Facing an expected impeachment resolution in Congress, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he’s eager to litigate the policy choices that he and President Donald Trump have made in Iran and Venezuela.
Watch Hegseth’s remarks to reporters in the video player above.
“If you want to take issue with what we did in Epic Fury or Rough Rider or nabbing Nicolás Maduro, you’re taking issue with the troops and what they accomplished, which is historic,” Hegseth told reporters Monday.
WATCH: Hegseth speaks at the Naval War College as possible impeachment vote looms
He also announced that he would hold a news conference — his first in over 180 days — on the looming impeachment threat on Tuesday.
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Republican Rep. Thomas Massie has pushed the impeachment resolution forward over the objections of House GOP leadership as momentum grows to hold Hegseth accountable for the Iran war, which many Republicans blame for the party’s midterm election wipeout.
Asked about Vice President JD Vance blaming the Iran war for the massive GOP losses in the election, Hegseth noted that Trump said he would do it again, and “I agree.”
He repeated a line that Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters a day earlier, “It doesn’t have to be necessarily popular, but it can be necessary.”
He reiterated that “Iran is devastated” though the Islamic Republic has been able to keep striking military bases in the Middle East used by the United States, causing billions of dollars in damage, as well as commercial ships in the disputed Strait of Hormuz.
Hegseth said the war was necessary because “someone had to confront the Iranian regime’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon.”
