{"id":4160,"date":"2026-11-10T20:03:33","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T15:03:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4160"},"modified":"2026-11-10T20:03:33","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T15:03:33","slug":"embattled-pentagon-chief-slams-impeachment-effort-as-farce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4160","title":{"rendered":"Embattled Pentagon chief slams impeachment effort as ‘farce’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday denounced a push to impeach him as a \u201cfarce\u201d and defended his record leading multiple military operations that have sparked allegations of misconduct against the Pentagon chief.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Under pressure after President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance blamed the Iran war for the Republican Party\u2019s sweeping losses in midterm elections, Hegseth now faces a congressional effort to remove him from office.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a farce, and it\u2019s a stunt, and everybody knows it,\u201d a defiant Hegseth told journalists of the impeachment proceedings launched by Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican, the previous day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat one disgruntled and defeated congressman is attempting is not oversight, and it\u2019s not accountability. It\u2019s a political spectacle,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n

Massie, a fierce critic of Trump, is leaving office after losing a primary contest to a candidate backed by the president.<\/p>\n

Trump has backed Hegseth so far, and on Tuesday wrote on social media that the Pentagon chief \u201cgets an \u2018A\u2019 PLUS, PLUS, PLUS for his defence\u201d against the impeachment efforts.<\/p>\n

Hegseth on Tuesday defended military interventions in Yemen, Iran and Venezuela as well as strikes targeting alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u2018Would do it again\u2019<\/h3>\n

\u201cI stand behind every one of these operations. I was proud to execute them, and I would do it again tomorrow,\u201d he said, equating the effort to remove him with an attack on US troops.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese resolutions tell everyone of them that their service was a crime. Their service was not a crime. These are heroes,\u201d said Hegseth.<\/p>\n

Several of the articles of impeachment relate to the Iran war, accusing Hegseth of violating the War Powers Resolution, which requires congressional consultation on US military interventions.<\/p>\n

Hegseth is a staunch defender of the widely unpopular war against Iran, which he has described as a \u201ccourageous and historic effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2025 conflict with Yemen\u2019s Iran-backed Houthis also features in Massie\u2019s articles of impeachment, which charge Hegseth with starting the operation without congressional approval and in the absence of an imminent threat to the United States.<\/p>\n

Massie also branded strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific as \u201cextrajudicial killings\u201d and said Hegseth \u201cchilled independent legal review within the Department of Defence.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he accused Hegseth of suppressing free speech by trying to punish Democratic Senator Mark Kelly over a video in which he and other lawmakers urged military and intelligence personnel to refuse illegal orders.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsing the powers of his office, Secretary Hegseth retaliated against and sought to intimidate United States Senator Mark Kelly for his statement,\u201d one of the articles of impeachment said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday denounced a push to impeach him as a \u201cfarce\u201d and defended his record leading multiple military operations that have sparked allegations of misconduct against the Pentagon chief. Under pressure after President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance blamed the Iran war for the Republican Party\u2019s sweeping losses in midterm elections, Hegseth now faces a congressional effort to remove him from office. \u201cIt\u2019s a farce, and it\u2019s a stunt, and everybody knows it,\u201d a defiant Hegseth told journalists of the impeachment proceedings launched…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}