Here we were thinking nothing interesting would happen in Congress for the rest of the year—and suddenly there was Rep. Thomas Massie yesterday, introducing articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The eight articles charge Hegseth—among other things—with waging unlawful wars in Iran and Yemen despite the disapproval of Congress, carrying out extrajudicial killings against suspected drug traffickers, and ignoring laws that minimize civilian casualties. Which, yeah—hard to argue against it!

Several Democrats have introduced impeachment articles against Hegseth before, but Massie’s effort goes further: Because he introduced them as a privileged resolution from the floor, the House will have to vote on them tomorrow unless House Speaker Mike Johnson calls a recess early. Happy Wednesday.

Join Mark Hertling and Ben Parker for Command Post live at 10:30 a.m. EDT on Substack and YouTube.

Field of Dreams?

by William Kristol

Iowa City, Iowa
I’m not, you’ll be shocked to hear, a Midwesterner. I grew up in New York City, went to school in Boston, taught in Philadelphia and then in Boston, and moved to Washington in 1985. That was supposed to be for a year. It’s now stretched to four decades. So I’ve spent my entire life among the huddled masses in teeming East Coast cities. And I’ve enjoyed it.

But I do try occasionally to venture out of the Acela corridor to see what’s up in the rest of America. And so I’m writing from Iowa City, where I spoke at the University of Iowa last night. It’s different out here! Farms and prairies, to say nothing of amber waves of grain! And friendly people! Amazing! If a bit disorienting.

What’s also disorienting is my sense, reinforced by (admittedly limited) conversations here, that Democrats can win here and elsewhere west of the Mississippi. Not just in Iowa and Texas, which everyone knows are in play. I wonder if the blue wave couldn’t also wash over to the Great Plains states, to Kansas and Nebraska and South Dakota.

Yes, I know, Donald Trump won all five of these states by at least 13 points in 2024. So flipping them is a daunting prospect. On the other hand, he is roughly 13 points less popular nationally than he was on Election Day two years ago. And given the impact of his tariffs and the gas prices in Iowa, he may have fallen further out here. So it’s reasonable that Democrats have a shot in Iowa (Trump +13.2 percent in 2024) and Texas (Trump +13.7 percent). Kansas (Trump +16.1), Nebraska (+20.5 percent), and South Dakota (Trump +29.2 points) are more challenging. But wave years, plus good candidates, can do surprising things.

On Texas, I’ll just point out that in the ten most recent public polls, Republican Ken Paxton is ahead in only one, and that’s by a point. He’s tied in another. And the Democratic nominee, James Talarico, leads in the other eight surveys by anywhere from two to six points.

One can argue that gravity will kick in, as it has in the past, and drag the Democrat down to earth. But the whole point of a wave is that it overcomes, to some extent, gravity. And the gravitational pull isn’t that daunting. In 2018, the most recent Trump midterm, Beto O’Rourke came within 2.6 points of Ted Cruz. Trump is weaker now than he was then, and Paxton is weaker than Cruz. Read Sarah Longwell’s account of her most recent focus group, consisting of Texans who voted for Trump in 2024 but who now disapprove of him. A majority say they’d vote for Talarico. So Texas is a very real possibility for the Democrats.

As are Iowa and the Great Plains states to the west. Voters—quite reasonably—are unhappy with their Republican senators who have, or their GOP candidates who will, rubberstamp Trump’s tariffs and his war.

Here in Iowa, seven public polls in the last month are split between three that have Republican Ashley Hinson ahead, three that have Democrat Josh Turek leading. The most recent poll has the race dead even. I’d put Turek as a slight favorite. And the Democrat, Rob Sand, should win the governor’s race.

What about the Great Plains states? In Nebraska, independent candidate Dan Osborn is running against Sen. Pete Ricketts. The Democratic party has intelligently cleared the field for Osborn. The two most recent polls there have Osborn tied and up by four. He came within seven points of Deb Fischer two years ago. The environment is more than seven points better this year, and Fischer was a stronger candidate than Ricketts. Yes, Nebraska went for Trump by 20.5 percent in 2024. But it’s in play.

Meanwhile, in South Dakota, the Democrats have also organized themselves to step aside in favor of an independent candidate. Brian Bengs, who enlisted in the Navy out of high school, and then went to college and law school and returned to active military service with the Air Force before retiring as a lieutenant colonel, is facing incumbent Mike Rounds, a career politician who’s been in office at the state and federal level for thirty-five years. Trump won the state in 2024 by 29 points. But one recent poll has the senate race even; the other has Rounds up by only three points. It could well remain competitive until the end.

Meanwhile, Kansas features one of the most impressive Democratic candidates of this cycle, Adam Hamilton, the well-known pastor of a large Methodist church in the Kansas City area. He’s facing a notably unimpressive—even by current Republican senatorial standards—one-term incumbent, Republican Sen. Roger Marshall. Trump carried Kansas by 16 points in 2024. But one recent poll had Hamilton up one, another had Marshall up by only five. In this race, candidate quality could help put Hamilton over the top.

And while I’m smoking hopium, let me not neglect the Mountain West. A recent poll by the Montana Free Press shows the Republican nominee, former Hill staffer Kurt Alme, at 38 percent of the vote. He’s ahead of independent Seth Bodnar, a West Point graduate, Army officer, and former business executive, by eight points. The Democratic nominee, Alani Bankhead, trails at sixteen percent. If more Democrats abandon Bankhead for Bodnar, or if at some point Bankhead steps aside and endorses Bodnar (even though it would be too late for her to get off the ballot), Bodnar could win. (More on Montana below.)

And if you really want to think I’m getting carried away, wait until I tell you about Idaho (Trump +36.5 points!). There, Democrats have also cleared the field for an independent candidate, another impressive Army veteran, Todd Achilles. He’s running against 83-year-old (!) incumbent Jim Risch. Maybe Idaho will send Risch back to D.C. to serve until he’s 89. But maybe not?

Okay. Maybe the good cheer and optimism of Iowans has gone to my head. This is, after all, the home of the field of dreams. But I don’t know. I’m from New York, and I love New York. But we New Yorkers inflicted Donald Trump on this great nation. Why shouldn’t it be Middle America that comes to our rescue?

Nobody Wants Killer Robots. That May Not Be Enough.

by Andrew Egger

A large, growing, and cross-partisan bunch agree: It’s sort of crazy that AI companies are charging toward a future of intelligent robots they’re not sure they can keep under control and which might have an outside chance of killing us all. What they don’t