Vice President JD Vance wrote on X Tuesday: “Has Pete Hegseth committed impeachable crimes? The question is absurd and the answer is: obviously not.”
With Hegseth then facing Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-KY) articles of impeachment, Vance wrote: “Like so much of Congress, impeachment has become a ridiculous show that stands in for actual policymaking.”
Vance contended that “legislators are most angry at Pete on the issues where he’s most correct: repositioning forces away from Europe/Ukraine and reorganizing the general officer corps.”
Notably, the Vice President, who asserted that the Republicans lost in the midterms “because of the war,” separated Hegseth’s potential impeachment from the Defense Secretary’s role in the war in Iran.
“This isn’t about Iran, this is about the fact that Pete took on the bureaucracy at the Pentagon,” Vance said.
[NOTE: Asked about Vance’s conclusion at his Pentagon briefing Tuesday, Hegseth said: “I respect the vice president greatly, and I’m certainly not going to engage in any finger-pointing… I do the Department of War and make sure we’re prepared and ready.”]
Before the vote that saw Hegseth elude impeachment, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) called the effort “a political gambit for attention,” and added: “The idea that you would impeach the Secretary of War at a time of international conflict sends a terrible message to our enemies and our allies, and we’re not going to play that game. It’s shameful.”
Massie, who brought eight articles of impeachment, was clear that the Iran War was a major factor in his push to remove Hegseth, writing: “IMPEACHMENT, Article III. The law requires our military to withdraw from hostilities within 60 days if Congress does not authorize the activity. Operation Epic Fury has been underway for 256 days. Congress has not authorized it. Hegseth is breaking the law. Not even debatable.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), after the House voted 211-204 to effectively kill the resolution by sending it to committee, said: “This is not the end of it. It’s just the beginning.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate “needs to put Pete Hegseth on trial so we can remove him for his catastrophic failure in Iran.”