SOURCE: BBC
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth defends his record at his first news conference in six months after a Republican congressman launched an attempt to impeach him
Speaking at the Pentagon, the defence secretary calls the impeachment effort a “farce” and defends the US’s “lawful military operations”
Hegseth adds: “This is not patriotism. This is sabotage”
He has faced criticism of his handling of the Iran war from both Democrats and Republicans, but President Donald Trump says his secretary of war gets an “‘A’ PLUS” for his performance
Articles of impeachment were introduced into the House of Representatives on Monday by Republican Thomas Massie, who says the defence secretary violated the constitution by not seeking approval for the war
The effort will likely fail, as Republicans remain in power in Congress until January, meaning they have the majority power over any vote
Speaking at his first press conference for six months, Hegseth was defiant, saying the efforts to impeach him were “sabotage” and would hand a “propaganda victory” to America’s adversaries.
How we got here: Republican Congressman Thomas Massie launched an attempt to impeach the defence secretary, because the Iran war is seen as one of the key reasons for the disastrous Republican performance in the midterms.
The impeachment process is in motion: Massie formally introduced his articles of impeachment on Monday afternoon, arguing that Hegseth broke the law by launching the US-Iran War without approval from Congress.
Hegseth fights for his job: The secretary of defence dismissed Massie as “one disgruntled and defeated congressman,” insisting the US military operations in Venezuela and Iran were the right thing to do.
“Every one was a lawful operation, ordered by the commander in chief, then ordered by myself, notified to Congress and executed by American warriors,” he said.
Trump still backs his secretary of war – for now: Minutes after Hegseth finished speaking, President Trump backed him up with a post on his social media platform Truth Social, saying Hegseth gets an ““A” PLUS, PLUS, PLUS” and he described Thomas Massie as “a TOTAL LOSER!”
But the impeachment process is a long haul: Read more about the process of impeachment.
Reuters news agency, citing congressional sources, reports that the impeachment resolution may have enough votes to pass, even though Republicans will still control the House until Democrats take over on 3 January.
The BBC’s US partner CBS also says the impeachment effort could attract more bipartisan support, as members of both parties are frustrated with Hegseth’s handling of the Iran war and Republicans are reeling from their defeats in the midterm elections.
However, conviction appears unlikely in the Senate, Reuters says, as a two-thirds majority is required and Republicans still hold 53 of the 100 seats.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson calls the impeachment effort a “political gambit for attention”
Reaction is now feeding in from politicians after Pete Hegseth claimed his record as secretary of war was of conducting “lawful military operations” and described the impeachment effort as a “farce”.
Democratic Congresswoman Delia C. Ramirez says in a post on X: “We have to impeach Hegseth. It is time to ACT.”
Congressman Herb Conaway, also a Democrat, responds to a post with a video showing Hegseth saying: “If they want to come for the warriors, they are going to have to come through me” – more on that here.
He says: “Nobody is coming after our service members. We’re coming after you for your reckless actions and dangerous incompetence.”
Meanwhile, Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson tells reporters Thomas Massie is a “disgruntled congressman” and that the impeachment effort is a “political gambit for attention”.
He says the idea that you impeach the secretary of war at a time of international conflict “sends a terrible message to our enemies and our allies”.
And Republican Congressman Don Bacon says he will vote no to impeach Hegseth, despite being “not a fan of the secretary”, because he says he doesn’t agree with the impeachment itself, pointing to things he thinks are missing, including “how [Hegseth] has held money on Ukraine”.
US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth has described as “sabotage” the articles of impeachment launched against him.
In the first press conference he has given for six months, he defended US military action in Iran and Venezuela under his tenure.
The BBC’s Chief North America correspondent Gary O’Donoghue breaks down what he said:
After Hegseth’s combative defence of his time in office, his day continues with a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz.
In a post on X, the deputy PM said that he was determined to bring about the establishment of a permanent US military base in Poland.
He goes on to say that cooperation between the government and the president could be “the key to success” and Poland’s security is what matters most.
This afternoon, at 17:30 EST (22:30 GMT), the House of Representatives will hold a key procedural vote regarding Hegseth’s future. Until then, it is business as usual for the secretary.
Let’s take a step back and explain how an impeachment works.
Impeachment proceedings are a rare event in the US and serve as a final check on the power of federal officials.
It’s Congress’s way of formally accusing a senior bureaucrat of breaking the law – and putting them on trial.
