A top House Democrat said he’ll make ousting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth a priority if his party wins control of the majority in next week’s midterm election.
Rep. Jason Crow, the top Democrat on the Armed Services subcommittee on intelligence and special operations, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” Mr. Hegseth is failing to protect service members, citing intelligence reports that Iran has stepped up efforts to target U.S. personnel.
“Iran remains a danger. Pete Hegseth remains incompetent and is not doing what’s necessary to protect our service members, which is why he’s my priority number one, if we retake the majority, to make sure we oust him from the Pentagon because our service members actually deserve competent, serious, real leadership that will protect them and do the right thing, and they currently don’t have that,” Mr. Crow, of Colorado, said.
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Democrats have increasingly set their sights on removing Mr. Hegseth.
In April, a group of Democrats introduced articles of impeachment against Mr. Hegseth in the GOP-led House, accusing him of “high crimes and misdemeanors” for attacking Iran without congressional approval and using the military to carry out deadly strikes on drug boats in the Caribbean.
If Democrats win back the majority, Mr. Hegseth will become an even bigger target.
At an Oct. 12 rally in Pennsylvania for House candidate Bob Harvie, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, promised if his party wins back the gavel, “one of the first things we are going to do in the majority,” is “run Pete Hegseth out of town.”
The House can impeach a member of the cabinet with a majority vote, but removal can only follow a two-thirds vote in the Senate.
No Cabinet official has ever been removed by Congress.
Mr. Trump has only praised Mr. Hegseth, noting his devotion to the men and women in the military and his patriotism.
“I am extremely happy with the job that Pete Hegseth is doing.” Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social in August.
Last month, the president reversed a plan by the Pentagon to livestream the firing-squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan.
The Washington Times reached out to the Pentagon.
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