Follow-Up: Hegseth Vows in Video Message to Fight Impeachment: 'We Will Not Back Down,' Defends Iran War as 'Courageous and Historic'
Washington — U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth issued a video message on November 5 vowing to fight the impeachment effort against him in Congress and defending the decision to attack Iran. After Republicans suffered devastating losses in a midterm election widely interpreted as a public repudiation of the Iran war, Hegseth has become a focus of recrimination within his own party; Representative Thomas Massie has said he will reintroduce articles of impeachment when Congress returns on November 9. Filmed outside the Department of War, Hegseth said in the address: 'We don't back down, and that especially applies now. The next few months and years are critical for our department and our republic.'
Hegseth called the attack on Iran 'a courageous and historic effort that will ensure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.' He described Massie as a 'disgruntled, defeated congressman' who, with his Democratic allies, had dropped 'sham articles of impeachment against yours truly,' just as they had twice tried against President Trump, and called the effort 'the politics of personal destruction': 'It didn't work against President Trump, and it won't work with me.' He also boasted of firing senior Pentagon leaders, ending diversity initiatives and banning transgender individuals from the military, and reiterated his call for Congress to pass a reconciliation bill of at least $350 billion for the department. After the video went up, Hegseth aides flooded the social platform X with the same five-word caption: 'Stand. Fight. Defend the Republic.'
President Trump the same day again swatted away questions about whether he might fire Hegseth, saying he intends to keep him at the helm of the Pentagon. Massie's resolution, introduced in September, contains eight articles of impeachment accusing Hegseth of waging war on Iran without congressional authorization, among other acts; Massie has said the one contingency in which he would not reintroduce the articles is Hegseth's resignation. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell has said Hegseth is '100 percent committed' to leading the department until the end of Trump's term. The video was released only on Hegseth's official social media account, with no embeddable official-channel version available.
Related: Rep. Massie Says He Will Trigger an Impeachment Vote Against Hegseth Next Week
Related: Trump Says He Will Not Replace Secretary of War Hegseth
(Source: Reuters)
Source: Reuters
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：战争部长 Pete Hegseth 与参谋长联席会议主席 Dan Caine 在五角大楼举行记者会（2026年3月4日）。照片 CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine hold a press briefing at the Pentagon, March 4, 2026. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
