. Members of Congress were back here in Washington today for the first time since those historic midterms last week, which meant that outgoing Republican Congressman Thomas Massey of Kentucky was able to go to the House floor and introduce this. The form of the resolution is as follows.

1:57Now, you would have to go back to 1876 to find an impeachment effort like this one, back when it was actually called the Department of War. The secretary back then was accused of corruption and taking kickbacks, and he resigned just before being impeached and was later acquitted by the Senate. But unlike then, Pete Hegseth says this time he's not going anywhere. And this time, the House must vote on those eight articles of impeachment as soon as Wednesday. The articles center on the war with Iran, the mission to seize Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela, operations in Yemen, boat strikes in the Western Hemisphere, and those attempts to strip Senator Mark Kelly of his rank in retaliation for a video that he and other Democrats made where they told service members not to follow illegal orders.

2:47Now, multiple Republican sources say tonight that they believe this could potentially pass, though it still remains to be seen if it will. But criticism of the defense secretary has only grown since the voters made their voices heard loud and clear last week. Pete Hegseth is the least competent, least capable, least experienced secretary this country has ever had. I can tell you with a high level of confidence that there's a lot of questions about Hegseth. I'm a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution. The so-called secretary of defense has abused his power. Would it be better for Hegseth to just resign, in your opinion?

3:29Yes, I would say that. I don't think he was the right choice to begin with. That was a Republican there who said that. Now, for his part, and in what his defense is, he has argued this, Secretary Hegseth is rejecting the allegations outright and says he has only been guilty of being successful. How is that going to stack up against the people who are under efforts to remove you from office? There's a lot of politically motivated people who may have substantial policy disagreements, but their disagreements are with success. We are very proud of the president's America First agenda, of our peace through strength posture.

4:12We know the world is a better and safer place as a result. And so if we want to litigate that, the success of those things, I'm happy to do it all day long. Now that is not the extent of Hegseth's defense of himself. He's actually called a news conference for early tomorrow morning from the Pentagon, something that we haven't seen in several months. And Congressman Massey, though, today seemed to suggest that he knows what Hegseth is going to say. We saw the secretary have scheduled his own press conference that they're going to let him deliver a rebuttal. And to that point, I hope he addresses the eight articles and doesn't get up and misquote the Bible in Quentin Tarantino fashion and do some pull-ups and, you know, call everybody fat and gay, like, for being for this impeachment.

4:58Like, I may have just given you half his speech. I don't know. Meanwhile, at the White House today, there was only a few minutes notice before President Trump Trump made his own surprise appearance in the briefing room today. It actually happened so quickly that if you look there closely at the podium, they didn't have time to put the presidential seal there on the lectern. Now as the president was standing alongside the head of the UFC, Dana White, who over the weekend the president floated as becoming the next White House press secretary, of course there were a lot of questions about this impending effort to impeach Pete Hegseth.

5:32And this is what the president said when I asked him about those efforts and those specific articles of impeachment. Will you stand by the exit that he's impeached? Yeah, 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 act. Do you what? Massey says that he's carried out a legal act. Massey's a loser. Just like you're a loser at CNN. Just like your ratings are a loser. Massey is a loser. Stone Cold loser. I ran I did something that nobody's done I took on a guy that was in his own way sort of popular in his state and I beat him badly beat him easily with a man that never ran before but a good man Massey has a lot of hatred in his heart I watched I heard what Massey did I don't want to watch I don't want to waste my time watching him we won two wars we won two wars and we've made the world a lot safer place, and then we're supposed to be.

6:40And my lead source tonight is the person the president was just talking about there, Republican Congressman of Kentucky, Thomas Massey. I want you to respond to what the president said in the briefing today, but clearly he's still thinking about this because he was just posted about it a few moments ago on Truth Social, and he called you the defeated Republican Congressman, repeated that he called you a total loser, and he says you're trying to impeach the most popular and successful military official in the country. And he said that actually he should be praised, not impeached, and called on Congress to stand up for Pete.

