House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has declared that US War Secretary Pete Hegseth “has got to go,” saying the Pentagon chief abused power and engineered a costly war of aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran that has inflicted economic pain on the American people and failed to advance any legitimate security interest.

In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, Jeffries, who is poised to become the first Black Speaker of the House after Democrats’ midterm gains, said he is a “hard yes” on a forthcoming impeachment resolution against Hegseth.

“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, which has skyrocketed prices for the American people and made the country less safe,” Jeffries stated. “Pete Hegseth has got to go.”

The Democratic leader added that his party intends to prioritize ending the US-Israeli war on Iran once it assumes greater control of Congress.

“We want to do things like end this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran, which has made life way too expensive,” he said. Jeffries predicted “incredibly strong support” among House Democrats for the measure when lawmakers return to Washington this week.

The push has drawn bipartisan criticism. Outgoing Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky plans to reintroduce an impeachment resolution as early as Monday, containing multiple articles that accuse Hegseth of violating the War Powers Resolution by participating in unauthorized hostilities against Iran.

Earlier Democratic-led articles of impeachment, introduced by lawmakers including Representatives Yassamin Ansari and Brittany Pettersen, charged Hegseth with directing unlawful strikes, endangering US troops, and contributing to civilian casualties in Iran, including reported attacks on civilian infrastructure.

Democratic Senator Jack Reed has separately described Hegseth as “unqualified” both operationally and temperamentally, stating that he has turned the Pentagon into a political operation and that it is time for him to resign.

Representative Jake Auchincloss has called Hegseth “unqualified and incompetent” from day one and said impeachment proceedings should be pursued if investigations warrant it.

Ranking Armed Services Committee Democrat Adam Smith has indicated openness to impeaching both Trump and Hegseth over the handling of the war.

Newly elected Democratic Representative Nancy Lacore, a retired Navy vice admiral whom Hegseth dismissed last year during a purge of senior officers, has made ending the war her top priority.

Speaking to CBS’s Face the Nation, Lacore said the war “has driven up costs extraordinarily high across the district and the country.”

She described Hegseth as “the most unqualified secretary that this nation has seen,” adding that he “has caused significant damage to us as a country, put us at risk and damaged the readiness of our entire military force.”

When asked about potential impeachable offenses, Lacore replied that the war itself is “extremely damaging to our country” and can be tied to broader failures of strategy and readiness under Hegseth’s leadership. She noted she was never given a reason for her own removal.

The mounting domestic backlash comes as the US-Israeli war against Iran has failed to achieve its stated objectives while imposing rising fuel and consumer prices on Americans and exposing US forces to prolonged risk.

Critics across the political spectrum now portray the war as a strategic miscalculation driven by political considerations rather than national interest, with Hegseth emerging as a central figure in accountability demands.