House has lame-duck impeachment dilemma with Hegseth

House has lame-duck impeachment dilemma with Hegseth

The impeachment effort against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posed a dilemma for Republican leaders ahead of the midterms, but it could be Democrats in the bind afterward.

Hegseth is leading an unpopular war in Iran, and GOP leaders were eager to avoid an impeachment vote this month, which would have put some vulnerable Republicans in a tough spot heading into November’s elections. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) defused the issue by punting that vote until after the elections.

But the tides are likely to turn after the election, when Republicans will be freed to weigh in on Hegseth’s fate without fear of a voter backlash, while Democrats will face a tougher choice.

Do they go charging after Hegseth full bore , to appease a liberal base demanding Pentagon accountability? Or do they tread more cautiously, to allow time for the formal investigations many Democrats say they want to see before backing something as explosive as impeachment?

My colleague Mike Lillis has an in-depth look at the issue, speaking with Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, who suggested that answering those questions won’t be easy .

“I’m not a huge fan of pop-up impeachments, but if that’s all Speaker Johnson leaves us, then we will have to take it very seriously ,” Raskin, a former professor of constitutional law, said last week as Congress was leaving Washington for the long campaign recess.

Welcome to The Hill’s Defense & National Security newsletter, I’m Ellen Mitchell — your guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond.

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How policy will affect defense and national security now and in the future:

The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield again hit a 19-year high on Wednesday, as the market sell-off continues amid the Iran war and rising government debt. The 10-year note closed at 5.11 percent on Wednesday, up roughly 14 basis points from its closing point on Tuesday. The 10-year bond yield peaked at more than 5.13 percent on Wednesday. Wednesday marked the highest close for the 10-year bond yield since July …

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao told a Senate Democrat this week that eight sailors assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group attempted suicide during a lengthy deployment that included military operations against Iran. Cao disclosed the figure, which includes crew on the USS Abraham Lincoln, sailors from its carrier air wing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escorting destroyers and all embarked aviation …

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that U.S. arms sales to Taiwan are in part constrained by Washington’s potential military needs in other parts of the world and the industrial base. “People think … we view arm sales through the limited vacuum of the one particular place. A lot of this also involves balancing our industrial capacity and our military industrial base,” Rubio, who also serves as President Trump’s …

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin said Tuesday that inflation could decline “in short order,” but he acknowledged prices could remain elevated amid the Iran war. “I’m open to the possibility that inflation could come back down in short order,” Barkin told the CFA Society’s Baltimore branch. Barkin noted recent “shocks” to the economy could “reverse,” consumers could “start to reach their limit,” …

Upcoming things we’re watching on our beat:

The Potomac Officers Club will hold its 2026 Intel Summit at 8 a.m. tomorrow.

The Hudson Institute will discuss “Ending self-imposed scarcity: Expanding defense production with new technology and techniques,” tomorrow at 1 p.m.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies will host a talk on “ Ensuring Australian resilience : Effective weapon system sustainment in an era of contested logistics,” at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow.

Branch out with a different read from The Hill:

CIA director meets with Zelensky at airport in Ireland

CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at an airport in Ireland on Monday as the two waited for their planes to be refueled en route to the U.S., a person familiar with the meeting told The Hill. Ratcliffe and Zelensky briefly met at Shannon Airport, said …

Greenland welcomes US military pact but trust still shaky, Reuters reports

Iran Will Not Be Bullied, President Says in Defiant U.N. Speech, The New York Times reports

States jockey to land Trump’s new Space Academy, Politico reports

With the midterms approaching, it’s clear the MAGA base is now deserting President Trump — and the GOP — in record numbers. Read more

President Trump’s decision to ban a trio of news outlets from the White House complex last week and revoke their hard press badges appeared to be … Read more

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