Monday Afternoon Updates: Trump Cries RIGGED, Dem Wave Rolls into D.C., Hegseth IMPEACHMENT, + MORE!
Monday Afternoon Updates: Trump Cries RIGGED, Dem Wave Rolls into D.C., Hegseth IMPEACHMENT, + MORE!Important updates. Paywall free.
It’s Monday, November 9, and Washington looks very different this morning. Congress is back for the lame duck session, the newly elected Democrats are on Capitol Hill for orientation, and Trump is melting down on Truth Social. Here are the top headlines of the moment:
Let’s get into it. Trump’s Back to Election DenialismThis morning, Trump, a losing loser who lost the midterms badly, posted on Truth Social asking whether anybody really believes the “Election” (his quotation marks) was honest. He complained that the polls were wrong, that early voting “dumps” made it impossible to win, and that the machines matter more than the voter.
Yes, Donald, everybody believes it was honest. The American people voted, and they rejected you and your entire MAGA movement. Just about every poll showed Democrats ahead. Trump even threatened to prosecute The New York Times because its polls showed a Democratic blowout. If there was anything “wrong” about the polls, is that they downplayed just how big the Democratic rout would be. Now he’s pretending to be shocked. This is a man who should never be anywhere near the White House again, and he knows exactly how badly he lost. And how badly was that? Dems now officially hold 254 House seats compared to 163 for the Republicans, and 54 U.S. Senate seats compared to 44 for the Republicans. That number is likely to hit 56 once the Alaska and Mississippi results are counted. The GOP Reckoning BeginsRepublicans know it, too. Sen. Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania posted on social media that last week brought “the worst election results in decades,” and he told Leader John Thune that Senate Republicans shouldn’t rush into leadership elections Tuesday before they’ve debated what went wrong. That sets up a potential fight in the Senate on top of the one already brewing in the House between Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise over who leads the new minority. Then there’s JD Vance. With the party in chaos, he opened a speech with a bit about people unfairly criticizing “the leader of the team,” staff infighting, and whether the number two has what it takes, before revealing he was talking about the Ohio State Buckeyes. Nobody laughed. I’m all for humor, but we’re in a catastrophic war, families can’t afford groceries, and the vice president is telling jokes as the president engages in election denialism. Be serious. Massie Moves to Impeach HegsethTodayRepublican Rep. Thomas Massie says he plans to bring forward articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth today. The resolution lists eight impeachable offenses. When GOP colleagues argued Hegseth has been “effective,” Massie fired back on X that the question is whether he committed impeachable acts, and the answer is yes, eight times. Axios reports House GOP leaders are bracing for enough Republican defections to impeach. Fox News Digital spoke to House Republicans who expect it could pass, with one saying privately that Hegseth is “screwed.” Over in the Senate, Bill Cassidy told CNN he needs to hear the testimony, but said people he respects think Hegseth has done a very poor job, and that if Hegseth told Trump the Iran war would be over in five weeks, that was an incredible misjudgment. Cassidy also said he could imagine a War Powers Act passing this time. We believe there are enough votes to impeach, and possibly enough to convict. Hegseth may not be the last cabinet member in the crosshairs either. Watch RFK Jr. and Howard Lutnick. Meanwhile, Hegseth spent the morning at what appears to be the Naval Academy, complaining that military institutions “succumbed to the prevailing intellectual fashions of the civilian academy.” Using big words doesn’t make you sound smart, Pete. DOJ Hit With MORE ResignationsAssistant Attorney General Brett Shumate, who ran the entire Civil Division, is out. AG Todd Blanche confirmed the resignation this morning, praising Shumate’s work against sanctuary policies, DEI, and gender-affirming care clinics. By our count, that’s the FOURTH major DOJ resignation since Trump’s devastating midterm defeat. Reminder: resigning doesn’t make you immune from a subpoena. These people helped turn the Justice Department into a protection racket for Trump, and they must be held accountable. Trump seems to know it. Trump has deleted his September 2025 Truth Social post ordering then-AG Pam Bondi to speed up prosecutions of Comey, Adam Schiff, and Letitia James, a post in which he wrote that “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!” The archive preserved it anyway. House Judiciary Democrats called the deletion evidence of a guilty conscience and an attempted destruction of evidence that everyone already has. The 120th Congress ArrivesNow for the good stuff. More than 100 incoming House members, the largest freshman class since 1933, joined the new Senate class at the Capitol for orientation, which runs through mid-November. North Carolina Democrats including Maj. (Ret.) Richard Ojeda, Chuck Hubbard, and Jamie Ager were snapping selfies on the House floor after flipping key districts. Cassie Semyon posted a photo of the full incoming class in the Capitol Visitor Center auditorium.
