Pete Hegseth says he will fight impeachment, defying calls to resign - USA Today
WASHINGTON – Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth vowed to fight an impeachment effort and defended the decision to attack Iran, defying calls to resign after Republicans suffered devastating losses in an election widely interpreted as a public repudiation of the Iran war.
“We don’t back down and that especially applies now,” Hegseth said on Nov. 5 in a video address. “The next few months and years are critical for our department and our republic.”
President Donald Trump has acknowledged fielding calls from people who are critical of Hegseth’s leadership, but has repeatedly said he intends to keep him at the helm of the Pentagon.
“I get these calls, you know, about him,” Trump said in an interview with ABC News. “I don’t understand why.”
Despite the public support from Trump, Hegseth’s political future faces some hurdles. Both Trump and Vice President JD Vance have said the Iran war was responsible for the GOP’s big losses in the midterms.
Hegseth, the public face of the war, has said that he is committed to remaining at the Pentagon until the end of Trump’s term in office. In the video address on Nov. 5, he defended the decision to attack Iran as a “courageous and historic effort that will ensure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.”
“When we say that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon, we actually mean it and we will do the hard work to ensure it under the leadership of President Trump,” Hegseth said.
One of the more controversial figures in the Trump administration, Hegseth’s tenure has been defined by a string of scandals and unforced errors. He faced bipartisan condemnation from lawmakers for pushing to livestream an execution, using a commercial messaging app to discuss a sensitive military operation and purging high-ranking military officers without cause.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, said he will bring articles of impeachment against Hegseth when lawmakers return to Congress on Nov. 9. Members of Congress expect that enough Republicans will join Democrats to vote in favor of impeachment.
“I think there are enough Republicans who want him gone,” said Rep. Adam Smith, D-Washington, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee.
Hegseth slammed the effort in the video address, calling Massie a “disgruntled, defeated congressman” who has joined with Democrats to drop “sham articles of impeachment against yours truly.”
“Their policies don’t work, so their obsession with political theater, disguised as power, drives them to try to destroy their opponents,” he added. “Didn’t work against President Trump and it won’t work with me. You can rest assured of that.”
Later on Nov. 5, Hegseth aides flooded the social media platform X with posts featuring the same five-word caption: “Stand. Fight. Defend the Republic.” The official White House X account joined the social media posts, sharing a video praising Hegseth and his accomplishments at the Pentagon.
Once the new Congress is seated in January, Democratic lawmakers have pledged to aggressively investigate Hegseth and conduct intense oversight of the Pentagon.
The effort by Democrats to hold Hegseth accountable could clash with the Pentagon’s effort to seek $1.5 trillion in defense funding from Congress. Hegseth reiterated his call for lawmakers to pass “a reconciliation bill of at least $350 billion” on Nov. 5.
“Pete Hegseth has a reckoning,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina told CBS News on Nov. 4.
“He is one of the reasons why we don’t have the funding or guarantee for defense that we need,” Tillis added. “After the election, we need to determine whether or not he’s the best person to bring those needs to Congress.”
