Hakeem Jeffries has said he is “a hard yes” on impeaching Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, in the firmest backing yet from the top Democrat in the House of Representatives. Hakeem Jeffries told ABC programme This Week on Sunday that Hegseth had “abused his power, undermined our national security, and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran”. Jeffries, the New York congressman widely expected to be the next Speaker, said: “Pete Hegseth has got to go.”
The backing lands as outgoing Republican congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky plans to introduce a resolution to impeach Hegseth as early as Monday. Massie has said he will reintroduce the resolution when the House reconvenes, and it contains eight articles of impeachment, including a charge that Hegseth violated the War Powers Resolution of 1973 by taking military action against Iran without the approval of Congress. The Pentagon told the BBC it had followed the law, and that Hegseth would not be deterred by “phony investigations”.
President Donald Trump defended Hegseth on Sunday and pushed back against the calls from Democrats, led in the House by Hakeem Jeffries, to impeach the Pentagon chief. The dispute comes after the midterm elections, in which Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress, and the House returns to session this week for the first time since the vote.
Hakeem Jeffries and the Tuesday meeting
Hakeem Jeffries said House Democrats will discuss the resolution when they meet on Tuesday 10 November, their first gathering since the midterm elections. He said he believed there would be “incredibly strong support” for the measure in the caucus, and he made clear that his own vote was settled. “I’m a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution,” he told ABC on Sunday.
The step is firmer than the line Hakeem Jeffries took in late October, when he said Democrats would “deal with” Hegseth if the president did not remove him, but did not say how he would vote. The change shows how far the mood has moved in the party since the election, and it puts the Democratic leadership behind a measure that was first filed by a Republican.
Massie, who will leave Congress after losing a primary to a challenger backed by Trump, has been a foe of the president for years. He outlined the eight articles on 15 September, and he said last week that he would “definitely” reintroduce them when the House reconvenes. As a privileged resolution, the measure must be scheduled for a floor vote within two legislative days, which could force the House to act this week.
Hakeem Jeffries and the case against Hegseth
The case against Hegseth rests on the war with Iran and on the costs it has brought at home. Hakeem Jeffries said the war had “skyrocketed prices on the American people” and made the country less safe, and he linked the conflict to the fuel prices that hurt Republicans at the midterm elections. Trump said on Wednesday that it was “largely true” the Iran war had cost his party because “it drove the gasoline up”, but that he would do it again.
An analysis of social media traffic done for Reuters by PeakMetrics found that, of the posts assigning blame for the midterm losses, nearly a third cited the Iran war and Israel’s influence. The war has become the sharpest point of attack for Democrats, and the impeachment resolution is the first formal move to act on it. Jeffries also said after the midterms that House Democrats were not currently focused on impeaching President Trump.
What happens next in the House
Impeachment in the House takes a simple majority, and removing an official then takes a trial and a two thirds vote in the Senate, a high bar. Whether the sitting House holds a vote has not been set, and no date has been fixed for the floor. Massie has told ABC News he intends to force the House to take up the measure this week, and the Democrats meet on Tuesday to decide their position.
Hakeem Jeffries said his caucus will have the conversation on Tuesday morning. The resolution is in, the votes are being counted, and the House will have to decide whether to act.