WASHINGTON — President Trump and the White House posse are circling the wagons around embattled War Secretary Pete Hegseth as he faced the threat of impeachment.
Hegseth held a short but spirited press conference on Tuesday where he denounced outgoing Republican Rep. Thomas Massie for bringing the articles against him, saying it “is not patriotism. This is sabotage.”
Trump gave his war chief an A for his efforts.
“Pete Hegseth gets an ‘A’ PLUS, PLUS, PLUS for his defense against a disgruntled, angry, defeated, former Congressman, Thomas Massie, a TOTAL LOSER!” the president posted on Truth Social.
Vice President JD Vance weighed in, noting the lawmakers also tried to impeach President Trump and failed.
“Legislation is hard. Impeachments are easy (and ultimately, inconsequential). 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 reorganizing the general officer corps. This isn’t about Iran, this is about the fact that Pete took on the bureaucracy at the Pentagon,” Vance noted.
It was a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives that impeached Trump twice — as the Senate voted to acquit him each time.
The House voted on Tuesday night to send the articles of impeachment to committee, which effectively killed the matter. It can languish in committee and would die a legislative death when this session of Congress ends in early January.
Still, it’s a temporary reprieve. Democrats take control of the House in January and have said impeaching Hegseth is a top priority.
Massie’s articles of impeachment contained three charges over the war in Iran, one related to the operation to capture Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, one related to carrying out military attacks against Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, one accusing him of ignoring laws aimed at minimizing civilian casualties, one for “extrajudicial killings” on alleged drug boats, and one for free speech violations against Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.).
Lawmakers have also been unhappy that Congress was not consulted — as outlined in the War Powers Act — before military action was taken in Venezuela and Iran.
Hegseth argued all the administration’s actions were lawful.
“As for the articles themselves — Iran, the cartels, Maduro, Yemen — 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 jobs,” he said at his Pentagon press conference.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed Hegseth’s line of defense.
“Not only did Pete execute on a direct order from the Commander-in-Chief [who], in our Constitution, is empowered and trusted with the job of keeping Americans safe, but they did it quite effectively,” he said.
