Analysis. ‘This is sabotage’: Hegseth defends Iran war record after Republican launches impeachment attempt

US lawmakers are weighing whether to support a Republican congressman’s attempt to impeach Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

They will vote later on Tuesday to decide if the House of Representatives should move forward on Thomas Massie’s measure accusing Hegseth of waging war on Iran without congressional authorisation.

There was plenty of defiance and rhetorical venom from Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon today, as the under-pressure US defence secretary gave his first news conference in six months.

Much of his ire was directed at the Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, who has brought articles of impeachment against him.

But this was, in many ways, a news conference with an audience of one – President Donald Trump. Again and again, Hegseth tied his fate to that of the president.

But behind the defiance and these public demonstrations of loyalty to Trump, Hegseth is now in a much weaker political position.

All of this leaves this president with an impossible dilemma.

If he opts to keep his defence secretary, it risks looking as though he has not heard the message from voters. Fire him and it risks looking like an admission that the Iran war has become a damaging domestic liability.

Votes in Congress will be the focus on Tuesday as impeachment proceedings against Hegseth get under way. But in reality, it is the president’s feelings that will likely be the ultimate arbiter of Hegseth’s political fate.

Hegseth fights for his political life with appeal to Trump

Hegseth has frequently echoed the president’s rhetoric and public statements and he did it repeatedly on Tuesday. Attacks on the media, denunciations of political enemies and even reflecting the very words the president uses.

Referring to Trump’s 2019 impeachment over a call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, Hegseth described it as a « perfect phone call » – the exact formulation the president has used when discussing the issue.

But behind the defiance and these public demonstrations of loyalty to Trump, Hegseth is now in a much weaker position – and in a fight for his political life.

Republicans have just lost both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, with polls indicating the Iran war and its impact on voters’ pockets was at the heart of their unhappiness.

Vice-President JD Vance, meanwhile, has said bluntly that the war is why Republicans lost.

Asked this morning about the political consequences of the war and Vance’s comments, Hegseth avoided disagreeing openly with the vice-president. But he said the war was « not necessarily popular » but necessary – perhaps the closest he has come to accepting that Americans have soured on the enterprise.

World Opinion + Agencies