On Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did what he knows best and dropped a defiant, tough-talking video rant. Seeking to get ahead of an expected impeachment vote and a bipartisan effort to push him from power, Mr. Hegseth, America’s least qualified Pentagon leader ever, defended his record — and made sure to extol the virtues of his commander in chief.
“Just like the president, we don’t back down, and that especially applies now,” the former Fox News host said in the nearly six-minute video posted to social media. “The next few months and years are critical for our department and our Republic.”
It’s a generous timeline. Many in Washington believe Mr. Hegseth’s future leading the Defense Department can be counted in days. Since the blue tsunami of the midterms, pressure to remove him has built quickly inside and outside the administration. Democratic leaders, fresh from decisive victories across the nation, tell me they’re planning investigations and hearings of Mr. Hegseth’s actions when they take over in January. Well before all that — next week, in fact, when lawmakers return to Washington — articles of impeachment are expected to be filed against Mr. Hegseth by Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky.
The impeachment is largely symbolic: House Democrats believe they have enough G.O.P. votes to pass the resolution, before it most likely fails in the Republican-held Senate. But President Trump would be wise not to ignore it. Voters demonstrated their deep dissatisfaction over the war in Iran and its economic fallout by handing control of both chambers of Congress to Democrats. Not only does Mr. Hegseth lead that misguided and illegal conflict, but he’s also the loudest cheerleader for its continuation.
Elections have consequences, as the old maxim goes, and now is the time for Mr. Hegseth to move on. The defense secretary violated the principles of war planning in Iran by failing to anticipate — or recognize — the Strait of Hormuz’s closure and the energy market disruption that followed. Mr. Trump, who has thus far stood by his Pentagon chief, should take a page from U.S. history books: The morning after voters in the 2006 midterms put Democrats in control of Congress, partly over the mishandling of the Iraq war, President George W. Bush announced Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation.
Those were simpler times. Instead of receiving the message that Americans sent to Washington this week, Mr. Hegseth commandeered the Pentagon’s social media channels in a personal public relations blitz. “Why do the Democrats and the deep state radicals really hate us? Because we tore down their sacred cows one by one and without apology,” he said in the video. “We are more determined than ever — more resolute than ever — to finish what we have started.”
Nearly two years of these sorts of actions and rhetoric have recklessly shaken the armed forces’ foundational commitment to nonpartisanship and pulled the Pentagon into the culture wars. No other defense secretary has been so unabashedly political. Mr. Hegseth has consistently railed against “wokeness” within the ranks, he’s campaigned with Republican candidates in a departure from predecessors’ practice, and he’s ordered officers and aides to take polygraph tests to ensure loyalty.
Perhaps the only impressive element of Mr. Hegseth’s time in the administration is his resilience. Allegations about excessive drinking, sexual assault and a lack of relevant experience did not preclude his confirmation by a vote of 51 to 50 — the narrowest margin for a defense secretary in modern history. A few months later, he again put his escape artistry on display after he was found to have shared sensitive details about yet-to-be-launched military strikes on a commercial, unclassified messaging app. All of this took place while he was dismissing military leaders along ideological lines, a purge that was virtually without precedent.
Mr. Hegseth’s crusade to rid the Defense Department of diversity, equity and inclusion programs has served as a basis for the firings, without explanation, of many female and minority officers with pristine records. A total of more than 80 senior military officers, many battle tested and with decades of service, have been dismissed or blocked from promotion without cause. He inexplicably fired the Army chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, in April, and several months later, Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, the service’s top civilian leader, resigned after clashing with Mr. Hegseth. The Army’s now without permanent leaders during an active war.
“He has made it the most partisan, divisive Pentagon ever,” Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, told me in an interview this week. “He has led us into a conflict in the Middle East that has been an endless disaster. He has not been transparent and honest about it. He has gutted the officer corps based on loyalty, not on capability. I think all those things make him the worst defense secretary we’ve ever had.”
Republican lawmakers have failed to provide a check on any of it. They have not called on Mr. Hegseth to explain his purging of military officers and senior leaders. The Iran war has dragged on for eight months without congressional consent. The full price tag to taxpayers, and the extent of damage to American bases across the Middle East, is not fully known. So far, at least 23 U.S. service members have died and more than 850 others have been wounded in the war, but how these casualties occurred largely remains a mystery. The Pentagon has not released information on deaths and injuries in a timely and typical way.
All of this is unacceptable in a democracy. Mr. Smith said he plans to get answers to these questions if, as is expected, he takes over next year as the House Armed Services Committee’s chairman. He also made clear that the Democrats’ first order of business will be applying pressure on the White House to find a diplomatic solution in Iran.
Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he believes a chastened G.O.P. will be more open to finding an endgame to the war — and nudging Mr. Hegseth toward the exits. “So much of the election turned on Iran and the collateral damage done to oil prices,” he said. “I think people make the connection between the president, Hegseth and Iran. It’s not going well.” Ousting Mr. Hegseth might be that correction, he said.
The first test of that theory will come next week when Mr. Massie reintroduces articles of impeachment, accusing the Pentagon chief of abusing his office by waging a war without congressional approval, among other actions. He first tried in September, but Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana adjourned the House instead of risking a vote. Even if Mr. Massie’s effort to remove the secretary from office fails as expected, the next Congress already has its sights on Mr. Hegseth.
Republican support also seems to be waning. It is not implausible that Mr. Trump ultimately changes his mind and pulls support for him; he’s reversed course with other senior advisers who failed to win the public over. Mr. Hegseth’s removal would be a start to show the armed services, the country and the world that leaders are held accountable for their actions. It’s also time to expose the facts hidden from public view about the decisions and intelligence that went into going to war. The findings should be made public so the nation can avoid finding itself in this rudderless and perilous position again.
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