Rep. French Hill Leaves Open Impeachment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth After Narrow Re-Election Win

Rep. French Hill, a Republican who narrowly secured a seventh House term in deep-red Arkansas, declined Sunday to rule out supporting impeachment proceedings against 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,” Hill told CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”

Hill, 69, said “no” when host Margaret Brennan asked whether he was satisfied with the way the war had 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 said. “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 this week on a resolution seeking to impeach Hegseth. The measure was advanced by lame-duck Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who has vowed to pursue the issue unless the former Fox News host resigns.

Massie submitted eight articles of impeachment in September, but lawmakers never considered them before Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., sent members home early ahead of the midterm elections.

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Democrats captured both chambers of Congress on Tuesday, while an increasing number of Republicans have blamed the war with Iran—and the resulting rise in gas prices—for the party’s defeat.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who is expected to become the next speaker, said before the election that one of the Democrats’ first priorities would be to “run Hegseth out of town.”

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told Newsmax on Friday that it was “very possible” enough votes existed to impeach Hegseth. If successful, he would become only the third Cabinet secretary to face that distinction.

Removing Hegseth from office would require approval from two-thirds of the Senate.

In a video posted online Thursday, Hegseth called the impeachment articles a “sham” brought by a “disgruntled, defeated congressman, along with all his Democrat allies.”

Hill won reelection Tuesday by just 4,400 votes, a sharp contrast with his 2024 victory, when he secured a sixth term by nearly 55,000 votes.