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Jeffries Signals Strong Support for Hegseth Impeachment

By Today News Hours Editorial Desk

New York congressman Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat widely expected to become the next Speaker of the House, said he is "a hard yes" on a resolution to impeach Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. Jeffries told ABC’s This Week that Hegseth had "abused his power, undermined our national security, and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran."

Republican congressman Thomas Massie, a critic of President Donald Trump, plans to introduce a resolution on Monday that could remove Hegseth from office. Massie’s resolution contains eight articles of impeachment, alleging that Hegseth waged war on Iran without the congressional authorization required by the War Powers Resolution of 1973.

The Pentagon said to the BBC that it had followed the law and that Hegseth would not be deterred by "phony investigations." Trump defended Hegseth on CBS News’ 60 Minutes, calling the impeachment effort "very unfair" and asserting that the administration had won wars in Venezuela and Iran.

Jeffries, who is the current Democratic minority leader, said that the newly empowered Democrats would serve as a check and balance on the Trump administration. He added that House Democrats are not currently focused on impeaching President Trump, who was impeached twice during his first term.

Last week, Hegseth released a nearly six‑minute video urging Congress to approve the Pentagon’s latest military budget request. In the clip he dismissed Massie’s impeachment effort as "sham articles" and said the political theatre would not succeed against him.

Impeachment is a rare process in which the House can vote to find an official guilty of misconduct and the Senate can then vote to remove the official from office. With a 254‑seat majority in the House, Democrats can pass articles of impeachment, but they would need a two‑thirds Senate majority to remove an official, a threshold that would require Republican support.