NEWS: ‘Bloodbath’ at DOJ Spreads With More Resignations, Republicans Turn on Hegseth, Trump’s Arch Blocked, Musk L…
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Good morning, everyone. Three days after the blue wave, the fallout keeps getting worse for the White House.
The Justice Department bloodbath is spreading. A day after Civil Rights chief Harmeet Dhillon resigned, Jason Reding Quiñones, Trump’s U.S. Attorney for South Florida, the office that covers Mar-a-Lago, is out too. Republicans have found their fall guy in Pete Hegseth, who could be impeached as soon as next week while his own former spokesman calls him “a cross between a court jester and a personal trainer.” Elon Musk has lost more than $100 billion since Tuesday, and even SpaceX’s home county turned on him. And Trump’s 250-foot arch was blocked by a federal judge within an hour of his handpicked commission approving it.
Meanwhile, the wave keeps growing. Democrats are up to 253 House seats and could reach 260, their biggest majority since the early 1990s. Scott Colom’s lead in Mississippi has grown to more than 1,800 votes. And Trump’s response to all of it? Blaming the American people for the stock market drop, posting, “You only have yourselves to blame!”
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Everything you need to know is below. Let’s get to it.
The DOJ bloodbath continues: Jason Reding Quiñones, the Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, has resigned, just one day after Civil Rights chief Harmeet Dhillon walked out the door. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the departure on X Friday morning, praising Quiñones for his work on violent crime, drug trafficking, sex trafficking and transnational crime, including the indictment of former Cuban leader Raúl Castro. Blanche gave no reason for the resignation, and Quiñones has not commented publicly. His office covers South Florida, including Miami and Palm Beach, home to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, making it one of the most politically significant federal prosecutor posts in the country. That makes him the second senior Justice Department official to leave in as many days since Democrats won control of Congress and promised to aggressively investigate the department. With the White House counsel’s office staffing up, aides hiring lawyers and Democrats warning Trump’s allies to “lawyer up,” the exits are no longer looking like a coincidence, and the question in Washington is who’s next.
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Republicans Have Found Their Fall Guy, and Pete Hegseth’s Days at the Pentagon Look Numbered
Republicans have settled on Pete Hegseth as the man to blame for the war that cost them Congress. Trump launched the Iran war, but with two years left in his term and no appetite to blame him directly, Republicans are pinning the midterm wipeout on the Defense Secretary who cheered it on. Trump himself once credited Hegseth as “the first one to speak up” for the war, saying, “let’s do it.” Now two sources told The Hill that Trump is asking allies about Hegseth’s standing, with one saying he is in “a lot of trouble.” A Republican congressional official called Hegseth’s position “completely untenable” on Capitol Hill, warning that keeping him would force the White House to burn its political capital on endless news cycles about the war, fired generals and Signalgate. CNN notes the parallel is hard to miss: Donald Rumsfeld was cut loose 20 years ago after voters punished George W. Bush for another unpopular war.
Hegseth’s defiant “fight, fight, fight” video may have sealed his fate. Standing on the Pentagon steps beneath a “Department of War” sign, Hegseth called the impeachment push “the politics of personal destruction” and declared, “Didn’t work against President Trump, and it won’t work with me.” He invoked the Butler assassination attempt, saying Trump “literally took a bullet for this nation” and “shook his fist and said ‘fight, fight, fight,’ and so will we.” The White House and Pentagon press team amplified it in what CNN called an orchestrated campaign to save his job, aimed at an audience of one: Trump. But CNN’s Stephen Collinson called it “tin-eared” just two days after millions of Americans voted to repudiate the war. Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego put it bluntly: “If he wanted to make a good argument for him not to be impeached, he literally just doubled down and asked for an impeachment.”
