While U.S. forces are actively striking targets inside Iran, one House Democrat decided Tuesday was a good time to try to fire the man running the war.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) announced her intent to file articles of impeachment against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, calling him the “chief enabler” of Trump’s Iran campaign and demanding the Cabinet invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president. This while a White House-imposed 8 p.m. deadline ticks down for Iran to cut a deal or face escalated strikes.
“I am introducing Articles of Impeachment against Pete Hegseth for repeatedly violating his oath of office and his duty to the Constitution,” Ansari said in a statement. “Only Congress has the power to declare war, not a rogue president or his lackeys.”
Ansari is 34, the first Iranian-American Democrat elected to Congress, and has been a loud opponent of Operation Epic Fury since it began. She cited the bombing of a girls’ school in Minab, Iran as grounds for the filing and accused Hegseth of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure.
“Iran is a country of 90 million people; threatening them with annihilation is a monstrous war crime,” she said in a video on X.
“This is just another Democrat trying to make headlines,” Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson told the New York Post. “Secretary Hegseth will continue to protect the homeland and unleash epic fury on Iran’s radical regime. This is just another charade in an attempt to distract the American people from the major successes we have had here at the Department of War.”
The articles of impeachment go nowhere in a Republican-controlled Congress. That’s not the point. Ansari’s move is part of a broader Democratic pattern of targeting Trump’s cabinet: former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and former AG Pam Bondi have faced similar fire. Hegseth is simply the next name on the list.
Trump himself revealed last month that Hegseth was one of the first in the administration to push for military action against Tehran.
Trump’s warnings to Iran this week have been anything but subtle. Over the weekend he posted a profanity-laced message on Truth Social demanding Iran open the Strait of Hormuz or face destruction. On Tuesday morning he went further.