The US House of Representatives votes on articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump in December 2019
It starts in the House of Representatives
A lawmaker introduces articles of impeachment, in this case, Republican congressman Thomas Massie
More than half of politicians there have to vote to support impeachment
If it passes the House, it means the official is impeached, but the official is not removed from office just yet
Next, it moves to the Senate
The official is put on trial and questioned by senators
After this trial, two-thirds of senators must vote in favour of impeachment in order to remove the official from their job
If they are not found guilty, they can keep their job
As we’ve reported, the effort is to impeach Hegseth is likely to fail in the short-term, as Republicans remain in power in Congress until January.
But if the House votes to impeach him, it will still be up to the chamber’s leadership to decide when to send the matter to the Senate, where an impeached individual stands trial.
Impeachment resolutions can also be carried on past the end of a Congress, meaning that Democrats would be able to take it up next year when they are in the majority in both chambers of Congress.
Massie has acknowledged that the effort may not succeed immediately, but has argued that it might help push President Trump to replace Hegseth before Democrats can launch their own impeachment process.
The US president, however, has so far stood by his defence secretary.
Rubio speaking with reporters at the G7 conference in Paris
The prospect of impeaching the secretary of defence is weighing on the minds of lawmakers.
The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday he thinks Hegseth has “done a great job” and described the impeachment proceedings as “unfair.”
His stance was echoed by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson who said impeachment would be “a terrible thing for our allies and our enemies to see”.
“We don’t impeach cabinet secretaries for political gain or cheap tricks,” he told reporters.
But the top Democrat Hakeem Jeffries – expected to be the next US House of Representatives Speaker – said he is “a hard yes” for impeaching Hegseth.
He told ABC’s programme This Week that the defence secretary had “abused his power, undermined our national security, and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran”.
His colleague, the Democrat Senator Chris Coons also highlighted Hegseth’s central role in the Iran war, saying: “If the president doesn’t remove him, Congress will.”
Congressman Thomas Massie says the House of Representatives will today vote on the Hegseth Impeachment Resolution.
He says the first vote will be on a procedural motion to “kill the resolution”.
“If we can overcome that effort, we will proceed to a real debate and vote on the Articles of Impeachment,” Massie adds.
He attaches a schedule to his post on X which says that the House will meet at 10:00 EST (15:00 GMT) and first and last votes are expected at 17:30 EST (22:30 GMT).
Our previous post explains more about how the impeachment process works.
Impeachment is a lengthy process. It starts in the House of Representatives and if it passes – which means more than half of politicians have voted in support of it – the official is impeached.
Then it moves to the Senate, where the official is put on trial and questioned by senators. Two-thirds of them must vote in favour of impeachment to remove the official from their job.
If the Senate doesn’t convict them, the official remains in their job. For example, Donald Trump has previously been impeached twice, but was not convicted by the senate so remained in his post.
Towards the end of the news conference, Secretary Hegseth was asked whether he still has the support of President Trump – a key question that many in Washington are openly asking.
So far, he does, as the president’s latest Truth Social illustrates. In a surprise appearance in the press briefing room at the White House yesterday afternoon, Trump repeatedly backed him.
Like Hegseth today, Trump pointed to what they believe were succesful operations in Venezuela to unseat Maduro and against Iran and an uptick in military recruitment levels as evidence that he has been effective at the Pentagon.
Many lawmakers – including some Republicans – have openly questioned how long this might last.
Hegseth is seen as one of the primary forces that drove President Trump to launch Operation Epic Fury against Iran in February and convinced him that success would come quickly and relatively easily.
While that war was militarily effective in decapitating Iranian leadership and degrading its conventional armed forces, it was ultimately politically disasterous for the Republican Party. It was soundly rebuked by voters, largely as a result of high prices that followed the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Given that result, some clearly view Hegseth as an obvious choice to become a sacrifical lamb, of sorts, from the administration.
President Donald Trump has posted on his social media platform Truth Social, saying his secretary of war gets an “‘A’ PLUS”.
He says: “Pete Hegseth gets an “A” PLUS, PLUS, PLUS for his defense against a disgruntled, angry, defeated, former Congressman, Thomas Massie, a TOTAL LOSER!”
It echoes a similar statement he made on the platform last night, where he again called Massie a “total loser”, who is “trying to Impeach perhaps the most popular and successful military official in the Country”.13:51
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in Paris for the meeting of G7 foreign ministers, where he is asked by a journalist to comment on Hegseth.
He’s asked if Hegseth’s “actions and orders on the Iran war” and in Venezuela and Yemen “have been entirely lawful”.
Rubio replies that the President of the United States is the commander in chief.
