Desperate Hegseth Lashes Out Amid Impeachment Efforts | Command Post

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Yeah. So obviously the context for all of this is that Pete Hegseth is very likely to be impeached by the House of Representatives today, tomorrow, sometime this week. The House is coming back into session for the lame duck session after the midterms. And there are articles of impeachment on the table that the House has to vote on. That's the way the procedure works. This is why the House didn't get a bunch of votes done before they left to go campaign, because there's this Hegseth impeachment thing they have to vote on. And Hegseth clearly has his backup. He released that six-minute sort of direct-to-camera social media video all about how he's never going to back down from a fight. And now he has this news conference, which is really all about the effort to impeach him. And we'll talk a lot about it. But yeah, so you could really tell how cornered he feels by the fact that he felt, as you said, like he had to warn the assailants. He assembled Pentagon media, which is handpicked by him, basically, all MAGA outlets, not to ask tough questions. Really, yet another piece of evidence this administration doesn't know how to deal with allies. These are their allies in the media, and they're trying to bully them. Here are the organizations Hegseth took questions from. Ready? One America News, Real America's Voice, The Daily Wire, Fox News, The Daily Signal, and The Washington Times. You know what I'm thinking, just as soon as you brought that up, is how come Tim Miller can't get into the Pentagon press pool? That would be kind of interesting, don't you think? I would pay to see that. Okay, go ahead. I'm sorry. I interrupted with a little humor there. No, no, no. I think it's time we get into some of the things that Hegseth actually said. So we're just going to dive through these in no particular order. We're not going to make you watch the whole thing, but some of these we just have to talk about. So let's start with not high crimes, if we could. Thank you, Matt. Make no mistake about what is happening. This is not about me. Politicians in Washington have accused the sailors and the pilots who struck narco-terrorist boats of war crimes for doing their job. Senators in cute videos have suggested the same. This resolution is the next step. Put the secretary on trial today. And the men and women who carried out those orders tomorrow. If they want to come for the warriors, they're going to have to come through me. As for the articles themselves, Iran, the cartels, Maduro, Yemen, everyone was a lawful operation ordered by the commander in chief, then ordered by myself, notified to Congress and executed by American, who did their jobs. We destroyed terror regimes capabilities. We sank the boats carrying poison into our communities. We put a narco dictator in handcuffs. These are not high crimes. This is the job. So yeah, let me tear that apart real quick. You're getting my ire up immediately. First of all, no one is accusing sailors and soldiers of illegal activity. They are actually suggesting that there were illegal orders given. And here's the point. He also made kind of the comment that these were operations ordered by the president and then ordered by me. That's the way the chain of command works. But I would insert a caveat in there. Something that's ordered by the president that results in an illegal action that is further ordered by the secretary of defense without the secretary and the chairman saying, hey, Mr. President, we can't do that. I know you want to do this, but it would be illegal. It violates international law. It violates U.S. law. It violates the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So maybe we need to work our way around that and maybe not do the kinds of things you're asking us to do that could result in extrajudicial killings. And that's one of the articles, one of the eight articles in impeachment that is being submitted by Congressman Massey. So there's some dysfunction in describing that. And that particular clip sets the stage for a lot more dysfunctional descriptions that the secretary used during this entire press conference. But make no mistake about it. I have not seen personally, maybe you can correct me on this. I have not seen one news organization, one pundit on TV, one self-described critic say that the soldiers and sailors are doing anything wrong. They are concerned about how these wars are being conducted and what our military is being asked to do. I'll stop there. No, I think that's right. I mean, this is one of the most infuriating things Hegseth does. And that's a competitive list, is constantly hide behind the people in uniform. It is really disgusting. He cowers behind them. He doesn't hide, he cowers behind them. Absolutely. One who cowers is a coward. And he constantly, whenever he feels like he's politically in trouble, he says, well, it's not me thereafter. It's the troops. No, it's not. No, it's not. It's you. It's just you, man. And like, okay, to be totally fair and completely generous, there is a line of argument where you could say, if the orders that the president gave, and then Secretary Hegseth transmitted and went all the way down the chain of command, if those orders were illegal, members of the military