SIMPER FI

Pentagon Pete Stages Unhinged Meltdown Over Impeachment Bid

In a combative press conference, the former Fox & Friends host described the attempt to oust him as a “political spectacle” and a “personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment.”

Pete Hegseth has launched a furious defense of his Pentagon leadership as he faces an explosive impeachment threat over his handling of the Iran war and a series of alleged abuses of power.

In a combative press conference, the former Fox & Friends host hit back at his Republican and Democratic critics, describing the attempt to kick him out as a “political spectacle” and a “personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment.”

“We’ve seen this show before,” he said, invoking Donald Trump, who was watching in the White House.

“They impeached President Trump over a perfect phone call. They impeached him again in his final week in office. Both times they failed. Both times he came back stronger, and the American people sent him back to the White House. Now they’re trying a third time. This time against a member of his Cabinet.”

The comments come a day after Republican Rep. Thomas Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment against. They accuse him of waging war against Iran without congressional approval, authorizing extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean Sea, kidnapping a sovereign foreign leader in Venezuela, suppressing free speech, and an unlawful war in Yemen.

“I’m being polite here,” Massie said on Monday. “What is an impeachment? An impeachment is just firing someone, really. You don’t go to prison, you don’t go to jail, you don’t pay a fine. When the Democrats get in charge, they are going to be very vicious.”

But Hegseth defended his actions, telling reporters: “These are not high crimes. This is the job, and it’s the job well done.”

DOUBLING DOWN

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“May I remind you, for perspective, we lost 60,000 Americans in Vietnam over 20 years,” he fumed, in reference to the unpopular Iran war.

“We lost 37,000 in Korea in just three years. That many humans are lost on the front lines of Ukraine and Russia every month. Epic Fury has never been that, and it never will be. The media can just never admit the military success because they hate the president more than they love our country or our troops.”

Trump approved of Hegseth’s performance, posting on Truth Social after the press conference: “Pete Hegseth gets an “A” PLUS, PLUS, PLUS for his defense against a disgruntled, angry, defeated, former Congressman, Thomas Massie, a TOTAL LOSER!“

But Hegseth’s predicament is particularly awkward given Trump’s previous admission that his defense secretary was the most enthusiastic advocate for going to war with Iran.

“He loves war,” the president said during a May Cabinet meeting as he slapped his defense secretary’s bicep.

Trump has also reportedly asked aides in recent weeks whether to keep Hegseth amid growing concerns about his leadership.

HERE WE GO AGAIN

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But Hegseth made sure to praise his boss as he defended his record on Monday.

“President Trump gave this department what it has not had in a generation: a commander in chief with the courage to lead and the resolve to win, I stand behind every one of these operations,” he said. “I was proud to execute them, and I would do it again tomorrow.”

Hegseth and Trump have long sought to portray Massie as a “disgruntled” Republican member who is seeking revenge against the president.

But the concerns about Hegseth and his actions are not just confined to Trump’s usual Republican detractors. House Oversight chairman James Comer said there were “a lot of questions about Hegseth”, adding: “We have no idea what the strategy is moving forward in Iran. No one’s happy about Iran.”

The impeachment threat comes after Hegseth oversaw an extraordinary shake-up of the Pentagon, purging senior military leaders, imposing stricter fitness and grooming standards, railing against “fat troops” and introducing testosterone screening for male service members.

Reports have also emerged that his office used informal, internet-search-based criteria to withhold or block senior military promotions, disproportionately affecting women and people of color who were already approved for advancement.

Democratic Representative-elect Nancy Lacore, the retired Navy admiral Hegseth fired last year, said it would take decades to reverse the scale of the cuts Hegseth made at the Pentagon.

“It is a long journey to build that talent and get to that high rank,” she told MS NOW on Tuesday.

“But I’m also concerned about the message it is sending to everybody across the military forces that they are now looking at their leadership, wondering if there’s an opportunity for them to succeed, to make it to that rank, and then actually questioning the folks that are at the top: did they get there based on merit, or did they get there because they’re politically loyal?”

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Farrah TomazinPolitical Correspondent

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