The impeachment vote is coming next week, and Hegseth’s own former spokesman is piling on. Rep. Thomas Massie plans to reintroduce eight articles of impeachment, citing alleged violations of the War Powers Resolution and unlawful military actions, and House Democrats are lining up behind him. Massie says the only thing that would stop him is Hegseth resigning. John Ullyot, Hegseth’s own former Pentagon spokesperson, said the country has had “a cross between a court jester and a personal trainer running the Pentagon,” adding that if Hegseth were truly loyal to Trump, “he would have stepped aside long ago.” Sen. Thom Tillis said Hegseth “is just not the right guy for the job” and doesn’t have the relationships to even get a defense funding request through Congress. Hegseth allies are threatening any Republican who votes for impeachment, but as CNN asks, what incentive do defeated or newly minority Republicans have to protect the architect of the war that ended their careers?
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Trump is publicly defending Hegseth, but he’s also signaling that the clock is ticking. Trump called Hegseth’s work “fantastic,” praising the Maduro raid and complaining that the military had too many “woke” generals before he arrived. But in an ABC interview, he acknowledged receiving “calls about” Hegseth and noted it would be easier to confirm a new Defense Secretary while Republicans still control the Senate. That window closes in January, and once Democrats take over, any replacement would face a much tougher confirmation. Hegseth’s possible off-ramps are narrowing too, with The Hill reporting he is not in consideration for Tennessee’s open Senate seat and a source saying DeSantis isn’t interested in the Pentagon job. A senior administration official insists Hegseth is “not going anywhere,” but the scramble to defend him publicly shows just how precarious his position has become.
The fight over Hegseth comes as Trump weighs whether to escalate the very war that sank his party. One source told The Hill the administration is reviewing plans to resume military operations against Iran. Asked about the war’s future, Trump said, “I would rather not destroy the rest of the country, if possible, but maybe I will have to,” adding, “You will know soon enough.” CNN notes Trump faces a brutal choice: escalate and leave himself even more isolated, or pull back and admit defeat against a Tehran that has defied the victory he wanted. Either way, keeping a Defense Secretary under impeachment in the middle of that decision is a huge liability. As one defense-world source put it, “When you have the sitting VP say Iran is a mistake, the support for the conflict and Hegseth by extension is going to evaporate.”
The Biggest Loser of the Midterms Wasn’t Trump. It Was Elon Musk, and His Troubles Are Just Beginning.
Elon Musk poured a record fortune into the midterms, and voters rejected nearly everything he bought. Newsweek reports Musk spent more than $445 million backing Republican candidates and causes, including about $225 million in Texas, much of it aimed at electing Ken Paxton to the Senate. Paxton lost by 12 points, Greg Abbott lost the governorship, and Democrats swept every major statewide race in Texas. The Boston Globe went so far as to argue that the biggest loser of the 2026 midterms wasn’t Trump, but Musk. A University of Houston professor said Musk’s visibility had effectively put him “on the ballot” and “magnified” voters’ concerns about billionaires buying elections. Musk’s only public response was a joke on X: “guess my election-interfering space lasers didn’t work this time.”
Even SpaceX’s own backyard turned against him. Cameron County, home to SpaceX’s Starbase launch site at Boca Chica, voted for James Talarico over Paxton 68 to 30 percent and for Gina Hinojosa over Abbott 67 to 32 percent. That’s a stunning swing in a county Trump carried with 52.5 percent of the vote just two years ago. Hinojosa, who grew up there, made Musk a central villain of her campaign, accusing Abbott of handing him “the keys to the castle” and asking voters whether Texas would be “by and for the people” or “the billionaires’ world and we just live here.” One local activist told Newsweek that residents are tired of SpaceX tests that feel like earthquakes and damage to local fishing grounds, adding, “We want Musk out of Texas.” Hinojosa says she can still work with Musk’s companies, “but it has to be on our terms,” including new laws to regulate the data centers he’s been building across rural Texas.
