Hegseth Answers Impeachment Push With Video Vow Not to Back Down and Call for $350 Billion in Defense Funding

Two days after Democrats won both chambers of Congress, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth answered the impeachment push against him directly for the first time, in a video posted to X on Thursday, Nov. 5.

Filmed outside the Department of War, the video runs nearly six minutes. "We don't back down. And that especially applies now," Hegseth said.

The video

Hegseth did not name a single charge in Rep. Thomas Massie's articles. He attacked the messenger instead.

"A disgruntled, defeated congressman along with all his Democrat allies has also dropped sham articles of impeachment against yours truly, just like they tried against President Trump twice," he said. "Didn't work against President Trump, and it won't work with me."

He called the effort "the politics of personal destruction." He also defended the Iran war as a "historic and courageous effort," regardless of "how people feel" about it.

He credited himself with ending diversity initiatives at the Pentagon, removing military leaders and rebuilding recruitment. "We ended the weird and the woke and elevated patriots in strength," he said. He also blamed former President Joe Biden and former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for leaving the department in disarray.

The $350 billion ask

The video doubled as a funding pitch. Hegseth urged Congress to pass a reconciliation bill of at least $350 billion to rebuild the military and the defense industrial base. "We need every vote from every patriotic member of Congress," he said.

That is taxpayer money, and the request arrives while the Iran war he championed is blamed in exit polling and by members of his own party for the Republican midterm losses. Democrats do not take control of Congress until January, according to Al Jazeera's reporting on the transition. Hegseth did not say in the video how the money would be offset.

What Massie's articles allege

Massie, R-Ky., introduced eight articles of impeachment in September. They accuse Hegseth of violating congressional war powers during the Iran conflict and abusing his authority in other military operations. The House has not voted on them.

Massie lost his Republican primary in May. Hegseth had campaigned against him, a highly unusual move for a sitting Pentagon chief, according to the New York Post. Massie told CNN he plans to force a vote when the House returns next week.

Several GOP sources told CNN they expect the measure to pass. Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on House Armed Services, has said previously that he favors impeaching both Hegseth and Trump over Iran. Outgoing Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who voted to confirm Hegseth, told CBS News on Tuesday that Hegseth faces a "reckoning."

Republicans point the finger

Multiple Republicans told CNN, on condition of anonymity, that Hegseth oversold the odds of a quick win and kept pushing escalation with little sign Iran was nearer to surrender. They did so, CNN reported, even as GOP strategists privately acknowledged the party's problems ran well beyond the war.

The Daily Mail, citing White House insiders, reported that Trump has been asking a handful of close advisers whether Hegseth should stay. One source told the paper the complaint is less the war itself than that Trump repeatedly learned of operational updates from the Persian Gulf after the fact. Those are anonymous accounts, and the White House has not confirmed them.

Trump's public position is the opposite. He told ABC News on Thursday he has "every intention to keep him."

The Pentagon's chief spokesperson, Sean Parnell, said Wednesday that Hegseth "will not back down or be deterred by politicians seeking to score partisan points or launch phony investigations where no wrongdoing exists." Parnell said Hegseth is "100% committed to leading the department until the end of President Trump's term in office."

The Senate seat rumor

GOP sources told the Daily Mail that Trump has encouraged Tennessee Gov.-elect Marsha Blackburn to appoint Hegseth to her soon-to-be vacant Senate seat. That would give Trump time to confirm a new Pentagon chief before Democrats take the Senate. Hegseth's close allies have dismissed the rumors, according to the New York Post.

Democrats will hold at least 250 House seats and at least 54 Senate seats, according to Military.com's tally, with some races still undeclared.

What comes next

Congress returns next week. The open questions are whether Massie can get his articles to a floor vote, how Republicans who privately blame Hegseth will vote on the record, and whether Trump's public backing holds once the roll is called.