Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) went off on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bizarre video defending the Iran war, and CNN’s Jake Tapper assured the lawmaker he didn’t need to hold back.
“Yeah, this is ridiculous,” Gallego said Thursday. “Like, if he wanted to make a good argument for him not to be impeached, he literally just doubled down and asked for an impeachment.”
Gallego called the video “just the most unprofessional — not swearing — word.”
“You can swear, it’s cable,” Tapper pointed out.
“Yeah, no, my mom’s watching,” Gallego responded.
Hegseth posted the video on Thursday after Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) threatened to introduce articles of impeachment against him.
“A disgruntled, defeated congressman, along with all his [Democratic] allies, has also dropped sham articles of impeachment against yours truly, just like they tried against President Trump twice,” Hegseth complained in the video.
He added that “regardless of how people feel about the war, which I believe is a courageous and historic effort that will ensure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon, we need to continue, as President Trump did in his first term, to rebuild our military.”
Gallego, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, suggested that Hegseth’s video betrayed the defense secretary’s prior career as a Fox News commentator.
“This is supposed to be the secretary of defense or secretary of war, right? You’re conducting a war right now, and then you’re reacting as if you’re on Fox News right now, a Fox News pundit, right? You know, get your stuff together, act professional,” he said.
Gallego told Tapper that Hegseth has prevented members of Congress from having any oversight over the war in Iran by refusing to provide “the full scope and information about what’s happening in this war.” Hegseth’s video shows he is playing a “partisan game,” the lawmaker said, when “clearly, the American public has just said that we don’t want more partisan games.”
Both Democrats and Republicans attributed this week’s “blue wave” midterm elections to the unpopularity of President Donald Trump’s war.
While Trump has stood behind Hegseth, The Washington Post reported that the president may be considering ousting Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or Adm. Brad Cooper, who has overseen the war.
Gallego said he was confident House members would support impeachment efforts against Hegseth, but he told Tapper it was “tough” to imagine the Senate getting fully on board.
However, he noted that even Republican senators who are allies of Trump are “frustrated they cannot actually get a handle [on] what’s going on here, and it is Pete Hegseth who is causing this to himself.”