The United States Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, has removed the seriousness this Monday from the eight articles of impeachment registered against him by the Republican congressman Thomas Massie for military operations in Iran and Venezuela, insisting that he is not "worried" about losing support in Congress.
"We’re not worried about that. I’ll tell you something, I actually hope they join us; we are going to hold a press conference tomorrow morning at the Pentagon on that same topic, so I’ll save my comments for then. I hope you come loaded with ammunition with your questions," Hegseth said to the press.
The response from the head of the Pentagon came just a few hours after the representative Thomas Massie formally filed a motion of censure in the House of Representatives in which he accuses him of initiating "an illegal war" against Iran and Venezuela by acting without the required authorization from Congress. President Donald Trump has quickly stepped in to defend him and has labeled Massie a "loser" on his social media.
"The defeated Republican congressman Thomas Massie, a total loser, is trying to remove from office the military officer who is perhaps the most popular and successful in the country, the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. With recruitment at a historic high (...) and two victories, Venezuela and Iran, Pete Hegseth should be praised, not subjected to impeachment," Trump has published, calling on Congress to "stand up for Pete."
Massie predicts the fall of Hegseth before December 31
With Trump’s backing, Massie has predicted that Hegseth will be removed from the post in the coming weeks and will not "make it to December 31." In statements to the CNN network, the congressman said that the current impeachment is an "amicable" initiative if compared to the offensive that, according to him, the Democrats will prepare when they assume control of the House of Representatives in January.
"I’m not proposing that he go to prison, nor am I proposing that he be exposed to civil liability. We’re just saying that he should be without a job right now," Massie explained, warning that the next Democratic Congress "will bring people who have served under Hegseth" and that "know things that are not public yet."
Massie has also responded to Trump’s criticisms of her political future by recalling that the president himself has “admitted that these two conflicts are wars, both the one in Venezuela and the one in Iran.” In this regard, she has emphasized that the impeachment trial is “exactly” about “Breaking the law and the Constitution” through “bombing operations” and “unconstitutional kidnappings.”
The dissident congressman has also predicted that part of the Republican Party will break party discipline and vote in favor of removal after the recent setback in the midterm elections, in which the Democrats have achieved a large majority in both chambers of Congress.
According to Massie, both the outgoing lawmakers and those who have renewed their seat by a narrow margin are now aware of their “political mortality” and are seeking to distance themselves from the wars promoted by the Administration. “I think they’re scared and they realize that in two years this could get even worse for President Trump and the war in Iran,” she has ruled.