by Steve Benen | Nov 11, 2026 | Congress, Crime & Courts, Maddowblog, White House
There are all sorts of reasons Democrats are thrilled to take back control of the Senate, but near the top of the list is the power over the confirmation process: From executive branch roles to judicial nominations, a Senate majority makes all the difference.
This isn’t lost on Donald Trump. “Very important for the U.S. Senate to confirm all of our pending 161 Nominations, including 25 Federal Judges,” the president wrote to his social media platform earlier this week. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
The message did not go unnoticed on Capitol Hill. The Washington Sun reported:
President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans started a rush Tuesday to confirm as many judicial nominees as possible before they lose their majority in January, including the announcement of three new nominees.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance four judicial nominees to the Senate floor, teed up more committee votes on six other pending bench picks and held a confirmation hearing for another four.
The fact that this is happening is notable in its own right, though it’s also worth emphasizing how it’s happening: As HuffPost reported, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the outgoing chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, “ditched a number of the panel’s standard practices” this week. From the report:
In the committee’s first hearing since the GOP’s drubbing in the midterm elections, Grassley signaled plans to hold nomination hearings this week and next week, violating the panel’s bipartisan practice of holding such hearings no closer than two weeks apart.
The Iowa Republican added two judicial nominees to next week’s hearing whose questionnaires were returned to the panel just 10 and 14
by Steve Benen | Nov 11, 2026 | Congress, elections, Maddowblog
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* As Sen. John Fetterman’s support among Pennsylvania Democrats collapses to embarrassing depths, the question about whether he would face primary rivals became a foregone conclusion months ago. The better question is how many primary rivals the senator is likely to face.
Earlier this week, Ahmed Moor, a Philadelphia-based writer and entrepreneur, helped get the ball rolling, kicking off his 2028 Senate race, though he’s likely to have plenty of company. Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean acknowledged Tuesday that she’s considering a Senate run of her own, and Democratic Rep. Chris Deluzio said he’s giving the race “serious thought.”
* The Senate Republicans’ leadership for the next Congress was elected Tuesday in a closed-door meeting, and outgoing Senate Majority Leader John Thune was easily chosen to serve as the next Senate minority leader. He will be joined by Wyoming’s John Barrasso, who will be the Republicans’ minority whip; Arkansas’ Tom Cotton, who will serve as the GOP conference chair; West Virginia’s Shelley Moore Capito, who will serve as the Republicans’ policy committee chair; and Oklahoma’s James Lankford, who will be the GOP conference vice chair.
* As for the party’s campaign committees, the National Republican Senatorial Committee will be led by Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio, while Rep. Brian Jack of Georgia will chair the National Republican Congressional Committee.
* The incoming Senate Democratic majority’s leadership appears increasingly murky: While it was widely assumed that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer would continue in his role, MS NOW reported that Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen has begun reaching out to his Democratic colleagues about a possible challenge.
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by Steve Benen | Nov 11, 2026 | Congress, Maddowblog, White House
Ordinarily, the House Natural Resources Committee is a relatively obscure congressional panel that tackles work far from the kind of high-profile political disputes that generate national headlines. But during Donald Trump’s presidency, the committee’s importance has grown in unexpected ways.
The reason is simple: The House Natural Resources Committee has oversight authority over the Interior Department, the Cabinet agency the White House has relied on to advance many of Trump’s vanity projects, including the ballroom, the Reflecting Pool overhaul and plans for a “triumphal” arch.
If the incoming Democratic majority is going to get answers on the administration’s efforts related to any of these projects, the information is going to come through this often-overlooked committee.
With this in mind, it was striking to see a CNN report this week on whistleblowers who have alleged that Interior Department officials have already begun destroying internal documents in anticipation of Democratic oversight.
An Interior Department spokesperson called the whistleblower claims “100% false,” though Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman of California, who’s expected to chair the Natural Resources Committee in the next Congress, is clearly taking the matter seriously. The Washington Sun reported:
[Huffman] sent letters to 36 federal agencies and private companies on Monday, ordering them to preserve documents, communications and other records tied to the committee’s investigations of the Trump administration.
“For the past two years, the Trump Administration has repeatedly obstructed congressional investigations by failing to provide the House Committee on Natural Resources with information necessary to fulfill its oversight responsibilities,” Huffman’s letters state.