Wall Street is punishing Musk’s companies as investors brace for congressional probes. SpaceX and Tesla shares fell about 9 percent and 11 percent on Thursday, wiping out more than $420 billion in combined market value since Tuesday’s close, according to CNBC. Investors fear Musk could face new congressional investigations and tighter regulation now that Democrats control Congress. Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, one of Musk’s longest-standing backers, also revealed it has cut its SpaceX stake from 15 percent of its assets to 11.1 percent since the IPO. The fund had already sold the last of its Tesla shares in April, ending a 13-year bet, saying the stock’s price already reflected “much of its promise” and pointing to growing competition, especially in China. For a man whose wealth is tied almost entirely to the value of his companies, the post-election sell-off is a direct hit.
Musk is even pulling the plug on the Cybertruck, the vehicle that became a rolling symbol of his politics. Musk announced Thursday night that Tesla will end Cybertruck production in mid-2027, freeing up factory space likely for its Cybercab robotaxis. The truck was supposed to cost under $40,000 and challenge the Ford F-150, but it was plagued by delays, recalls and weak sales, and Musk himself once admitted, “we dug our grave” with it. Ars Technica noted the angular steel truck became “an all-too visible reminder” of Musk’s role in reshaping the federal government, which hurt its sales even further. Even selling thousands of Cybertrucks to SpaceX couldn’t save it. As Ars put it, with America having “vociferously rejected Musk’s vision of governance,” the truck’s time is up too.
The worst may still be ahead, as Democrats prepare to put Musk under the microscope. With control of Congress in January, Democrats have already signaled investigations into Musk’s federal contracts, his leadership of DOGE, his conflicts of interest and the Starlink restrictions that hurt Ukraine’s military. In Texas, a Democratic governor now controls decisions on the permits, tax breaks, electricity and water that his Tesla factory, Starbase and data center plans depend on. Musk has threatened to retaliate against anyone who comes after him, warning he will “come for” whoever is “pulling the strings.” But the election showed the limits of his power, as the same activist put it: “I feel like the power of the people is way stronger than the money that he carries.” The world’s richest man tried to buy the midterms, and now he’s facing the consequences.
Within an Hour of Approval, a Judge Blocks Trump’s 250-Foot Arch
A federal judge blocked construction of Trump’s triumphal arch late Thursday, just hours after his handpicked planning commission approved it. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a 14-day restraining order barring any “construction-related activity” at the site, from excavation and demolition to road closures. In a 33-page ruling, she found that the plaintiffs, a group of Vietnam veterans along with Virginia and Washington, D.C., are likely to succeed in showing the administration skipped required legal processes. She also found that Virginia and D.C. likely have standing, citing “tangible economic harms” from years of traffic chaos at the construction site. Chutkan had anticipated the administration might try to rush in, ordering it to notify her within an hour of any approval vote and 30 minutes before any construction prep. The administration had told the court that a contractor “may be” arranging off-site preparations, and DOJ had said work could begin as soon as Thursday.
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The planning commission, stacked with Trump allies, approved the arch 8-4 despite nearly nine hours of overwhelming opposition. The National Capital Planning Commission received more than 1,300 public comments, most of them against the project, and heard from over 100 speakers during a virtual meeting that crashed midway through public testimony. Commission chair Mark Paoletta, the top lawyer at Trump’s budget office, called it “the grandest arch ever built by mankind,” while the vice chair said it would turn a “tired traffic circle” into a “monumental gateway.” Rep. Jared Huffman called the arch “illegal,” saying it would “dishonor America, our ideals, and our laws,” and reminded the panel that the U.S. is “a nation of laws, not kings or kangaroo commissions.” Marine veteran Jimi Shaughnessy called the plan “abhorrent and insulting to those who gave all and to their families.” Former CIA analyst Holly Fletcher warned commissioners that history would remember their names and asked whether they wanted to be “complicit in shameful, autocratic lunacy.”
The arch would loom over Arlington National Cemetery, and nobody knows who’s paying for it. The structure would stand 166 feet tall, topped by three gilded figures, a golden winged woman flanked by two golden eagles, bringing its total height to 250 feet. It would sit in Memorial Circle between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington, on a sightline designed nearly a century ago to symbolize the nation’s reunification after the Civil War. The project is expected to take three years, will include an observation deck and could draw up to 22,400 visitors a day, but the cost and funding source remain unclear. Its site near Reagan National Airport also raised alarms, with one speaker invoking the 2025 midair collision over the Potomac that killed 67 people, though the FAA says the arch poses “no hazard” if it includes an “eternal flame” and continuous floodlighting. Opponents also argue it violates a D.C. height limit it would exceed nearly twice over.
