El-Sayed Tells Hegseth to Resign After House Kills Impeachment Push Against Him

On Tuesday night, Michigan Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed, a Democrat, turned to a CNN camera and spoke straight to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. His message was short: resign. "Why are you still doing this job?" he asked.

The interview with CNN's Kaitlan Collins came on the same day House Republicans shut down an impeachment push against Hegseth. The effort was led by Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican. By a vote of 211-204, the House referred Massie's resolution to the Judiciary Committee, which avoided a full floor vote on impeachment. Every Democrat who voted opposed the referral. But 11 Democrats were absent.

Collins asked El-Sayed what he would say to those 11. He told them to show up and "do your job." Collins called it surprising that Democratic absences helped keep the impeachment articles from getting a vote.

El-Sayed was asked whether Democrats should revive the effort. He did not say yes. He said he would not be in a position to vote on impeachment, and that he would assess any impeachment on its own merits. Instead he made his case against Hegseth in personal terms. He said Hegseth was failing in his responsibilities, had mishandled the war in Iran, and that nobody really understood what he was about. He said Hegseth was fighting a new culture war every day when he was supposed to be waging a war that El-Sayed called illegal on its own terms. "Make it easy for everybody," he said, rather than be "taken out," which he described as clearly what is happening.

El-Sayed also tied the issue to household costs. On the campaign trail, he said, voters asked him about high gas and grocery prices, and he attributed those costs to the war in Iran. He said Hegseth had aided a president who is "way out of his league," and that Hegseth himself is the link to the affordability voters want from this administration.

Hegseth was defiant at a news conference the same day. He said he stood behind military operations in Iran, Venezuela and Yemen and described them as lawful. He called Massie "one disgruntled and defeated congressman" and said the effort was not oversight or accountability but a political spectacle, a personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment. He said it came in one man's final days in Congress and risked harming the president, the country and the troops.

President Donald Trump celebrated in a Truth Social post. He called Massie a "total loser" and praised Hegseth's record on recruitment and on military operations in Venezuela and Iran. The White House and the Department of War did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.

Y. David Scharf, an attorney who works on government strategy and controversies, told Fox News Digital that Democrats could spend two years pursuing impeachment and make Hegseth stronger. Congress can investigate, demand documents and subpoena witnesses, he said, but removal takes a two-thirds Senate vote. If Democrats cannot get their own members to show up, he asked, how will they win over Republicans? That question, along with the committee referral, now frames what happens next.