众议院民主党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯（民主党-纽约州）表示，如果民主党在11月的中期选举中赢得多数席位，将把国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯“赶出城去”。
Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Democrats will run Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “out of town” if they take the majority in the November midterms.
杰弗里斯对MSNOW表示，如果特朗普总统不亲自把赫格塞斯赶下台，民主党将采取行动，将其从五角大楼的位置上拉下来。随着伊朗战争期间高油价成为竞选途中的关键攻击点，民主党已将矛头对准赫格塞斯。
Jeffries told MSNOW that Democrats will take action to knock Hegseth off his perch atop the Pentagon if President Trump doesn’t push him out himself. Democrats have zeroed in on Hegseth as criticism of high gas prices amid the Iran war have become a key talking point on the campaign trail.
杰弗里斯对MSNOW说：“赫格塞斯需要由总统推到一边，否则如果他不下台，我们将不得不处理这种局面。”
“Pete Hegseth needs to be pushed aside by the president, or we’re going to have to deal with that situation if he is not,” Jeffries told MSNOW.
国会将在下个月重返国会山后，就弹劾赫格塞斯进行投票——这是罢免五角大楼首长的唯一机制。共和党众议员托马斯·马西（肯塔基州）已于9月启动弹劾程序。虽然杰弗里斯未透露自己是否会投赞成票，但他长期以来一直呼吁罢免赫格塞斯。
Congress will vote on Hegseth’s impeachment — their only mechanism to remove the Pentagon chief — upon their return to Capitol Hill next month. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.) kicked off the impeachment process in September. While Jeffries hasn’t disclosed whether he will vote for impeachment, he has long called for Hegseth’s removal.
杰弗里斯说：“我倾向于按我从一开始就对赫格塞斯说过的话行事：我曾呼吁唐纳德·特朗普在2025年春天解雇赫格塞斯。他极不合格。”
“What I’m inclined to do is to act consistently with what I’ve said relative to Pete Hegseth from the very beginning: I called for Pete Hegseth to be fired by Donald Trump in the spring of 2025. He is deeply unqualified,” Jeffries said.
但如果民主党在11月获胜，弹劾并非他们向特朗普政府官员施压的唯一途径。参议员亚当·希夫（民主党-加利福尼亚州）周日在NBC的《与媒体见面》节目中表示，如果民主党夺回参议院控制权，应让赫格塞斯就乌克兰“星链”卫星中断事件作证。
But impeachment is not the only way Democrats could try to put pressure on Trump officials if they win in November. Sen. Adam Schiff (D- Calif.) told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that Democrats should have Hegseth testify on the Starlink satellite disruption in Ukraine if they take the chamber.
乌克兰使用由埃隆·马斯克的SpaceX公司运营的“星链”卫星互联网服务进行战场通信，使用“星盾”——该技术的军用版本、由美国政府控制——进行无人机作战等任务。这个饱受战火蹂躏的国家最近经历了“星链”连接中断，马斯克和特朗普均否认对此负责。
Ukraine uses Starlink, a satellite internet service run by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, for communication on the battlefield and Starshield — a military version of the tech controlled by the U.S. government — for things like drone warfare. The war-torn country recently experienced a disruption in their Starlink connection of which Musk and Trump deny responsibility for.
希夫对NBC说：“国防部长赫格塞斯应该被传唤到场，所有知情者都应该到场。”
“Defense Secretary Hegseth should be brought in,” Schiff told NBC. “Anyone who has knowledge of what happened.”