Time will tell what becomes of the Democratic lawmaker’s pushback, and what we learn from the apparent whistleblowers, but it’s worth emphasizing that the Interior
by Akayla Gardner | Nov 11, 2026 | Congress, News, Politics
A new era of Black political power is coming to Washington.Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is on track to become the first Black speaker of the House. A record number of Black senators will take office in January. And the Congressional Black Caucus, which spent the past year bracing for losses, will instead begin the next Congress with more members than ever.
Black voters helped make it all happen, fueling Democratic gains deep into Republican territory in last week’s midterm elections. The results have set the stage for one of the most influential classes of the caucus since its founding in 1971.
Caucus members had expected to lose ground. A nationwide redistricting push, combined with a Supreme Court ruling that made racial gerrymandering nearly impossible to challenge, put several of their seats at risk. Instead, the total number of Black lawmakers will only be one shy of the current record of 68 if Scott Colom wins his Senate race in Mississippi, and fall just two people short of it if he loses. And because Democrats, who made significant gains last week, have dominated the caucus’s ranks in recent years, its incoming chairman says the group will be the largest in its history.
For Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., who is running unopposed to lead the caucus, the milestone evokes “a powerful emotion of fairness.”
“So many people had given up hope” under “the ugliness and the hate-filled actions of the Trump administration,” Carter said, pointing to cuts to federal healthcare programs, food assistance and student loans. “Tuesday’s election brought back hope that there is an opportunity to restore the rule of law.”
President Donald Trump’s record-low approval
by Ali Vitali | Nov 11, 2026 | Congress, News
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen is definitely talking like someone who wants to run for Senate majority leader.
Speaking with MS NOW’s Ali Vitali at a “Popular Mandate” event hosted by Groundwork Action, Van Hollen said he is “in the process right now of calling my colleagues” about who should lead them going forward, and that he is “actively listening.”
“Let’s face it, there was also a clearly an anti-Washington establishment tone to this election,” he said, “and so that is why I am now actively listening to people who are looking for that kind of change, and I am in the process right now of calling my colleagues because ultimately the question is whether the caucus is hearing the same calls for change or not. So, I’m actively calling my colleagues, because at the end of the day, this is a vote in the Democratic caucus.”
Van Hollen said that he has not yet spoken with all of his Democratic colleagues. Senate Democratic leadership elections are expected for December 1.
Even as he works the phone, a process that looks a lot like whipping votes, Van Hollen said he has been playing “phone tag” with Sen. Chuck Schumer. The New York Democrat has led the party in the Senate since 2017 and is “confident” he will be elected to continue leading the party in the majority.
The maneuvering points to a growing divide between the party’s establishment and its progressive wing.
As Van Hollen teased his political future to a roaring crowd, Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., were at a podium on Capitol Hill echoing his call for change within the party.
by Ja'han Jones | Nov 10, 2026 | Congress, elections, News Analysis, White House
Democrats are preparing to investigate President Donald Trump’s brazen regime once they take control of Congress in January — and tellingly, a bunch of conservative influencers seem to think the investigations are warranted.
While gorging myself on right-wing analysis of the midterms last weekend, I noticed a trend of these influencers openly saying that corruption has been rampant among people in Trump’s orbit. Former health official Calley Means has gained attention for his claims about corruption within the Trump administration, but he’s certainly not the only one on the right who is sounding the alarm.
These posts from conservative influencer Mike Cernovich speak to the trend I’m talking about.
“If Democrats go after scum, they will sweep 2028, as the public will be aghast,” he wrote on X.
If Democrats go after scum, they will sweep 2028, as the public will be aghast. Pardons for sale. Insider trudging. World Liberty Financial. Gulf oil money for “investment funds.” It would be a bloodbath. But my guess is Dems will focus on harassing Elon, which will backfire.— Cernovich (@Cernovich) November 5, 2026
In another post, he wrote that “there were real crimes being committed in the White House” that Democrats can investigate.
There were real crimes being committed in the White House. Democrats do not need fake impeachments as during 45. Will they have the discipline to focus on the criminals inside and around the WH, or will they seek the limelight of harassing RFK JR and Elon, which will backfire?— Cernovich (@Cernovich) November 5, 2026
The point here is not that these claims are revelatory or to be taken as fact simply because they’re coming from folks who
