Jeffries Backs Hegseth Impeachment as Democrats Plan Probes of Trump Allies After Midterm Wins

On Sunday morning, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries went on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos and said he was a "hard yes" on a coming resolution to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He accused Hegseth of abusing his power, undermining national security and engineering what he called a reckless and costly war of choice in Iran. "Pete Hegseth has got to go," he said, adding that he expected incredibly strong support for the resolution.

The resolution is expected in the coming days. It is being led by outgoing Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a vocal critic of the US-Israel war on Iran. That a Republican is driving the effort is notable, even though Massie is leaving Congress.

Jeffries speaks from a position of newly won strength. In the November 3 midterm elections, Democrats flipped both the House and the Senate, with some of their largest gains in the lower chamber in more than half a century. Jeffries is poised to become the next speaker. A new Congress is sworn in on January 3, and in the coming weeks Democrats will choose their leaders in both chambers.

Jeffries said the majority would move "aggressively" in its first 100 days, both on affordability and on what he called "unprecedented corruption" under Trump. "We are committed to cleaning up the mess wherever it's found," he said, naming Congress, the Supreme Court and the administration. For now Republicans still hold the trifecta of both chambers and the presidency, and the Supreme Court has a conservative supermajority that includes three Trump appointees.

The investigative work would run largely through the House Oversight Committee, the chamber's principal investigative panel, which can subpoena witnesses and documents. Representative Robert Garcia formally announced his bid to lead it in a letter to colleagues on Thursday. On CNN on Sunday, he said Stephen Miller, who was named White House chief of staff last week, warrants investigation. Miller has been closely tied to Trump's hardline immigration policies since the first term. Garcia called him the architect of what he described as a horrific, unjust policy, pointing to family separations and accusations of due process abuses.

Garcia also signalled interest in questioning Elon Musk about his leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE led to widespread federal workforce cuts early in Trump's second term and sought access to sensitive government data, including Americans' personal information. Garcia said the way federal employees lost jobs and the likely compromise of people's data are "very serious."

The constitutional arithmetic matters here. The House can impeach an administration official by simple majority. Conviction and removal require two-thirds of the Senate, a high bar even with Democrats in control of that chamber. Trump himself has voiced concern that he and other top officials could face impeachment.

The White House responded quickly. Attorney General Todd Blanche, a former personal lawyer to Trump, told CNN's State of the Union there could be investigations into Democratic lawmakers over what he called "threatening" rhetoric. "If that's what this new incoming leadership wants to do, we are ready," he said. "If you work in this administration, you have a lawyer. It's me."

On Saturday, Trump posted on Truth Social calling on the Justice Department to investigate Democrats over plans to bring his allies before committees. He called them "SLEAZEBAGS" who "should go to jail," and described the threats against Republican donors and party members as unprecedented and totally illegal. The first test will be the Hegseth resolution, expected within days, followed by the January swearing-in and the fight over who leads the committees.