Hegseth says impeachment push in Congress amounts to 'sabotage'

Courtney McBride and Roxana Tiron, Bloomberg News on Nov 10, 2026

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WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed back against an impeachment effort against him over his management of the military, saying the moves had turned disagreements over Pentagon policy into a politicized “farce.”

“I was proud to execute” my orders in Iran and the Western Hemisphere, he said, “and I would do it again.”

Hegseth was responding on the day the House is scheduled to begin procedural votes on an impeachment resolution that Republican Representative Thomas Massie introduced on Monday — and one week after the GOP lost the midterm elections, largely because of the conflict in the Middle East.

“This is not patriotism, this is sabotage,” Hegseth said, saying he was proud of what he described as victories in Iran and Venezuela. “It’s a political spectacle, a personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment.”

The briefing is Hegseth’s first substantial news conference at the Pentagon since May, when he largely stopped updating the media about developments in the Iran war even as the conflict dragged on.

Massie’s motion accused Hegseth of waging Trump’s war against Iran without proper congressional authorization, conducting extrajudicial killings with attacks on alleged drug boats, and ignoring laws designed to minimize civilian casualties including an attack on an Iranian elementary school that killed more than 156 people, mostly children.

He also accused Hegseth of illegally kidnapping Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, which Massie called “an act of war against a sovereign country executed under the guise of narcotics law enforcement, though in actuality intended to assert U.S. control over Venezuela’s oil reserves.”

President Donald Trump vigorously defended Hegseth on Monday, signaling that he would not short-circuit the impeachment effort by dismissing the defense secretary.

“He has won the war in two places, two big places, very important, very impactful, and they were won,” Trump said, referring to Iran and Venezuela. “Really, what has Hegseth done?”

Democrats, who take over the House and the Senate in January, have also said they will investigate Hegseth and potential conflicts of interest in defense procurement.

“Let’s be clear about what this resolution actually does, it tells our enemies — Iran, the cartels, every adversary watching — that the United States will actually punish its own warriors and its own civilian leadership for successfully executing lawful military operations,” Hegseth said at the briefing.

—With assistance from Jen Judson.