#post-midterms
2 entries with this tag
Days After Trump's Party Lost Both Chambers in the Midterms, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie Filed Eight Articles of Impeachment Against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — a 34-Page Resolution Centered on Waging War Against Iran Without Congressional Authorization — and Read All Eight Aloud on the House Floor for About an Hour and Twenty Minutes, Restarting the Clock That Forces a Vote With the GOP Majority Down to 218-214; Trump Vowed to "Stand By" Hegseth Even if He's Impeached
On November 9, 2026 — less than a week after Trump's Republicans lost both the House and Senate in the midterms — Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, introduced eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a 34-page resolution accusing him of high crimes and misdemeanors. The central charge is the one this archive has documented from its origins: that Hegseth helped wage war against Iran without congressional authorization and abused the powers of his office. Massie read all eight articles aloud on the House floor, speaking for roughly an hour and twenty minutes, and the filing — a re-introduction of articles he first offered in September — restarted a two-day clock that forces Republican leaders to schedule a vote. The timing and the math make it serious: with the GOP majority now down to a razor-thin 218-214, only a handful of Republican defections would be enough to impeach a sitting Defense Secretary. Hegseth dismissed the effort as "sham articles of impeachment" and defended his Pentagon record in a video; Trump said he would "stand by" Hegseth even if the House impeached him. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries backed the push, calling Hegseth "the architect of the reckless and costly failed war of choice in Iran." That the drive is led by a Republican — and newly viable because Trump's party just lost its cushion at the ballot box — makes it a convergence of two threads this archive has long tracked: the unauthorized war, and the collapse of the political protection that shielded those who ran it.
Four Days After Losing Both Chambers of Congress, Trump Publicly Ordered the Justice Department to Investigate Democrats — Recasting Their Plans to Conduct Oversight and Pursue Impeachment as a "Criminal Act" by "EXTORTIONISTS" Who Should Be "Imprisoned" — an Attempt to Criminalize the Constitutionally Protected Powers of the Congress the Voters Had Just Handed to the Other Party
On November 7, 2026 — four days after Democrats flipped both the House and the Senate — Trump posted on Truth Social directing the Justice Department to investigate Democrats, accusing them of threatening administration officials, including the attorney general, with impeachment, and calling it a "criminal act." He labeled the Democrats "EXTORTIONISTS" and said they should be "imprisoned." He offered no evidence, claiming without support that Democratic leaders were sending "threatening" letters and messages to Republicans. What Trump described as extortion is, in fact, the ordinary constitutional machinery of a legislative branch: oversight of the executive, and the impeachment power the Constitution expressly vests in the House. The incoming Democratic majorities had pledged to scrutinize the administration — exactly what an opposition Congress is supposed to do. Trump's response was to demand the criminal prosecution and imprisonment of the people about to exercise that authority. Attorney General Todd Blanche reportedly did not rule out prosecuting Democrats over the oversight threats. Stripped of the capital letters, the order is among the most direct assaults on the separation of powers this archive has recorded: a president, rebuked at the polls, moving to turn the Justice Department against the coequal branch the voters had just empowered to check him.