First posted on Instagram · @profilopolitics
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth answered the mounting push to remove him on Thursday evening, posting a video to X declaring, "At the War Department: We Stand. We Fight. We Defend the Republic." The message came a day after Rep. Thomas Massie said he would force a House vote on impeaching Hegseth next week unless the secretary resigns.
In the video, posted from his official @SecWar account, Hegseth blasts the impeachment effort as political theater and says he has no intention of backing down. It is his first direct public response to the impeachment threat.
Massie laid down his terms on X on Wednesday night: "There is one contingency in which I won't reintroduce the articles of impeachment: Hegseth resigns." The Kentucky Republican was answering a CNN report that he plans to trigger a vote when Congress returns next week.
Massie first introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth on September 15, accusing him of violating the War Powers Resolution by continuing hostilities in Iran beyond the 90-day window without congressional authorization, along with civilian casualties in the Iran campaign, extrajudicial killings of suspected drug traffickers, retaliation against Sen. Mark Kelly, the seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and an unauthorized war in Yemen. The House went into recess for the midterm elections before the measure reached a vote.
The pressure has grown since Democrats swept both chambers in Tuesday's midterm elections. CNN reported that multiple Republican sources expect Massie's measure to pass if it reaches a vote, and that Republican lawmakers are moving to blame Hegseth for the party's losses, saying he persuaded President Trump to attack Iran with no exit strategy and oversold how quickly the war would end. Rep. Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday that ousting Hegseth would be his "priority number one" if Democrats retook the House. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries warned that Hegseth "needs to be pushed aside by the president, or we're going to have to deal with that situation." Rep. Chris Deluzio said on Wednesday that Hegseth "should be gone," and Rep. James Walkinshaw wrote on X: "When the House votes on impeachment, I'm voting to impeach him."
President Trump has stood by his defense secretary. Asked on Wednesday whether he was considering replacing Hegseth, Trump said: "No, I think he's doing a very good job." On Thursday, he told ABC News' Jonathan Karl: "I have every intention to keep him."
The Pentagon has said the same. Chief spokesman Sean Parnell said Hegseth "will not back down or be deterred by politicians seeking to score partisan points or launch phony investigations where no wrongdoing exists," adding that Hegseth is "100% committed to leading the Department until the end of President Trump's term in office."
Hegseth has used the same defiant language about the war itself. In a Pentagon briefing on Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. campaign against Iran, he said: "Four days in, we have only just begun to fight. America fights to win."
What happens next: the House is scheduled to return on November 9, when Massie says he will give notice of his resolution. Impeachment in the House takes a simple majority; removal requires a two-thirds vote in the Senate. Republicans still hold the House until Democrats take control on January 3, and even if the House votes to impeach, conviction in the Senate would need Republican votes.