WASHINGTON — It’s an election year, and impeachment’s in the air in the nation’s capital.
After 187 Democrats signed onto the effort to impeach now-former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, restive Democrats have now turned their attention to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Recently, a group of Democrats led by Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) — an Iranian American — dropped six different articles of impeachment against Hegseth, ranging from the “reckless endangerment of United States servicemembers” to allegedly demonstrating “a willful disregard for the Constitution.”
Republicans say they’re braced for the onslaught.
“I assume we’ll have all kinds of impeachments if the Democrats have the speakership,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) told Raw Story.
The more progressive wing of the Democratic Party is eager to oblige.
“Pete Hegseth broke his oath to the Constitution, put U.S. troops at grave risk through the unauthorized disclosure of classified information, engaged in abuse of office and conduct beneath the dignity of his office, and carried out unlawful military actions despite his obligation to refuse—including strikes on civilians and a girls’ school in Minab, Iran,” Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) said when she introduced her impeachment measure in mid-April.
“Hegseth’s conduct meets the threshold of high crimes and misdemeanors and warrants immediate removal by Congress,” Ansari — who’s already attracted more than a dozen co-sponsors in just the past two weeks — said.
But not all Democrats are on board.
In fact, even as they regularly decry Hegseth, not a single Democratic congressional leader has signed onto the effort to oust the secretary.
“Where are you in this effort to impeach Hegseth?” Raw Story asked House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA).
“We are evaluating,” Clark replied.
“Do you worry that all this impeachment talk could be bad for your party in November?” Raw Story pressed.
“No, no, no. We are, as House Democrats, we are keeping the focus on the rising cost for people and the connection to this war and Pete Hegseth — in gasoline going up, impacting the cost of groceries, housing,” Clark said. “It’s a continuation of no explanation of this war but asking Americans to foot the bill.”
Impeachments are rare. Or at least they used to be.
For their part, Republicans have also been whipping up impeachment talk in this 119th Congress.
While a few MAGA-faithful have sponsored efforts to expunge the two impeachments President Donald Trump racked up in his first term, others have gone on the offensive and targeted eight federal judges with articles of impeachment for ruling key parts of Trump’s agenda unconstitutional.
Besides Hegseth, Democrats have also introduced articles of impeachment against Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr., though that’s only attracted one co-sponsor since being introduced in December.
There was also an effort afoot to oust former Attorney General Pam Bondi, though it only attracted seven Democratic co-sponsors before Trump booted her.
And, of course, three Democrats have filed separate articles of impeachment against Trump, including 13 articles of impeachment introduced by Rep. John Larson (D-CT) alone.
That’s what Democrats are doing when they’re locked in the seemingly powerless minority on Capitol Hill.
And that’s why Republicans expect a flood of attacks on the president and his Cabinet if Democrats regain control of the House in November.
“Is it not a sign of things to come?” Wicker told Raw Story. “Then you have to have a trial.”
It’s not even summer yet, and campaigns tend to pick up steam in the fall, but across the Capitol, Republicans sense an impeachment onslaught just over the horizon.
“We’re, unfortunately, going to see probably a lot more of this,” Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT) told Raw Story.
While impeachment efforts are easy wins with the two parties’ respective bases, they tend to leave a bitter taste in the mouths of many of today’s increasingly tribalistic political class.
For many in the GOP, the Hegseth attacks are particularly unpatriotic because the cries to impeach him are growing louder as the Defense Secretary continues to wage war with Iran.
“It’s frustrating that in the middle of, you know, the latest conflict against someone we’ve been, quite frankly, at war with for 47 years, they’re going after our Secretary of War,” Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL, said.
Still, Sheehy’s a fighter, and he gets the calculus of his Democratic counterparts.
“It’s good for them. I think the reality is, politically for them it’s good. It motivates their base. That’s what the Democrat base wants right now, is they want unbridled aggression in any form,” Sheehy said. “And they feel not only justified, but that it’s good. And, I think it’s just a political calculation they’re making that this is what their base wants.”
And what the base wants, the base gets in contemporary Washington. Just ask Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and red meat-waving GOP leaders.
In the midst of the 2024 presidential election, then-Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas received the dubious title of being only the second Cabinet member in U.S. history to be impeached.
House Republicans passed the measure along party lines, with three Republicans crossing the aisle to join Democrats in opposing the effort.
Then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) used a procedural trick to avoid a full Senate trial. In the end, Senate Democrats ruled the articles of impeachment out of order, because the charges fell short of the constitutional impeachment requirement that “conduct that rises to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor.
Republican senators say they’re ready to follow Schumer’s lead and reject any impeachment charges as being out of order, and they’re fully expecting Democrats to move to impeach Trump for a third historic time.
“Oh, you don’t think if they get the majority they’re not going to impeach [Trump]?” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Raw Story through a laugh. “That’d kind of make our day. We’ll just dismiss it like Schumer dismissed the Mayorkas one.”
Republicans may be the only ones laughing, but they also seem to have an ally in at least one Senate Democrat who doesn’t like seeing his colleagues abuse the impeachment process.
“Is that a losing strategy for your party?” Raw Story asked of the effort to impeach Hegseth.
“You could describe him as incompetent, but incompetent is not an unlawful thing,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) told Raw Story.
So while House Democrats rush to impeach, Fetterman believes they’ve tasked themselves with a fool’s errand.
“So yeah, like, Mayorkas was a disaster — absolute disaster! — but you can’t impeach him for just being incompetent,” Fetterman said. “It’s not what impeachment is designed for.”
Senate Democrats are mostly mum on matters of “high crimes and misdemeanors” these days, even though the progressive wing of the party supports many of these impeachment efforts, especially against Hegseth.
“It’s totally understandable,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) told Raw Story. “But it’s not something that can succeed.”
“Is that a distraction ahead of the midterms?” Raw Story pressed. “Or something you support?”:
“It’s understandable. I mean, he’s a terrible leader,” Welch said. “But can it work? And I think we have to focus on a constructive agenda that gives people a sense that we’re about them.”
Other Senate Democrats agree.
“Is this a distraction for your party or is that good?” Raw Story asked.
“It’s neither,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) told Raw Story after voting on the Senate floor. “Over here there’s not that same push.”
“Is that just because you Senators are realistic?” Raw Story pressed.
“Well, no. I think it’s because impeachment initially, you know, starts in the House, and if they take the House, they will likely have the votes for some of those things,” Schatz said. “And then it would come to us and we would likely not have the votes. I think it’s a function of the Constitution.”
“Do you think it would be good, though?” Raw Story inquired. “Like, for a few months — if you guys do take over — doing an impeachment for Hegseth or Trump?”
“The first thing we should do is focus on the cost of living,” Schatz — who’s rumored to be a replacement in waiting should Schumer retire or lose — said. “And the second thing we should do is focus on the cost of living, and if there’s any room on the legislative timetable, we can consider other things.”
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