Rep.-elect Richard Ojeda (D-NC) wants the incoming Democratic-controlled Congress to impeach several of President Donald Trump‘s Cabinet members, including officials who have already left the administration.
In a Wednesday interview with the Washington Examiner, Ojeda said lawmakers should pursue an aggressive accountability agenda against Trump administration officials in tandem with legislation aimed at lowering the cost of living. He said the targets of those efforts should not be limited to current White House staff, but figures like former Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as well.
“Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem aren’t in those positions anymore, but absolutely yes, I want them impeached,” he said. “I want Pam Bondi and I want Kristi Noem to be prosecuted for their crimes of what they did to people. When you snatch people off the streets and give them no due process, that’s against our Constitution. That’s a crime.”
Ojeda flipped North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District last week, unseating Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC), the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Ojeda’s victory was part of the “blue tsunami” that helped Democrats win a total of at least 254 House seats.
The incoming lawmaker spoke to the Washington Examiner one day after the Republican-controlled House narrowly voted to kill articles of impeachment against War Secretary Pete Hegseth by outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).
“I support impeaching Pete Hegseth,” said Ojeda and signaled the effort would be re-upped when Democrats took control of the House in January.
Ojeda also said he wanted the investigations to expand beyond Hegseth to include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and border czar Tom Homan. But his comments about impeaching and prosecuting Bondi and Noem appeared to go further than most House Democrats.
Noem faced heavy pushback over the deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, by law enforcement officers. She was also criticized over a $220 million TV ad campaign that prominently featured her role as DHS Secretary. Bondi faced backlash over her handling of the Department of Justice’s files connected to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Impeachment is usually used against sitting officeholders, but there is a precedent of it being wielded against individuals who have resigned or left office. That was the case in 2021, when Congress voted to impeach Trump for his alleged actions surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol. Trump was eventually acquitted by the Senate. Had Trump been convicted, he could have been barred from serving in federal office again.
Ojeda stopped short of calling for a Trump impeachment, instead hoping that investigations of his allies will awaken the American public.
“We have to immediately start pushing things that are going to elevate people’s lives, lower prices,” said Ojeda of the incoming Congress. “But we have to also hold these people accountable.”
“I am all about impeaching these people, but I’m not about impeaching Donald Trump because I think Donald Trump needs to be investigated thoroughly, and we let the American people watch every bit of it,” he added. “Because that’s the only way we’re going to save these people and get them to turn the other way. They need to see the worst of the worst, and maybe that will wake them up.”
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Ojeda suggested that a Trump impeachment trial would endear the president to the American public, similar to how Trump used the multiple state and federal charges against him to win the 2024 GOP presidential primary and then the general election.
“I don’t want to impeach him right off the bat. If we impeach him right off the bat, he will be martyred,” said Ojeda. “But if we investigate him thoroughly and let the people watch — imagine if you could tune in every night from 6 o’clock to 8 o’clock, and you get to watch everything about the classified documents, everything about January 6th, everything about the Epstein files, and you get to see it all. Maybe then, maybe then people will start waking up and realizing that they’ve been on the wrong path, because let me tell you something: Donald Trump is the wrong path.”