Hegseth brushes off impeachment push, insists Congress has his back

Pete Hegseth says he isn't sweating the impeachment push. The US War Secretary claimed Tuesday that he has a "ton of support" from Republicans in both the House and the Senate, pushing back at the effort to remove him.

The charges landed Monday, when outgoing Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie reintroduced articles of impeachment in the House over alleged "high crimes." Massie accuses Hegseth of knowingly carrying out "unlawful orders" to launch military action against a foreign country without congressional authorization, arguing the war with Iran wasn't justified by an "imminent threat."

Hegseth isn't calling it accountability. He labeled the effort a "political spectacle," a "farce" and an attempt to sabotage him and the US military, and insisted every operation under his command has been lawful. The impeachment drive, he argued, sends the message that the US will "actually punish its own warriors and its own civilian leadership for successfully executing lawful military operations."

President Donald Trump has Hegseth's back. In a Truth Social post, Trump called Massie a "defeated Republican Congressman" and "a total loser," adding: "Pete Hegseth should be praised, not Impeached. Congress, stand up for Pete!!!"

Hegseth had already waved off the threat a day earlier, telling reporters he wasn't worried and that he would hold a press briefing at the Pentagon on Tuesday morning. He defended Trump's offensive against Iran as a necessary strike on Tehran's nuclear ambitions, saying no previous president "was willing to do" it. "You can't let crazy Islamists have a nuclear bomb," he said.