have a duty to disobey legal orders. So in theory, if those orders were illegal, then someone carried out illegal orders. And that's a big problem. And, you know, there should be consequences for that. But right now, no one is doing that. No one's talking about that. It's just articles of impeachment. So he's automatically saying, well, you know, they're coming for me because they're going to, no, they're not. They're coming for you because you're the Secretary of Defense and you need to be held responsible. And the cowering behind people below him, beneath him in the chain of command is just, it's, it's despicable. Yeah, I agree. So speaking of extrajudicial killings, he, he talked about that too. If we can, if we can play no civilians targeted, please, that as to the claim that the american military targets civilians well that is a lie and that is a slander against every professional who flew sailed and fought on these missions the only people who target civilians are the terrorists that we hunt and i will dignify this claim no further so go ahead i'm just gonna say yeah there really isn't an argument that the way hegseth has conducted military operations hasn't led to unnecessary civilian death we know that's true you can look at just the example of the girls school that was struck with a missile at the beginning of the iran war you can look at just the example of the girls school that was struck with a missile at the beginning of the iran war whether that was just a terrible accident as happens in war because there was a flub with a uh you know with a with a database uh maintained by the department of defense or whether that was the result of a really shoddy and haphazard planning process is the kind of thing that you know an investigation would figure out and that investigation could be an impeachment trial in the senate but right but hegseth's hegseth's design hegseth's insistence that like oh there's just no credible argument here that's just not right and that doesn't even count the boat strikes where we ran an article in the bulwark they are they are by the department of defense's own admission they are striking boats in the eastern pacific and the caribbean sea where they suspect neither drugs nor weapons are on board right and the secretary of defense gave an order for no quarter right which in and of itself violates the law of war uh let's go to the girl school a second and i i think what he was talking about uh when he was concluding that people were accusing the military of of purposely doing that um you know the first of all the strike uh on the uh the shajira tayyibi elementary school in manab southern iraq near the strait of her moves conducted on the 28th of february had significant casualties 156 or 50 100 57 uh school children the weapon identified was a u.s tomahawk cruise missile uh it was a building that was located adjacent to an irgc core naval institution but recently ben the un concluded that they had they had an international independent fact-finding mission and they concluded that the school was identifiable as a civilian's facility and there was no evidence being used that being used for military purposes they also concluded that the school building itself was the intended point of impact of the weapon system they in the third case they found reasonable grounds to believe that the united states acted recklessly now again that me that could mean that there was a huge targeting error or they didn't update their intelligence capability but there's still problems with this strike and what the pentagon has said since the february 28th incident was they are still looking at it so you know there has been no hey there's no been there's been no preliminary report there's been no instance of saying boy we really screwed up like by the way what happened many times in afghanistan there was a at least an admission of screwing up that has not happened and you add that to the the commentary you just mentioned about the boat strike there were some pretty obvious targets in terms of boats that were not only struck once but twice uh giving the no quarter uh command that they were given by the secretary of defense those are all very very questionable orders and they point to extrajudicial killings in the boat strike incident and failure to take accountability in the school incident so you know what i'd say is okay an impeachment trial would bring those kind of things up and one of the things i would personally hope for since we've talked about it so much in terms of the boat strikes is where's admiral horsley the former south com commander let's bring him in and ask him why he chose retirement when those operations were going on that was not something he was directed to do that was something he chose to do so it tells me that this commander has a problem with some of the things that were happening in that particular area and that alludes exactly to the article five the impeachment uh articles that congressman massey put forward there's a um there's a little bit of a mob boss element to this uh i want to get into that a little bit can we play i'm gonna go a little bit out of order here matt sorry can we play uh media hates the troops please the media can just never admit the military success because they you hate the president more than you love our country or our troops and you