Jeffries backs move to impeach Hegseth over Iran war

Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the US House of Representatives, has said he will support an effort to impeach Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth over his conduct of the war in Iran.

“I’m a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution,” Jeffries told ABC’s This Week on Sunday. He accused Hegseth of abusing his power and engineering a “reckless and costly war of choice in Iran”.

The proposal is being led by Republican congressman Thomas Massie, who told ABC he intends to reintroduce a privileged impeachment resolution as early as Monday, 9 November. Jeffries said he expected “incredibly strong support” from Democrats, but that the party would discuss the measure when its members reconvened on Tuesday.

Massie had previously set out his planned timetable for the impeachment move. In September, he gave notice of an earlier resolution with eight articles of impeachment, including allegations that Hegseth violated the War Powers Resolution over the Iran war.

The Pentagon told the BBC it had followed the law and that Hegseth would not be deterred by “phony investigations”. Hegseth has called the impeachment articles a “sham”, while President Donald Trump told ABC he had “every intention” of keeping him in the job.

Republicans still control the current House, although Democrats won a majority in the midterm elections and will take over in January. Impeachment by the House would not itself remove Hegseth: conviction and removal would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate.