Jim Jordan is the new leader of a very small House Republican minority — one that Republicans didn’t expect to be this small. He came to Congress during the George W. Bush administration, made his bones as a Tea Party firebrand under Obama and later became one of the original cable-news dunk merchants. Since then, he’s tried to scrub himself up, distance himself from some of the party’s more extreme elements and become an elder statesman. After failing to become speaker during the last round of House chaos, he’s now outflanked Steve Scalise and become the Republican standard-bearer.
I’d push back on the idea that this is Republicans tripling down on MAGA. My guess is that Jordan won because he felt more different from the previous leadership than Scalise did. The contest stayed civil, without the public intraparty fire we saw during the last two leadership fights. What Jordan actually does with the job remains to be seen, but his work is cut out for him. Nobody I’ve spoken to on the Republican side believes this is a two-year turnaround. The goal may be to get close in 2028 and hope for another opportunity in 2030.
The other leadership races are making noise, but I don’t think they’re truly competitive. Chuck Schumer may face some wobbling from Chris Van Hollen, but Democrats just produced a historic victory on a bad map. Hakeem Jeffries protected his incumbents and assembled a significant House majority. John Thune doesn’t even have a challenger yet. The real questions involve priorities, subpoenas and the filibuster. With 56 Democratic senators, they’d need only four Republicans to reach 60. That’s doable, but there will still be pressure for a talking filibuster or its elimination.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is also facing eight articles of impeachment from Thomas Massie, alleging unlawful military operations, War Powers Resolution violations and retaliation against Senator Mark Kelly. I expect the effort to pass the House, but removal would require two-thirds of the Senate, and I don’t expect that to happen. It’s also hard for me to argue that anything Hegseth did is uniquely his impeachable offense when these actions appear to have been approved by Trump. There’s a personal angle too: Hegseth campaigned against Massie in his primary, and this is Massie’s swan song — one final finger in the eye of the administration that defined the end of his career.
The Senate has voted 73–25 to advance the American Affordability and Jobs Act, an energy-permitting package designed to accelerate construction and address energy costs. It changes federal reviews of energy projects and addresses the electricity demands created by data centers. This isn’t final passage, but it moves the legislation forward. Republicans are asking why they didn’t pass it before the election. My opinion is simple: they didn’t have the Democratic votes beforehand. Democrats weren’t going to touch it until the election was over. Now they will, and I expect it to pass alongside the must-pass legislation before January.
Finally, Trump says renewed military action against Iran appears unnecessary and describes the conflict as effectively over militarily, though the naval blockade remains and Operation Iron Gate is restricting supplies by land. I don’t understand where the win is for Iran. They’re being choked out financially, oil is being rerouted around the Strait of Hormuz and that process will become cheaper as commerce adjusts. Their remaining leverage is the threat of attacking Gulf neighbors, oil fields, population centers or undersea cables. This looks like a slow bleed, which means Iran will eventually have to stir the pot. Their leverage is essentially: give me something, or I’ll keep shooting you in the foot.
Chapters
00:00:00 - Intro
00:03:11 - Jim Jordan
00:12:38 - Hegseth
00:15:27 - Senate
00:17:10 - Iran
00:23:14 - Interview with Michael Cohen
01:03:53 - Wrap-up