know he also said i wrote down some of these clips he said that um thomas massey who brought these impeachment articles is trying to do damage to the warriors and that uh he's putting a target on their backs again this is this is hiding behind the troops that we just talked about uh but also it's the mob boss element is how to how to put this he's giving orders to the military to do things that are not good for the people that are of questionable legality and even more questionable morality which in some in some ways is a way to your topic and then he's saying well now they're going to come after you unless unless you know unless i stand up to the impeachment so you know it it's that uh it's like that mob initiation where like you know you have to commit a crime before you get in and then you're all in it together right because if one of you goes down all of you goes down that's that's sort of hegseth's defense here right is that you know no no one committed a crime because if they come after me they're going to come after you too so we're all standing together and saying insisting that everything was perfect hey it's the this the the utter disdain for even the concept of accountability it's it's it's not great is it no well and that clip you just paid played was one of the the the the several that i kind of said holy smokes because he is deflecting toward uh not only the u.s citizens believing the military is not good which isn't the case at all uh there has been a decline in in belief in the military as a solid institution but he also included allies in that and you know i'm no sort i'm no sarah longwood been longwell ben but i have conducted an informal focus group with some of my former european allies about the actions of the and many of them many of them the great majority have said and it hasn't been a scientific study so i won't go into that but many of them have said we cannot understand how a military that is so grounded in values and character development and ethos is doing the kind of things now that seem questionable so when secretary hegseth says that we're damaging our our institutions in the eyes of our allies that's not just true uh or that's just not the case and it it points to the fact that an investigation on some of these things are necessary to show people that we still aspire to live by the rule of law we are going to get a little bit more into the politics of this uh because we're talking about impeachment and police impeachment is a political process and this is where i think what he said gets really interesting but we're going to do that after we take a short break this message is brought to you by zocdoc so i love this time of year between the cooler weather the football season all the holidays and everything that comes with fall and then winter it just feels like there's always something fun around the corner whether it's getting together with friends traveling to see family or just enjoying the outdoors there's so much i don't want to miss the last thing i want is to be sidelined because i've put off caring for myself the reality is when life gets busy like it is during this election season making time for your health can easily fall to the bottom of the to-do list and finding a doctor or an appointment that works with 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president jd van says the iran war was a major reason why the republicans lost in the midterms do you agree uh i respect the vice president greatly and i'm certainly not going to to exchange in any finger pointing. And thankfully, politics is not really my thing. I do the Department of War and making sure we're prepared and ready. So a lot of people are going to look at the conflict and assess it. And the vice president has been a critical member of the team in every aspect of this. And we're grateful for all the input he's given me personally and our department. And I think going forward, we're going to learn all those lessons and apply them. But I agree with what the president said when he said, hey, if I had to do this all over again, would we do it again? Absolutely. It was done for the right reasons to ensure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon there. As Marco Rubio said, I think quite well, it's not necessarily popular, but it may have been necessary. And that's certainly how I feel it was a necessary undertaking. OK, so I just I want to I want to brag for you for a second, because saying if you're the secretary of defense, politics is not really my thing is. Not the brag that Hegseth thinks it is. As you pointed out in an article back in January 2025, before Hegseth's confirmation hearing, one of the jobs of the secretary of defense is to be a civilian member of the president's cabinet and to work with Congress and to work with politicians and a little bit to be a politician. And so, yeah, politics kind of should be your thing. And later, in an answer to a different question, Hegseth talked about all the times he's worked with Congress and other members of the administration and how great a relationship he's had with the president. And I think that's a really good point. He said he had worked with Republican members of Congress and the Senate. He didn't say the Congress or the Senate. He said the Republican members, which is exactly the opposite of what you want in a