President Trump announces two-week Iran ceasefire
President Donald Trump announced the U.S. reached a ceasefire with Iran for two weeks, just hours ahead of a deadline Trump imposed.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari is moving to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over his handling of U.S. military operations in Iran.
Ansari, an Arizona Democrat and the only Iranian-American member of Congress, called Hegseth the “chief enabler” of an “illegal war” in a video posted to social media April 6.
Ansari accused Hegseth of “reckless endangerment” of U.S. troops and overseeing “repeated war crimes,” which she said meet the standard for impeachment.
“The threats against Iranian civilian infrastructure, and the entire country of Iran, are unreal and apocalyptic,” she said. “Iran is a country of 90 million people. Threatening them with annihilation is a monstrous war crime, and puts them, and American service members, and Americans, at grave risk.”
Democrats have trained their sights on Hegseth after Trump ousted Pam Bondi as attorney general and Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary.
Other Capitol Hill Democrats have launched a congressional probe over allegations that Hegseth tried to invest in defense stocks before the war in Iran began.
The president is reportedly considering other changes to his Cabinet as the administration confronts a challenging political landscape amid sensitive operations in Iran and their attendant impacts on gas prices and other markets.
Hegseth’s team dismissed Ansari’s announcement as a bid for attention.
“During an ongoing military operation in the Middle East and on the heels of the two most daring and successful rescue operations in military history, this is just another Democrat trying to make headlines,” Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a written statement. “Secretary Hegseth will continue to protect the homeland and unleash epic fury on Iran’s radical regime. This is just another charade in an attempt to distract the American people from the major successes we have had here at the Department of War.”
Ansari’s announcement came hours before Trump promised on social media that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran doesn’t meet his demands to open the Strait of Hormuz, a demand that some interpreted as a threat of genocide.
The president vowed to launch massive attacks on civilian infrastructure in Iran unless the leaders reach a deal. He backed down just an hour before his 5 p.m. deadline, Arizona time, saying he would defer the bombing campaign by two weeks.
The threat prompted a new wave of liberal outcry against the administration. Ansari, whose family fled Iran decades ago, was among dozens of Democratic representatives who called on Trump’s Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment, which provides for removing a president who is unable to fulfill their duties in office.
She told MS NOW on April 7 that Trump is a “madman,” and gestured to his expletive-laden social media posts over the weekend.
“I am just beyond astounded that we are not seeing so much more from all elected officials, and I’ll include some Democrats in that. But Republicans, who are in power, how is anybody in the Cabinet allowing this to happen?”
It’s unlikely that either idea will advance. Impeachment would require a majority vote in the Republican-held House. The 25th Amendment would require Trump’s own Cabinet to mobilize against him, plus backing from Congress.