By Phil Stewart and Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (Reuters) – US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth blasted efforts to impeach him as a farce on Tuesday and delivered a defiant defense of his record, hours before a House vote that will test whether the effort has enough support to move toward impeachment.
A polarizing figure who has become the face of the unpopular Iran war, Hegseth faces eight articles accusing him of “high crimes and misdemeanors” ranging from the war itself to the US military raid in January to depose Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Some congressional sources say the resolution could pass even with President Donald Trump’s Republicans in control of the US House of Representatives until Democrats take over on January 3.
A US Senate conviction appears unlikely, requiring a two-thirds majority while Republicans hold 53 of 100 seats.
At a Pentagon briefing Hegseth, a former Fox News host, thanked Trump for his support and said he would be happy to be in the company of Trump, who was impeached twice.
“Both times he came back stronger, and the American people sent him back to the White House. Now they’re trying a third time. This time against a member of his cabinet,” he said.
US Representative Thomas Massie, the outgoing Kentucky Republican who introduced the articles of impeachment, expressed optimism that if lawmakers can overcome Tuesday’s procedural vote, “we will proceed to a real debate and vote on the Articles of Impeachment.”
However, US Representative Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican and an occasional Trump critic who had been undecided, said on Tuesday he would oppose impeachment.
Voter anger over the Iran war, which has settled into an effective stalemate focused on securing the Strait of Hormuz, helped Democrats win control of Congress in last week’s midterm elections.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Tuesday found a majority of Americans want the newly elected Democratic-majority US Congress to act to end the war with Iran once and for all.
Although Vice President JD Vance has publicly questioned the war and blamed it for the Republicans’ midterm rout, he voiced support for Hegseth on Tuesday.
“This isn’t about Iran, this is about the fact that Pete took on the bureaucracy at the Pentagon,” Vance wrote on X.
HEGSETH DEFENDS HIS RECORD
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries told a press conference on Monday: “Pete Hegseth has abused his power, undermined America’s national security, and he’s the architect of the reckless and costly failed war of choice in Iran.”
But Hegseth repeatedly defended the conflict, calling Trump courageous and saying Iran’s military has been left in ruins. He also said his orders to US forces were lawful.
“History will judge the Iran war quite differently than the conventional wisdom right now,” he said.
Hegseth cited US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as saying of the war: “It’s not necessarily popular, but it may have been necessary, and that’s certainly how I feel. It was a necessary undertaking.”
Trump repeated his backing of Hegseth in a post on his Truth Social platform just after the Pentagon briefing ended.
“Pete Hegseth gets an ‘A’ PLUS, PLUS, PLUS for his defense against a disgruntled, angry, defeated, former Congressman, Thomas Massie, a TOTAL LOSER!” he wrote.
Hegseth would be the first US defense secretary to be impeached. The last time any civilian leader of the US military was impeached was in 1876, when William Belknap held the title “secretary of war.”
Hegseth calls himself secretary of war, part of his effort to rebrand a military he said was too weak and “woke” when he took office last year. Trump cannot change the name of the Defense Department without approval from Congress.
But even some Republicans say his strained relations with Congress are becoming a political liability as the administration has asked for a huge increase in the military’s budget – to $1.5 trillion from the current $950 billion.
In a possible nod to the spending requests, Hegseth said Republicans should use their final weeks in control of Congress to deliver wins for the American people instead of pursuing his impeachment.
If he is still in the job next year, Democrats have promised to investigate Hegseth and his handling of the Pentagon, including his firing of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other top military officers.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom, Doina Chiacu and Katharine Jackson; Editing by Don Durfee, Nick Zieminski and Howard Goller)
Comments