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 Steve Benen | Nov 11, 2026 | Maddowblog, White House
One of the more unusual political stories to emerge in the run-up to Election Day reached the public a few weeks ago, when we learned about a $50 million contract for one of Donald Trump’s former defense attorneys. Now, that contract is no more.
The New York Times reported:
Alina Habba Mildon, one of President Trump’s former lawyers, was fired last week by the family company that gave her a $50 million contract weeks before Mr. Trump granted a pardon to the family’s patriarch.
In a letter dated Nov. 4, the company, Concord Partners, terminated Mrs. Mildon citing a “failure to perform duties,” according to a person close to the family and documents obtained by The New York Times. The person said Mrs. Mildon’s priorities appeared to shift away from Concord after she started dating Turhan Mildon, a 25-year-old Turkish investor, earlier this year.
The controversy began in earnest earlier this year, when Trump pardoned Julio Herrera Velutini. Unfortunately for the White House, it quickly became clear that Velutini had not only hired a former member of the president’s legal defense team, but also that the pardon came on the heels of generous campaign contributions Velutini’s daughter made to Trump’s super PAC.
It’s worth emphasizing that Velutini didn’t exactly need a presidential pardon: He was facing felony bribery and other charges in the United States, but his Trump-aligned defense attorney helped negotiate an unusually lenient plea deal in August 2025. Velutini ultimately pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor campaign finance violation.
But that wasn’t quite enough. Velutini still hoped to wipe the slate clean altogether.
To that end, the Times reported a few weeks ago that the
by Steve Benen | Nov 10, 2026 | Congress, Maddowblog
When Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky moved forward with plans to force a vote on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in September, the hapless Pentagon chief was rather sanguine about the effort. At the time, Hegseth appeared to assume the push wasn’t a real threat, so there wasn’t any real point to investing time and effort trying to derail the resolution.
Two months later, the secretary appears far more panicky about the political fight.
Last week, as members started making plans to return to Capitol Hill after the midterm elections, Hegseth launched a public relations campaign of sorts, which appears to be rooted in publishing panicky things on social media. That was itself problematic: The Washington Post reported on allegations that he misused government resources and taxpayer funds by creating a self-promoting video attacking Democrats and other political opponents, potentially in violation of federal ethics laws.
As this week got underway, the defense secretary took additional steps to bolster his public standing, delivering bizarre remarks at the Naval War College, effectively calling on military educators to embrace his ideological crusade. The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols, who taught at the Naval War College for 25 years, wrote in response to the remarks, “Two things were clear at the end of Hegseth’s speech: First, the secretary has no real idea what goes on in war colleges. Second, Hegseth is very angry that the war colleges are not incorporating his personal political vendettas into their curricula.”
On Tuesday morning, the secretary added a new dimension to his PR campaign, taking a step he generally tries to avoid: He held a rare press conference at the Pentagon.
It could
by Steve Benen | Nov 10, 2026 | Congress, elections, Maddowblog
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* There are still some U.S. House races that have not yet been called, including Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar’s re-election bid in Miami. After unofficial returns found the incumbent leading Democratic nominee Eliott Rodriguez by roughly 1,000 votes, Florida’s secretary of state ordered a machine recount.
That process began Monday morning, though Salazar declared herself the winner before the recount got underway.
* There was an expensive fight in California over Proposition 40, which would have created a first-in-the-nation tax on the net worth of billionaires. On Monday, The Associated Press called the race and concluded that the state’s voters had rejected the proposal.
* Speaking of the Golden State, a redistricting effort in California meant two incumbent House Republicans — Reps. Ken Calvert and Young Kim — were forced to run against each other in the state’s 40th Congressional District. It was competitive, but the AP has called the race for Calvert.
* As part of an apparent bid to remain politically relevant, former Sen. Joe Manchin endorsed several like-minded candidates in the 2026 election cycle. All of the candidates backed by the West Virginia independent lost.
* Last week in Wisconsin, Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden lost to Democratic candidate Rebecca Cooke by roughly 7 points in one of the nation’s most closely watched House races. Less than a week later, the ousted GOP lawmaker filed the paperwork for a 2028 rematch.
* The prominent conservative group Turning Point USA, founded by the late Charlie Kirk, focused much of its 2026 energies on backing far-right candidates in Arizona, including spending nearly $20 million in