He says “drug dealers trying to import poison into our country is an imminent threat,” referring to the US actions on Venezuela. He goes on to say that Iran has posed a threat to USA since 1979.
Arresting Nicolás Maduro was a “law enforcement operation” opening the way for a “better future” for Venezuela, Rubio says.
“Not only did Pete [Hegseth] execute on the direct order from the commander in chief, who in our constitution is empowered and trusted with the job of keeping America safe, but they did it quite effectively,” Rubio says.
Secretary Hegseth has repeatedly accused lawmakers – including Thomas Massie and Senator Chuck Schumer – of playing political games with the military and American service members.
“Politics is not really my thing,” he said at one point.
His comments, however, do not address the fact that he has himself, repeatedly, been accused of operating the defence department in an intensely political way that is closely aligned with the “Make America Great Again” movement.
Hegseth’s critics have, for example, accused him of silencing critics and attempting to remove senior officers and defence officials that he does not view as ideologically aligned with the Trump administration.
Notably, the secretary did not get drawn into a question about Vice-President JD Vance’s belief that the war led to the crushing midterms loss for the Republicans.
That is at the moment an intensely sensitive question for the administration and for Hegseth.
We’ve just heard from the US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, addressing reporters after a Republican congressman launched an attempt to impeach him. Here’s a recap of what he said:
He described the impeachment attempt as not accountability – but instead being driven by ego and resentment, calling it a “farce”
Referring to Donald Trump’s impeachments in 2019 and 2021, he said “we’ve seen this show before”, adding that they will fail again
Touching on US military operations, Hegseth said “every one was a lawful operation”
He defended action in Iran, calling it the “right thing” to do for the “safety and security” of America. And he went on to praise the operation to capture former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, saying he was “not kidnapped”, but brought to justice by “America’s best”
Hegseth also criticised the media saying it can never “admit military success” because they “hate the president” more than they love the US and its troops
Stick with us as we bring you more reaction and analysis.
A reporter asks Hegseth if he’s been making calls to lawmakers on Capitol Hill to try and sway them away from voting to impeach him.
He say he has strong partnerships with Republicans in the House of Representatives and that there’s a “ton of support” for him.
“This is one disgruntled guy that drew up some very flimsy articles,” he says of Thomas Massie.
Hegseth is also asked to look ahead to January, when the opposition Democrats will be running Congress.
He says he briefs lawmakers on both sides of the aisle “all the time” and that will continue to be the case.
The impeachment effort, which he describes as a “circus”, “is just one small thing that we deal with”, he says.
With that, the news conference ends – we’ll continue to bring you the latest.
Hegseth is taking questions now.
He’s asked if he agrees with Vice-President JD Vance’s comments that the Iran war was a major reason why the Republicans lost in the midterms.
He says he respects JD Vance and will not exchange in “finger pointing”.
“Thankfully politics is not really my thing, I do department of war and making sure we’re prepared and ready,”
He says that a lot of people will look at the conflict and assess it, and going forward they will “learn all of those lessons” and apply them.
He says he agrees with the president that if they had to do it all over again, they would.
“It was done for the right reasons to ensure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.”
Hegseth again calls the resolutions “a farce” that is wasting the time of Congress.
The process would hand adversaries a “propaganda victory”, he adds.
He says the government will “continue to do the job the American people elected President Trump to do” – he says this is to protect the country and defeat its enemies.
The troops, Hegseth adds, are “the best of our nation” and he has “their back no matter what”.
Addressing the troops, he says: “Don’t blink, ignore the noise, never hesitate. This is all politics. You do real things. Stay the course.”
Put the secretary of defence on trial today, he says, and the men and women who serve will be tomorrow.
“If they want to come for the warriors, they are going to have to come through me,” he says.
He defends his operations: “Every one was a lawful operation, ordered by the commander in chief, then ordered by myself, notified to Congress and executed by American warriors who did their job.”
He says their military missions “are not high crimes”, they are “job well done”.
Hegseth goes on to say that the media can never “admit military success” because they “hate the president” more than they love the US and its troops.
He moves on to cartels next, listing that American troops “choked off” the cartel pipeline of human smuggling, drugs and death. He lists what the US has achieved.
“Thousands of American lives saved with every drug boat sunk, and every shipment prevented”
He says former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro was “not kidnapped”, but brought to justice by “America’s best”.
“Victory in one night, victory in 48 minutes to be precise.”
For context: Maduro was forcibly removed from power by US troops on 3 January, and whisked to New York where he faces drugs, weapons and torture charges – to which he’s pleaded not guilty.
