Dems widen House edge with CO seat flip

a Republican forcing an impeachment vote on Pete  Hegath. A vote that I indicated could be hours. away. The vote in the House of Representatives  could come as early as tomorrow morning. And. there are likely enough votes to impeach him  in the House. A really important thing to say, right? You still have a Republican  House. And Republican Congressman. Thomas Massie is the one leading the  impeachment charge. He says Hegsth is. a threat to the Constitution if he remains in  office. But Trump tonight is defending Hegs.

given Vladimir Putin. Yeah, I'll stand by. So even  if he's impeached, you're going to stand by your. defense secretary. They won two wars. He was in  charge. We all won. Massie had great people. You. what? Massie says that he's carried out. Massiey's  a loser. Now Hegat says he's not concerned even. though the vice president said it was the war  that cost Republicans the House, the Senate, and state races all across the country. There's a  lot of politically motivated people who may have. uh substantial policy disagreements, but their  disagreements are with success. And so if we want.

to litigate that the success of those things, I'm  happy to do it all day long. Do you have enough. um Republican support to defeat the future?  Oh, we're not worried about that. All right. All of this coming and that vote hours away  as we are getting some more projections and. the Democrats margin in the House is actually  getting even bigger here. We're almost a week. out and some of these final races are coming in  today. Democrats flipping another Republican House.

seat. We are projecting tonight that Republican  Congresswoman and Trump ally Lauren Boowbert. is out. She was defeated by Eileen Lawacher. So  you can see now we're making that call by 3,237. votes. Making that call today and that win gives  Democrats 256 seats. There are still 15 races to. be called, which could even make the balance of  power even more lopsided. Of those outstanding. races, Democrats are leading in three seats  currently held by a Republican. So far, Democrats.

have a net gain of 42 seats. That's the most since  2018. Democrats also lead in the Senate, 54 seats, and those two high-profile races, Mississippi  and Alaska, are still not yet called. However, we can tell you at this moment that Democrats  are leading in both of those seats. Now, Trump, 6 days after it was clear that this was one of  the most crushing losses in political history, is now starting to say it was all rigged. He  writes online, "Does anybody really believe quote.

unquote election was honest? How could the polls  be so wrong?" Three exclamation points. Some early. voting dumps were so large that it was impossible  to win no matter how many people went to vote. It's all about the machines which are  far more important than the voter. Now, obviously, this is sour grapes. But even though  the allegations are absurd, I just want to take a. moment in the context of them because sometimes  when you throw, you know, seeds of doubt, they can take root. It's important to note  that Democrats won in multiple states where.

Republicans control the count and the elections  like Texas, right, where Telerico got more votes. in the early vote than Paxton got combined. But  Trump's turn to a rigged election, of course, is not surprising. Actually, what is more  surprising is what Trump told the New York Times. the day after the election. Then he said that he  was quote absolutely willing to accept the results. of the midterm elections and was prepared to work  with Democrats. That was what is out of character, not tonight saying that it was all rigged. Kristen  Holmes is out front live outside the White House.

Kristen, you know, you've got Trump making  complaints about a rigged election yet again. as he is standing publicly behind Hegathth in the  hours before Republicans may have enough votes to. uh impeach him. Uh and you're learning that not  everybody is buying what Trump's saying publicly. about Hegath. What are you hearing? Yeah,  that's true. And that was happening before. pro Trump actually spoke about it. And even now  that Trump has said this officially, I spoke to. a number of allies and advisers who have talked  to Donald Trump in the last two days and they.

say they think there's a strong likelihood that  Hegsth could still be asked to resign if he is in. fact impeached. It could be regardless, but that's  coming from conversations that these allies, these. advisers are having with Donald Trump himself.  Now, it was interesting to hear there saying, "We're not worried about that." when he's asked if  Republicans if they're concerned that Republicans. have the vote to actually impeach him in the  House. That is not the same feeling for many at. the White House. There is concern that Republicans  have those votes. They have been asking people on.

the Hill how they're going to vote and there is a  concern that he could be impeached by the House, though they don't believe it will go anywhere  in the Senate. And that would likely mean that. there's not a soft landing for Hegathth because  it had long been kind of speculated that Marshia. Blackburn, the current senator of Tennessee,  who's just elected governor, would appoint. Hegsth to her senator seat and that would give him  the kind of out there and give the administration. an out. We have now learned that Blackburn does  not intend to appoint him to that seat. I will.

also note that this is coming at the same time.  I'm hearing increased speculation really from. all corners of Trump's orbit that Pete Hgsth is  going to run for president in 2028. Obviously, what happens this week and what happens in the  next several weeks is going to play a role in all. of that. In the context of what Kristen just said  that everyone around him says it's a sure thing. that Pete Hagath is going to run for president.  Yeah. How worried uh should he be that an an. effort led by a Republican in the House could get  him impeached in a Republican House? That's the.

