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The US Democratic Party, which has a majority in both houses of Congress, intends to organize impeachment proceedings against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, said the head of the Democratic faction in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries.
In the current House of Representatives, Jeffries leads the Democratic caucus, which was in the minority.
However, after the midterm congressional elections, Democrats gained a majority of the vote; Jeffries is expected to become the new Speaker of the House of Representatives when the new term begins in January next year.
In an interview with ABC's This Week, Jeffries said Hegseth "abused his power, undermined our national security and carried out a reckless and costly war in Iran that could have been avoided."
“On the Hegseth resolution, I can say a resounding yes,” Jeffries said. “Pete Hegseth must resign.”
In response to a request from the BBC to comment on the situation, the Pentagon said that the American military leadership does not violate the laws and Hegseth will not be embarrassed by “fictitious investigations.”
On Sunday, President Donald Trump, who appointed him, also spoke out in Hegseth's defense.
“They want to impeach him. “Very unfair,” the president said in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes.” — We had two wars, we won both. We won in Venezuela and we won in Iran."
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Jeffries promises that Democrats in Congress will try to check the power of the Trump administration. However, he noted that the party will not yet think about impeaching the president.
During Trump's first term, the House of Representatives voted to impeach him twice, but in both cases the Senate did not support the decision.
What is impeachment of officials in the USA
The impeachment procedure of sitting ministers has never been completed before in US history.
The House of Representatives can, by a simple majority, find an official guilty of official misconduct and impeach him, after which the Senate must remove him from office by a two-thirds vote.
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Midterm election results have not yet been tallied in all districts, but Democrats have at least 254 seats in the House of Representatives, far more than the 218 seats needed for a majority.
But they do not have a two-thirds majority in the Senate, so a resolution would require Republican support, which is difficult to achieve.
However, some members of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives are also in favor of Hegseth’s impeachment. Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, a well-known Trump opponent who leaves in January, intends to propose a resolution to impeach the Secretary of Defense as early as Monday.
Massey's document lists eight articles of impeachment under which Hegseth could be removed. Some of them involve accusations that the Pentagon chief went to war against Iran without congressional authorization required under the War Powers Resolution of 1973.
Last week, Hegseth released a six-minute video calling on Congress to approve the Pentagon budget before the new Democratic-majority House takes office.
In the video, he also mentioned Massie's resolution, saying it listed "bogus articles of impeachment."
“You can see that their policies are not working. And their obsession with political theater disguised as power drives them to try to destroy opponents, Hegseth said. “We are talking about the policy of personal destruction.” It didn’t work with President Trump, and it won’t work with me.”
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