A Republican congressman who narrowly won a seventh House term in deep-red Arkansas refused Sunday to rule out voting to impeach War Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“I want to hear the debate on it to see if it merits impeachment versus some other disciplinary action or action by the president, if he’s not getting the job done in leading the Department of War,” Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) told CBS News’ “Face The Nation.”
Hill, 69, answered “no” when host Margaret Brennan asked if he was “satisfied with how the war has been handled.”
“But, I mean, I think the commander in chief has to take the responsibility for the strategy of conducting the war and how it’s been conducted,” he added. “But I will tell you one thing. There’s nobody in America that wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
The House is expected to vote sometime this week on a resolution to impeach Hegseth promoted by lame-duck Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who has vowed to force the issue unless the former Fox News host resigns.
Massie filed eight articles of impeachment in September, but the House never took them up before Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sent members home early ahead of the midterms.
Democrats seized both chambers of Congress on Tuesday, and Republicans in growing numbers blame the Iran war — and the gas price hikes that ensued — for the rout.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), the likely next House speaker, promised before the election that one of Democrats’ first orders of business would be to “run Hegseth out of town.”
House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) told Newsmax on Friday it was “very possible” the votes are there to impeach Hegseth, which would make him just the third cabinet secretary to achieve that dubious distinction.
Removal of Hegseth from office would require a two-thirds vote by the Senate.
In a video posted online Thursday, Hegseth dismissed the articles as a “sham” put forward by a “disgruntled, defeated congressman, along with all his Democrat allies.”
Hill won re-election Tuesday by just 4,400 votes after cruising to a sixth term in 2024 by nearly 55,000 ballots cast.
