Army veteran who won NC House seat: Hegseth ‘absolutely’ should be impeached

Rep.-elect Richard Ojeda (D-N.C.), an Army veteran who ousted a top House Republican in Tuesday’s midterm elections, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should “absolutely” be impeached, citing calls for accountability over the Trump administration’s military operations abroad.

“I absolutely think that this administration definitely needs to be investigated,” Ojeda said in an interview with CNN. “We can impeach the people that are part of the administration that have done so many horrific things.”

When asked whether Hegseth should face impeachment, Ojeda replied, “Absolutely.”

“We are committed to a war with no exit strategy,” he said. “There needs to be accountability for this, and I think that we are going to absolutely do that as soon as we get there.”

Ojeda’s comments come as top Republicans, including President Trump and Vice President Vance, have acknowledged that the deeply unpopular war in Iran, which has caused high inflation and rising gas prices, contributed to the GOP’s sweeping election losses during the midterms. Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress.

The Hill previously reported that Hegseth was potentially eyeing an appointment by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) to her open seat after she won the Volunteer State’s gubernatorial election this week. Trump even remarked after the midterms that Hegseth would be “ very popular ” as Tennessee’s next senator.

Ojeda, who scored a major upset in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District by defeating National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), has been an outspoken critic of Hegseth’s leadership at the Pentagon.

Following the resignation of former Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, Ojeda accused Hegseth of undermining military leadership amid a series of high-profile departures.

“The U.S. military has a Pete Hegseth problem,” Ojeda wrote on the social platform X in August. “Our troops are not props. The Pentagon is not a playground for incompetent fox news hacks with something to prove about their manliness.”

“I carry the names of 13 brothers I lost in war tattooed on my body. I know exactly who pays the price when the people at the top screw up,” he added.

Ojeda secured more than 51 percent of the vote to Hudson’s nearly 49 percent, winning in a district that had not elected a Democrat since 1963.