bipartisan Department of Defense that is meant to secure the American people writ large. You're not supposed to care about which side. But you do play politics because you have to, you know, basically play the political game with some members of Congress that you don't like. Totally right. You just had a recent piece just yesterday posted on the Bulwark, Pete Hegseth's failure to learn. Even members of his own party have become dissatisfied with his performance, which is basically going back to that article you wrote in January 2025 about all the different jobs the secretary of defense has and what a really complicated, difficult job it is to do. And going through and saying, like, yeah, here is what the challenge was, is that we have to play the political game with some members of Congress that you don't like. In front of Hegseth when he took this job. And here is how he has, fair to say, failed to grow into the role, failed to appreciate what the job actually entails. We've talked a lot about how he spends his time on things like, you know, testosterone supplements and not a lot of time on things like working with the opposite party in Congress and maintaining alliances. What I'd say, Ben, is the whole purpose of that article was to talk about learning and growing in a position. No one is prepared for the role of secretary of defense from what I could see. There are few people in the universe that can successfully walk into that job and be first rate. There are going to be mistakes. You are going to learn and grow as you go. Secretary Hegseth, in my view, has not done that. He still is acting like a second lieutenant platoon leader. And it is strategic in nature. The job is in terms of building alliances, building influence, inspiring people to do the things that are right for the people. And that's why the title of the article is he has failed to learn and adapt to the position. Instead, he has gone deeper and deeper into hubris and the style that he's comfortable with, which is not what the American people need. I should also just add here that the claim itself, politics is not really my thing, is false. I would maybe even go so far as to say it's a lie. Just to take a couple examples here. In August, a couple of months ago, Hegseth appeared at a fundraiser at the Iowa State Fair supporting Representative Zach Nunn, a Republican. So on the campaign stump, supporting a Republican in his reelection bid in an election year. And then in May, just a little earlier this year, he went to Kentucky to campaign for Ed Galrain, the Republican challenging in a primary, Thomas Massey, who brought the articles of impeachment. And he even said that in the speech today. He said, and Thomas Massey is a loser. And even he was defeated by someone in a Republican who, by the way, is a Navy SEAL. Who cares that he's a Navy SEAL? Galrain from Adam. But who gives a heck about all that? You know, that's politics. That is actually a hatchet violated by a member of Congress. That's a good point. By a member of the cabinet. Here is what I do want to say, which is, Hegseth has no idea what he's doing, running a war. As you say, the strategic level considerations seem to be, let's say, not his favorite pastime. The tactical level, you know, I commanded a platoon and here's how I wish I could treat all the people who have a higher rank than I do. That seems to be where he likes spending his time. But this, an impeachment is a political fight. It is a quasi-judicial process, but really it's about politics. And this is where Hegseth is at home, right? He is at home making everything into a political fight, into a partisan fight, into an us versus them fight. And I, well, I think we can get a couple tastes of that, or if we can play a couple clips back to back. First, Matt, if we could play Rogue Congressman, and then Trump's D.O.W., these are both pretty short, and we'll get a taste of how Hegseth is as a political fighter. And then, you know, I think we can get a couple tastes of that, and then Trump's D.O.W., these are both pretty short, and we'll get a taste of how Tells them that a single rogue legislator loaded with personal animus for the president can attempt to veto national security decisions made by the duly elected commander-in-chief. It puts a target on the backs of American warriors by signaling that Congress will undermine their missions in real time. This is not patriotism. This is sabotage. And that is a phrase that Secretary Hegseth has repeated many times. It doesn't belong to the president, and yet that is the nuanced message both the president and the Secretary of Defense and other members of the administration give about the various agencies of the U.S. government. rogue or not. Second, if these articles of impeachment pass, it will be because a majority of the House of Representatives passed them. So by definition, not rogue, by definition in the majority, if these articles pass, which I expect they will, does that allow Congress to veto national security decisions made by the duly elected commander in chief? Yes. Yes, it does, because that's what's in the Constitution. Congress has the authority to declare war. Congress has the authority to approve treaties in the Senate. Congress has the authority to raise an army and a navy. And if Congress wanted, they could get rid of the army and navy like