Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth blasted Republican Rep. Thomas Massie’s impeachment push as a political attack Thursday, warning that the Kentucky lawmaker and his Democratic allies would not drive him from the Pentagon.
In a video posted on X, Hegseth called Massie “a disgruntled, defeated congressman” and accused his opponents of pursuing impeachment because they could not win policy arguments.
He compared the effort to Democrats’ two impeachments of President Donald Trump, portraying both as attempts to destroy political adversaries.
Hegseth insisted that attempts to remove him would fail just as Trump had survived his impeachment battles. He portrayed his opponents as driven by personal destruction instead of substantive disagreements about policy, and accused them of using political theater as a substitute for governing.
Massie had announced plans to force a vote on articles of impeachment against Hegseth. The congressman warned that his proposal would be comparatively mild once Democrats, who had just won control of both chambers in the midterms, assumed power.
At the War Department:
We Stand.
We Fight.
We Defend the Republic. pic.twitter.com/Kkr0DazmCE— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) November 5, 2026
Massie posted Thursday, “My Hegseth impeachment resolution is a much gentler version of what’s coming when Dem’s control Congress. They’ll have hearings & trials.”
The day before, Massie had named one circumstance under which he would abandon his effort. Hegseth could resign. Massie also argued that if Trump intended to replace Cabinet officials, he should act while Republicans could still confirm successors in the Senate.
The Democrats’ gains included congressional victories in Texas, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan and Maine, giving the party greater influence over investigations and committee agendas once the new Congress meets. The impeachment demands arrived just as Republicans were assessing the political consequences of the defeats.
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The clash exposed two directions of pressure on the defense secretary. Massie was prepared to challenge him from within the Republican Party, while Democrats viewed their congressional victories as an opportunity to demand answers about his leadership and the administration’s military decisions.
Critics have cited Hegseth’s removal of more than two dozen senior military officers, lethal operations against suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, and complaints that lawmakers were not adequately informed about the Iran war.
Those allegations have become central to calls for his departure, although demands for impeachment are not findings of misconduct.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries put the question directly in a Thursday social media post. “Why is Pete Hegseth still around?” he asked.
Jeffries had already warned in an interview the previous month that Democrats might take action if Trump refused to dismiss his Pentagon chief. He said he had called for Hegseth’s removal as early as spring 2025 and questioned whether the secretary was qualified to hold the position.
“Pete Hegseth needs to be pushed aside by the president, or we’re going to have to deal with that situation if he is not,” Jeffries told MS NOW.
A newly elected Democrat with military experience was even more explicit. Richard Ojeda, an Army veteran who defeated a senior Republican in North Carolina, answered “Absolutely” when CNN asked whether Hegseth should face impeachment.
Ojeda called for investigations into the administration’s overseas military operations and portrayed the Iran conflict as a war without an exit strategy. He argued that lawmakers should examine accountability once the incoming majority convened.
“We are committed to a war with no exit strategy,” Ojeda said. “There needs to be accountability for this, and I think that we are going to absolutely do that as soon as we get there.”
His criticism predated the election. After former Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigned, Ojeda accused Hegseth of damaging the military’s leadership culture. In an August post, he protested that troops should not be treated as props and invoked the service members he had lost in war.
“I carry the names of 13 brothers I lost in war tattooed on my body. I know exactly who pays the price when the people at the top screw up,” Ojeda wrote.
Despite mounting public demands for Hegseth’s removal, Trump offered a different message from the Oval Office Thursday. Asked about staffing changes, the president defended the defense secretary’s performance.
“Pete Hegseth has done a fantastic job,” Trump told reporters.
Trump had also criticized the impeachment calls the previous month, describing them as a Democratic fixation and praising Hegseth as an effective Pentagon leader.
But CBS News reported Wednesday that the president had privately asked advisers and allies whether the secretary should remain in office following the election defeats.
Questions about his future were compounded by speculation surrounding Tennessee’s vacant Senate seat. Reports suggested Hegseth had an interest in succeeding Marsha Blackburn and was pursuing the possibility privately. Trump indicated the defense secretary might be popular as a candidate but said he had heard nothing about such a plan.
An Associated Press account offered a contrasting picture. Citing an unnamed person familiar with private discussions, it reported that Hegseth was not being considered for the Senate position. The source dismissed the idea as “baseless chatter” and said Blackburn was focused on becoming governor.
Massie’s Senate-confirmation warning added urgency to the question of Hegseth’s future. Republicans would soon lose their current advantage in the upper chamber, he argued, making any replacement decision more complicated for Trump if it were postponed.
The Tennessee contest already had other possible contenders. Reps. Tim Burchett and Chuck Fleischmann, former Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs and former CoreCivic chief executive Damon Hininger were among the names being discussed for the seat.