7:12What do you make of that? Well, this isn't a popularity contest. I didn't offer these articles of impeachment because I thought Pete Hegsess was ineffective or because I disagreed with his policy. Now, both of those things may be true, but those aren't the substance of these eight articles. One thing that I heard there repeated again is Trump's admitted that two of these events are wars, Venezuela and Iran. And that's actually the subject of my impeachment. I don't think Trump has read these. I'm not sure that Hegseth will respond to the articles of impeachment, but that's what's before us. And, you know, he has been effective.

7:49He was effective at killing 200 school children. He was effective at bombing fishing boats that may or may not have had people who were guilty of smuggling drugs. He's been effective at waging an unconstitutional kidnapping in Venezuela. The president himself brags that they have captured this oil and that our companies, our corporations are getting rich from the oil that they've captured that Pete Hegseth helped to capture. I mean, in some aspect, he has been effective, and that's what we're impeaching him for, his effectiveness in breaking the law and violating the Constitution. Does it change anything for you that the president told me he's standing by Pete Hegseth regardless of him being impeached?

8:31They stand by them until the day they don't. You can't expose any weakness in these press conferences. And I still put it at a high probability that Pete Hegseth won't make it until December 31st of this year. You don't think he'll make it until the end of the year? I think there's a high probability he will not make it to the end of the year. Why not? Like, you think he'll resign before he can be impeached, or if it does succeed before it can go to the Senate? Well, first of all, impeachment is actually kind of a polite thing. I'm not proposing he go to prison. I'm not proposing that he be exposed to civil liability.

9:04We're just saying you need to be out of a job right now. And when the Democrats get control in January, they are not going to be as polite as I am. Look, they're going to have hearings in the House. They're going to bring in people who've served under Hegseth, people who've seen some things and know some things that aren't even public yet. And they'll be sworn in. They'll have to testify against Pete Hegseth. And then it'll go to a trial in the Senate when Hegseth is no longer the secretary of defense. Donald Trump's going to be looking at a Senate that's not going to be very kind in terms of approving his nominations.

9:40So you're saying he should basically cut bait before the Democrats take over. That's exactly what I'm saying. So when you talked about the actual substance of what's in these articles of impeachment, On the first two, can you explain your thinking on impeaching him for following unlawful orders? Because some people might read that and say, well, what about the president who gave those orders? Why not go after him? That's a great point. It covers the first two. In fact, six of the eight articles you could say are we're impeaching him for following illegal orders. Ironically, that's the thing he went after Senator Mark Kelly for saying that you don't have to follow illegal orders.

10:18Well, here we're impeaching Hegseth for following illegal orders in six of these instances. You put your fire where you can have the most effect. And I think Pete Hegseth, if you're looking at this entire administration and you're saying who has violated more laws and violated the Constitution more than anybody, Pete Hegseth is the undisputed winner of that. And that's why we directed these at him and not the president. And there are two articles, by the way, that don't just go as reflected from the president to Pete Hegseth. He went after Mark Kelly himself, and he also deprecated the function within the Department of Defense that distinguishes civilian targets from military targets.

11:02And so it was an obvious and unfortunate consequence that they ended up killing these schoolchildren on the first day of the war. Which they still haven't announced the results of that investigation. Why do you think Pete Hegseth is holding a press conference tomorrow morning? because they're worried. I mean, it's that simple. And I think the vote will not happen until he's had his press conference. I mean, this is him. He's going to go out there. He's going to try to defend himself. Again, though, he's going to try to convince people he's been effective and that he's likable. That's not what's at issue here.

11:35The question in an impeachment is, have you broken any laws and have you violated the constitution? And I argue in eight instances he has. When do you think the vote is going to happen? I think the vote will probably happen Tuesday evening or Wednesday. The Speaker has two days to schedule this. This isn't the first time I offered these eight articles of impeachment. You tried to do it before. Yeah, I tried to do it before this recess we took, and the result was the Speaker adjourned Congress instead of having to vote on this. So this is the first order of business when we got back. Well, and it was notable, Ted Cruz was talking on his podcast about this and he said that was why the house went home early because he said they did not have the votes to stop a Hegseth impeachment back in September.

