Politics and views in the United States

House Republicans vote to shelve impeachment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, both parties make moves about new leadership in the next Congress, and results are expected this week in the Mississippi Senate race.

Transcript

Welcome to 2026 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

You don't impeach a cabinet secretary lightly.

They had no due process.

There's nothing that went into this.

This is just purely for people to get attention, and it's shameful.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was eager to defeat Kentucky Republican Thomas Massey's attempted impeachment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The measure was referred to the House Judiciary Committee by a 211 to 204 vote, guaranteeing it won't pass in the current Congress.

Massey's articles of impeachment claim Hegseth violated the 1973 War Powers Act and the Constitution with his actions on the Iran War.

Before the vote, Massey floated replacing Hegseth with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders is joining a growing number of senators in opposing Chuck Schumer as Democrats' leader in the high chamber next year.

He notes the midterms were a call for change not just in representation but in Washington's leadership.

Michigan Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin also won't support Schumer to become majority leader, but she says anyone who wants the job needs to be prepared.

Whoever wants to run this caucus should come forward with a plan on how they're going to govern differently, what they're going to do in the first 100 days to put money in people's pockets, and then in particular, how they're going to communicate differently.

As the question of leadership continues, House Republicans voted to make Ohio Republican Representative Jim Jordan the House Minority Leader for the next Congress over current House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.

South Dakota Senator John Thune the party's leader in the high chamber next year, despite the vote being delayed to discuss the party's path forward after the midterms.

Newly elected lawmakers are getting acclimated to Congress as they meet with current representatives and senators.

Washington State Democratic Representative Susan DelBene is chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

She says the incoming class of freshman lawmakers bring varying perspectives and unique backgrounds to the job, but all of them understand they're representatives, not rubber stamps.

They share a very common passion, a common passion to deliver for their communities, especially those folks who have been struggling to get by as a result of the failed policies Republicans put in place.

By the end of the week, the Mississippi Senate race between incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democrat Scott Cologne will be decided.

Circuit clerks and election commissioners must submit results to the Secretary of State's office by Friday.

Haria Tarkin with the Mississippi Center for Justice says the vote count is taking so long because the Secretary of State's office labeled more than 230,000 registered voters as inactive.

Which means when they showed up on election day, they weren't on the voter rolls and had to cast that affidavit ballot.

So we have more affidavit ballots than we have had in previous years, and all of those need to be checked against the voter roll by election commissioners.

Secretary of State Michael Watson used unverified information from Experian to check registered voters' addresses.

She adds Mississippi is also one of the hardest states to vote in in hopes the state legislature enacts early voting, removes voter ID laws, and institutes same-day registration.

I'm Edwin J. Viera for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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