Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) said Sunday that ousting War Secretary Pete Hegseth is his “priority No. 1” if the Democrats retake the House of Representatives in November’s midterm elections.
A member of the House Armed Services Committee, Crow was asked by Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation about reports that Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton “received intelligence that Iran has substantially increased efforts to target U.S. personnel” in the Middle East.
“We know that the U.S. has drawn down from some military bases, some diplomatic posts,” she said. “What, if anything, can you tell us about this plot?”
“Iran remains a danger,” Crow said before attacking the administration’s handling of the Russia-Ukraine war and the conflict in Iran. “Pete Hegseth remains incompetent and is not doing what’s necessary to protect our service members, which is why he’s my priority No. 1 if we retake the majority, to make sure we oust him from the Pentagon, because our service members actually deserve competent, serious, real leadership that will protect them and do the right thing.”
Democrats are broadly expected to investigate members of the Trump administration and potentially attempt to impeach President Donald Trump himself if they retake the House. Brennan mentioned CBS News’s most recent polling, which shows “Democrats are on pace to have a narrow majority of about 11 seats.” She also asked Crow about a recent controversy involving Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who faces Senate ethics complaints that argue she deterred young professionals from serving in the Trump administration after making comments at a university event.
HEGSETH’S ‘ARSENAL OF FREEDOM’ TOUR AND ‘SEND ME’ TOURS RESEMBLE A CAMPAIGN TRAIL
“The key here is we don’t want people to want to go work for a corrupt administration to try to line their pockets, like that is not servant leadership,” Crow answered. “If the message being sent from Donald Trump is, hey, come work for me and you’ll get a lot out of it, and you’ll get rich doing it. That’s not actually public servants.” Trump told the Washington Examiner he is “allowed” to preemptively pardon junior staffers after being asked about a report on Saturday that said, “White House attorneys are evaluating whether to issue mass pardons to junior staffers.”
Democrats and Republicans sharpened their attacks on each other over the weekend. Former President Barack Obama went after Trump at campaign stops in Ohio and Michigan on Saturday, while Trump spoke in Georgia on Saturday and Michigan on Sunday.