12:21Do you think the opinion, the mood on this among your party Republicans has shifted since then, that they are more likely to vote to impeach him now? I think there's two categories of Republicans after November 3rd who are more likely to vote to impeach Pete Hegseth. One, I call it the retirement caucus. These aren't people who joined voluntarily and the ranks of this caucus swelled for Republicans on November 3rd. What do they have to lose? But more importantly, you have a caucus of people who just barely won their election. They thought they had a political annuity, that they'd go to fancy dinners for the rest of their lives, and they barely won by 500 votes.

12:58They're used to winning by 10 ,000, 15 ,000 votes. And those folks need to put some daylight between themselves and this administration, between themselves and this war. Oh, that's interesting. So you don't think it's just Republicans who lost and have nothing to lose because they're not going to be in Congress much longer. You also think even Republicans who won but did so by a much closer margin might vote to do this because of the war. Yeah, they felt their political mortality on November 3rd. I think they're scared. and they realize in two years this could go even more south for President Trump and the Iran war and they need to start putting themselves between, further from this administration so that when they are on the ballot in two years they've got a chance of surviving.

13:46Do you believe ultimately this is going to pass? I don't know if it will pass. I really, I didn't spend my time tonight on the floor whipping this vote. I think there's a good chance that it could pass. I think there's a better chance now that it could pass than there was before. And people are basically saying it has no chance in the Senate. And I would say, don't say that too quickly because you see senators who are more willing to speak out, Republican senators like Tom Tillis. And if the Speaker and the Senate Majority Leader are somehow able to push this into the next Congress, Congress, for every other bill in Congress and resolution, they expire at the end of this Congress.

14:27But for impeachments, they go into the next Congress. And so the Senate can't run out the clock on this one. They're going to have to vote for it. If we can get it out of the House, they'll have to vote for it, either when John Thune is the leader or there's another. So no matter what, if it passes the House, the Senate will have to take this up, whether that's now or come January. Correct. And the first thing Mike Johnson will try to do is refer this to committee. And I want everybody to know right now a referral to committee is to kill this bill. It is not to move this bill forward. Sorry, resolution, this impeachment resolution forward.

15:01It's to kill it. Congressman Thomas Massey, I have a lot more questions for you. We're actually going to be joined by another lawmaker right after the break. So stay by. The president today in that briefing was also asked about many other topics, including following up on the question he got over the weekend about how much wealthier he became during his second term. We'll talk about that. A Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Ro Khanna, will join us right after this.

15:50his 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. 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. 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.

16:34I'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. 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.

17:08Who 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. Tonight, just a few days after voters said corruption was a top issue for them going into the midterm elections, President Trump is defending himself against accusations that he's profiting off the presidency. But your net worth went up by$3 billion. Well, since you returned to... Okay, you ready? So here's... My net worth did not go up by$3 billion. Well, you should have had stock. I should have.

17:47You should have had stock. I should have had stock. Excuse me. So how did it go up by$3 billion? Well, let me explain. I devote almost no time to my net worth. I don't care. I have a lot of money and far more than I ever thought I'd have. And I guess it's gone up. I don't even know. But just so you know. Wait, wait, wait. This is a really important question I have. Let me explain it. Let me explain it to you. I have a son who's a very straight, good guy. He watches over money. I don't even talk to him about it. He watches. It seems like you could just walk away from that, and then you would not be accused of corruption, right?

18:26I have, but you have sons where they go around and they build buildings. That's what they do. That's what I did long before I became president. I did it better than anybody. Now I'm putting my expertise to use at the White House, fixing the White House and doing things that should have been built long ago. But I was very good at real estate. I made a lot of money. But I have a company. My sons are in the company. It's hard to say to them, don't do anything anymore for four years because I'm president. And on that note, Republican Congressman Thomas Massey is back with me, along with Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California.

19:01And thank you, Congressman Khanna, for being here. You know, what did you make of the president's answer there on why he has made so much money since being in office this time? Well, he didn't answer the facts. I mean, the reality is he has a crypto deal with UAE, where UAE royal family has invested in world liberty. And in exchange, we sold him chips. And so the reality is this corruption is one of the issues. And you know what? He may have gotten away with it. But when people are paying more for food and paying more for gas and they don't like the war in Iran, then people resent the fact that his family is making money off this crypto scheme while they're struggling.