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Chutkan rejected Trump’s last-ditch attempt to rebrand the arch as a “military complex.” Trump claimed in September the arch would be a “top grade Military Complex” housing drones and sniper ammunition, but the final plans submitted to the commission include no military use, and DOJ lawyers refused to explain the supposed security features in court. Chutkan made clear in her ruling that she didn’t buy the national security argument. The administration is relying on a 1925 law authorizing the Arlington Memorial Bridge, which never mentions an arch, and Huffman dared Paoletta to “try that argument in court and let’s see where it goes.” The Justice Department is urging Chutkan to follow a Supreme Court ruling that found opponents of the White House ballroom likely lacked standing, but the plaintiffs argue this case is different. The ruling lands the same week Trump declared the Oval Office a “national monument” to protect his gold-trimmed redesign, and as Democrats prepare to investigate his Washington vanity projects come January.
The Blue Wave Keeps Growing: Where Every Uncalled Race Stands Three Days Later
Democrats are on track for their biggest House majority in decades, and the count isn’t finished. As of Friday morning, Democrats hold 253 House seats to Republicans’ 157, with 25 races still uncalled, according to the Associated Press. Before Election Day, forecasters expected Democrats to max out around 235 to 240 seats, with even the most bullish giving them just a 10 percent chance of topping 255. Instead, Democrats swept every toss-up race and won almost half of the races rated “lean” or “likely” Republican. With Democrats narrowly leading in seven of the remaining races, Yahoo News projects they could reach at least 260 seats, their largest majority since the early 1990s. The AP also confirmed Democrat Cait Conley’s win over GOP Rep. Mike Lawler in New York’s 17th District, while Republicans held on in Utah’s 4th and Washington’s 4th.
Two Senate seats are still too close to call, and Democrats lead in both. Democrats already hold 54 Senate seats after flipping seven, and winning both remaining races would mean nine flips, something neither party has done since 2014. A party hasn’t flipped more than nine Senate seats in a midterm since 1958. Here’s where they stand:
Mississippi: Democrat Scott Colom leads Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by 1,813 votes, 49 percent to 48.9 percent, with 96 percent counted. About 3,600 absentee ballots are still outstanding, counties have 10 days to certify, and Colom says he has “an army of lawyers” ready to make sure every vote is counted.
Alaska: Mary Peltola leads Sen. Dan Sullivan by more than 600 votes with about three-quarters counted. If neither candidate clears 50 percent, Alaska law bars ranked-choice tabulation until Nov. 18, so the result could stay in limbo for nearly two more weeks.
The wave reached deep into state and local races, sometimes further than Democrats themselves expected. Two governor’s races remain uncalled, and Democrats lead both:
Kansas: Democrat Cindy Holscher leads Republican Ty Masterson 50.3 percent to 49.7 percent with 99 percent counted.
Alaska: Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins leads with 49.1 percent, far ahead of Republican Bernadette Wilson’s 29.2 percent, though ranked-choice tabulation may be needed.
Arizona: Democrats appear on track to control both chambers of the legislature for the first time in 60 years, and Sen. Ruben Gallego said some “sacrificial lamb” candidates were stunned to learn they had won, with one replying, “That was not the plan.”
Los Angeles: Democratic socialist Nithya Raman ousted Mayor Karen Bass, becoming the first Indian American to lead the city, and in Maricopa County, Arizona, a 19-year-old ASU sophomore is set to become clerk of the Superior Court.