that tomorrow. They are also duly elected. Why one congressman is rogue when the commander in chief is duly elected is beyond me. They're all elected except Hexeth isn't. One of the things, if I can add to that, Ben, too, you know, we keep going back to the Congress and the number of people in the Congress that either. Are or are not voting for or will or will not vote for this. But we got to also remember the Congress of the United States, every single one of those Congress people represent U.S. citizens. Yeah. And it appears to me, based on what I've seen in terms of polling, that most of America doesn't like the things that Secretary Hexeth is doing. So this isn't the action of just one rogue congressman. This is a congressman represent representing his constituents. And we'll see how the vote goes down probably tonight. We'll see the idea that he said that for for Congress to want to impeach a. Regardless of why little let's say the reasons were stupid. Let's say Congress had the worst possible reasons for wanting to impeach a member of the cabinet, that it wasn't patriotism. It's sabotage. Sorry, dude. Congress is part of the government. If they want to do it, it's not sabotage. It might be bad policy. It might be bad judgment. They might be wrong. But Congress is Article one of the Constitution, my friend. Yeah, that's what I was just going to say. Article one says they can do that. And it's not sabotage, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Play by the rules. This is the conditions of the battlefield, dude. And when you were appointed as the secretary of defense, you better understand conditions of the battlefield, whether they're on the ground or whether they're in that big Capitol building. Right. Well, unfortunately, I think he does, because. This entire effort, this the video we put out on social media, this press conference, the way he's the way he's comporting himself. is all designed to, pardon the appropriation of the phrase, rally the troops politically. And in this case, it's just one troop he cares about. And it appears it worked. There were reports earlier this week that President Trump, after the midterms, was shopping around the idea of maybe we'll let Pete Hegseth go. The rumors that he might be appointed by Marshall Blackburn, the governor-elect of Tennessee, to fill the Senate seat that she just vacated got so intense that she had to put out a statement saying, I'm not going to appoint Pete Hegseth to be the senator from Tennessee. Well, after Hegseth's speech today, this is what Donald Trump had to say. He said, Pete Hegseth gets an A+++, that's spelled out plus, in case you're listening, not watching, for his defense against a disgruntled, angry, defeated former congressman, Thomas Massie, a total loser. That was the endorsement of the president. Because, you know, I think Hegseth, as I said, this is where his skill set really lies. He understands that it's not important to say that he's going to do a better job. It's not even important to prove that he's done, rather than just assert that he's done a good job. What's important is to make it an us versus them, you know, allies and enemies kind of battle. Not against the actual enemies of this country, but just against the other parties. And that works with this president. So at least he's got the president's support. Yeah, across the board, you're right. But again, I'd say the president's support today does not mean the president's support tomorrow. It could get ugly, right? That's true. That is true. And, you know, if this impeachment passes, then there's going to be a trial in the Senate. And I imagine Hegseth will have to show up for that. And he'll have to get someone to represent him. And there will be. I'm eager to see what the new Congress might do with impeachment managers. I assume it'll be the new Congress. But there will be a case to be made for why Hegseth should no longer be Secretary of Defense. Before we go. Winning never sounded so good. What would you do if you won big? At Crown Coins Casino, real people win real prizes every single day. Hi, this is Michael from Dallas, and I won $40K and finally renovated my home. Visit crowncoins.com. Sign up in seconds. Enter. Code CROWN and get a free Lucky Wheel bonus. You may win up to 10,000 Sweeps coins. crowncoins.com. That's C-R-O-W-N coins.com. No purchase needed. Code valid for new users only. Void where prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. Crown Coins Casino. You had a great historical insight that I overlooked that I think we should share. Oh. Which is Hegseth claimed that no Secretary of War or Secretary of Defense in the history of the country had ever been impeached. And you said, well, that's sort of true. But not really. Could you explain? Yeah. There was a guy named William Belknap in 1872, I think, in the Grant Administration who was accused of taking bribes and some extortion schemes he was involved with while building forts in the western part of our country. And he was put up for impeachment. And one day before the impeachment vote, which indicated he was going to be impeached, Secretary Belknap saw the white writing on the wall and said, I'm out of here, and basically resigned. So he could not be impeached. But he was a Secretary of War that was ready to suffer the consequences of some actions based on