19:42When Democrats are in control, do you want to see Congress do something about this? Well, absolutely. We're going to have the Oversight and Judiciary Committee look into all of the pay-to-play schemes, the crypto schemes. We're going to pass a ban on stock trading. We're going to make sure that his corruption is exposed. And then at the same time, we're going to make sure that we're ending this war in Iran. Thomas and I are known for the Epstein files, but what really started our partnership this last Congress was stopping the war in Iran. And had people voted for our War Powers Resolution, we wouldn't be there for seven months.

20:18We wouldn't have had high food prices, high gas prices, high diesel prices. That has to be the top priority. Well, I mean, you've said that you think that part of the reason Republicans lost so badly last week is because they did not stand up to the president using their congressional oversight powers. What do you think will be different about that when Republicans are in the minority come January? Well, usually the voters take it out on Congress when they don't like the president in a midterm. In this instance, their angst was directed in the right place because my colleagues just rubber stamped everything Trump wanted when they knew it was wrong.

20:51whether it was the war in Iran, whether it was more spending in the big, beautiful bill, whether it was not even voting on whether we should have tariffs or not. And when he betrayed the Make America Healthy Again movement, like their vitriol was directed in the right place, which was Republicans in Congress. Here's my concern, though, Caitlin, and no offense, Ro, but one of the problems we have is we spend too much money. And I'm afraid when you've got a Republican who's a populist in the White House who likes to spend money and Democrats in control of the House and the Senate, you ain't seen the levels of spending that we're going to have, I'm afraid.

21:30You're worried that Trump's going to collaborate with Dems and they're going to spend a ton of money. I think they both love to spend money and we're going to see insane amounts of money spent. Are we? Well, the problem is we've been spending money on the wrong things. We've been spending money on the war in Iraq, spending money on a war in Afghanistan, spending money on a war in Iran, spending money on Medicare Advantage, that is, ripping off the American taxpayers. So I'm for spending money on productive things in education, health, science. Well, one question of how that happens is who's leading Democrats.

22:02You've said you want commitments from Hakeem Jeffries before you'll vote for him for speaker. I'm going to vote for him, but I'm pushing for several commitments. One of them is to not support Section 219. This is outrageous. Like, how in the world after this election would we think that we should integrate our military with Israel's military? You had the president and J.D. Vance themselves say, one of the reasons we lost is we're losing sovereignty to Israel. Don't give them aid. Don't integrate. So this needs to be stripped from the defense bill. But even if he doesn't commit to that, you still are going to vote for him?

22:39I'm voting for him, but I am pushing very hard with other members. and there are other members in the caucus who've come in who have these concerns. And I'm in some ways been a liaison to them. I've supported many of them. And what I'm saying is that to get a strong vote, you've got to commit on the Section 219. You have to make sure that we're going to get a vote on Medicare for All. Make sure we get a vote on zeroing out aid to Israel to recognize what voters, what message they were sending. OK, but you are going to vote for him. I mean, with Mike Johnson and minority leader, who is the right person to lead Republicans in this time?

23:16Well, I was the only Republican who didn't vote for Mike Johnson, just on the record here. Famously so. He remembers. He still does remember. And that was the beginning of the end for me. One of the concerns I have with the Democrats having such a large majority is that they can marginalize people, like Ro Khanna, who have reasonable objections, At least in the thin majority that Republicans had when Kevin McCarthy was the speaker, we were able to get concessions. But I just think that the Democrats, the leadership is going to do what they want. And if they have 40 objecting voices, they can tell them to get lost.

23:53I mean, speaking of Republicans who lost, were you surprised that Lauren Boebert lost her race? I was surprised and disappointed. I contributed to her race. She was one of the only three Republicans who came and campaigned for me. Also, Victoria Sparks lost her race in Indiana. That was a surprise to me. Well, also Lauren Boebert signed the discharge petition and helped the two of you get the Epstein files released. You're not making the case for me and Roe to get more people to sign this discharge petition. Yeah, no one who signed it - Survived. Will stay in Congress. Right. Nancy Mace is gone.

