Hegseth calls impeachment bid a ‘farce’ as he defends Iran war

US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth called an impeachment bill against him a “farce” on Tuesday, defending the ongoing war in Iran and the air strikes against drug traffickers as “lawful operation”.

Speaking at the first press conference in more than 180 days, Hegseth described Thomas Massie, a Republican lawmaker who introduced the impeachment bill against him on Monday, as “one disgruntled and defeated congressman” who is attempting to “damage” US President Donald Trump due to a “personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment” and policy disagreements from “people who want to politicise our military”.

He stressed that no US secretary of defence has ever been impeached over carrying out “lawful” and “successful” military operations. He predicted the effort would fail, invoking Trump’s two impeachments, both of which ended in Senate acquittals.

“It’s a farce, and it’s a stunt, and everybody knows it,” said Hegseth. “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 also described the impeachment bill as a “sabotage” against the Trump administration’s mission, citing that there were no impeachment attempts against his predecessor Lloyd Austin, despite the US getting “humiliated” in the evacuation from Afghanistan and an alleged Chinese spy balloon flying over US airspace.

In January 2024, Montana Republican Matt Rosendale introduced a resolution to impeach then-defence secretary Lloyd Austin over his handling of a Chinese balloon that the Pentagon identified as a surveillance device that flew over North America in 2023. The resolution was referred to the House Judiciary Committee and never came to a floor vote.

Hegseth’s remarks come a day after Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment against the defence secretary that seek to force a House floor vote as early as Wednesday over his military operations without receiving congressional approval, such as the war against Iran and the air strikes against suspected drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean.

The Kentucky lawmaker has frequently clashed with the Trump administration’s policy agenda and was ruled out from running again for his House seat in last week’s midterm election after losing a primary contest in May against a Trump-backed candidate.

With the landslide victory in the midterm elections ensuring they'll/ take control over both the House and the Senate on Jan. 3, the Democratic leadership has also supported the impeachment bill, with the House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, describing Hegseth as a “national nightmare” on Monday.

If the resolution proceeds to a vote, a simple majority in the House would be sufficient to approve the articles of impeachment. If approved, the case would then move to the Senate, which would hold a trial to determine whether Hegseth should be convicted and removed from office. Conviction requires a two-thirds majority in the Senate.

Hegseth’s remarks also follow his earlier video statement last week after Republicans’ midterm election loss, claiming that the impeachment bills against him, a key advocate of the Iran war, “will not work.”

The ongoing war in Iran, followed by the energy crisis caused by the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, was cited as one of the key reasons for the Trump administration’s declining popularity and prompted increasingly bipartisan support to impeach and investigate Hegseth, a key advocate of the war.

US Vice-President J.D. Vance wrote on his social media after the midterms that the reason for the Republicans’ loss was the war in Iran and that Trump agreed it was true.

During Tuesday's press conference, Hegseth pushed back against the impeachment bill, contending that it would tell Washington’s “enemies” that the US will “punish” its own civilian military leadership for “successfully” executing “lawful” military operations, but he did not provide direct answers to the question on whether he agreed with Vance’s social media post that the war in Iran was the reason for the election loss.

Hegseth praised the Trump administration’s strikes on Iranian nuclear sites as the “largest and most successful B-2 strikes in American history”.

“Their military in ruin. The ironclad blockade unbroken. We control the Strait of Hormuz. Crazy Islamists in Tehran will never ever have a nuclear weapon,” said Hegseth.

“History will judge the Iran war quite differently than conventional wisdom. Right now, we didn’t start this war; Iran did 47 years ago, but President Trump is willing to do what no other president would.”