Jeffries tiptoes around Hegseth impeachment

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is tiptoeing around the impeachment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, denouncing the Pentagon chief in the sharpest terms but without taking the further step of endorsing Hegseth’s forced removal.

Jeffries’s careful approach highlights the delicate dance Democratic leaders are attempting as they seek to balance the various interests in their diverse caucus, especially ahead of next week’s elections when the House is theirs to lose.

On one hand, Jeffries wants to take the fight to the Trump administration to appease a liberal base that’s been critical of the party for going too soft on the president in his second term. On the other hand, Democratic leaders also don’t want to lend fuel to President Trump’s claims that a Democratic majority would be hellbent on impeachments and other disciplinary actions against the administration simply to settle old political scores — a perception that could alienate more moderate voters in the midterms.

Squeezed between those competing camps, Jeffries, who’s in line to become Speaker if the House does change hands, has repeatedly sought a middle ground. He’s lambasted Hegseth as grossly unqualified — and called for him to be fired — but stopped short of throwing his weight behind the impeachment push many Democrats want to see.

The latest instance came over the weekend at a campaign rally in New York, where Jeffries vowed that a House Democratic majority would “run Pete Hegseth out of town.”

Asked by reporters afterward to clarify his intentions, Jeffries instead remained vague.

“It means that we’re going to hold him accountable in the same way that we held [former Attorney General] Pam Bondi and [former Homeland Security Secretary] Kristi Noem accountable,” Jeffries said, according to MS NOW . “And Pete Hegseth needs to be pushed aside by the president, or we’re going to have to deal with that situation if he is not.”

Taken literally, the analogy suggests Jeffries doesn’t want to go the impeachment route, since both Bondi and Noem were pushed out of power by Trump — not by Congress — after losing the president’s favor.

One House Democrat, who requested anonymity to weigh in on Jeffries’s approach, guessed the minority leader wants to see how Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-Ky.) impeachment push plays out first before turning to other possibilities that will also depend on how the elections will shake out.

“I think if there’s an opportunity to be bipartisan, we’re always going to look for that opportunity. I know he [Jeffries] always looks for that opportunity. So, I think we don’t want to take the pressure off,” the Democratic lawmaker said, adding that more Republicans will want to register their frustration with Hegseth post-midterms.

Jeffries won’t be able to remain on the fence much longer.

Last month, Massie had introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth — half of them related to the Iran war. Critically, Massie invoked a special procedure that forces the resolution to the House floor even over the objections of the GOP leaders who control the chamber. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had altered the House calendar to avoid that vote before the midterms, but it only delayed the inevitable: The vote is expected to happen quickly when lawmakers return to Washington after the elections.

Democratic leaders may feel liberated, at that point, to support Hegseth’s ouster. But if Democrats win the majority, Jeffries will also have to weigh the potential effects of that vote on his broader goal of winning the Speakership, which will require the support of 218 Democrats on the House floor in the first week of January.

But even some Republicans who have been critical of the Pentagon chief are not sold on Massie’s impeachment salvo.

“I’m a little leery about voting for the impeachment. I felt like we’ve been at war with Iran for 47 years. At what point do we not fight back on a country that’s been killing Americans like they’ve done? I’ve had friends killed by these guys by proxy groups,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a retired Air Force brigadier general who is not running for reelection, said in a phone interview with The Hill.

“I also know the Senate will not pass this,” he said. “So what are we going to do? We’re going to take up the rest of the four weeks’ bandwidth to do an impeachment that the Senate won’t vote for.”

Many other Democrats aren’t being so guarded. Those lawmakers have slammed Hegseth in statements, rallies and during appearances on news show, criticizing the Defense secretary for firing more than two dozen senior military officers, overseeing the U.S. military’s campaign of blowing up alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, and have accused the Pentagon of not being transparent enough over the war against Iran.

If those aren’t impeachable offenses, they say, then nothing is.

“On HASC [House Armed Services Committee], a top priority should be accountability for Hegseth’s illegal actions in the Caribbean, for the illegal bombings in Iran, and for the illegal firing of generals,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), one of the committee’s members, said in a statement to The Hill, adding that he backs Massie’s impeachment effort.

Hegseth defended his plan to cut 20 percent of admirals and generals — which will affect positions across the Army, Navy and the Air Force — earlier this month, saying they’re “rank-heavy” and out of touch with troops on the ground.

“With more layers and more rank comes more distance between the warfighter and the decisionmaker, and not necessarily better outcomes. In fact, there’s an inverse relationship between success on the battlefield [and] the number of four- and three-star generals since World War II,” the Pentagon chief said on Oct. 1 at the Association of the United States Army in Washington, D.C.

“Pete Hegseth’s name is known widely and held an incredibly low esteem here in my district, and I think across the country. I think people see him for what he is, which is a clown,” said Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), another Armed Services Committee member and former Army intelligence officer.

Ryan, a vocal Hegseth critic, said Democrats are looking to dig into Trump’s family members and allies benefiting financially from the Iran war and massive expenditure of offensive and defensive munitions in the U.S. Central Command theater .

The New York Democrat said throughout the last year-and-a-half, he has had relatives of service members as well as Pentagon insiders come forward with “incredibly damning and concerning information” regarding the leadership of the department. He said those people will come forward if the Democrats gain subpoena power after the midterms.

The Pentagon defended Hegseth, calling him a “transformative leader” who brought back standards and merit and now the morale and recruitment inside the military are “at all-time highs.”

“Secretary Hegseth has slashed bureaucracy, unleashed innovation, and delivered for our warfighters every step of the way. By every measurable metric, the Department of War is better under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth’s leadership than before. The entire Department is unified behind the Secretary’s vision and will continue working to put our warfighters and America first,” Kingsley Wilson, the Pentagon’s press secretary, said in a statement.

“At the War Department, we are solely focused on Peace Through Strength and ensuring our warfighters have everything they need to be successful,” Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement. “We are proud to serve our warriors.”

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on HASC, again said the Defense secretary was unqualified for the role and called for his removal.

“In all likelihood, yes,” Smith said when asked Tuesday on CNN if he would vote for impeachment. “But I have to look at the particular articles and the particular arguments before I make that commitment.”

Other Democrats on the panel, like Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), will vote for Massie’s resolution. Jacobs, who represents San Diego, the country’s biggest military community, confirmed to The Hill that she is for impeaching Hegseth after the midterms if he is still in the role.

Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), who sits on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, told The Hill she is a “hard yes” on both options.

Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), a former Air Force captain and member of HASC, expressed the same sentiment.

“I will also wholeheartedly support such an effort in the 120th if he has not resigned or been fired before then,” Houlahan said in a statement.

Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-Wash.), another HASC member who supports Hegseth’s impeachment, lambasted the Defense secretary for blocking promotions of one- and two-star officers across the Army , Navy and Air Force, warning it jeopardizes the military’s preparedness.

“His blocked promotions threaten our readiness as the war in Iran rages, and is an affront to the highly qualified military officials who are being sidelined,” Strickland said in a statement to The Hill.