Washington: US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing an impending impeachment vote as a result of a resolution moved by Rep Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, on Monday.
Massie moved to force a vote to impeach Hegseth, pressing his fellow Republicans to remove one of the Trump administration's most prominent figures following sweeping election losses blamed in part on fallout from the war in Iran.
Massie read the impeachment resolution from the House floor just hours after it opened for the first day of sessions after the midterms. It largely focuses on the war in Iran but also includes references to Hegseth's role in carrying out military actions in Yemen and Venezuela.
The congressman, who was defeated by a Trump-backed challenger in a primary earlier this year, said Hegseth's actions amounted to “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Hegseth, he said, “knowingly executed and implemented unlawful orders” and “remains a threat to the Constitution.”
US President Donald Trump on Monday came out in defence of Hegseth amid calls for his impeachment, arguing that the Secretary should not be targeted over recent military operations.
"Pete Hegseth won two wars. 'Oh, let's impeach him!' What about impeaching the people that ran the Vietnam War? What about impeaching that went—that ran Iraq, and Afghanistan, and all of these other wars where thousands of lives have been lost. We lost 18 people. 18. They lost 65,000 in Vietnam. We're in there for seven months, they're in there for 21 years," Trump told reporters.
Questioning the motives behind the impeachment resolution, the president added, "What about impeaching those people? What about impeaching the leaders of the stupid wars that were done when nothing was gained?"
Trump also directed sharp criticism at Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie, who introduced the impeachment articles on the House floor, accusing him of habitual obstructionism against party legislation and wasting congressional bandwidth.
"He's a loser. He shouldn't be taking up the time of Congress or the Senate," Trump said.
"We could come up with the best bill we could come up with, and he would always vote against. There's something wrong with him," the President remarked.
A vote in the House could come by mid-week, but next steps are highly uncertain. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries supports the measure. If most Democrats follow him, Massie would only need support from a few Republicans to impeach Hegseth.
If the House votes to impeach, it would fall to to the Senate to either dismiss the charges or hold a trial. Republicans remain in the majority in both chambers, until the new Congress convenes in January with Democrats in control.
Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, endorsed the impeachment push. "Hegseth must stand trial before the Senate," he said.
Republican leaders, who are eager to use their final weeks in power executing their own agenda, expressed frustration at the move. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has tried to prevent the vote, said impeachment “in the middle of hostilities abroad would be a terrible, terrible look, a terrible thing for our allies and our enemies to see that.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he wasn't sure why the vote was being held now.
“We'll see what their ultimate decision is over there,” he said of the House. “We'll have to deal with it accordingly here."
Hegseth is stepping up his public statements ahead of the vote, telling reporters that he's eager to defend the military actions that he and Trump have taken against Iran, Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and Venezuela's previous leaders.
After giving a speech at the Naval War College in Rhode Island, he brushed aside the impeachment push.
“There's a lot of politically motivated people who may have substantial policy disagreements, but their disagreements are with success,” he told reporters. He added that “if we want to litigate” the military actions that the Trump administration has taken, “I'm happy to do it all day long.”
Asked about Vice President J D Vance blaming the Iran war for the massive GOP losses in the election, Hegseth noted that Trump said he would do it again, and “I agree.”
Hegseth also announced that he would hold a rare news conference on Tuesday - his first in over 180 days - on the impeachment threat.
Hegseth argued that the war was necessary because “someone had to confront the Iranian regime's pursuit of a nuclear weapon” and said “the choice was don't act and wish it away or take a bold move."
Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran has 440.9 kg of uranium that is enriched up to 60 per cent purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent.
(With inputs from AP via PTI & ANI)