Latino voters who backed Trump in 2024 helped power the wave, driven by anger over ICE raids. The Guardian reports Hispanic Americans turned out in record numbers in key battlegrounds to punish the administration’s immigration crackdown. Benny Melendez, a Texas homebuilder who voted for Trump in 2024, said ICE deported two of his cousins and up to 15 of his workers. “Trump went against us,” he said. “He made us the target of ICE operations, so we decided to punish him by voting against his party.” He thought the raids would target people with criminal records, not “our neighbors,” “our workers” and “our family members.” His anger, replicated across Texas, Florida and other swing states, helped flip seats Republicans once counted as safe.
Other news:
Trump is blaming Democrats, and then the American people, for this week’s stock market plunge. On Thursday, the Nasdaq fell 5.52 percent, the S&P 500 dropped 4.36 percent and the Dow lost 1,833 points as investors reacted to the Democratic wave. “The Stock Market suffered one of the Worst Days in History based on the results of the Election,” Trump posted. “Remember, it wasn’t Republicans, it was Dumocrats.” In a follow-up post aimed squarely at voters, he wrote, “You only have yourselves to blame!” The sell-off was driven largely by AI and tech stocks, as investors bet a Democratic Congress will clamp down on data centers, which voters rejected in 40 of 41 local ballot measures. Trump also posted in all caps that he “JUST WASN’T ON THE BALLOT” and declared himself “100% in favor of Super Intelligence,” calling AI investment “GOLD” for any state that wants to get “RICH.”
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The U.S. added 165,000 jobs in October, beating expectations, but Americans still aren’t feeling it. The unemployment rate dipped to 4.1 percent, and August and September figures were revised up by a combined 84,000 jobs, with gains in healthcare, transportation, warehousing and manufacturing. Layoffs also remain low, with Challenger, Gray & Christmas tracking just under 44,000 in October, a 71 percent drop from last year. But wages are growing at just 3.1 percent a year while inflation hit 3.7 percent in September, meaning paychecks are falling behind prices. Gas is about $1 a gallon higher than a year ago because of the Iran war, and diesel is 60 percent above prewar levels. “Americans delivered a clear verdict in the midterm elections that the current economy is squeezing people financially,” said Navy Federal Credit Union chief economist Heather Long, and economists expect the Fed to raise interest rates again in December.
Flávio Bolsonaro, who fled Brazil after losing its presidential election, made his first major appearance at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. Speaking at a CPAC gala Thursday night, the far-right politician insisted his defeat to Lula by more than 4 million votes “wasn’t the end for Brazil” and “wasn’t the end for America.” He fled to the U.S. shortly after the Oct. 25 election and faces federal police investigations in Brazil for money laundering and corruption, with his parliamentary immunity ending early next year. In an interview with The New York Times, he made unsubstantiated election fraud claims and insisted “it was all me” when it came to his escape, contradicting reports that Trump adviser Jason Miller helped him. Trump has granted him a U.S. visa, and his brother Eduardo, who faces a four-year sentence if he returns to Brazil, also lives in self-imposed exile in Texas. Brazilian analysts say Flávio effectively abandoned the opposition by fleeing, while his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup.
Idaho paid hunters $2,000 per kill for a dozen newborn wolf pups, records show, as Trump pushes to strip wolves of federal protections. State records obtained by The Guardian and Public Domain show three hunters killed 12 pups on April 25, likely between one and three weeks old, including what appears to be at least one full litter at or near its den. The payments came through a reimbursement program funded partly by taxpayers and partly by a nonprofit dedicated to reducing wolf numbers. A former federal wildlife official said killing that many pups in one day by stalking “doesn’t happen,” suggesting hunters located the dens and pulled the pups out. “Let’s call this what it is, it’s a goddamned bounty,” said Predator Defense director Brooks Fahy. In September, Trump signed an executive order urging the Interior Department to consider removing Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves nationwide and, at the signing, asked a rancher about protected Mexican gray wolves, “You can shoot them as of today?”
