President Donald Trump’s Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, has defiantly responded to an impending effort by a fellow Republican to remove him from office.
Hegseth told reporters that he was not intimidated by the impeachment effort now advancing on Capitol Hill.
“If you want to litigate our success, I’m happy to do it all day long,” he said when asked about the push.
He has scheduled an emergency press briefing for tomorrow to further present his defense, following a period of more than six months without a formal media availability.
The lame-duck House of Representatives is expected to vote this week on whether to impeach Hegseth, in a move compelled by Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie.
Massie took to the House floor to read a 34-page resolution outlining the case for Hegseth’s impeachment.
The allegations include “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the kidnapping of a foreign leader and violations of laws intended to reduce civilian casualties.
The anti-Trump Kentucky Republican also criticized Hegseth for sharply restricting press access to the Pentagon.
No Democrat has publicly said they would oppose Massie’s resolution to impeach Hegseth.
Massie is seeking a vote this week, likely on Wednesday, once Congress returns following a midterm-election bloodbath for Republicans.
The central question is how many Republicans will support the measure after the party suffered devastating losses in last week’s midterm elections.
President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth faces an impeachment vote in the House of Representatives this week
Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie has introduced a resolution seeking to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the US conflict with Iran
With 214 Democrats serving in the House, only three additional Republicans would need to join them for the impeachment vote to pass. Massie is one of those Republicans, meaning at least two more would have to support the measure.
Hegseth has dismissed Massie as “a disgruntled, defeated congressman” and accused him of filing “sham articles of impeachment.”
However, there are indications that Hegseth’s defensive support may be weakening beyond Massie.
Kentucky Republican James Comer, a strong Trump ally and chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said the votes to impeach Hegseth could exist in the House this week, although he stopped short of saying how he would vote.
“We really didn’t know how to message what the exit strategy was, because I don’t think anybody in Congress knows what the exit strategy is,” Comer told Newsmax before discussing the potential impeachment vote.
Arkansas Republican French Hill, who represents a deeply conservative district but won his race last week by just 4,405 votes, told CBS News that he wants to “hear the debate” over impeaching Hegseth.
“I want to hear the debate on it to see if it merits impeachment versus some other disciplinary action or action by the president if he’s not getting the job done in leading the Department of War. That’s the issue,” Hill told CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation on Sunday.
“If he’s not conducting his mission in the right way, then the president ought to make a change there.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is likely to become the next Speaker of the House, has offered his full support for Massie’s impeachment resolution.
“I’m a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution,” Jeffries told ABC’s This Week anchor Jonathan Karl on Sunday.
“The so-called Secretary of Defense has abused his power, undermined our national security and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran, which has skyrocketed prices on the American people and made the country less safe,” the top House Democrat said before adding, “Pete Hegseth has got to go.”
Massie has accused Hegseth of committing “high crimes and misdemeanors” by continuing military operations in Iran even though Congress has never formally declared a conflict in the region.
By introducing a privileged resolution, Massie has triggered a process that will force a vote and allow the issue to bypass the committee stage.
He used a similar procedure last year to compel a vote on releasing the Epstein Files, rejecting pressure from Republican leaders to abandon his transparency campaign. Massie has also said he would withdraw the impeachment effort only if Hegseth resigns.
A simple majority is required for the House to approve an impeachment resolution, while conviction in a Senate trial requires a two-thirds majority.
President Trump has continued to stand behind his Pentagon chief. In a 60 Minutes interview with CBS News that aired Sunday, Trump said he has confidence in Hegseth.
