GEOFF BENNETT: There were some new faces on Capitol Hill today.

Incoming lawmakers arrived in Washington for their new class orientation.

But for the current House and the Senate, it was back to business.

AMNA NAWAZ: They began one final stretch of work before the GOP loses control of Congress in January.

Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky moved to force a vote to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Lisa Desjardins has more.

LISA DESJARDINS: With an impeachment brewing in Congress... PETE HEGSETH, U.S.

Defense Secretary: No, we're not worried about that.

LISA DESJARDINS: ... Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth today appeared to brush it all off.

PETE HEGSETH: Well, there's a lot of politically motivated people who have may have substantial policy disagreements.

But their disagreements are with success.

LISA DESJARDINS: The effort is being led by outgoing Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie, who today renewed his articles of impeachment, charging that Hegseth should be dismissed for what he says is unlawful war in Iran, Yemen, and Venezuela, and extrajudicial killings at sea.

REP.

THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): My hope is that this will make it to the Senate.

I don't know if we have enough votes.

I have no idea.

I haven't spent time on the phone calling people.

I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do.

LISA DESJARDINS: As for President Trump... DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Massie is a loser.

LISA DESJARDINS: ... his faith in the secretary hasn't wavered, as he claimed to Ross Douthat on "60 Minutes" last night.

DONALD TRUMP: We've won two wars.

We've won Venezuela.

We won that war in less than one hour.

ROSS DOUTHAT, CBS News: And you credit Hegseth... DONALD TRUMP: And nobody was killed.

ROSS DOUTHAT: You credit Pete Hegseth for that?

DONALD TRUMP: No.

But he was a part of it.

LISA DESJARDINS: And, today, Secretary of State Marco Rubio also backed Hegseth.

MARCO RUBIO, U.S.

Secretary of State: I think it's unfair.

Yes, I look, I think it's -- I think Pete's done a good job.

I really do.

LISA DESJARDINS: But, by House rules, the motion to impeach Hegseth will get a vote this week.

REP.

HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): I'm a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution.

LISA DESJARDINS: And it received a strong endorsement from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

REP.

HAKEEM JEFFRIES: Pete Hegseth has abused his power, undermined America's national security, and he's the architect of the reckless and costly failed war of choice in Iran.

LISA DESJARDINS: Jeffries' fellow Democrats are widely on board, and a number of Republicans have signaled either support or indecision.

House Financial Services Chairman French Hill told "Face the Nation" on CBS, he wouldn't rule anything out.

REP.

FRENCH HILL (R-AR): Well, I want to hear the debate on it to see if it merits impeachment versus some other disciplinary action or action by the president, if he's not getting the job done, and leading the Department of War.

That's the issue.

MAN: The House will be in order.

LISA DESJARDINS: This as Congress convened for the first time since the election.

WOMAN: Senate will come to order.

LISA DESJARDINS: Returning to a very different Washington.

Capitol Hill halls are already lined with boxes and couches, as losing members start moving out.

But for a new class, optimism was in the air during today's orientation... WOMAN: I'm excited.

LISA DESJARDINS: ... about their wins and agenda items like affordability.

DANIEL BISS (D), Illinois Representative-Elect: People can't afford groceries.

They can't afford gas.

They can't afford health care.

They can't afford rent.

That's true in Democratic and Republican districts.

FRED WELLMAN (D), Missouri Representative-Elect: There really is already conversations happening in the hallways.

And I joke a lot that I feel like a congressman today, you know, because we're actually having these conversations about making change for people.

LISA DESJARDINS: Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer was surrounded by senators-elect, including some who say they will not support him as leader.

Even after the blue tsunami, this Congress still faces a large workload, including keeping the government funded.

But on immigration: ROSS DOUTHAT: Do you think immigration hurt you in the midterms?

DONALD TRUMP: I think... ROSS DOUTHAT: Do you think the crackdown hurt you?

DONALD TRUMP: I think it both helped and hurt.

I think... LISA DESJARDINS: In his "60 Minutes" interview, President Trump expressed a desire to work with Democrats, though he didn't get into specifics.

ROSS DOUTHAT: You think your deportation policy... DONALD TRUMP: I think it was... ROSS DOUTHAT: ... went too far?

DONALD TRUMP: ... too tough.

