House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday he will vote to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, calling himself "a hard yes" on the resolution, as Rep. Thomas Massie prepares to force a House vote 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. Pete Hegseth has got to go," Jeffries told ABC News's This Week.
Massie, a Kentucky Republican, filed eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth in early September, before the House adjourned ahead of a final vote. The articles centre on the Iran war, including charges that Hegseth violated the War Powers Resolution by waging it without congressional approval. Massie has said he plans to force a vote on the resolution at the beginning of this week, after the midterm elections in which Democrats swept control of both chambers of Congress.
Jeffries said the Democratic caucus would discuss the articles in full when members return to Washington on Tuesday. "We'll certainly have that conversation on Tuesday morning when we reconvene for the first time in Washington, D.C. But I believe there will be incredibly strong support for that resolution," he said.
Massie, who is entering his final two months as a lame duck after being replaced in the lower chamber by Trump-backed Rep.-elect Ed Gallrein, has said there is one contingency in which he will not reintroduce the articles. "There is one contingency in which I won't reintroduce the articles of impeachment: Hegseth resigns," he wrote on X.
Hegseth has pushed back against the effort and, according to The Wall Street Journal, is mounting an aggressive campaign to fight the pending impeachment while vowing to stay at his Pentagon post for the rest of the Trump administration. If the House votes to impeach, he would be the first civilian defense chief to face a House impeachment vote since Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876, and removing him would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate.
