'Should be removed': Democrats ramp up calls to impeach Education Secretary McMahon

Senate Democrats are ramping up calls to impeach Education Secretary Linda McMahon and for an inspector general's investigation over her efforts to dismantle the agency she leads.

She is the second Cabinet secretary that has become the subject of potential impeachment in as many days. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie on Tuesday introduced articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

"Secretary McMahon is unlawfully trying to eliminate the Department of Education, and in doing so, she's costing taxpayers untold amounts of money and other resources," Sen. Angela Alsobrooks said.

President Donald Trump campaigned on closing the Department of Education and tapped McMahon, 77, with putting herself out of a job. Just weeks into his second term he signed an executive order charging McMahon with returning educational authority to the states.

McMahon is following through on what she calls her final mission: to abolish the agency completely.

In 18 months as secretary, McMahon has made a series of changes to gut the department, including firing over more than 40% of the agency's staff, closing regional divisions of the agency and offloading core responsibilities to other federal departments through interagency agreements.

The secretary has said she believes she has broad authority to move the services, arguing that the interagency agreements are a tool that the agency has used more than 200 times under multiple administrations. McMahon and several members of the president's Cabinet have been urging Congress to codify the changes that they stress will restore excellence in education.

During a rally on Capitol Hill with Alsobrooks, union leaders, House lawmakers and education advocates, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, noted that McMahon's changes have harmed students, the federal employees that she oversees and have resulted in a direct attack on public education.

"Someone who's in the process of doing that has no business being the secretary of Education," Van Hollen told ABC News.

"So why is she secretary of Education?" Van Hollen asked. "She should be removed."

Alsobrooks, who has also called for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to be impeached for his decisions she says have done "calculable harm" to Americans, told ABC News that Trump's Cabinet members should be "sent packing" as quickly as possible.

"Simply put: not only is Linda McMahon historically bad at her job, but she's interfering with the ability of other people to do their jobs and for all the students to be able to access a high-quality education, which is so important, she's interrupting that as well," Alsobrooks said.

Asked for a response, White House assistant press secretary Liz Huston said, "Secretary McMahon is successfully returning education back to the states where it belongs, restoring fairness, merit, and safety in our schools, and putting the academic needs of students first.