Pete Hegseth accuses 'rogue legislator' of 'sabotage' in fiery rant over impeachment

Pete Hegseth has held his first Pentagon press briefing in six months, with an impeachment resolution against him now pending in the House of Representatives.

Speaking to Press Association reporters, Hegseth said that push to remove him is rooted in 'policy disagreements' from a 'rogue legislator' rather than the high crimes or offenses the nation's founders intended.

He used the appearance to hit back at Rep. Thomas Massive, the Kentucky Republican who filed the resolution on Monday.

“In the 250 years of our American republic, no secretary of war or secretary of defense has ever been impeached for carrying out lawful military operations,” Hegseth said.

Massie, who is leaving Congress after losing his primary to a Trump-backed opponent, sees it differently. He says Hegseth’s actions amount to ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ and that his leadership at the Pentagon ‘warrants impeachment’.

The resolution largely centers on the war in Iran, which has now run for more than eight months.

It also references Hegseth's role in military action against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and also in Venezuela. The US military has also kept up intermittent operations against Iran, alongside fatal strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in Latin America.

What happens next with the Pete Hegseth impeachment vote?

The resolution arrives as Republicans absorb sweeping losses in last week's midterm elections. Many of them blamed the result at least partly on the Iran conflict and its economic impact.

A house vote could come by midweek, which would put pressure on those lawmakers, though the next steps aren't in any way certain.

What is currently happening in the Iran war?

Trump has for now, backed his man.

He cited the January raid to capture then Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as some of his success. He has asserted that military operations against Iran has 'obliterated' its navy and air force.

Iran, however, has kept striking US military bases in the Middle East.

It has also disrupted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz over the course of the conflict, driving up global oil prices.

Trump nonetheless told reporters on Monday that the war 'militarily is effectively over' and repeated his frequent claim that Iran 'would love to make a deal'.

Hegseth has been defending his handling of the military elsewhere too. After a speech at the Naval War College in Rhode Island on Monday, he told reporters, “There’s a lot of politically motivated people who may have substantial policy disagreements, but their disagreements are with success.”

He added that 'if we want to litigate' the military actions the Trump administrations has taken, 'I'm happy to do it all day long'.

Last week, he released a video on social media arguing that impeachment would be ‘all about the politics of personal destruction’ and that it ‘won’t work with me, you can rest assured of that’. Scores of Pentagon political appointees then posted images of Hegseth bearing the words “Stand. Fight. Defend the Republic.”

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell also released a statement. He said that ‘despite threats of sham witch hunts from Democrats’, Hegseth is ‘100% committed to leading the Department until the end of President Trump’s term in office’.

UNILAD has contacted the Pentagon and Massie’s office for comment.