24:26Marjorie Taylor Greene is gone. Ralph Norman is gone. Brian Fitzpatrick is gone. I will be gone. Lauren Boebert will be gone. All six of us. basically, and some of us that was precipitating events, some it was not, but none of us are coming back for this. I mean, I have strong disagreements with many of them, but it is just a fact that first of all, Thomas literally gave up his career because he stood up on the war in Iran and on the Epstein files. And then the other folks like Nancy Mace, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor of Green, more recently Ralph Norman, Brian Fitzpatrick, who stood up to Donald Trump on this issue of survivors, lost.

25:06And when people look at what they stood for on this issue, I believe history will judge them kindly. And what is the future of your second Epstein bill that the two of you have put together? We're working through it. We want to make sure that it has all of the survivors' concerns and what it allows to happen is state attorney generals can sue and prosecute some of these awful men who have convicted these horrific acts. Survivors can get their documents and we're working to make sure that survivors also will be able to get compensated for having illegal redactions. And I think that's the most important part is the thing that protects the survivors and gets justice in the state courts.

25:48But also it gives Congress the ability to get in front of a judge with Todd Blanche and litigate these reasons that he's redacting or keeping so many files secret still. And this was an issue in the election, by the way. For Republicans, this was a real liability. Just before we go, the president today went off on you, called you a loser. But one of his biggest complaints was he was saying that there is nothing that he does that you like or that you would vote for. And as I was sitting there in the briefing, I was actually thinking, you've actually voted in line with the president quite a lot.

26:19Well, I looked this up once. It's 91 % of the time. And in the other 9%, they're either starting a new war or bankrupting our country or covering up for pedophiles. So I'm sorry if I strayed on 9 % of the time. And in that 9 % of the time, I am voting the way that he campaigned. Like, I am voting for the promises that he made, not for the betrayals that the Republican Party has made. He betrayed the two biggest issues. He said no more wars. He said he would release the Epstein files and take on corruption. And he betrayed those. And that's why we have the result. Congressman Thomas Massey, Congressman Ro Khanna, thank you both for being here.

26:57We've had you on together many times. It's great to have a Democrat and a Republican on. So thank you both. Thanks, Kaylin. Appreciate it. Up next, there are new questions that the president was asked today. What he knew and when about that new information that's coming to light after the NVIDIA CEO, Jensen Wong, acknowledged he had an affair with someone who was an alleged Chinese spy. More right after this.

27:28And tonight, President Trump is defending his close ally, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Wong, after he admitted that he had an affair with someone who is a suspected Chinese spy. When you went to China earlier this year in May, did you know about these alleged ties with the Chinese spies then? No, I didn't hear about it then. But a lot of people have heard about it, and Jensen totally denies that. I asked him today, because I did speak to him today, just to see if he's feeling all right, how you doing. And I asked him about that. And he said he had absolutely no idea that the person in question was a spy.

28:08I asked him that question. did you have any idea that she was a spy? He said, I had no idea that she was a spy. And I really believe him. I just know Jensen very well. I just think he's a very honorable man. I know the FBI is looking into it in terms of something else. And I think that he'll be in good shape. Notable to hear the president say the FBI is also investigating this now. Of course, Jensen Wong is someone who has acted as an advisor to the president on AI policy.

28:39He events on AI. And this also comes as the company, NVIDIA, is conducting its own investigation to him as the, quote, target of a foreign intelligence effort. Now, the New York Times first drew attention to his close relationship with this Chinese tech executive that is frequently seen by his side. U.S. officials reportedly had suspected that the woman had fed intelligence to China and also helped smuggle advanced AI chips into the country. The Times also reports that U.S. intelligence officials shared that assessment with President Trump, but that he chose to take no action. He was asked about that today and said he didn't recall.

29:16On Sunday, the company said, while the board has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised, the board's inquiry will examine all available information. In his own statement, Jensen Wong said this, quote, I take full responsibility for what I did and the hurt that I caused, and I accept the criticism that comes with it. I'm committed to protecting NVIDIA and supporting America's national security. My political sources are here tonight, Amisha Cross and David Urban. And David, obviously, I mean, this seemed to be a story that kind of blew up inside the West Wing as it became publicly reported and Jensen Wong initially had denied anything improper about that relationship, then acknowledged in that letter yesterday that, yes, they did have an affair.

