Pete Hegseth Responds to ‘Sham’ Impeachment Push - Newsweek

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has responded to Representative Thomas Massie’s plan to introduce articles of impeachment against him next week.

In a defiant response, Hegseth compared the effort to the two impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, insisting that the latest push would not succeed.

“Didn't work against President Trump, and it won't work with me. You can rest assured of that.”

Hegseth accused Kentucky Republican Massie of engaging in political theater and of introducing "sham" articles of impeachment.

“A disgruntled, defeated congressman, along with all his Democrat allies, has also dropped sham articles of impeachment against yours truly, just like they tried against President Trump twice," Hegseth said.

“You see, their policies don't work. So their obsession with political theater disguised as power drives them to try to destroy their opponents. It's all about the politics of personal destruction,” he added.

Massie's planned impeachment effort sets up a political confrontation over Hegseth's leadership at the Pentagon, with the defense secretary making clear he has no intention of backing down.

Newsweek reached out to the Pentagon via email on Thursday for additional information.

After the sweeping GOP midterm election defeats, calls for Hegseth's removal grew. The ongoing war in Iran, and rising prices associated with the conflict, are thought by some Republicans to have been a central reason for the losses.

As Americans took to the polls, affordability concerns became a pressure point for the administration. On Wednesday, Trump conceded partially that the landslide Democratic wins could be due to the war in Iran, although he said he would still do it again.

Vice President JD Vance similarly laid out four reasons why he thought the party faced devastating losses after speaking with a pollster, which included ending the war with Iran, focusing on the cost of living and inflation, putting America first and changing the U.S. relationship with Israel.

Trump was asked about Hegseth on Thursday and said he's doing a "fantastic job." As he reaffirmed his support for the Defense Secretary, he said that he thinks it'll take Iran 25 years to rebuild the country.

In his video post, Hegseth addresses the Iran War, saying, "When we say that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon, we actually mean it." He added that he thinks the war is a "courageous and historic effort that will ensure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon."

Hegseth then called for the DOD to be funded with a $350 billion reconciliation bill.

Craig Agranoff, political professor at Florida Atlantic University, told Newsweek on Thursday, "Hegseth’s video is standard Cabinet pushback. He calls the articles political theater and ties his stance to the mission, which lands with the president’s base. Midterm results showed real voter anger over the Iran war, and some Republicans are already pointing to it as a reason they lost seats. Massie can force a vote next week, and a few Republican sources say it could pass the lame duck House. The Senate would still need a 2/3 majority to remove him, a much higher bar."

"Trump has publicly backed Hegseth and said he is doing a good job. Firing him is the president’s call. Rising political cost could change that calculation, but public White House support makes an immediate dismissal less likely than a drawn-out fight," Agranoff concluded.

In an updated post about his impeachment resolution, Massie said on X on Thursday, "If Trump’s going to replace appointees like Hegseth, he should do it while he can still get the replacements confirmed in the Senate. Also, my Hegseth impeachment resolution is a much gentler version of what’s coming when Dem’s control Congress. They’ll have hearings & trials."

Massie, who introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth months earlier, said he wouldn't introduce the impeachment resolution if Hegseth resigned. The Kentucky Republican told CNN on Wednesday that he plans to trigger the vote on impeachment next week when Congress returns from recess.

Representative Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat, said that he is "going after" Hegseth in a video to X on Wednesday. "Not only is he incompetent and corrupt, he’s undermining our national security and the safety of our troops," Crow said, adding that he will be "relentless" in his attempt to get him out of the Pentagon.

Democratic Representative James Walkinshaw of Virginia wrote on X Wednesday, "Pete Hegseth has failed America and our service members." He later added, "When the House votes on impeachment, I'm voting to impeach him."

Republican Senator Thom Tillis told CBS News on Election Day in part that Hegseth has a "reckoning", saying he is one of the reasons the DOD doesn't have funding or the guarantees that it needs.

Grant Davis Reeher, a professor of political science at Syracuse University, told Newsweek on Thursday, "I’d assume that Trump will fire him—in fact I thought he would given just the mid-term results. That’s a time for administration shake-ups.

"Hegseth has been a significant drag on the administration and its approval ratings—along with Kash Patel, and we know that Trump is not hesitant to fire people who are not meeting his expectations. Firing him would take the issue off the table, though he’d have to get another Sec Def through the lame-duck Congress, if that’s possible, or else face a different calculation in choosing the replacement after Jan. 1," Reeher added.

When reached for additional comment, the White House referred Newsweek to Trump's Oval Office comments on Thursday, where he said Hegseth is doing a "fantastic job."

Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Anna Commander, Gray R. Thomas