A Guardian investigation found Facebook is pushing a nearly 500,000-member group full of dangerous anti-vaccine misinformation into parents’ feeds. The group, Crunchy Moms, regularly spreads false claims that vaccines cause autism and SIDS, that measles is harmless and that the caustic “black salve” can treat skin cancer, all of which violate Meta’s own policies. When a parent in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where two babies have died of measles this year, asked whether to vaccinate their toddler, members told them children “cannot die of measles,” and Meta’s AI summarized the replies as calling the vaccine “unnecessary or even harmful.” The Guardian reported more than 50 violating posts to Facebook and never received a single response, and nearly all remained online. The group was created in March 2025, less than three months after Mark Zuckerberg ended U.S. fact-checking and scaled back moderation ahead of Trump’s inauguration. “Meta is pushing this thing unsolicited into the feeds of particularly new parents,” said Georgetown professor Renée DiResta.
Former Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a champion of expanding healthcare and a fierce critic of the Iraq War, has died at 89. The great-grandson of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller served two terms as governor of West Virginia and five terms in the Senate after moving to the state to work in an anti-poverty program in the 1960s. He helped create the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which covers millions of uninsured kids, and fought for the Affordable Care Act, including a public option. Rockefeller voted for the 2002 Iraq War authorization but later said he regretted it, telling a newspaper, “If I had known then what I know now, I would have voted against it.” As chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he released a 2008 report finding the Bush administration led the country to war “on false premises.” His death comes as Congress faces another fight over an unauthorized war, this time in Iran.
A fresh wave of bomb threats disrupted at least 18 more flights across Europe, along with media outlets in Ireland and the U.K. The latest threats hit flights to and from Bulgaria, Czechia, France, Italy, Hungary, Cyprus, Romania, the U.K. and Portugal, and Hungary scrambled fighter jets three times to escort civilian planes. No explosives were found, and the planes landed safely. That follows threats Tuesday and Thursday that forced at least 35 flights to be diverted or searched. Irish broadcasters were also hit with threats that disrupted programming and forced evacuations, and Sky News received one as well. Some threats were signed by a Russian far-right group, and Spain’s foreign minister called it “an attempt at hybrid aggression and a form of psychological warfare,” with officials suspecting links to European support for Ukraine.
Four men named in a former Cornell student’s sexual assault lawsuit are joining an effort to remove New York Attorney General Letitia James from the reopened criminal investigation. They argue James is biased because of a September social media post in which she expressed support for the accuser, writing, “To her, and to all survivors: you’re not alone.” Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed James as special prosecutor in October after losing faith in the local district attorney, who declined to bring charges in 2024. The woman alleges she was raped by several men at a fraternity party in 2024 after being pressured into using drugs and alcohol. James has since appointed Jacqueline Kelly, the former federal prosecutor who oversaw the sex crimes case against Sean “Diddy” Combs, to lead the investigation. A judge has yet to rule on whether to remove James.
A Kenyan cult leader was sentenced to 200 years in prison for the murders of 191 people, most of them children. Pastor Paul Mackenzie of the Good News International Church was convicted of ordering his followers to starve themselves to death in order to “meet Jesus.” More than 400 bodies were exhumed in 2023 from shallow graves on a remote ranch in coastal Kenya where his followers lived. Of the 191 victims in this case, 190 were children, and 183 died of starvation. The judge called the killings “cold and calculated,” noting that Mackenzie smiled and chatted during sentencing and showed no remorse. Twenty-eight of his followers were also convicted, and Mackenzie still faces terrorism, child abuse and torture charges.
Denmark’s Supreme Court is set to rule on whether the government’s “non-western” label for residents counts as racial discrimination. The case was brought by residents evicted from a housing complex in Helsingør under a controversial law once known as the “ghetto law,” which requires cutting public housing in neighborhoods where many residents have “non-western” backgrounds. The law forces housing associations to reduce public housing by 40 percent by 2030 through sales, demolitions or evictions, and more than 1,000 people have already been forced out of one Copenhagen estate. Europe’s top court ruled last December that the law may be unlawful, and the U.N. has called on Denmark to stop using the “non-western” label altogether. The government insists the classification has nothing to do with ethnicity. A ruling for the residents could force Denmark to abandon the category entirely and could let the Helsingør residents return home.
See you soon.
— Aaron
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