30:03What do you make of this in terms of the concerns about national security? Well, there should be a great deal of concern. Obviously, Jensen Wogg is an incredibly influential man. The United States has been advocating for loosening of exporting of the H-200 chip to China and other places. So if he did that, if there's any hint that he did that at the urging of his paramour there, it's going to be a real problem. I mean, we've lost potentially tons and tons of supercomputing power to an adversary. And so it's going to be interesting to see lots of just speculation at this point. The question is though, if the FBI knew about this woman's, you know, if they knew, if the FBI knew she was a spy, FBI counterintelligence, I'm curious as to why they didn't share that with anybody more broadly.

30:55I think there's a hearing coming up next week in the house. I'm sure those questions will be asked behind closed doors and hopefully we'll get to the bottom of it to, to, to seal off any problems that may have stemmed from, may have occurred because of this. Well, Anamisha, I mean, if those questions aren't asked next week, Democrats are pledging to investigate when they take over here. Chris Coons was leading the way on that today, talking about it. And I mean, Jensen Wang is someone who, when the president went to China on that trip, he was there. He's fought to be able to provide more chips to them against what some China hawks in the administration wanted.

31:28What questions do you think Democrats should be asking about this? I think they should definitely ask what people knew and when, because if the FBI had an inkling that this was was going on, They were already kind of looking into this woman anyway. Why was this information not brought forward quicker? Also, know that, you know, from the president's own admission that he is trying to basically sweep this under the rug, doesn't think that it's a big deal. But if he too knew, I think that there is some digging in that needs to be done there. It is no secret, Caitlin, that there are a lot of improprietist men out there.

31:58The cheating is what it is. However, the fact that this is somebody who potentially was selling secrets, This is somebody who had a certain level of access that would have allowed for them to get ahead, to allow for a foreign adversary to basically utilize America in a very bad way. I think that those are things that the American public should know. They should know when it started. They should know how much she got from it. They should know what this process happened to be. And moreover, why this government and why the Trump administration didn't go after it sooner, because it does appear that there was at least some knowledge of what was going on.

32:29So what why was there no investigation sooner? I am old enough to remember, I know David is as well, when the conversation around Fang Fang was a thing. At this point, if you're going to chase after something that at that point was a conspiracy theory, this seems to have a lot of there there. Why weren't people going after that with the same level of fervor? You know, David, speaking of who the president was talking to this weekend, because he confirmed he spoke to Jensen Wong today, people might have been watching that briefing and wondering why was Dana White there of the UFC? And the president had posted over the weekend and said he offered him, He wanted him to take the job as press secretary.

33:05And Dana White had a pre-scheduled meeting with the president today at the White House. And so when they came out in the briefing, I asked Dana White exactly what he told the president about this offer. And this is what he said. Just to confirm, did you tell the president no to the press secretary job? I don't tell the president no to anything. No, I didn't say no. I literally, everybody, every media outlet was calling me. And I didn't want to be disrespectful and say anything until he said something first. Mr. President. We were having a very bad press day. And I said, I don't know why I thought of his name.

33:40He's been my friend for a long time. I said, you know, I think I'm going to get Dana White to be my new press secretary. And I sent it to a group of the press. And that was it. I was sort of kidding. He said he was sort of kidding. I was told on the weekend he was not kidding. But Dana White was definitely not going to take this job, apparently. Obviously, he has a lot of other stuff going on. But when the president said today it was because of a bad press day, David, what stood out to you about that? Yeah, look, I mean, the president, he knows what's going on. He knows the time it is. He had a bad press day.

34:13We had a bad press week. And, you know, the president, you know, with the appointment of Stephen Miller, thinking about Dana White, he's, you know, getting ready for Ford Apache there. They're going to be under siege from the Democratic Congress. and he wants somebody who's tough is going to be able to fight back, stand at that podium day in and day out, and jab and parry and counterpunch. And I know when he thinks tough, he thinks Dana White, and so that's what came to mind. Listen, back just real quickly to the FBI. One of the reasons they may not have disclosed it, you know, they have sources and methods and lots of things that the counterintelligence agency may have been doing, and that may be the reason they didn't want to give up what they had on the woman, the Chinese spy.

