Defiant Hegseth calls Republican's impeachment resolution a 'farce'
U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth condemned a resolution in the House of Representatives calling for his impeachment, describing it as a "farce" from a "disgruntled congressman" who is leaving office.
Next steps after Rep. Thomas Massie's impeachment bid still unclear
Chris Iorfida · CBC News
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U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth condemned a resolution in the House of Representatives calling for his impeachment, describing it as a "farce" from a "disgruntled congressman" who is leaving office.
Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie, who won't be in Congress when the new session begins in January, filed a privileged motion on the House floor on Monday to introduce eight articles of impeachment.
Impeachment resolutions can carry over to the next session, which begins on Jan. 3 and will feature a House and Senate led by the Democrats. A two-thirds majority of the Senate vote is required for conviction.
Hegseth said any such proceeding would be a "show trial against the president and the secretary of war" and he characterized the articles of impeachment as "policy disagreements" that don't meet the impeachment standard of high crimes and misdemeanours.
"The proper remedy for a policy disagreement, it's legislation, it's debate, it's the next presidential election," said Hegseth, holding his first press briefing from the Pentagon since May.
WATCH | Massie says he's taking a stand, not 'disgruntled':
U.S. House Republican moves to force vote on impeaching Pete Hegseth
November 9|
Duration
2:27
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie moved Monday to force a vote to impeach U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, largely focusing on the war in Iran and his role in carrying out military actions in Yemen and Venezuela. A vote in the House could come by mid-week, putting pressure on fellow Republicans to decide whether to remove one of the Trump administration's most prominent figures following sweeping midterm election losses.President Donald Trump gave an enthusiastic response on social media to Hegseth's pushback. Trump on Monday called Massie a "stone-cold loser" and said he would stand by Hegseth even if he is impeached.
Under the rules of Massie's motion, a vote is to be held within two legislative days unless a majority supports a countering motion to kill the effort. Massie introduced a similar measure in September but the House legislators were sent home before a vote could take place.
A vote in the House could come by midweek, but the next steps are highly uncertain.
'They will fail again'
The articles of impeachment in Massie's motion lead with the lack of congressional authorization for the war in Iran. The articles also include references to Hegseth's role in carrying out military actions in Yemen and Venezuela, the deadly strikes on boats allegedly transporting drugs in waters near South America and attempts to prosecute two Congress members who served in the military and recording a video advising service members they were not obliged to follow illegal orders.
"I stand behind every one of these operations," Hegseth said on Tuesday.
He said "thousands of American lives" were saved with every boat strike — even as human rights organizations and international bodies have said they possibly constitute crimes against humanity. Hegseth also said that former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro was "not kidnapped, he was brought to justice by America's best."
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky speaks Monday outside the Capitol about articles of impeachment against Hegseth. (Allison Robbert/The Associated Press)
Massie, who was defeated earlier this year by a Trump-backed Republican opponent in a primary, pushed forward an impeachment resolution over the objections of House Republican leadership.
"The reality is, we're not indicting him for being bad at his job," Massie told reporters on Monday. "In fact, he was very effective at killing school children in Iran. He was very effective at extrajudicial killings."
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has said a vote on impeachment would be "a terrible thing for our allies and our enemies to see."
Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, Johnson's potential successor as the next Speaker, said on the weekend he was a "hard yes" for impeaching Hegseth.
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The last House impeachment was of former Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas in Joe Biden's administration, for breach of public trust and willful refusal to comply with the law. The Republican-led House cited the surge of migrants at the southern border in just the second impeachment of a cabinet secretary, but the Democratic-led Senate never took up the measure.
Trump was twice impeached in the House, in 2019 and 2021, but acquitted at Senate trials. In the second impeachment, many Republicans argued that Trump's actions leading up to the 2021 Capitol riot were best dealt with in the courts, a stance that unintentionally saw Trump fundraise and launch a remarkable political comeback to return to the White House.
Hegseth called those Trump impeachments failures and predicted that the current efforts "will fail again."
Razor-thin confirmation
A vote will put pressure on Republicans, many of whom blamed their election wipeout on the Iran war. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska highlighted other concerns not contained in the articles, concerning Hegseth's firing of dozens of senior military leaders.
Vice-President JD Vance broke a tie in the Senate to enable Hegseth's confirmation in early 2025. Republicans Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell — each set to leave Congress — voted against his confirmation, as did Republican Lisa Murkowski and all of the Senate Democrats.
Thom Tillis, a Republican also leaving the Senate, has expressed regret for his vote to confirm Hegseth.
"He is intimidated by competence and retreats to ginning up culture wars instead of soberly attending to the vital work of our national defence and the health and well-being of our fighting force," Tillis said of Hegseth in September.
LISTEN | David Smith, Washington reporter for the Guardian, on Hegseth's influence (March 16):
Front Burner30:05Pete Hegseth: the Iran war’s chief promoter
A number of episodes sparked concern about Hegseth's fitness for the job among Democratic lawmakers and the handful of Republicans, including a 2017 sexual assault allegation. Hegseth admitted paying a settlement to the woman, to prevent a costly and drawn-out process.
Other accusations that arose during his confirmation hearings involved excessive drinking and financial mismanagement at two veterans' organizations he previously led.
During Trump's first term, Hegseth was an on-air Fox News contributor who lobbied the president on behalf of Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher, Maj. Matthew Golsteyn and Lt. Clint Lorance before military tribunals involving the men had even been completed. Each man had faced accusations of war crimes, but Hegseth argued they were being treated unfairly.
Trump ultimately granted clemency to Golsteyn and Lorance, and elevated Gallagher in rank.
Hegseth's tenure at the Pentagon has been unconventional, and that was on display on Tuesday. Defence secretaries typically stay away from partisan political statements, but Hegseth laid out criticisms of predecessor Lloyd Austin and disparaged the military recruitment and retention efforts of Biden's administration.
He also told the U.S. troops to "stay the course" while evoking his Christianity, even as he has been sued for imposing his religion on federal workers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chris Iorfida, based in Toronto, has been with CBC since 2002 and written on subjects as diverse as politics, business, health, sports, arts and entertainment, science and technology.
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