him, you know, giving, allowing, let's just say, contractors to put their beak into some of the funding that was going out of our Department of War. I don't know. Is it coincidental? I got to tell you. I got to tell you, Ben, I'm currently watching the great HBO and BBC 2008 production of Saddam. And the analogies are fascinating between Uday and Kusei, as well as the rest of the Saddam's administration and how he got into power. It's just, to me, deja vu all over again, as Yogi Berra once said. Ooh, I'm not going to. Is that harsh? I'm just going to, I can only guess who Uday and Kusei are. I think Kusei, these spoiled fail sons of the Saddam regime might be, I'm not going to make you say it out loud. I think everyone. You have, you have a little baby, you have a little baby, so you can't watch, you can't stream shows on the weekend or in the weeknight. So if you get a chance, though, it's a pretty interesting dynamic because it's a pretty good film. No, I do want to watch it. We had originally planned to spend this week talking about the new Congress and what it might mean for oversight and maybe impeachment hearings and also funding and all sorts of things. What happens when the Congress changes? We're going to have to talk about that later because we do want to talk about the outcome of the midterms. But first, right before we wrap up, tomorrow is Veterans Day, Veterans Day. Anything you'd like to say about Veterans Day, which is coming up tomorrow? Well, it is one of my favorite holidays of the year, Ben, believe it or not. And I learned a lot about it over four decades in service, 41 years in the, in the 42 years in the military. But what I'd say is I did a early Veterans Day speech at one of our local towns here in Florida last Friday. And it was fascinating to me, the number of people that were in the audience that I knew from previous assignments that had come up to me and served with me in combat or in peacetime. And, and there is that bonding of those who provide selfless service to the country. Uh, it is really fascinating. And my message to them was to remember. What they learned in the military about their individual values, ethics, and character, but also how they form team for the teams for the greater good. That's why I'm, I'm so upset when the secretary says something like, no, you know, people are accusing the soldiers and sailors of doing things. That's not what they do. They do things for the best reasons for our country. And it's an honor to be associated with other, with fellow veterans across the force. Uh, but it's also. Neat to celebrate that particular day, but I'd ask all Americans who thank a veteran. Don't forget to thank their families too, because behind every veteran is somebody that's doing the T-ball games while their veteran is deployed and going singularly as single mothers or fathers to a baseball game or a dance recital or whatever. And those supporters and family members of the veterans are also important. So thank them as well. You know, I, I want to ask you, I've heard it. There's this phrase, thank you for your service. That is, you know, polite, but, you know, kind of distant, a little hackneyed. So if you don't want to just say, you know, thank you for your service, which sort of ends the conversation right as it begins, what is sort of a nice thing to say to a veteran on veterans day that, you know, establishes a little more of a connection. Uh, I, you know, it is kind of a hackneyed response and what I usually respond or a greeting, but how I usually respond is we all serve. In some way, uh, you don't have to wear a uniform to serve our country. And, and that's what I truly believe that all of us should be working as hard as we can to uphold the rule of law, uh, the Liberty and the freedoms that we've been given the constitution that every person that's wearing a uniform or that's a civilian clothes in government says they, they, uh, will support and defend. Uh, so, uh, you know, it's fine to say, thank you for your service. Uh, I I'd like to start hearing folks say, thank you for representing all of us on the world stage. Uh, that's, that's the better way to go because that reinforces what, uh, veterans are supposed to do in terms of representing who America is with the rule of law and their liberties. Um, anyway, that's, that's it. And what I'd like to say next is just happy veterans day to everyone who has worn the uniform or who has supported them. And thanks for bringing this up at the very end. And I think I'll have a piece out tomorrow morning with some stories in it, uh, about veterans day on the bulwark. Yeah. We're looking forward to that. Happy veterans day and, uh, tune in next week for another, unless something crazy happens, we do another emergency episode. Tune in next time for another command post general. Thank you as always. Thanks, Ben. Appreciate it. It's great to be with you. What would you do if you want big at crown coins casino, real people win real prizes every single day. Hi, this is Chelsea from Dallas. I just hit the jackpot. One over 1,500,000 K visit crown coins.com. Sign up in seconds, enter code crown and get a free lucky wheel bonus. You may win up to 10,000 sweeps coins, crown coins.com. That's C R O W N coins.com. No purchase needed. Code valid for new users. 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