House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who will likely be the Speaker of the House come January, said Sunday that he is a “hard yes” when it comes to impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

“I’m a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution. The so-called secretary of Defense has abused his power, undermined our national security and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran,” Jeffries said to ABC News’s Jonathan Karl on “This Week.”

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) had told Karl that he intends to introduce a resolution of impeachment against the defense secretary.

    • _stranger_@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Seriously, he didn’t say “convict” because removal still requires 2/3 of the Senate, and the Dems only have 54%, not 66%.

      This is very likely Jeffries plan to waste as much time as possible. They need to get him the fuck out of that chair.

      • CrimeIsLegalNow@ani.social
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        2 days ago

        Nah, this is smart. Convict the provable war criminal who doesn’t have branded merch for the cult, if you can’t get him you can’t get Trump.

        I just don’t trust Jeffries to take Step 2.

        • _stranger_@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          they can’t do anything to Hegseth without 60% 67% of the Senate. Maybe this will pressure trump to appoint someone else, but that might actually be worse for everyone if he does it in the next few weeks.

          • Manjushri@piefed.social
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            2 days ago

            67%, I think. To convict in the senate in an impeachment trial you need a two-thirds majority.

            Article I, Section 3, Clause 6:

            The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.

            Not sure about other impeachments beyond the president.

            • _stranger_@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              Yeah that one was a typo. I looked it up and couldn’t find anything specific beyond the constitution which a law journal confirmed covers all impeachments. Simple majority to impeach, 2/3rds to convict. I would be extremely surprised if anyone crossed the aisle to convict, but Texas also turned blue last week, so who knows!

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 days ago

        Fuck Jeffries, but it does make sense for him to only say “impeach” without mentioning removal as he’s in The House and has no control over the Senate’s vote.

        • _stranger_@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          I get that he doesn’t have the power to do anything beyond MC the show, that’s why it’s meaningless for him to speak up

          • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            1 day ago

            I mean no, he is the leader of the Democratic party in the House of Representatives. He absolutely should be talking about impeaching (and not just Hegseth). It’s just not really surprising that he is only talking about the first part and not the removal since that’s not the purview of The House.

            • _stranger_@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              I’m aware of his role. Impeachment is a useless show without support in the Senate to convict. The stuff we know that’s already public knowledge is enough to boot him, but actually removing him requires republican support.