After Midterm Sweep, Democrats Point to Hegseth Impeachment Vote, Not Trump's

Democrats woke up Wednesday, Nov. 4, after a midterm night that NPR described as a Democratic wave, with an immediate question: what do they do with it? Early answers point to investigations, a House vote on impeaching Pete Hegseth, and a lot of hedging on impeaching Donald Trump.

A count as of 12:30 a.m. Eastern showed Democrats had won 52 Senate seats and were on track to handily win control of the House.

What the party says it won

Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin told NPR's Morning Edition on Wednesday that the results were the party's best in a century. He said voters gave Democrats a mandate on affordability, health care and what he called a "corrupt system" that benefits the wealthy.

"I think the reality is we have great leverage here," Martin said, pointing to Democratic control of Congress and state governments.

He acknowledged that opposition to Trump helped drive the results. His argument was that voters also embraced the message: "Our candidates across the board ran for something, not against something."

The limits are plain. Trump holds the veto pen. And before the election, The New Republic noted that a Senate majority would still require Democrats to secure a handful of Republican votes to overcome the filibuster.

Hegseth first

Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., said before the election that a House vote on impeaching Hegseth, the secretary of war, is coming. The vehicle is a resolution from Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky.

"A vote will happen in the House, because of Republican Thomas Massie's resolution," Walkinshaw said on NewsNation. "We're going to have that vote after the election, and I'm a yes vote on that."

Walkinshaw said there is bipartisan support for the move in the House. He also claimed House Speaker Mike Johnson sent the House home earlier than planned to avoid the vote, because Johnson feared more Republicans would side with Massie. That is Walkinshaw's characterization of Johnson's motive.

Massie introduced articles of impeachment against Hegseth in September, alleging that his conduct of the Iran war violated the War Powers Resolution of 1973. An early House recess short-circuited a push for a vote before the midterms.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was blunt about his own intentions at an October rally: "One of the first things we're going to do in the majority, we're going to run Pete Hegseth out of town."

Trump impeachment: no appetite stated

Former Vice President Kamala Harris said in a podcast interview that impeachment is "not a good idea."

"We have limited resources," Harris said. "The energy and the resources need to be put into accountability, need to be put into investigations... I was in the Senate for the last go-round and the votes aren't there."

Walkinshaw took a similar line. He said Trump has "committed impeachable offenses," but that he sees no world in which the Senate gets a two-thirds vote to remove him, so impeachment is not "the best use of our time" while voters struggle with gas prices and groceries.

The constitutional math backs him up. Removing the president from office requires a two-thirds Senate vote, and impeachment proceedings are likely to be a symbolic move unless a bloc of Republican senators breaks with their party.

Democratic leaders have stayed noncommittal. Jeffries told CNN in August that Democrats "haven't ruled anything in, and we haven't ruled anything out." Impeachment attempts during Trump's second term have gone nowhere.

The investigations on deck

Democrats are previewing probes into Trump's stock trades, his ties to Jeffrey Epstein and Elon Musk, and the Trump family's finances. Lawmakers and insiders have also pointed to pushback on the Iran war and scrutiny of data centers and artificial intelligence.

Jeffries has a 100-day plan covering tax credits, limiting ICE and stock trading. He also has a plan for the first 100 hours to undo unpopular Trump policies, according to "The View" co-host Sunny Hostin.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Sept. 30 that Democrats were working to take the Senate in part to stymie Trump's nominees for the Supreme Court and other courts.

The pressure from the base

Not everyone thinks the party can sit this one out. The New Republic's Alex Shephard argued that Democratic leaders have little appetite for impeaching the president or Cabinet members, but that the base is "another story altogether."

A Politico poll this month found 50% of respondents said Democrats should impeach Trump if they regain Congress. 32% said they should not, and 18% were unsure. 54% said Trump has committed impeachable offenses.

The cautionary case comes from Joe Cunningham, a South Carolina Democrat who flipped a House seat in 2018 and lost it in 2020. "I could argue that I lost my seat because of my impeachment vote," he told The Epoch Times, adding that he has no regrets. He warned that an impeachment fight would "consume all the oxygen" and hurt incumbents in purple districts.

Trump has been daring them. "I've become very good at beating them in impeachment," he said at a rally in Oklahoma, and he told a Texas crowd that if Republicans don't win, "they'll end up impeaching me."

What's next

The Massie resolution is the first concrete test. Whether Johnson allows a vote, how many Republicans cross over, and whether Democratic leaders let the Hegseth effort grow into a broader fight over Trump will show what "leverage" means in practice.