Here are some photos of the Senators-elect arrival. Change is on the way.
Mississippi Is Looking Better By the HourThe Mississippi Senate race hasn’t been called, but Democrat Scott Colom, a district attorney, leads Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith by 2,574 votes with 97% counted. Thousands of provisional and absentee ballots remain across 82 counties, with certification due November 13. Colom has been out at public events while Hyde-Smith has kept a low profile. If he holds on, he’ll be the first Black U.S. senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction. Trump’s 60 Minutes InterviewTrump sat down with Ross Douthat for 60 Minutes, which aired last night, and Douthat did a pretty decent job. The moment that deserves far more attention: asked about AI risks, Trump described the DOJ calling someone reported to be “doing something bad with AI” and telling them to get ready for jail and to kiss their wife goodnight. Trump wouldn’t name the person or company, but confirmed it was the leader of “one of the big ones,” and said the person “totally changed everything.” Other lowlights:
Nvidia, Huang, and the Alleged Chinese SpyThe New York Times reports that the Commerce Department’s investigation into Megaspeed, the firm led by the alleged Chinese spy who had a relationship with Huang, was suddenly suspended last year after an interaction between Nvidia and a top Commerce official. Per the Times, Megaspeed bought $2 billion worth of Nvidia products despite having essentially a storefront office. U.S. intelligence had surveillance on Alice Huang, believed her to be a Chinese intelligence operative, and when the American she was close to was unmasked, it was Nvidia’s CEO. Rubio reportedly warned officials about Huang. The Wall Street Journal reports Nvidia’s board has opened an investigation and that Alice Huang disappeared into China in late 2024. The Commerce Department under Lutnick knew, and Trump knew, and they kept the chips flowing. This is a truly insane story with lots of moving parts. If you want to learn more, I recommend checking out Ben’s investigative report here. Iran UpdatesThe war in the Strait of Hormuz is escalating, and it’s now spilling onto Omani soil. Iran reportedly struck Didamar Island, an Omani island in the southern Strait that hosts radar and communications equipment, with footage showing a plume of smoke rising from the island. Oman runs a maritime traffic control station on Didamar that was used to coordinate the international shipping lanes through the Strait, and Sentinel-2 satellite imagery appears to show a possible burn mark near the communications equipment. Iranian state media, citing an IRGC official, claimed the “navigational aid systems” in the southern Strait were destroyed and that no unauthorized vessels made it through overnight. CBS News reports an oil tanker burned off the coast of Oman on Sunday, as Iranian state broadcaster IRIB, citing the IRGC Navy, said three tankers had been struck for using “unauthorized routes” in cooperation with the U.S. military. It certainly doesn’t seem like the war is over (or ending anytime soon)!
Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Ministry mocked outgoing CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper for moving into podcasting, joking that he’ll soon probably produce a new episode about the Ninja Turtles. Iran also denied a reported Vance meeting with Mohsen Rezaei in Doha and said nothing changes until Washington meets its seven conditions. Truckers Are Getting CrushedPer Truckstop and Bloomberg, 221 U.S. trucking companies have filed for bankruptcy so far in 2026, on pace for the most in 23 years. It’s the third straight year above 220, compared with under 100 in both 2021 and 2022. About 66% of small firms report flat or falling revenue, and roughly 40% expect to leave the industry or aren’t sure about their future, squeezed by diesel prices, insurance premiums, and interest rates. Trump said he loved the truckers. He screwed them, just like the farmers and manufacturing workers. RFK Jr.’s Measles DisasterPOLITICO reports the U.S. may lose its measles elimination status after more than 7,000 infections since January 2025. Eight public health officials will review whether transmission has been continuous for at least a year. Containment requires 95% vaccination coverage, and Kennedy has spent his tenure attacking vaccine requirements, and as we know, measles cases have been exploding across the country. Also from MAHA world… Russell Brand was sentenced to 10 years and six months for rape and sexual assault in London. Weeks ago, the Trump regime gave him the stage at its MAHA summit, where he moderated a panel with Dr. Oz and joked about consent, with RFK Jr. and JD Vance also taking part.  Thanks, DanThe October podcast rankings are in, and The MeidasTouch Podcast is #1 in the country with 61.2 million plays, ahead of The Diary of a CEO (48.1M) and The Daily (39.1M). We noticed it when Dan Bongino posted the list to celebrate his show landing at #9. Thanks for the free advertising, Dan!
Thank you to the Meidas Mighty for making this possible. And if you haven’t gotten your copy of WTF America?! yet, my brothers and I are two weeks on the New York Times bestseller list! It sure was cool to see it in the physical Sunday paper:
Thanks as always and shoutout to the Meidas Mighty!
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