House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday he is a “hard yes” on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, raising the chances that the House will vote on the matter as soon as this week.
“I’m a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution. The so-called secretary of defense has abused his power, undermined our national security, and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran, which has skyrocketed prices on the American people and made the country less safe,” Jeffries said on ABC’s This Week. “Pete Hegseth has got to go.”
Asked by This Week co-anchor Jonathan Karl whether he was confident all House Democrats would join him, Jeffries said his conference will “have that conversation” on Tuesday morning, when members convene in Washington for the first time since the midterm election. “But I believe there will be incredibly strong support for that resolution,” he said.
Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who is leaving Congress after losing his primary, told ABC News he intends to reintroduce a privileged resolution to impeach Hegseth as early as Monday. By raising a question of privilege on the House floor, leaders would be required to schedule a vote within two legislative days.
Massie’s resolution contains eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth, accusing him of violating the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and other alleged offenses connected to the war in Iran.
Axios reported that House Republican leaders are bracing for enough GOP defections to impeach Hegseth when the measure comes to a vote this week. Republicans defeated on Tuesday have little left to lose, and Hegseth’s support on Capitol Hill has eroded since the start of the Iran war. Retiring Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska told Fox News that Hegseth does not have “a lot of love” on Capitol Hill and later told Axios he is undecided on this week’s vote.
Speaker Mike Johnson canceled votes and sent lawmakers home before Election Day, avoiding a floor fight on an earlier version of the impeachment effort. Johnson has denied that decision was related to the impeachment vote.
One Republican lawmaker told Axios, “Iran, Iran, Iran … We should have never done the war before the midterms.” Another said Hegseth’s tone and rhetoric have been “very damaging” to Republicans’ ability to explain why the strikes targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities and later military actions were necessary.
President Donald Trump has defended Hegseth, telling reporters Thursday that he has “done a fantastic job.” The president also told Karl the same day, “I have every intention to keep him.”
Hegseth pushed back in a video posted Thursday. “A disgruntled, defeated congressman, along with all his Democrat allies, has also dropped sham articles of impeachment against yours truly, just like they tried against President Trump twice,” he said. “It’s all about the politics of personal destruction — didn’t work against President Trump, and it won’t work with me.”
Massie has said there is “one contingency” in which he will not reintroduce the articles: if Hegseth resigns. He has also urged Trump to replace Hegseth while Republicans still control the Senate.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told Axios that Hegseth “will not back down or be deterred by politicians seeking to score partisan points or launch phony investigations where no wrongdoing exists,” adding that the department “has followed the law” and that Hegseth is “100% committed to leading the Department until the end of President Trump’s term in office.”
Even if the House impeaches Hegseth, removing him from office would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate, a threshold that would be difficult to reach even after Democrats take control of the chamber in January.