one that's going to leave a mark, isn't it? Uh  that's the one that doesn't help in a primary. And obviously Pete Hugs looks in the mirror and  sees a president. Who knows what else he sees, but. uh getting impeached by a Republican uh Congress  when the margin is this narrow when a Thomas. Massiey's putting forward the articles and they  are legitimate. This isn't just political theater. That's a problem. He also knows he's going to get  impeached, if not this time, the next time when. Democrats uh control Congress. And here's the  additional calculus for Trump co. uh they have.

an ability to pick a successor with a Republican  Congress during a lame duck. Now they won't have. that come January. So, you know, he he he he's  going to be, you know, Trump's hand could be. forced and Yep. That's right. So, watch out. And  Max, you know, that context, what John is laying. out, right, that if Trump wants to get somebody  to replace HGs that he wants to replace him, um you know, he might need to act now. uh put some  context around Trump today defending Hexath and.

criticizing people calling for his impeachment.  Here he is. Pete Hexath won two wars. Oh, let's. impeach him. What about impeaching the gentleman  from Biden, his person that disappeared for two. weeks and nobody had any idea where he was? What  about impeaching the people that ran the Vietnam. War? What about impeaching that went that ran Iraq  and Afghanistan and all of these other wars? What.

about impeaching the leaders of these stupid wars  that were done when nothing was gained? But look, once Steven Miller was appointed to be the chief  of staff, the ship sailed on them actually waking. up to the fact that the American people have  rejected this war. They're doubling down. It. seems ludicrous. seems insane, but they are  not going to fire Pete Hegathth. But I do think. that they will be astounded by the extent of this  impeachment vote because they may not be listening.

to the voters, but certainly the Republican  members of the House and Senate are. I mean, Tara, now the members of the House and Senate  know where the public stands. So, to the extent. that maybe somebody was afraid to have a backbone  before, the voters may have given them one. Well, I'm not going to hold my breath for the intestinal  fortitude or lack thereof of Republicans in over. the last 10 years. Um, but now you have a lot  of angry moderate Republicans who lost who may. now say, you know, find some courage and actually  do the right thing cuz so many of them know that.

Pete Hexath was never qualified to be Secretary of  Defense in the first place. I mean, the guy is an. absolute disgrace on a number of levels. I run a  women's organization. How do you think the women. in the military feel that this feel that this  guy is their their secretary of defense when he. was incredibly accused of sexual assault where he  denigrates women particularly women of color. He's. denigrated the top brass of the military. He's  been an absolute embarrassment. He's obsessed. with beards and testosterone. It's very odd. And  what are we doing here? This is supposed to be.

the greatest military in the world and he's  diminishing it. and Donald Trump is standing. by him after a tsunami from the American people  basically rebuking everything this administration. has done including what happened in Iraq.  Nobody's won anything in Iraq. If I mean in Iran, if we had won in Iran, Donald Trump wouldn't still  be up there trying to gaslight the American people. into believing we've won in Iran. We can all see  it and we can also see it at the gas pump and and. and that's why we see the margin getting wider  and wider right now still as a vote count comes. in and Lauren Boowbert losing, right? We got 256  now in the House. I mean, this could go this could.

go a little bit above 260 as Harry Anton's laid  out. So, Lauren Boowbert loses. Um, and and look, she was a major Trump ally, a major Trump ally.  This is a really close race and we knew this one. would be close, but but you know, that's that's  another loss. And this was a seat that she'd been. moved into that was supposed to be safer. Another  one of the red redist she was moved into a safer. Republican seat because she'd been in a marginal  district before. So, it just shows the depth. and breadth of the wave. Now, this is even in  Colorado. Look, there are upsides. She goes to the.

theater with less scrutiny going forward. That's a  that's a quality of life improvement, but they're. going to be I'll let people Google that if they're  curious. Please Google it at home. Uh but but I. mean, you know, this just so many Trump loyalists  have been wiped out because they were were. enabling a behavior that their constituents, even  in conservative districts, said no MOS. But Max, you know, he's back to the rigging and that and  that I think the real surprise was that it took a. week. Yeah, I guess it's because he wasn't on the  ballot this time that it took him a little bit to.

wake up to the fact that this was about Exactly.  It was still about him. He's also waking up to the. fact that this is a different Democratic party  than the one that previously took um the House. This is a party that isn't going to be distracted  by any of their ideological differences. You know, I remember in 2018 there was that that was  dominating the news cycle for quite some time. It's not a Democratic party that's going to get  overtaken by like a Trump focus, you know, that.

they they are going to focus in on the things they  ran on. And I think he's pretty intimidated by.