The push to impeach Hegseth will gain momentum if Democrats win the House
By Annie Grayer, Haley Britzky, CNN
(CNN) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s political future could be on the line if Democrats win the House majority in next week’s midterm elections.
A Democrat win of the House could breathe new life into an ongoing effort to impeach Hegseth, potentially convincing more Republicans to get on board in a vote shortly after the elections.
If that push fails, Democrats are planning to set their sights on the defense secretary if they have the House gavel in the new Congress, with a major push toward impeachment.
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie has vowed to force a vote to impeach Hegseth when the House returns after the midterms in November if the secretary is still in office. If Republicans lose the majority, Massie is increasingly confident that there will be the bipartisan votes needed for impeachment, which just requires a simple majority.
“The membership of the retirement caucus is going to swell on Election Day,” Massie told CNN. “Those members of Congress who aren’t coming back, who are Republican, might be compelled to vote their conscience when they’re no longer worried about having the support of Trump or the GOP for their election.”
It is unclear how Republican leadership will handle the issue after the election. Speaker Mike Johnson sent lawmakers home early in September, staving off a vote before the midterms. He said at the time that his plan was to block a vote, calling the push to impeach Hegseth “a stunt” and saying the defense secretary has “done an extraordinary job.”
But one source familiar with Republicans’ thinking told CNN that the impeachment effort is being taken seriously and that there is a real possibility some Republicans could vote in favor as many have grown increasingly frustrated with Hegseth and the Pentagon.
Regardless of what happens with the impeachment push in November, Democrats are sure to intensify scrutiny on the secretary in the new Congress if they take back the House, which they are increasingly confident will happen.
If their party flips the chamber, Democrats on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees are planning wide-reaching investigations into the US war with Iran and lawmakers are coalescing around Hegseth as their top target to start. Lawmakers want to press Hegseth on the decision to go to war, how the war has been conducted, and the ways they say the administration has avoided consulting Congress, including why lawmakers still have not received a full accounting of exactly how much the war has cost.
“He is the lowest hanging fruit because of the animosity that seems to be both from Republican and Democratic senators and staff,” a Democratic aide told CNN. “He is going to be investigated. There is going to be oversight, and whether that turns into impeachment in the Senate is an outstanding question if Democrats win back the Senate.”
President Donald Trump on Thursday praised Hegseth, decrying the effort to impeach him as “terrible.”
“All they do is talking about impeaching everybody,” he told reporters, referring to Democrats. “But they’re talking about Pete Hegseth. He’s doing a great job, he’s a great warrior.”
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement, “At the War Department, we are solely focused on Peace Through Strength and ensuring our warfighters have everything they need to be successful. We are proud to serve our warriors.”
Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a statement, “Secretary Hegseth has been a transformative leader for the Department of War.”
“By every measurable metric, the Department of War is better under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth’s leadership than before. The entire Department is unified behind the Secretary’s vision and will continue working to put our warfighters and America first.”
Hegseth isn’t the only Trump cabinet secretary that Democrats want to investigate if they win the House. Democrats say that Attorney General Todd Blanche and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would also be among top targets for oversight.
Democrats hesitant to embrace Trump impeachment push
Many Democrats have been much quicker to support impeaching Hegseth than Trump, at least publicly.
Having impeached Trump twice, Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal said, “We can’t get into a situation where the American people start to believe that we can never convict an impeached president.”
But the calculus for Hegseth is different.
“Even if the Senate refuses to convict or take it up, I think it’s important that the country understands how dangerous he is, and then when we take back the majority, then we can actually do the investigation and the accountability that we need,” Jayapal told CNN.
Even Democratic candidates on the campaign trail have vowed not to pursue a snap impeachment of Trump.
“I’ve had people say that you know the first thing we should do is impeach the president, and I, my answer has been no. We need to focus on delivering for the American people,” Democrat Bob Harvie, who is trying to flip a critical battleground seat in Pennsylvania, told CNN.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has tried to take a measured stance when asked about the possibility of impeaching Trump administration officials, saying Democrats “haven’t ruled anything in, and we haven’t ruled anything out.” He has said that if Democrats win the House he wants to see how investigations play out.
