Hegseth Calls Impeachment Push a “Sham” as House Returns Monday

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth released a video on Thursday, Nov. 5, vowing to fight a House impeachment push. In it he called the effort a “sham” and defended the Iran war as “courageous and historic,” two days after Republicans lost control of Congress in midterm elections that Vice President JD Vance has blamed on the war, Reuters reported via CBC News.

The Hegseth impeachment fight starts quickly. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said Wednesday that he will reintroduce articles of impeachment when the House returns, and lawmakers are due back in Washington on Monday, according to NBC News. Democrats who will take control of both chambers in January have promised broader investigations of the Pentagon under Hegseth.

Hegseth’s message: ‘We will not back down’

The video ran several minutes and was posted on social media. In it, Hegseth listed policies he has ended at the department, including diversity programs, along with his firing of senior military leaders and the ban on transgender people serving in the military. He framed the criticism as proof that his approach was working. “You see, they attack me – they attack us – because we are effective. It’s not going to work. We will not back down,” he said, according to Reuters.

He went after Massie directly, without naming him. “A disgruntled, defeated congressman, along with all his Democrat allies, has also dropped sham articles of impeachment against yours truly, just like they tried against President Trump twice,” Hegseth said, as quoted by NBC News. He added: “It’s all about the politics of personal destruction. Didn’t work against President Trump, and it won’t work with me.”

Hegseth spent little time on the Iran war itself, NBC reported, even though the war is the main driver of the impeachment push. When he did address it, he tied it to his budget request. “Regardless of how people feel about the war, which I believe is a courageous and historic effort that will ensure Iran never gets nuclear weapons, we need to continue, as President Trump did in his first term, to rebuild our military,” he said, according to Reuters. He appealed to “patriotic” lawmakers to pass a funding request meant partly to cover the costs of the Iran war.

Massie’s impeachment push and the vote math

Massie lost his Republican primary after crossing Trump. He has offered Hegseth one way out. “There is one contingency in which I won’t reintroduce the articles of impeachment: Hegseth resigns,” he wrote on X on Wednesday, according to NBC News. On Thursday he added that his resolution is “a much gentler version of what’s coming when Dem’s control Congress. They’ll have hearings & trials.”

The current, lame-duck House is still under Republican control, so Massie would need several Republicans to join every Democrat for impeachment to pass. NBC noted that his attempt to force a vote in September stalled when Speaker Mike Johnson sent the House home early. Even if the House impeaches, conviction and removal would need a two-thirds vote in the Senate. No Cabinet member has ever been convicted. The House has impeached only two Cabinet officials: Secretary of War William Belknap in the 1870s and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, in a party-line vote.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is in line to become speaker, posted: “Why is Pete Hegseth still around?” Rep. Adam Smith, the Democrat expected to chair the House Armed Services Committee next year, has promised oversight of everything from the Iran war to what he called the erosion of the “apolitical foundation of the armed forces,” Reuters reported. Congressional aides told Reuters that Democratic investigations would include the firing of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Democrats could also look at Hegseth’s Ukraine policy and U.S. strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats in Latin American waters, which some Democrats say could amount to war crimes.

Trump backs Hegseth in public, with doubts in private

In public, President Donald Trump has stood by his defense chief. Asked Thursday in the Oval Office about staffing changes, Trump said Hegseth had “done a fantastic job.” He suggested the opposition came from Hegseth’s firing of generals: “We had so many generals. Everybody was a four-star general. I never saw anything like it. And many of those people were woke. I don’t like a woke general. And so, he probably has opposition.”

The reporting points to doubts behind closed doors. Two people familiar with the discussions told NBC News that Trump has asked some allies who should succeed Hegseth. One Trump adviser told Reuters that Hegseth “could be on the chopping block” because of the Iran war. The department has said Hegseth is “100 percent committed” to leading the Pentagon through the end of Trump’s term. Our earlier coverage details Vance’s remarks that the Iran war cost Republicans the midterms.

What it means for the $1.5 trillion defense push

The fight comes as the administration presses Congress for a $1.5 trillion defense spending package. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis told CBS News on election night that Hegseth has “a reckoning” coming and that his strained relationships with lawmakers were undermining that push, Reuters reported. In the video, Hegseth pressed lawmakers to fund the department now, while Republicans still hold both chambers.

That leaves a narrow window. Republicans keep their majorities until the new Congress is seated in January. After that, Democratic chairs will control subpoenas, hearings and the defense bills. For a wider look at what the new majority could change, see our analysis of what a Democratic Congress means for Trump’s foreign policy.

Sources

• CBC News / Reuters: Hegseth defends record as Pentagon chief, slams ‘sham’ push for his impeachment (Nov. 5, 2026)
• Reuters via The Economic Times: Hegseth vows to fight impeachment (Nov. 6, 2026)
• NBC News: Pete Hegseth strikes defiant tone in face of impeachment threat (Nov. 5, 2026)
• Air & Space Forces Magazine Daily Report (Nov. 6, 2026)