34:56But we'll see. But back to Dana White, he'd be a great press secretary if he wanted to give up, you know, a billion or so dollars and put it all in trust. I'm sure that's not what he's looking to do, though. Yeah, it did not seem to be the case today. Amisha, what did you make of that? Trump is still trying to, you know, shift the news away from things that actually matter. The blue tsunami that happened just a few days ago was something that is at the feet of the president. It is his fault. It is his fault because of the Big Beautiful Bill Act and the changes to health care and other issues associated with that.

35:25It's his fault because of his tariff policies. It's his fault because of his overreach and immigration. You name it, people's prices have gone up on everything. And I think that for him, Dana White is a really good friend. He helped to get him elected. He funded a lot of the campaign structure. And at this point, it doesn't matter who Donald Trump chooses as his next press secretary. The American public has already turned their back on this president. And lame duck session is now. Misha Cross, David Urban, thank you both for being here tonight. Thank you. Up next, those newly elected Democrats are debating what to do with their midterm mandate that they just got, and also who should be in charge of that.

36:02Congresswoman-elect Kate Conley, who flipped a key New York swing district, will join me right after this.

36:21Here in Washington, it's basically Capitol Hill's version of the first day of school. The newly elected members of Congress showed up here for their orientation. That happens eight weeks before they are actually sworn in and the new Congress begins. And while the incoming class of House and Senate Democrats is united in its push to address affordability, they campaigned on it. Some progressives are also pushing for aggressive investigations into the White House and the administration and potentially to impeach members of President Trump's cabinet. How far should you go on accountability? I mean, there are calls already for impeachment.

36:56Would you think that's a route to go down? I mean, I'd like to impeach Pete Hegseth. I'd like to impeach Kash Patel. I'd like to impeach RFK Jr. They've all sold out the American people. What about Donald Trump? I mean, we've got a long list. So I'd like to see us restore the health care subsidies and the war and the tariffs. Impeach, you know, those three folks. Raise the minimum wage. Ban stock trading. Get money out of politics. Let's work our way through that list. and then come back and ask me again. And my next source tonight is Democratic Congresswoman-elect Kate Conley, who unseated the two-term Republican Congressman Mike Lawler in New York's 17th Congressional District.

37:40And thank you for being here. It does have a first-day-of-school vibe to it. I mean, did anything surprise you? What did you make of it? I mean, when you said that, it definitely resonated. It does feel that way. You meet your classmates, you make new friends, and you talk about what's going on in life and the world and what you want to do. Yeah, but obviously, you know, there's a brief honeymoon period maybe that voters are going to expect the Democrats that they just put into office to fulfill the campaign promises that you ran on. You have said you support this push to impeach Secretary Hexeth.

38:10What about what Brad Lander is saying there, that FBI Director Cash Patel, Health Secretary RFK Jr. should also be on that list? To your point, I think the voters absolutely deserve a Congress that's going to deliver. And when you look at what those priorities should be, we should be able to both hold this administration accountable and deliver when it comes to lowering costs. I think we have to ensure that we are doing both and never losing focus on that. In terms of priorities, I think Pete Hegseth, every single day he is in office, is literally degrading and diminishing our national security.

38:42He is putting the readiness of our troops, the readiness of our military at risk, and he needs to go. And with that, that should be a priority of this Congress that's still in session, that is still here and should be doing its job. But I will tell you, if they fail, too, the 120th Congress is coming, and we will ensure that we hold him accountable. What about Kash Patel? I think, look, we need to ensure that there is oversight of this administration and that it is following the rule of law. One of the things that has bothered me the most about the Trump administration has been the weaponization of the executive branch, how we've seen things like the DOJ and FBI be used as political tools.

39:20That is wrong. That needs to stop. Do I think there should be oversight and investigations? Absolutely. But not necessarily impeachment of those other names? Not at this point. But again, keep everything on the table because you never know what else is going to happen. And when you look at this in terms of what the agenda is going to look like overall, what is the day one issue for you that you think it should be? because I think a lot of people are watching Democrats and saying, well, they promised to do this on affordability, on health care subsidies, on tariffs. Can you do all of that? Or do you start with those issues first?

