Pete Hegseth, the secretary of Defense who faced a vote on impeachment in the U.S. House, deployed a historically shameful defense of his own ruinous tenure during his Nov. 10 news briefing, hours before the House protected him from an impeachment vote.
Hegseth, like so many failed politicians before him, conflates any criticism of his leadership
with an attack on the men and women who serve in the American military.Hegseth opened his news conference with a snide reference to U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who introduced the articles of impeachment a day earlier, deriding that as a "political spectacle" designed to damage President Donald Trump along with "this country, and most irresponsibly, the warriors who defend it."
That's
an indefensible lie.
Massie's Hegseth impeachment effort isn't an attack on the troops
Massie has done nothing to attack America's military. He has serious questions about actions Hegseth has taken as secretary of Defense. And he's not alone. Other Republicans in Congress share Massie's concerns about Hegseth.
But Hegseth would rather use America's military members as human shields than face accountability. He whined about a "single rogue legislator" attempting to conduct oversight, as our system of government is designed.
"It puts a target on the backs of American warriors by signaling that Congress will undermine their missions in real time," Hegseth said. "This is not patriotism. This is sabotage."
That's a page right out of the playbook used by former President George W. Bush and his embattled secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, two decades ago when 2006 midterm voters rejected their calamitous war in Iraq. Bush and Rumsfeld tried to cast criticism of their war as an attack on American troops.
That was a lie when they told it 20 years ago. It remains a lie as Hegseth now regurgitates it. Massie's eight articles of impeachment do nothing to sabotage America's military members.
Trump's disastrous war in Iran, along with the havoc that has been unleashed on America's economy, were the driving factors in Nov. 3's midterm elections, in which outraged voters ousted Republicans from control of Congress, ensuring that healthy Democratic majorities will have oversight come January.
Republicans lost midterms because of voters. Not the media
Hegseth, like Trump, would rather lie to Americans than accept responsibility for all that. And, like with Trump, the American news media is always the true enemy, Hegseth would have you believe.
"The media can just never admit the military success because they – you – hate the president more than you love our country or our troops," Hegseth told a room full of journalists at the Pentagon.
Mind you, the news media didn't rebuke the Republican Party with a historic beatdown in the midterms. That was American voters: Democrats, Republicans and independents. If anything, the media in America missed the colossal scale of how angry voters were about Iran and the economy.
Voters didn't cast their ballots because they hate our country or people who serve in the military. They did it because they disapprove of the way Trump and Hegseth have handled the war in Iran.
Republicans, with a narrow majority in the U.S. House, punted in a Nov. 10 vote on whether to deal with Hegseth's impeachment while they still hold power. They voted 211-204 to refer the impeachment to the House Committee on the Judiciary, with seven Republicans and 11 Democrats casting no vote on the matter.
But Massie, who will not be in office in January, may still get his shot at Hegseth. After introducing the impeachment articles on Nov. 9, he noted that Democrats can act on them in the new year when they will have majority control in both chambers of Congress.
Massie's articles of impeachment accuse Hegseth of "ignoring laws that minimize civilian casualties," "extrajudicial killings" of suspected drug traffickers, "suppressing free speech," "kidnapping" former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, and "unlawful war" on the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Hegseth, noting that Veterans Day falls one day after his news conference, tried to claim that Massie's articles of impeachment tell every veteran "that their service was a crime."
This is a pathological dishonesty, absolutely divorced from reality and accountability. It would be shameful if Hegseth had the capacity to feel shame. But he kept demonstrating that he does not.
"Make no mistake about what is happening," Hegseth said, casting himself as just one face in a huge collection of victims. "This is not about me. Politicians in Washington have accused the sailors and the pilots who struck narco-terrorist boats of war crimes for doing their job."
Again, this is nowhere close to being true or accurate. But that wasn't the Defense secretary's mission during his rebuttal.
Hegseth speaks to an audience of one: Trump
He was speaking to what Washington, DC, calls the "audience of one," a president addicted to television, obsessed with listening for any mention of his name. That's why Hegseth mentioned Trump or his office more than 30 times during his news conference.
Of course Trump was listening, and then used a social media post to grade Hegseth's speech as an " 'A' PLUS, PLUS, PLUS" while knocking Massie as "a TOTAL LOSER."
Should Hegseth feel relief? Trump has an established history of being a staunch defender of his Cabinet members, right up until the point when he decides to fire them.
The White House in October threatened to sue Politico for reporting that Trump was considering firing his chief of staff, Susie Wiles. No lawsuit landed. Trump fired Wiles three days after the midterms.
Hegseth, if he had a shred of honor, would end this fight with Congress by stepping down. Instead, he'll fight for his job and cling to Trump until the moment the president decides to send him packing.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on Bluesky, @bychrisbrennan.bsky.social, and on X, @ByChrisBrennan. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Translating Politics, here.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hegseth impeachment vote was never an attack on the troops | Opinion
