Hakeem Jeffries has thrown the Democrats’ full weight behind impeaching Pete Hegseth, declaring himself a “hard yes” on the resolution — and President Donald Trump has hit back, defending the war secretary as the man “most responsible” for the war in Iran.
Key Points
- Hegseth impeachment — Jeffries said he is a “hard yes” on the impeachment resolution against Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
- The resolution was drawn up by Republican Representative Thomas Massie and is expected to come up when the House returns on Tuesday.
- Jeffries accused Hegseth of abusing his power and engineering a “reckless and costly war of choice in Iran”.
- Trump defended Hegseth, questioning why an official so central to the Iran campaign should be removed.
Jeffries, the House Democratic leader who is poised to become Speaker when the Democrats take control of Congress in January, made his position clear on ABC’s This Week on Sunday. “I’m a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution,” he said. “The so-called secretary of defence has abused his power, undermined our national security, and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran.”
“Pete Hegseth has got to go,” Jeffries added, saying he believed there would be “incredibly strong support” for the resolution. He said Democrats would discuss the proposal when lawmakers reconvene on Tuesday.
A Republican-authored resolution
The impeachment push is unusual in one respect: its author is a Republican. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a vocal critic of the US-Israeli war on Iran, first introduced the resolution in September. Congressional leaders postponed a planned vote on it until after the November midterm elections, and Massie — who leaves Congress in January after a Trump-backed primary defeat — has said he will reintroduce the articles soon.
Massie was also a key figure in forcing the administration to release the Epstein files, and his willingness to break with his own party has made him one of the president’s most persistent Republican critics. The charges in his resolution include that the administration failed to properly consult Congress on the military campaign in Iran.
Hegseth dismissed the push in a video statement, calling it “all about the politics of personal destruction” and saying it “won’t work with me”. Trump, meanwhile, defended his war secretary and questioned why an official instrumental to the military campaign against Iran should face removal.
What happens next
The House returns on Tuesday for the final weeks of the lame-duck session, with government funding due to expire on 11 December and the annual defence authorisation bill still unfinished. The impeachment resolution is expected to be filed early in the week, with a vote to follow — though no floor time has yet been announced.
Democrats have also signalled a wider wave of scrutiny once they take power in January, with senior lawmakers saying on Sunday they plan congressional investigations into Elon Musk, the newly appointed White House chief of staff Stephen Miller and several large companies. The Hegseth vote, if it happens this week, would be the first test of how far that confrontation will go — and whether enough Republicans are willing to join it.
For background on how the impeachment effort began, see our report on Representative Thomas Massie initiating impeachment proceedings against Defence Secretary Hegseth, and on Democrats sweeping the midterms to win the House and Senate. More in our Politics section.
Sources: Al Jazeera, “Jeffries backs Hegseth impeachment as Democrats vow probes of Trump allies“; The Economic Times, “Trump defends Hegseth amid impeachment push, calls him ‘most responsible for the war’ in Iran“.