Catch Up

House Oversight chair James Comer: "It's tough out there. Gas prices are too high. We have an unpopular war."

James Comer: Hegseth "needs to come to Capitol Hill, answer questions, be transparent." Voters are "not happy with Iran."

"If you don't have the proper predicate, you can't just issue a subpoena." Former House Oversight chairman Jason Chaffetz said that is the mistake Democrats are about to make. Asked on Fox News about voters ranking corruption near the top of their priorities, Chaffetz said the Trump administration has been going after hundreds of billions in waste and fraud in Medicaid and Medicare, and Democrats never joined Republicans on those reforms. Instead, he said, Democrats are signaling they will go after people for their proximity to Trump. "That is not a justification," he said. "That is not the way it works."

James Comer on a Democrat-led Oversight Committee: "Unless you're a billionaire and can afford endless legal fees, you're not going to be able to withstand the harassment."

House Oversight is investigating whether a "decoy" Dan Sullivan was put on Alaska's Senate ballot to confuse voters, chairman James Comer said, with the race still uncalled. Comer said evidence reported by the New York Times showed "a coordinated effort to deceive the voters of Alaska." He wants to bring in the two staff members named in the report and asked whether Mary Peltola, Chuck Schumer or the Democratic National Committee were involved, and whether money was paid. The committee has about two months before Democrats take over, he said. "We need to hold people accountable for any type of conspiracy."

Some Republicans will "jump whatever ship may be sinking," Fox News' Joey Jones said, after House Oversight chairman James Comer stopped short of promising they would protect Trump's cabinet. Jones said members of Congress who want long careers may turn on officials in Trump's administration if they think his popularity is fading, and the worst of that could be a deal with Democrats on impeachment. Some, he said, are old-establishment on defense and resent how Pete Hegseth turned things on their head. A co-host said it is fine to disagree with the war or with the president. "What is not okay is to ride the wave of MAGA, and then the second it becomes convenient, turn your back on President Trump."

Young Bob was reportedly attacked by a group of leftists. Imagine if something like this happened to a left-wing influencer. You'd never hear the end of it.

Gunshots went off in central Krakow, and people ran through the streets. Multiple people have been injured.

Rep. Jason Crow, an Army Ranger, on Hegseth: "The man is incompetent." "He never even could make it through Ranger school."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth released a defiant video as he faces an impeachment push after the midterms. "Narco terrorists should die, not be caught and released," he said. "A disgruntled defeated congressman, along with all his Democrat allies, has also dropped sham articles of impeachment against yours truly," Hegseth said. "Their obsession with political theater disguised as power drives them to try to destroy their opponent."

"Did you have a long night at the soul? Were you up all night? Did you have a dream? What happened?" Anderson Cooper asked Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens why she switched her Michigan Senate endorsement overnight. Stevens had backed Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, and had reportedly told fellow Michigan Democrat Debbie Dingell she would not endorse his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers. The next morning she did. Stevens told Cooper she had some time to think, "alone with my thoughts," writing things out. "We all want Democrats to win," she said. "I'm a really proud Democrat."

Van Jones on Haley Stevens: "You hug and French kiss MAGA, and you don't say anything about the hate coming from their campaign."

🚨 After switching her endorsement to Republican Mike Rogers, Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens was called a lunatic who should be locked up, Scott Jennings said, and she pushed back hard on his radio show. Jennings told CNN that Stevens was upset by what he called "frankly vile commentary" from prominent Democrats including James Carville and George Conway, and by claims that she had no agency of her own or that her fiancé made her do it. She also told him she has been hearing from Democrats thanking her, Jennings said: "This is what happens to people on the left when they get out of line in the middle of an election. They come for you."

Republican senators leaving office have told him privately they want Pete Hegseth gone, Democratic Rep. Jason Crow says. Anderson Cooper asked whether senators like John Cornyn, Susan Collins, Thom Tillis and Bill Cassidy, who lost or gave up their seats, would confirm a new defense secretary before Democrats take the Senate. "I would think so," Crow said. "They've gone along to get along," he said, and voters ousted many of them for letting Trump's behavior "all happen." "Many of them have voiced to me personally that they would like to see him go," Crow said.

Young men under 30 backed Trump by 14 points in 2024. In this week's House vote, they backed Democrats by 25. CNN's Harry Enten called the 39-point swing "one of the biggest shifts that we saw in the entire electorate." In Texas, it was even bigger, Enten said. Trump won young men there by 24 points; James Talarico won them by 34, a 58-point shift. That helped make Talarico "the first Democratic senator elected from Texas since 1988," Enten said.

Elon Musk spent about $500 million on the midterms, much of it in Texas, and "he couldn't buy a senator," Scott Galloway told CNN. He called that the good news. For a trillionaire, Galloway said, $500 million is like a millionaire donating $500 to get a local official elected. The real question, he said, is whether trillionaires should be able to swing elections with a negligible share of their money, but "the ROI on political spending appears to be plummeting." He also warned Democrats against going after Musk's companies "in sort of a retribution or a vengeance." States run by Democrats need to show "that they are open for business," he said.

🚨Scott Galloway's warning to Democrats about young voters. "You're renting these folks right now. You don't own them. You're dating them. You don't have a marriage."

Scott Galloway on young men: "Trump's vision of masculinity wasn't paying their rent." "Wow, did they repudiate and swing back."

🚨 Maggie Haberman on Trump picking Stephen Miller: "President Trump has one move, and it is always more MAGA or more Trump."

Maggie Haberman: Stephen Miller's promotion "might buy Pete Hegseth some time." "And he's going to get impeached potentially as soon as next week."