Pentagon declares total victory after House Republicans block effort to impeach Pete Hegseth – as it happened

Closing summary

This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments:

• House Republicans blocked an effort to impeach Pete Hegseth, rejecting allegations that the defense secretary had repeatedly violated the constitution through his handling of the Iran war and other conflicts globally. A motion to refer Thomas Massie’s eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth to committee passed in the House, 211-204. The Pentagon declared “total victory” after the vote, and Donald Trump celebrated the vote as an “EXONERATION of a Great American Patriot”.

• Congressman Jim Jordan, a Republican hardliner from Ohio, won the election to become the next House minority leader in Congress. Jordan beat Representative Steve Scalise, the current majority leader, by 106-73 in a closed-door vote to lead Republicans from January. He replaces the current House speaker, Mike Jonson, who said he would not run when the GOP cedes control to Democrats in the new year.

• Meanwhile, Republicans in the upper chamber, re-elected John Thune to serve as Senate minority leader in the next Congress. The GOP senator from North Dakota didn’t face a challenger in the closed-door vote, as Democrats prepare for at least a 10-seat majority in the new year.

• Nine members of the Kennedy family sued the Trump administration in an effort to block its construction of a 250-foot triumphal arch. The family’s complaint states that the arch, which is planned for near Arlington national cemetery, would obstruct the Kennedy gravesites, the JFK Eternal Flame and the sightlines of the cemetery, “permanently diminishing these memorials.”

• A federal judge has allowed Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against the BBC to proceed. Trump is suing Britain’s publicly funded broadcaster for $10bn over an edited clip that made it appear that Trump told his supporters to storm the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.

Reporters Without Borders has called on the incoming Democratic Congress to impeach Brendan Carr, the Federal Communications Commission chair.

The press freedom group said Carr’s tenure as chair of the FCC has “has been defined by his campaign to intimidate and punish media organizations disfavored by the president,” citing the FCC’s investigations into media organizations, threats to broadcast licenses of networks critical of the president and involvement in media mergers.

“Few individuals have been more instrumental to the White House’s campaign to weaken the First Amendment than Brendan Carr,” Clayton Weimers, the executive director of RSF North America, said in a statement.

With world leaders set to begin formal talks at the United Nations climate change conference tomorrow, the United States is skipping the climate summit for the second year in a row.

California’s outgoing governor Gavin Newsom will lead a delegation to Cop31, which is being held in Turkey this year. In a social media post, Newsom’s press office said: “Donald Trump is skipping it again – embarrassing America on the global stage!”

The climate summit began Monday.

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said the United States and China should cooperate to mitigate the risks of artificial intelligence even as they compete for supremacy.

Bessent will travel to China next week for Donald Trump’s third meeting this year with Chinese president Xi Jinping, which is expected to be help on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders summit.

Bessent said cooperation would guard against shared risks and “prevent a misunderstanding between our two systems.”

“We also expect to exchange ​best practices for evaluating and testing advanced models before their release, and for keeping ‌human judgment firmly in command of this ‌technology,” he said, adding the two countries had agreed to establish a direct channel for alerting each other to serious incidents.

Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury said she and other members of Congress were blocked from entering the Capitol to vote on a motion to block Pete Hegseth’s impeachment “due a traffic incident and a police escort of a bus during the vote.”

“When she reached the chamber the vote had just gaveled out,” the congresswoman from New Mexico’s social media account said. “She immediately filed a report of her vote of ‘NO’ to the motion meant to kill the impeachment articles and refer them to the Judiciary Committee, as documented in the Congressional Record.”

Congresswoman Doris Matsui has won her bid for re-election to represent California’s 7th district.

Matsui, who’s represented Sacramento since 2005 when she was elected to fill her late husband’s seat, faced a challenge from younger Democrat Mai Vang.

Vote counting is still ongoing in Mississippi, where Democrat Scott Colom is trying to edge out incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith.

With 97% of votes counted, this evening the Associated Press updated its tally to show Colom leading by 2,678 votes.

The race is nail-bitingly close, as you’ll recall earlier today we reported that Colom’s lead stood at 2,575 votes.

After Democrats lost a House vote to advance impeachment proceedings against Pete Hegseth today by just 7 votes, members of the party have voiced frustration that not all its representatives attended the vote.

As CNN’s Jake Tapper notes, Julia Brownley of California, Lou Correa of California, Chris van Hollen of Maryland, Steven Hosford of Nevada, Jonathan Jackson of Illinois, Nancy Pelosi of California, Brittany Pettersen of Colorado, Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, Haley Stevens of Michigan, Marilyn Strickland of Washington and Frederica Wilson of Florida did not cast votes.

“I don’t know why people weren’t here. Someone may have a health issue. I don’t know,” congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told reporters. “But obviously, having a vote like that on attendance is hard. That hurts.”

Mike Johnson, the outgoing Republican speaker of the House, praised Jim Jordan, who Republicans elected today to lead their House contingent in January.

“Jim and I go back a long ways,” Johnson said in remarks to reporters today, adding that Jordan “was a mentor of mine when I first came to Congress.”

A federal judge has allowed Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against the BBC to proceed.

Trump is suing Britain’s publicly funded broadcaster for $10bn over an edited clip that made it appear that Trump told his supporters to storm the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.

