Vice President Vance on Tuesday forcefully rejected the impeachment drive against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, arguing that lawmakers are motivated by frustration over his aggressive overhaul of Pentagon bureaucracy rather than the ongoing military campaign in Iran.
"Has Pete Hegseth committed impeachable crimes? The question is absurd and the answer is: obviously not," Vance wrote on X, the social media platform. His remarks came as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) pushes for a House vote on impeachment articles later this week, a move that has split the GOP conference.
Vance accused Congress of resorting to impeachment instead of engaging in substantive policy debate. "Congress has so many tools for registering its policy disagreements. Rather than use them, they're going to try to impeach Pete Hegseth," he wrote. He drew a parallel to the repeated attempts to impeach former President Trump, arguing that "legislation is hard. Impeachments are easy (and ultimately, inconsequential)."
The vice president went further, asserting that the real grievance against Hegseth lies in his efforts to shift U.S. force posture away from Europe and Ukraine and to restructure the general officer corps. "The irony is that legislators are most angry at Pete on the issues where he's most correct," Vance wrote. "This isn't about Iran, this is about the fact that Pete took on the bureaucracy at the Pentagon."
Massie's impeachment articles include eight counts, alleging abuse of power in connection with the Iran war, the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and the extrajudicial killings of suspected drug smugglers in international waters. The measure's prospects remain uncertain, as Republicans control the House but face internal divisions.
The push comes on the heels of the GOP's significant losses in last week's midterm elections, widely interpreted as a referendum on Trump and his policies, including the war in Iran. Vance himself had previously attributed the party's defeat to the conflict. "The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night," he said in a lengthy post on X, a stance that some Republicans have echoed.
President Trump, however, has publicly stood by Hegseth, awarding him an "A+ PLUS, PLUS, PLUS" for his performance and dismissing Massie as a "TOTAL LOSER." Yet The Hill has reported that Trump has privately sounded out allies about Hegseth's standing, suggesting some uncertainty behind the scenes.
In a potentially stabilizing move, Trump has named longtime ally Stephen Miller as his new chief of staff. A senior administration official told NewsNation that Miller supports Hegseth, which could help shield the defense secretary from the impeachment effort. Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson has called Massie's bid "shameful," and at least one Republican, Rep. Don Bacon, has broken with Massie to oppose impeachment. Hegseth is also preparing for a rare Pentagon briefing as the political storm intensifies.
