nytimes.com - Hegseth video midterms trump

Hegseth Lashes Out at Critics Calling for His Firing

"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who faces a likely congressional impeachment effort in the coming weeks, released a video message on Thursday defending his tenure and vowing to fight for his job.

“We are more determined than ever — more resolute than ever — to finish what we have started,” Mr. Hegseth said, standing in front of the Pentagon and a sign that read “Department of War,” his preferred name for the agency.

Some prominent G.O.P. lawmakers, frustrated with Mr. Hegseth’s handling of the Iran war and his purge of top generals, had been pushing for President Trump to replace him even before the rout of Republicans in the midterm elections. Those calls have only grown in the days since.

In remarks from the Oval Office on Thursday, Mr. Trump backed his defense secretary, saying he was doing a “fantastic job.” Mr. Trump also defended the war in Iran, which Vice President JD Vance has cited as a driving force behind the midterm election wipeout.

“We’ve been there for seven months, and we have full control of that place,” Mr. Trump said, adding that “nobody has been killed in a long time.”

The Iranians “shoot a rocket every once in a while,” he claimed.

Mr. Hegseth struck a similar tone in his video message, describing the war as “a courageous and historic effort that will ensure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.”

Most of his recorded message was focused on the battles he had been fighting to purge the military of senior officers and ideas that he and Mr. Trump find objectionable.

“Why do the Democrats and the deep state radicals really hate us?” Mr. Hegseth asked. “Because we tore down their sacred cows one by one, and without apology.”

He then boasted of his work to end programs aimed at building a more diverse military.

“D.E.I. is a Marxist ideology built to destroy us, so we crushed it,” he said, referring to diversity, equity and inclusion programs that had taken root in the military.

Mr. Hegseth talked about banning transgender soldiers from the military and kicking reporters out of the Pentagon. He also defended the military’s attacks on boats in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific that the Trump administration has said were smuggling drugs.

“Narco-terrorists should die, not be caught and released,” he said of the strikes that have killed scores of people.

Experts on the use of lethal force have said that the strikes are illegal extrajudicial killings.

Mr. Hegseth’s video and Mr. Trump’s defense are unlikely to quell calls for his impeachment or his dismissal. Representative Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado and a former Army Ranger, mocked Mr. Hegseth’s video.

“After failing our servicemembers and starting new forever wars, Pete’s desperate to keep his job,” Mr. Crow wrote on social media. “Tick tock, Mr. Secretary. Better start packing up your make-up room at the Pentagon. Time’s up.”