Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed an effort to impeach him as “political spectacle,” saying the resolution “puts a target on the backs” of U.S. troops and signals to America’s enemies that Congress will “punish its own warriors and its own civilian leadership for successfully executing lawful military operations.”
“What one disgruntled and defeated congressman is attempting is not oversight, and it’s not accountability. It’s a political spectacle, a personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment,” Hegseth said during a press conference at the Pentagon.
The press conference comes as calls to impeach Hegseth have grown as several Republicans have attributed the GOP’s sweeping midterm losses to the Iran war. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie introduced articles of impeachment against Hegseth on the House floor Monday afternoon.
A defiant Hegseth on Tuesday morning said each of the military engagements mentioned as part of the effort — including strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and the war with Iran — were lawful actions directed by President Donald Trump.
Hegseth framed the articles of impeachment as being directed at U.S. military service members.
He described the efforts to impeach him as “partisan politics,” saying that they “mock the Constitution, they attack the chain of command, and they criminalize the warfighters who execute lawful orders.”
He pointed out that no Defense Secretary has ever been impeached “for carrying out lawful military operations, and in our case, successful ones at that.”
“One disgruntled congressman wants to shred it over policy disagreements. That’s what it is: policy disagreements, not high crimes, not misdemeanors, not treason, not bribery, not the kinds of offenses the founders intended when they wrote the impeachment clause,” Hegseth added.
The House must take up the measure, since impeachment is a privileged matter, within two legislative days — forcing Republicans to go on the record after suffering major losses in the 2026 midterm elections.
After the articles of impeachment were introduced on Monday, Trump said during a press briefing that Hegseth has “won the war in Iran.”
“He certainly, I think, he’s won the war in Iran, but he’s certainly winning the war,” Trump said of Hegseth. “Iran would love to make a deal. And they’ve been obliterated, their navy and their air force.”
Hegseth on Tuesday sought to align his potential impeachment to Trump’s, effectively framing it as a sequel.
“The proper remedy for a policy disagreement, it’s legislation, it’s debate, it’s the next presidential election,” said Hegseth. “It’s not handing the House and Senate floor to the Democrats so that they can run a show trial against the president and the Secretary of War while Republicans still control Congress and should be delivering wins for the American people. You see, we’ve seen this show before. They impeached President Trump over a perfect phone call. They impeached him again in his final week in office. Both times they failed. Both times he came back stronger, and the American people sent him back to the White House.”
He added, “Now they’re trying a third time. This time against a member of his cabinet. They will fail again. And if standing with President Trump puts me in that company, I’ll take that company every day of the week.”
Hegseth again criticized the press saying, “The media can just never admit the military success because they, you, hate the president more than you love our country, or our troops.”
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