The Next Congress Begins to Take Shape

It’s the same old story

Every time that Republicans have faced some setback in the Trump era, there’s a news cycle playing up the internal divisions of MAGA as if this time will be different.

And every single time, the personality cult triumphs.

Not even 72 hours after the biggest midterms loss since Richard Nixon was president, Donald Trump announced Stephen Miller as his new chief of staff.

This move was followed up yesterday with the election of Jim Jordan to be the minority leader of the next Congress. As Michael Gold reports in the New York Times:

“Mr. Jordan’s elevation suggested that Republicans did not intend to soften their positions even after voters repudiated hard-line MAGA politics in last week’s election. He faced skepticism from some who worried that his history of incendiary rhetoric and views could further alienate moderate voters.”

What is more interesting for our purposes however is the contrast with the Senate:

“Across the Capitol, Senate Republicans took a different approach, re-electing Senator John Thune of South Dakota, their current leader, for when they are in the minority. Mr. Thune, whose relationship with Mr. Trump has been at times tense, ran unopposed, though some Republicans had pushed to delay the vote as they sorted through the wreckage of their blistering losses last week.”

I’m no fan of Thune’s, who has never pushed back against Trump meaningfully any more than any other member of his personality cult masquerading as a political party. He was the relatively less MAGA choice in 2024, however, and it’s notable that he has not been replaced with a Jim Jordan equivalent during a period when the administration and its allies are clearly signaling they intend to double down rather than learn anything from the thumping they have taken.

Who will lead the Democrats in Congress?

It is not inevitable that Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries will both stay on as leaders of their respective chambers in the new Congress. Jeffries appears to have solid support in his caucus to finally become speaker for the first time, but a number of Senators have now said publicly that they do not want Schumer to return to the position of majority leader. Tom Dempsey, Mills Hayes, and Josie Fischels report in NewsNation:

“Several newly elected Democratic senators are calling for new leadership as Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer expresses confidence that he will retain his position.

“Three incoming senators have said outright that they will not vote for Schumer, while others have called for generational change without committing to a vote.

“‘Given what happened on election night, there’s a pretty clear mandate that people want a new generation of leadership, and they want to know what the plan is to actually help their lives,’ Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin told Politico Saturday.”

Democracy Now! also reports that “Senators-elect Peggy Flanagan, Troy Jackson, Abdul El-Sayed, Juliana Stratton and Adam Hamilton have all said they won’t support Schumer, as has Senate candidate Scott Colom in Mississippi.”

As Josh Marshall notes in Talking Points Memo, “unlike the House where it’s a public vote and you need a majority of the body, in the Senate, it’s a secret ballot and Schumer needs only a majority of his caucus. So a handful of defections won’t settle this.”

Republicans sink Massie’s impeachment effort

Emine Yücel reports in Talking Points Memo: 

“House Republicans voted to block to Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-KY) effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a Tuesday procedural vote, referring the impeachment articles to the House Judiciary Committee in a 211-204 vote. No Republican besides Massie supported the impeachment effort.”

They were able to pull this off because, as Reuters reports: “11 Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, did not vote.”

Whatever the reason for that, I tend to agree with Josh Chafetz about the desirability of this outcome:

At any rate, Hegseth’s “Department of War” was able to refocus on its important work, such as posting memes about the defeat of Massie’s impeachment effort.

Unleash the Scharf

The day after we informed Todd Blanche that he is no Will Scharf—the latter, unlike Blanche, actually being White House counsel—Scharf himself made headlines:

“The White House counsel's office is warning Rep. Robert Garcia, the future head of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, that Democrats' threats to engage in oversight against the Trump administration could cross the line into criminal behavior.

“The warning came in a Monday letter from White House counsel Will Scharf to Rep. Garcia that was obtained by ABC News.”

Guessing that Garcia sent this one straight to circular file.

The best people

Around Liberal Currents

• “The Left Needs to Get Serious About World Order,” by Joseph Stieb: The progressive restrainers’ proposal is fundamentally incoherent.
• The Myth of the Reasonable Rogan (Half the Answer #114, with Michael Marshall and Cecil Cicirello): If you Know Rogan, you know.

Keeping up

• “U.S. Soldier Arrested in Britain Accused of Espionage Linked to Russia,” by Brian Melley, Konstantin Toropin and Emma Burrows in the Associated Press.
• “UNICEF Says Israel Blocks Gaza Basin Repairs, Warns of Flood Risk,” by Emma Farge for Reuters.
• “France Blames Iran for a Cyberattack That Heated Supermarket Refrigerators,” from the Associated Press.
• “Fossil Fuel Emissions Are Expected to Fall in 2026. Why Aren’t Climate Experts Celebrating?” by Angela Symons in Euronews.
• “Anti-Netanyahu Bloc Moves to Oust Knesset Speaker on Parliament's Opening Day,” by Moran Azulay, Yuval Karni, Amir Ettinger, and Einav Halabi for Ynet Global.