Democrats and the DSA just tried to remove Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. The House blocked it 211-204 only because 11 Democrats were absent. Make no mistake: this effort is not over. When they take control in January, they will try again. Their goal is clear—they want to fire the man who has directed the military campaign that has kept the Islamic Republic of Iran from finishing a nuclear weapon that can reach American cities.
This is personal for me. I grew up in Lebanon. I watched my country destroyed by radical Islamic forces. I know what “Death to America” means when it is not a slogan but a policy. And right now, Iran’s regime is not finished. It has spent months targeting American officials on our own soil. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was forced to leave his home and move onto a military base after Iranian threats against his life reached an advanced stage. Other senior officials have done the same. The Department of Justice just indicted Iranian-backed operatives for nearly 20 plots across the United States and Europe. These are not abstract risks. The same regime that has chanted “Death to America” for decades is now operating at the level of specific targeting inside this country.
Secretary Hegseth has directed the operations that struck Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, enforced the blockade, and degraded its ability to project force. President Trump has said the military phase is effectively over for now, but the regime has not accepted permanent limits on its nuclear program. The remaining weeks before Democrats control both chambers are the last window to lock in the gains already made. Removing the Secretary of War mid-campaign hands the incoming majority a tool to unwind enforcement, reopen negotiations on Iran’s terms, and leave the nuclear threat intact.
This is not ordinary politics. It is an attempt to interrupt the one sustained effort that has prevented the Islamic Republic from crossing the nuclear threshold. The people making that attempt are the same people who have spent years treating the Muslim Brotherhood’s strategy of institutional infiltration as ordinary advocacy. They are not neutral on whether Iran ends up with a weapon that can reach American cities. I have spent decades warning about this exact pattern: radical Islamic networks embed themselves in our institutions, then work through our own system to weaken the defenses that protect us.
Finish the war before January. Demand that the remaining Republican majority use the lame-duck period to confirm judges, codify enforcement measures, and leave as little as possible for the next Congress to reverse. Do not let them hand the keys to people who have never taken the Iranian threat seriously.
The window closes when the new majority is sworn in. After that, the people who tried to remove Hegseth will control the committees that decide whether the campaign continues or stops. We do not have the luxury of waiting. The threat is real, it is active, and the time to act is now.