ROSS DOUTHAT: It was too tough?

DONALD TRUMP: I think it might be too tough, yes.

ROSS DOUTHAT: What does a deal look like... DONALD TRUMP: I think ultimately... ROSS DOUTHAT: ... with the Democrats?

DONALD TRUMP: ... that hurt me.

Well, the deal would be we would work something out.

And I think it's something -- I think that's something that's actually doable.

LISA DESJARDINS: Those comments as the man behind the immigration crackdown, Stephen Miller, had his first day on the job as White House chief of staff.

And on TRUTH Social, an all-too familiar tone from the president, questioning the legitimacy of the midterms, without any evidence.

And we are waiting to see when the House vote on the Pete Hegseth articles of impeachment will take place.

It will happen quickly.

Under House rules, Speaker Johnson must hold it within two legislative days.

The exact timing, however, is up to him -- Amna, Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Lisa, on that front, where do the votes stand at the moment?

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

Nick Schifrin and I both have sources in House Republican leadership that say they believe the votes are there, in fact, to impeach Secretary Hegseth.

And I want to talk a little bit about how this is going to work now.

First of all, as many people know, it requires a majority vote of the House of Representatives.

We believe those votes are there right now.

It would require at least three Republicans to support the effort in order to get a majority now.

Again, those votes seem to be there.

Two-thirds vote, however, is required in the Senate to convict.

This is why we have had only two Cabinet secretaries in U.S.

history ever been impeached, and none -- neither one of them have ever been convicted, the most recent of those, of course, Alejandro Mayorkas, DHS secretary.

The one before that was 100 years earlier.

It is the Senate where we are now watching votes, especially on Hegseth impeachment.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa, as you reported there, you have those newly elected members of Congress arriving in Washington for orientation.

I know you have been speaking with a few of them.

What stands out to you?

LISA DESJARDINS: Oh, it's fascinating.

First, just a quick update on the numbers in the House right now.

Democrats have gained 42 seats.

In our tracker, we have another four that they are poised to flip at this point.

So, that would give them about 258 seats in the House, a remarkable number.

As to the freshmen that I met today, the incoming congressmen, in the words of Sam Forstag, who's a congressman-elect from Montana, it was amazingly normal.

Really, there was a lack of air of politics about them.

Many of them are first-time members.

What you couldn't miss, however, was the sheer size of the group.

Let me show you an example.

These are the newly elected Republicans and those with enough votes to be elected, it seems right now, those who are leading.

There's 31 of them.

This is another factor about this group.

Look at the number of Democrats.

These are the newly elected Democrats and those who are leading in their races right now.

By our calculations and those of ABC News and others, this looks to be the largest freshman class in the House in 100 years.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, say more about that, Lisa, because I know you and our team have been looking at the Democratic victory.

How does it stack up historically?

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

Let's take a look at the Senate.

Of course, right now, Democrats have seven-plus.

We are still waiting, I keep saying, for Mississippi and Alaska to come in.

So let's look at where this gain of seven in the Senate has us at the moment.

Right now, this is the seven seats that Democrats have.

This is still short of the 2014 recent record.

That was when Republicans gained under President Obama.

But if Democrats are able to get here to this level of picking up nine, this is something that happens once every 20 or 40 years.

After 2014, you have got to go back to the Eisenhower administration to see this kind of pickup of nine seats.

What about the House?

Let's talk about the wave there.

This is a literal wave.

I like kind of like literal graphics sometimes.

And here we're looking at the margin.

This is what the new Congress will look at, Democrats up here, Republicans down here.

It is pretty easy to see here this is the largest margin we will have in the House this century.

And something else significant about it, this will be the first time that Democrats will have this kind of margin under a Republican president.

That's going to be notable, of course, for President Trump, but it is also historic.

One last thing.

One standout fact about this was the popular vote difference.

Take a look.

Here, Democrats got 12 points more in the popular vote than Republicans.

I went through a lot of data to figure out, when was the last time this happened?

Folks, it was right after Watergate, in the middle of Watergate.

That is the size of the popular vote verdict that we had in the House of Representatives this year.

GEOFF BENNETT: Who says journalists aren't good at math?

GEOFF BENNETT: Lisa Desjardins, thanks to you, as always.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.