39:54I don't believe this is going to be something that we resolve everything on day one or even the first 30 days. But going into what should those priorities be and what can we actually deliver on, in my mind, there's two buckets to this. One, there's the undoing the harm of this administration. You brought up tariffs. That's where the tariffs come in. I'll tell you in my district, the Trump tariffs are costing the average household$4 ,200. Small businesses are getting crushed. We've had business leaders have to close their doors because of the tariffs. So those types of actions where we're undoing that kind of harm will provide some immediate relief.

40:26Reinstating things like Medicaid funding, the premium tax credits, those are all very real things that will impact people on day one that we can and should be doing. But it can't stop there. That's where we do have to do things like how do we lower utility costs by holding monopoly utility companies accountable? How do we drive down health care and premiums by holding the health insurance industry accountable? All of those things we have to do, and it's not day one. You have said that you will be backing Hakeem Jeffries as the House Speaker. Some Democrats don't believe he's the right choice. Why do you think he is?

40:57On Tuesday, I think what we saw from the American people, to include voters in New York 17, was a complete frustration with the political dysfunction, the hyper-partisanship, and how that's tearing our community's family as our country apart. I do not believe what Democrats should take from that is let's exacerbate it and fight more internally amongst ourselves at a time where the American people have given us a mandate to come in and actually fix the problems of government, not cause more. I think our priority should be on let's get a speaker in there and let's get to work, period. So you just don't want to have to deal with the fight, infighting or drama over someone else who would succeed him?

41:37I think Speaker Jeffries will be a very competent speaker and will deliver what we need to in order to get out there and solve problems for the American people. And I think as a caucus, what we need to be focusing on is not our differences, but what unites us. And that right now is a shared mission to deliver for the American people. Do you agree with what he said about Stephen Miller, the new chief of staff? Kim Jeffries described him as a stone-cold racist, said his track record speaks for itself, and he has zero interest in working with that kind of individual. We've got two years to deliver for the American people.

42:10That means we are going to have to work with Donald Trump in the White House to find ways to get things done. On what? I think... What do you think you can work with them on? I mean, I think this goes back to, we saw with the Road to Housing Act, where even if Donald Trump doesn't sign off on something, it can still get passed into law. Like this goes into what are the areas where even the administration understands this is a win for America Not to tell you if this means we have to name things after him for two years. I don't care I want us to deliver results for the American people and that needs to be the priority And we can't allow the White House to stop us from doing that So you would be willing to name stuff after Trump in order to get him to do to work with Democrats?

42:47I think this goes back to understanding you asked. What do you think Trump would be motivated to do? I think he should be motivated to deliver for the American people. The suffering and hardship that we are seeing, it's not just Democrats or Democratic families or Democratic voters. The suffering we're seeing across this country and across my district, it's everyone. And at the end of the day, he should care about making America a place where you can work hard and get ahead. He should care about America being a place where you work a single job. And that's enough to put food on the table, a roof over your head, afford health care and keep the lights on.

43:20That's not America today, and that is wrong. And shame on the president if that doesn't motivate him to deliver. Congresswoman-elect Kate Conley, thank you for joining us here on The Source tonight. Appreciate your time. Thanks for having me. And up next, it is time for Source Code. Tonight, it's$1 billion. I'll be right back with a CNN projection.

43:47Tonight's source code is$1 billion because CNN can now project the California voters have actually just rejected a measure to impose that one time 5 % wealth tax on residents who have a net worth over a billion dollars. This ballot measure that was known as Prop 40 has become one of the biggest and most high profile on expensive fights that happened in this election. Labor unions and progressive organizers pushed for the wealth tax, which would have applied to around 250 billionaires in California. CNN previously reported that a bunch of wealthy Californians like Google's co-founder had shelled out millions to try to block this tax.

44:26But the governor, Gavin Newsom, also opposed it and instead push for attacks on billionaires at the national level. Well, it has not passed. We'll see where that fight goes from here. And also, I should note tonight, you can stream The Source live or watch on demand anytime if you have an all-access subscription. All you have to do is scan the code on your screen right now. Go to CNN.com slash watch as well to sign up. Thank you so much for joining us here on The Source. CNN Newsnight starts now. I'm Adi Kornish. I'm Ari Shapiro, and it's Engagement Party. And we get to talk about what we're obsessed with, what we're engaged with, what we need to process with a friend.

45:03Her 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? 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.

45:38The 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.