In a social media post, Trump called the decision by US district judge Jeffrey Kuntz “A Huge Victory against Fake News BBC, a terrible abuser of the truth”.

Trump has a long history of legal action against media companies, including filing defamation and editing lawsuits against the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and CBS’s 60 Minutes.

Here’s more of our recent coverage of the lawsuit:

Nvidia has hired a former acting US attorney to lead an independent investigation into CEO Jensen Huang, and his alleged affair with a woman believed to be a Chinese spy.

“The independent members of the NVIDIA Board have retained former acting U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of New York Joon H. Kim and his firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct a thorough and independent investigation,” Nvidia said in a statement.

Kim was previously tapped by Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, to lead an investigation into sexual harassment allegations against Andrew Cuomo that ultimately led to the former New York governor’s resignation.

Nine members of the Kennedy family have sued the Trump administration in an effort to block its construction of a 250-foot triumphal arch.

The family’s complaint states that the arch, which is planned for near Arlington national cemetery, would obstruct the Kennedy gravesites, the JFK Eternal Flame and the sightlines of the cemetery, “permanently diminishing these memorials.” It notes that the arch would also cast a shadow over the Kennedys’ graves, especially in the early morning when the family traditionally visits.

The justice department recently said construction of the arch, which is modelled on Paris’s Arc de ⁠Triomphe, would not be completed until after the end of Donald Trump’s second term. On 6 November, a federal judge blocked any construction work from beginning on the arch for 14 days. Trump has claimed that the arch will be converted into a “top grade military complex” replete with drone and ammunition storage space and customised sniper facilities on the roof and plaza.

“This action is about protecting sacred spaces that belong to the American people,” Rory Kennedy and Maxwell Kennedy said in a statement on behalf of the family. “Our parents, Robert and Ethel Kennedy, and our uncles, President John F. Kennedy and Senator Edward M. Kennedy, are laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. Our uncle Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., who lost his life serving our country in World War II, is also memorialized there. They are among the more than 400,000 veterans and family members buried or honored on this hallowed ground. We believe Donald Trump has violated the laws and procedures established by Congress to protect this most sacred national memorial.”

They added that “Americans from every corner of the country visit Arlington to honor those who served and sacrificed for our nation. A towering arch casting shadows across the graves of our father, mother, and uncles, as well as the graves of so many who have served our country, would also cast a shadow over our democratic principles, undermining the safeguards established by our elected representatives to protect this hallowed ground for generations to come.”

The complaint notes that the arch would block the view between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington House, “which were designed to face each other to represent national reunification after the Civil War.”

The family’s lawsuit argues that the National Park Service and Interior Department authorized construction of the arch without needed congressional approval. It asks the court to set aside the authorization and block construction of the arch.

The Associated Press called the winners in three House races today.

Republican Maria Elvira Salazar won her race to represent Florida’s 27th district, defeating Democrat Eliott Rodriguez.

Democrat Darren Soto won re-election in Florida’s 9th district, despite efforts to redraw the district’s lines to favor Republicans.

Republican Ryan Elijah won his race to represent Florida’s 7th district, defeating Democrat Bale Dalton.

Donald Trump celebrated Republicans’ success blocking the House from taking up a vote to impeach Pete Hegseth.

“The Democrats’ attempt to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has miserably FAILED! Every single Republican, except Thomas Massie, a major LOSER, voted in favor of Pete,” Trump wrote in a social media post.

He added, “Again, Victories in Venezuela and Iran, the Best Recruitment Numbers in the History of the Military (Long waiting lists to get in!), and Spirit like rarely seen before, led to the EXONERATION of a Great American Patriot. The Democrats continue to weaponize and abuse the United States of America. They must be stopped!”

The Pentagon has declared “total victory” after Republicans blocked a House vote to impeach defense secretary Pete Hegseth.

“The referral of these baseless impeachment articles to the House Judiciary Committee marks total victory for Secretary Hegseth, the Department of War, and the American warfighter,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell wrote in a social media post.

“We look forward to ending this sham impeachment in the committee room, where facts will continue to prevail and this distraction can be put to rest,” Parnell added.

House Republicans on Tuesday blocked an effort to impeach Pete Hegseth, rejecting allegations that the defense secretary had repeatedly violated the constitution through his handling of the Iran war and other conflicts globally.

A motion to refer Thomas Massie’s eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth to committee passed in the House, 211-204.

The vote fell largely along party lines with 211 Republicans voting in favor of the resolution and 203 Democrats voting against it. Massie voted against the resolution alongside Democrats.

A new Reuters analysis shows that the Securities and Exchange Commission brought the fewest enforcement actions in fiscal year 2026 in 35-years.

The SEC said Tuesday it brought 348 enforcement actions in 2026, the lowest number of cases since 1991. According to Reuters, in 2025 the agency brought 456 cases – the lowest number since 2008. The SEC oversees more than 30,000 brokers, funds and other financial firms.

“The new Democratic majority in Congress will closely scrutinize ​whether [current chair Paul Atkins’] SEC is protecting the American people – or working for scammers and Trump’s billionaire buddies on Wall Street,” senator Elizabeth Warren, who is seen as likely to chair the Senate Banking Committee next year, said in a statement about the enforcement slowdown.