WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dug in for a fight Tuesday against his potential impeachment in Congress, contending that a rogue lawmaker is undermining American troops in war zones by targeting him over mere “policy disagreements” and not the high crimes required in the Constitution for his possible removal.
The embattled Pentagon chief has launched a counteroffensive against outgoing Republican Rep. Thomas Massie’s effort to force him from office over his handling of the unpopular Iran war and other actions. A House vote on whether to move forward with the impeachment is expected later Tuesday.
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Hegseth gave a defiant and politicized defense of his stewardship of the U.S. military in his first news conference at the Pentagon in six months. He chose to hit back at the rising bipartisan anger over battlefield strategy while offering few details about intermittent operations against Iran or fatal strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in Latin America.
President Donald Trump praised Hegseth’s performance at the briefing in a social media post, while Vice President JD Vance said in his own post that the impeachment effort is “a ridiculous show that stands in for actual policymaking.”
Hegseth framed the effort to oust him as an indictment against the nation’s service members and their successes while undermining American forces “in real time.”
“This is not patriotism,” Hegseth said. “This is sabotage.”
Hegseth said the impeachment resolution “tells our enemies — Iran, the cartels, every adversary watching — the United States will actually punish its own warriors and its own civilian leadership for successfully executing lawful military operations.”
Massie, who lost his primary in Kentucky to a Trump-backed opponent, filed the resolution in the House on Monday. It sets the stage for a dramatic vote on whether to remove a key Trump Cabinet member following sweeping losses for Republicans in last week's midterm elections, which many at least partly blamed on the Iran conflict and its economic impact.
The resolution largely focuses on the war in Iran but also includes references to Hegseth’s role in military actions in Yemen against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and Venezuela. Massie said Hegseth’s actions amount to “high crimes and misdemeanors” and his leadership at the Pentagon “warrants impeachment.”
“The law requires our military to withdraw from hostilities within 60 days if Congress does not authorize the activity,” Massie wrote on social media Tuesday. The Iran war "has been underway for 256 days. Congress has not authorized it. Hegseth is breaking the law."
Hegseth said Massie’s concerns are not impeachable, calling them “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.”
What constitutes “high crimes and misdemeanors” is not spelled out in the Constitution, leaving it to lawmakers to decide what are impeachable acts. A vote in the House could come by midweek, putting pressure on Republicans — many of whom blamed their election wipeout on the fallout from the Iran war — but next steps are highly uncertain.
Hegseth also condemned the effort as “a political spectacle, a personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson called it a “political gambit for attention” and predicted that Republicans would defeat it “one way or the other.”
Hegseth cast Massie's resolution in historic terms, arguing that no defense secretary has been impeached in the nation's 250-year history “for carrying out lawful military operations.”
But more recently, a Cabinet official in President Joe Biden's administration, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, was impeached by House Republicans over his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border. But the Senate dismissed all impeachment charges, shutting down his trial before arguments even began.
Mayorkas, who did not appear to testify before the impeachment proceedings, put the border crisis squarely on Congress for failing to update immigration laws during a time of global migration. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had said then, in April 2024, that House Republicans’ charges failed to meet “the high standard of high crimes and misdemeanors” and could set a dangerous precedent.
Before Mayorkas, a sitting Cabinet secretary had never been impeached. It was nearly 150 years ago that the House voted to impeach President Ulysses S. Grant’s war secretary, William Belknap, over a kickback scheme in government contracts. He resigned before the vote.
Trump has backed Hegseth in the wake of Massie's impeachment resolution, pointing to the U.S. military raid to capture then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January as well as operations against Iran that he asserts have “obliterated” its navy and air force.
“Pete Hegseth gets an “A” PLUS, PLUS, PLUS for his defense against a disgruntled, angry, defeated, former Congressman, Thomas Massie, a TOTAL LOSER!” Trump wrote Tuesday on Truth Social.
Iran, however, has been able to keep striking U.S. military bases in the Middle East and has disrupted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz during the more than 8-month-old conflict, driving up global oil prices.
Trump told reporters Monday that the Iran war “militarily is effectively over" and repeated his often-made claim that Tehran “would love to make a deal.”
Besides public comments, Hegseth also has been defending his leadership of the U.S. military in a social media blitz. He released a video last week arguing impeachment would be “all about the politics of personal destruction” and that “won’t work with me.”
Scores of Pentagon political appointees have posted images of Hegseth emblazoned with the words, “Stand. Fight. Defend the Republic.” It's a message that official Pentagon social media accounts continued to send this week.
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Associated Press writer Steve Peoples in New York and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.
