Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader poised to become the next speaker of the House, said on Sunday that he would support impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, joining the growing calls to remove one of President Trump’s top cabinet secretaries after overwhelming Republican defeats in last week’s elections.
Mr. Jeffries said that he was a “hard yes” on a resolution to impeach Mr. Hegseth that was expected to come to the House floor this week — the first time the top Democrat has publicly expressed support for the idea.
“The so-called secretary of defense has abused his power, undermined our national security and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran,” Mr. Jeffries said during an interview on the ABC morning program “This Week,” adding, “Pete Hegseth has got to go.”
Still, Democrats, emboldened by their decisive victories in the House and the Senate last week, have begun laying the groundwork for an aggressive oversight agenda aimed at Mr. Trump and his administration. But increased bipartisan pressure, especially on Mr. Hegseth, since the election suggests that a political reckoning could come before the new Congress begins.
Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a Republican who is retiring at the end of his term after losing a primary to a challenger backed by Mr. Trump, is expected to force a vote in the House this week on impeaching Mr. Hegseth.
Mr. Massie first moved to bring the impeachment resolution to the floor before the midterms. That prompted Speaker Mike Johnson to call an early recess to avoid voting on the measure. Impeachment resolutions are privileged motions in the House and when introduced must be taken up within two days.
Because that effort expired, Mr. Massie must renew his notice to force action on the measure, which he is expected to do when the House returns this week, again setting off a two-day clock to take up the resolution.
Even if the House were to vote to impeach Mr. Hegseth, however, it would be unlikely to lead to his removal from office, which requires a two-thirds majority in the Senate. Only two cabinet officials have been impeached in U.S. history, and neither was removed from office by the Senate.
Mr. Jeffries predicted “incredibly strong support” among Democrats for the resolution on Sunday and said they would discuss the issue when they return to Washington this week.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said on the CNN talk show “State of the Union” on Sunday that the Justice Department would defend members of the administration like Mr. Hegseth from investigations or impeachment efforts. “Department of Justice represents members of the executive,” he said, adding that he “would be very worried” if he were a Democrat threatening to investigate administration officials.
On Saturday, Mr. Trump wrote on social media that the calls for impeachment amounted to “extortion at the highest level” and ordered the Justice Department to investigate those making the push.
Some Republican lawmakers are also signaling openness to the case against Mr. Hegseth, even as they have stopped short of endorsing impeachment.
“I want to hear the debate on it to see if it merits impeachment,” Representative French Hill, Republican of Arkansas, said during an interview on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”
Mr. Hill, who won re-election on Tuesday by fewer than 4,500 votes, expressed dissatisfaction with the administration’s handling of the war with Iran but cautioned that poor performance did not necessarily rise to the level of impeachment.
“If you don’t think he’s done a good job conducting his job, that doesn’t mean per se that he has committed an impeachable offense,” he said. He added that if Mr. Hegseth was not carrying out his mission properly, “the president ought to make a change there.”
Representative James R. Comer, Republican of Kentucky, has also raised questions about Mr. Hegseth’s leadership and future, warning that it was “very possible” that enough lawmakers would vote to impeach him.
In a NewsNation interview on Friday, Mr. Comer did not explicitly express support for removing Mr. Hegseth, instead saying, “That’s going to be a decision that President Trump’s going to have to make.”
Beyond the Pentagon, lawmakers have expressed varying levels of support for personnel changes across the administration.
Representative Marlin Stutzman, Republican of Indiana, criticized the appointment of Stephen Miller as the next White House chief of staff, calling it a “bad mistake.”
And Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who is likely to lead the Senate’s health committee in January, said on Sunday that he was open to impeachment efforts against Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Evan Gorelick contributed reporting.
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