But Jeffries sharpened his position against Hegseth in a recent interview with CNN’s Manu Raju.
“I think there’s a reason why Republicans raced out of town to avoid holding that impeachment vote because they know Pete Hegseth has been a failure,” Jeffries told CNN in an interview during a campaign stop outside of San Diego. “He’s been a failure prior to this reckless and costly war of choice, and then of course he’s badly mismanaged the whole situation over in Iran. So we’ll see what happens in terms of that vote. But I believe Pete Hegseth is in deep trouble.”
Democrats vow oversight of Hegseth no matter what
Many among Hegseth’s group of close advisers, which includes former Fox News producers and social media personalities, have encouraged Hegseth to consider political office — including a possible presidential run in 2028, CNN reported earlier this month.
Some Trump allies told CNN they believe Hegseth would entertain a 2028 presidential bid only if Vance decided not to run.
His movements have also been watched with increasing interest in Tennessee, where his family moved several years ago, though GOP sources there say he has not taken steps in the state yet that might suggest he harbors political ambitions there.
But even if Hegseth were to leave his post and avoid an impeachment vote, Democrats still want to pursue oversight.
Rep. Chris Deluzio, who was part of a group of Democrats who urged service members and intelligence officials to disobey illegal orders that might be issued by Trump’s administration, and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told CNN that even if Hegseth is removed or leaves office, he still needs to be investigated.
“We investigate wrongdoing, and when we’re talking about the prosecution of a war, a lack of protection for our troops and their families, that should happen no matter this being secretary or not because we need to get to the bottom of how the Pentagon failed so many patriotic Americans,” Deluzio said.
Rep. Jason Crow, another member of the group who called on service members to disobey illegal orders, told reporters last week, “Pete Hegseth is a special project of mine to make sure that he does not sit in the Pentagon for any longer than he needs to, and I will do everything possible to remove him from his post because our servicemembers deserve that.”
Hegseth’s political future remains in question as Congress and the Trump administration appear to be on a collision course over how to approach the Iran war and foreign policy more generally.
On the campaign trial, Republicans have confronted angry voters frustrated over the war and its impact on the affordability crisis.
There was bipartisan outrage over the Pentagon’s plan to livestream a firing squad execution (Trump later called off the proposal for a livestream, which faced bipartisan backlash).
Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee have also publicly vented frustrations over what they have described as a lack of clarity provided by Department of Defense officials about the objectives, price tag and length of the war.
Lawmakers face crowded agenda after midterms
If a vote to impeach Hegseth succeeds before the start of a new Congress, Senate Majority Leader John Thune would have to contend with how to handle the situation and whether to crowd an already jam-packed floor schedule with a Senate trial. A Thune spokesperson declined to comment. Senate Democratic staff have had informal conversations about how they would handle the impeachment of Hegseth, according to a source familiar with the conversations.
A lot of the calculus could come down to the results of the midterms.
Once lawmakers return to session in November, the Republican-controlled House and Senate will have to contend with must-pass pieces of legislation involving the Pentagon like the annual defense policy bill and supplemental funding for the Iran war.
The anger that Republicans have towards Hegseth and the president’s recent diesel deal with Russian leader Vladimir Putin could further complicate that.
Retiring GOP Rep. Don Bacon has been outspoken in his criticism of Hegseth’s leadership, calling him “more of a performer than he is a leader.” He told CNN he has not decided how he is going to vote on the impeachment of Hegseth, but is leaning against it.
“I think we should do oversight,” Bacon said. “That’s part of the problem back home. People don’t see us as being a check and a balance right now, and I think that’s going to hurt us down ballot because a lot of swing voters who tend to be Republican wanted more of an independent voice in the House.”
But Bacon warned that the anger Republicans are harboring could make it difficult to deliver the funding and polices the administration is looking for.
“It was on life support to begin with, but I think that plug has been pulled,” Bacon said of Trump’s agenda.
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CNN’s Jeremy Herb and Adam Cancryn contributed
