Democratic veterans in Congress are vowing to continue the fight to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth next year after Republicans blocked an attempt to charge him with high crimes and misdemeanors this week.
As current and incoming members of the Democratic Veterans Caucus gathered Wednesday for a Veterans Day press conference on ending the Iran war, ousting Mr. Hegseth was a priority nearly every single speaker mentioned.
“Pete Hegseth, he lucked out. He squeaked through this one,” Rep.-elect Richard Ojeda, North Carolina Democrat, said of Republicans blocking the Hegseth impeachment resolution.
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“Make no mistake about it: In the 120th Congress, he will not be so lucky. Tick-tock, get ready, a—hole, ’cause we’re coming,” he said.
Another incoming Democrat, New Jersey Rep.-elect Adam Hamawy, went a step further and said President Trump should also be held to account alongside Mr. Hegseth over the Iran war.
“On day one of this joint offensive with Israel, Donald Trump bombed the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Iran, killing over 100 little schoolgirls. And the horrors since then have continued,” he said. “I’m a U.S. Army veteran, and I know war crimes when I see them. Donald Trump is a war criminal.”
Those incoming Democrats did not get a chance to vote on the measure to impeach Mr. Hegseth since they will not be sworn in until January.
Every House Republican, except for Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, the author of the impeachment resolution, voted to kill the measure before it could even be debated.
“This refusal to acknowledge, debate or even consider taking action to hasten the war’s end and remove Hegseth and his poisonous ideology is exactly the behavior that Americans literally just rejected a week ago, loudly and clearly,” said Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, Pennsylvania Democrat and Air Force veteran.
Democrats will continue the fight next Congress, she said, noting that removing Mr. Hegseth is not just about ending the Iran war but showing respect for U.S. troops.
“Secretary Hegseth’s leadership has weakened and isolated our country. It’s caused our allies to lose faith in us. It’s deprived our service members of qualified leadership and subjected all of us to the consequences of this unlawful war,” Ms. Houlahan said.
Mr. Massie’s resolution contained eight articles of impeachment against Mr. Hegseth.
He charged him with waging an unauthorized war against Iran, even after Congress voted to end hostilities, and ignoring laws that minimize civilian casualties. Other articles focused on issues outside of the Iran war, including the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and the unauthorized military targeting of drug boats.
Democrats suggested their charges against Mr. Hegseth next Congress may also not be limited to the Iran war.
Rep. Salud Carbajal, California Democrat and Gulf War veteran, said there is a long list of reasons Mr. Hegseth should be impeached. including “extrajudicial killings, ignoring congressional oversight, leaking sensitive military operations.”
The Democratic Veterans Caucus was formed last year amid concerns about the Trump administration’s approach to national security and veterans’ issues that members have said were only exacerbated by the decision to go to war against Iran.
Rep. Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat and former paratrooper and Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the best way to honor the nation’s veterans is to not unnecessarily create more.
“We support our military service members when we don’t ask them to do things they don’t need to do,” he said. “And right now they are in the Middle East fighting a war that Americans don’t want, that Americans have not authorized.”
Mr. Ojeda, an Iraq and Afghanistan combat veteran, said families in his district watched loved ones deploy from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, for Operation Epic Fury, believing that they would be home in a couple of weeks. Many of those deployments were extended for a full year.
“This administration dragged our sons and daughters into a war with Iran without a clear exit strategy, without a plan for bringing them home, and without answering the most important question: What the hell are we fighting for?” he said. “Our troops deserve better.”
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