Top Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal (CT), who infamously lied about serving in the Vietnam War, has said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should be impeached for his "dangerous" policies at the Pentagon.
In a brief CNN interview at the Capitol, Blumenthal was asked to respond to Hegseth's new directive to cut the number of four-star generals and admirals. Hegseth has said the reform will make a bloated, top-heavy military leaner and more efficient.
Blumenthal amusingly implied that the armed forces had been non-partisan before Trump took office in January and began shifting the military's focus away from bogus priorities like diversity.
"Hegseth is a danger to our national security. Our military is supposed to be nonpolitical, and what Hegseth is doing is not only defiling the principle but diminishing our national defense. And I think at some point, this kind of conduct is impeachable," Blumenthal said.
While railing against Hegseth's nomination in January, Blumenthal said he would vote again for Biden's Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who infamously vanished during a hospital stay without informing the White House.
Hegseth's Pentagon tenure has been controversial from the start, and he was narrowly confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate, with Vice President J.D. Vance breaking a tie.
Democrats have voiced a mix of grievances with Hegseth, targeting everything from his arm tattoos to his past comments on women in combat. His anti-"woke" reforms have incensed liberals, who say the changes will make the armed forces less inclusive.
In recent weeks, Hegseth's critics have pounced on his use of the app Signal to send military plans. Democrats have continued to press for Hegseth's resignation after national security adviser Mike Waltz stepped aside to serve as Trump's U.N. ambassador, with Blumenthal calling Waltz "the fall guy" for Hegseth's mistakes.
Hegseth has also face dissension from his own staff, and some of his top aides have been fired for allegedly leaking to the media.
President Trump has stood beside Hegseth, with the White House dismissing criticism of the Defense Secretary as the "Swamp" lashing out at change.
Democrats have long weaponized impeachment to target political opponents, infamously using the mechanism to go after Trump not once, but twice.
What Blumenthal is suggesting clearly sounds like another abuse of the impeachment power to target a member of Trump's Cabinet over policy differences. In order to impeach and remove Hegseth, Democrats would need to take back the majority in the Senate and then convince some Republicans to vote for his conviction, but the party has largely stood by him through months of backlash.
When running for the Senate in 2010, Blumenthal apologized for claiming to have served in Vietnam, something he never did.
