Washington: US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth slammed the impeachment proceedings against him as a politically motivated stunt by a disgruntled politician, as he drew comparisons between himself and Donald Trump ahead of a vote in the House of Representatives.
Hegseth insisted all his actions in office had been legal, including the war in Iran and extrajudicial killing of suspected drug traffickers in international waters, while framing the impeachment resolution as an attack on American troops the day before Veterans Day.
“What one disgruntled and defeated congressman is attempting is not oversight, and it’s not accountability. It’s a political spectacle,” he said. “A personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment. It’s a farce, and it’s a stunt, and everybody knows it.”
Hegseth made the remarks at a morning press conference in Washington ahead of a likely vote on Capitol Hill on Tuesday evening (US time). The impeachment resolution is being brought by outgoing Republican congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, an opponent of the president who lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger.
The eight articles of impeachment, filed on Monday, accuse Hegseth of unlawfully keeping US troops engaged in the Iran war in contravention of a congressional resolution, ignoring laws that aim to reduce civilian casualties, abducting Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro , overseeing the extrajudicial killing of suspected drug traffickers, suppressing free speech and initiating an illegal war in Yemen.
“The law requires our military to withdraw from hostilities within 60 days if Congress does not authorise the activity,” Massie said on X during Hegseth’s news conference. “Operation Epic Fury has been under way for 256 days. Congress has not authorised it. Hegseth is breaking the law. Not even debatable.”
Before last week’s midterm elections, there was speculation that Hegseth – a former Fox News anchor with no government experience before being appointed defence secretary – would be ousted from cabinet as part of a post-election reshuffle.
But as the administration prepares for two years of fights against Democrats in Congress, Trump has strongly backed Hegseth, and said on Truth Social that he rated Tuesday’s news conference as “A PLUS, PLUS, PLUS”.
Hegseth compared himself directly with Trump, who was impeached in the House twice during his first term. This impeachment attempt was a “show trial against the president and the secretary of war”, Hegseth said.
“We’ve seen this show before. They impeached President Trump over a perfect phone call ... If standing with President Trump puts me in that company, I’ll take that company every day of the week.”
Hegseth queried why his predecessor Lloyd Austin, a Democrat under Joe Biden, was not impeached over the botched US withdrawal from Afghanistan, or for allowing a Chinese spy balloon to fly over the country for a week.
And he said the impeachment attempt sent a signal to America’s adversaries that the US would punish its own soldiers and civilian military leaders for executing lawful orders.
“It tells them that a single rogue legislator loaded with personal animus for the president can attempt to veto national security decisions made by the duly elected commander-in-chief,” Hegseth told reporters. “This is not patriotism, this is sabotage.”
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance joined Trump in coming to Hegseth’s aid, despite his criticism of the Iran war, for which he blamed the Republicans’ midterm election losses.
Vance said it was obvious the defence secretary had not committed impeachable offences. “Like so much of Congress, impeachment has become a ridiculous show that stands in for actual policymaking,” he said on X.
“Congress has so many tools for registering its policy disagreements. Rather than use them, they’re going to try to impeach Pete Hegseth. They did the same to Donald Trump. Legislation is hard. Impeachments are easy (and ultimately, inconsequential).”
Massie’s impeachment resolution stressed that Congress had, in fact, used the tools for registering its policy disagreement by passing a resolution directing the president to remove US forces from the war against Iran.
Vance added: “The irony is that legislators are most angry at Pete on the issues where he’s most correct: repositioning forces away from Europe/Ukraine and reorganising the general officer corps. This isn’t about Iran, this is about the fact that Pete took on the bureaucracy at the Pentagon.”
The impeachment would pass the House if it were supported by all Democrats and a handful of Republicans, though it would have no effect unless Hegseth was also convicted in the Senate.
Massie said he was aware that several members agreed with some of the articles of impeachment but not all of them, and that if the resolution survived a procedural motion to kill it, he would request a vote on each article separately.
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