Will Secretary Pete Hegseth pay the price for the Iran war?

It's considered this, where every day we go deep on one big news story. Today, Pete Hegseth faces an impeachment vote. Republican Representative Thomas Massey of Kentucky filed a resolution to impeach the Defense Secretary on the House floor on Monday. Resolved to that Peter Bryan Hegseth, Secretary of Defense, also referred to as Secretary of War by the administration, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, eight articles on all, including ignoring Congress's authority to declare war, extrajudicial killings at sea, and kidnapping a sovereign foreign leader. Hegseth has called the articles a sham. Well, there's a lot of politically motivating people who may have substantial policy disagreements but their disagreements are with success. Needless to say, not everyone sees Hegseth's tenure as a success, even among Republicans. The Iran War continues to push up fuel prices with no end in sight. And opposed to by the midterms on X, Vice President Vance put it bluntly. The reason we lost is the war. So even though Republicans still control the House until January, Hegseth could face a real reckoning. Here's Congressman French Hill of Arkansas on CBS's Face the Nation. Well, you know, I want to hear the debate on it to see if it merits impeachment versus some other disciplinary action or action by the President if he's not getting the job done. Consider this. Hegseth has been the face of the administration's war in Iran. Well, it cost him his job. From NPR, I'm Scott Tetrell. Consider this from NPR. This pending impeachment vote is really two stories. One is the midterm rebuke of this administration and its war in Iran. The other is the string of controversies that Pete Hegseth has courted as Pentagon chief. We want to talk about both. So I am joined by NPR Congressional reporter Sam Greenglass and Tom Bowman who covers the Pentagon for NPR. Welcome to you both. Hello. Sam, let me start with you. What do we know about these articles of impeachment filed against the secretary? What specifically is he being accused of? Okay. So we're talking about eight articles of impeachment, three deal with the war in Iran, accusing Hegseth of circumventing or ignoring Congress's authority to wage war. Another targets strikes in Yemen. That mass he says we're unlawful and others deal with the strikes on alleged drug boats, retaliation against Senator Mark Kelly, who encouraged members of the military to question unlawful orders, and then the seizure of former Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro. Even though we've had a historic amount of impeachment over the past decade, it's still an arcane process. Walk us through what happens now. House Republican leadership could try to stave this off by having a vote to kick the articles to committee or to table them. If they do move to actually vote on the substance here, it would have to happen by Wednesday at the latest. And mass he says he doesn't know if there are enough votes to impeach, but he really only needs a couple of Republicans, which is totally possible. Now if Hegseth is impeached in the House, it's up to the Senate to hold a trial, and over there, it would take 67 senators to convict, which is a very high bar. And just a reminder, Republicans still control the House and the Senate, all of those big electoral wins from the other week. Don't take effect until January. Yep. Tom, how has the Pentagon responded? Well, Secretary Hegseth knew this was coming. He put out a five-minute video last week standing in front of the Pentagon, calling them sham impeachment articles from a disgruntled Republican congressman. He compared himself to President Trump, who was impeached, of course, on tourcation, saying this opposition came because he's trying to make changes at the Pentagon. Hegseth and his team have put out social media posts with one saying in bold words, stand, fight, defend the Republic. And Scott also this short video released yesterday, saying opposition to him was just politics. Let's listen. To the troops, don't blink, ignore the noise, never hesitate. You see, all this is politics. You do real things to stay the course. Well, it's more than just politics. The impeachment really centers, as Sam said, on the Iran War and how it was handled and how concerns like Iran taking over the strait of her moose were brushed aside, even though Scott for decades, military planners knew this was something they had to prevent. Hegseth was a chief cheerleader for the war, and that unfinished war led to Democrats taking control of Congress, with, of course, the high gas and fertilizer prices at anger, the electorate. Hegseth said seven months ago, U.S. achieved victory, but American negotiators are still trying to find a way to end this ongoing war. Also tomorrow, Hegseth is set to hold his first Pentagon press briefing in six months. You can expect that to be another aggressive defense of himself and attacks on the impeachment effort. Six months. Wow. Sam, the likely next speaker of the House to keep Jeffries has said that he would vote for Hegseth's impeachment. Here he is on ABCs this week. I'm a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution. The so-called Secretary of Defense has abused his power, undermined our national security, and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran, which has skyrocketed prices on the American people and made the country less safe. Pete Hegseth has got to go. Again, Democrats are going to have a huge house majority next year, and a pretty substantive Senate majority as well, any sense whether they could try again or have better luck next year with those numbers. Yeah. I mean, impeaching Hegseth in a house run by Democrats will be pretty easy, and in a Democrat-controlled Senate, Democrats would be expected to run a robust trial, they'd call witnesses, and as he says he thinks there is a better shot then, at getting those 67 votes, it would still be an uphill climb. Tom, stepping back, Hegseth has been leading the Pentagon since President Trump returned to office, and this is a tenure that has been marked by so much upheaval. Tell us about just some of the controversies at the Department of Defense. Well, Scott, first of all, his tenure was controversial from the start. He was only confirmed because Vice President Vance cast the tie-breaking vote. There were questions about the lack of experience, marital infidelity, excessive drinking. He shared sacred information in the first couple of months about U.S. airstrikes in Yemen that the Pentagon-inspected general said could have endangered service members had this information been intercepted. But it was really Hegseth firing of more than two dozen generals and admirals. Many of them, black and female officers, that led to concerns by lawmakers. And I think the last straw, for many, was he got rid of the Army leader, General Randy George, highly respected by both parties. The person that really matters here is President Trump in terms of whether Hegseth keeps his job. Sam, Trump does still appear to support him? Yeah, I mean, it sounds like it. Here's what Trump said at the White House this afternoon. What has Hegseth done? He won the war. He was in charge. He won the war in Venezuela. As I said, 48 minutes. It was flawless. Nobody killed. And he certainly, I think, he's won the war in Iran, but he's certainly winning the war. Iran would love to make a deal. I mean, Sam, if Hegseth is not impeached or if he survives a trial, any sense of how much much longer he could last given all this. I mean, who can predict? But remember, Trump also said he had confidence in former Attorney General Pampondi, former Homeland Security, Secretary Christie Nome, until he didn't, and they were both ousted in the end. And it's got it's important to note, some people like to talk with Hegseth is in a much better position now that Stephen Miller, who's close to him, has become White House chief of staff. Of course, it depends on whether more and more Republicans sour on Hegseth and join Democrats in pressure, the president, to find someone else. That's NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman and NPR Congressional reporter Sam Greenglass. Thanks so much. You're welcome. This episode was produced by Catherine Fink and Connor Donovan with Audio Engineering by Ted Meebay. Our director is Jonas Adams, and was edited by Larry Kaplow, Jason Breslow, and Tim Beat Hermes. Our executive producer is Courtney Dorning. consider this from NPR, I'm Scott Detro.