Top Armed Services Democrat backs impeaching Trump and Hegseth

Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, says he now supports impeaching President Donald Trump and is inclined to back proceedings against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, TIME reported ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections.

Smith, who has served in the House since 1996, told TIME in an interview a week before the election: “Trump has become beyond dangerous. He is just completely out of control in what he says and how he is governing.” He added: “I think we have to try, even if it doesn’t succeed.” TIME described him as one of the most senior Democrats to endorse impeachment.

The position reverses what he told TIME in May, when he declined to commit to impeachment. At that point he noted he was one of the few House members to have sat through three impeachments. “Every single time the person impeached got stronger after they were impeached than before,” he said then. He added: “I want to make sure that if we’re going down that road it’s going to help defeat Trump and his poisonous ideology.”

Smith told TIME that events since then changed his view. He cited Trump’s posture toward Russian President Vladimir Putin and decisions involving American support for Ukraine. “The Ukraine stuff definitely had a profound impact,” he said. He also cited Trump’s “unhinged speeches,” including remarks about rising gasoline prices amid the war in the Middle East.

Smith said the politics have shifted since Trump’s first term. “I don’t think it will be viewed as negatively or as partisan as in the previous two efforts, just because the public is waking up to the con game that Trump put on,” he said. He also said: “The impeachable offenses have been obvious for a long time.”

His position carries weight in the House. Smith would be in line to chair the Armed Services Committee if Democrats win the House, TIME reported. That would put him at the center of investigations into the Pentagon’s handling of the war with Iran, its approach to Ukraine and military operations in Latin America. CNN published a video interview with Smith on Oct. 12 under the headline “Democratic Rep. Adam Smith says Donald Trump has to be impeached.”

TIME interviewed more than two dozen Democrats for its report and found a party broadly convinced that Trump has engaged in conduct warranting impeachment but divided over whether another attempt to remove him would be an effective use of its authority.

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who led the House managers during Trump’s second impeachment trial in 2021, told TIME he has “little doubt that the president has committed multiple impeachable offenses.” He drew a distinction: “The question of whether he committed impeachable offenses and whether we are going to pursue impeachment are two different issues.”

Sen. Adam Schiff of California, who led the prosecution during Trump’s first impeachment trial, told TIME: “There’s no question he’s been engaging in conduct that is very likely impeachable.” He added: “The question is, is it viable?” He said Democrats’ “primary focus ought to be on corruption that has raised the cost of living for people.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has said Democrats “haven’t ruled anything in, and we haven’t ruled anything out,” according to TIME.

TIME reported that some Democrats see Hegseth as a potentially more viable target. “There are Republicans who would support impeaching Hegseth who might not support doing it to Trump,” Smith said. TIME reported that Hegseth has faced scrutiny over his handling of the Iran war, the removal of senior military officers and the Pentagon’s relationship with Congress, and that a push to impeach him has already taken shape in the Republican-controlled House. Trump has defended Hegseth, calling him a “great warrior.”

Raskin said that impeaching a Cabinet secretary “doesn’t necessarily consume all of the policy oxygen in Congress.” Impeaching Hegseth would require a majority in the House, and removing him would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate, TIME reported.

The Senate acquitted Trump after both of his earlier impeachments. He was impeached in 2019 over his dealings with Ukraine and in 2021 over his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Seven Republican senators voted to convict him in the second trial. TIME noted that even a Democratic victory this week is unlikely to produce the two-thirds majority needed for conviction.