{"id":230316,"date":"2026-11-10T18:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T18:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/pete-hegseth-dismisses-republicans-impeachment-effort-against-him-as-a-political-spectacle-us-politics-live-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-11-10T18:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T18:10:11","slug":"pete-hegseth-dismisses-republicans-impeachment-effort-against-him-as-a-political-spectacle-us-politics-live-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/pete-hegseth-dismisses-republicans-impeachment-effort-against-him-as-a-political-spectacle-us-politics-live-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Hegseth dismisses Republican\u2019s impeachment effort against him as \u2018a political spectacle\u2019 \u2013 US politics live – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump\u2019s defense secretary calls impeachment effort \u2018a political spectacle\u2019 as he faces scrutiny; House has until Wednesday to take up articles of impeachment
Here\u2019s what to know about impeachment in the US<\/a>
Sign up for the US Breaking News email<\/a> <\/p>\n

Vice-president JD Vance<\/strong> has also joined the chorus of top Republicans<\/a> blasting the impeachment effort against the defense secretary.
\u201cHas Pete Hegseth committed impeachable crimes? The question is absurd and the answer is: obviously not,\u201d Vance said<\/a> on social media. \u201cLike so much of Congress, impeachment has become a ridiculous show that stands in for actual policymaking.\u201d<\/strong>
He echoed Hegseth\u2019s argument at the Pentagon earlier today, and said that impeachment was not the correct avenue for pushing back against policy disagreements.
\u201cLegislation is hard. Impeachments are easy (and ultimately, inconsequential). The irony is that legislators are most angry at Pete on the issues where he\u2019s most correct: repositioning forces away from Europe\/Ukraine and reorganizing the general officer corps,\u201d Vance added. \u201cThis isn\u2019t about Iran<\/a>, this is about the fact that Pete took on the bureaucracy at the Pentagon.\u201d<\/strong>
As we reported earlier, Pete Hegseth<\/strong> has dismissed moves to impeach him over alleged abuse of power in the Iran war as \u201ca farce\u201d that would fail<\/a>. The US defence secretary made the comments during a press conference this morning, a day after Thomas Massie<\/strong>, Kentucky\u2019s Republican representative, introduced eight articles of impeachment against him<\/a>. Here\u2019s the clip:
As we bring you the latest on the effort to impeach defense secretary Pete Hegseth<\/a>, my colleague Anna Betts<\/strong>, has put together a primer about what to know<\/strong> about the push to oust Hegseth, and what happens next<\/strong> as we prepare for today\u2019s key vote.
Vice-president JD Vance<\/strong> has also joined the chorus of top Republicans<\/a> blasting the impeachment effort against the defense secretary.
\u201cHas Pete Hegseth committed impeachable crimes? The question is absurd and the answer is: obviously not,\u201d Vance said<\/a> on social media. \u201cLike so much of Congress, impeachment has become a ridiculous show that stands in for actual policymaking.\u201d<\/strong>
He echoed Hegseth\u2019s argument at the Pentagon earlier today, and said that impeachment was not the correct avenue for pushing back against policy disagreements.
\u201cLegislation is hard. Impeachments are easy (and ultimately, inconsequential). The irony is that legislators are most angry at Pete on the issues where he\u2019s most correct: repositioning forces away from Europe\/Ukraine and reorganizing the general officer corps,\u201d Vance added. \u201cThis isn\u2019t about Iran<\/a>, this is about the fact that Pete took on the bureaucracy at the Pentagon.\u201d<\/strong>
Mike Johnson<\/strong>, who is in his final weeks as House Speaker, before he becomes a member of the minority party in Congress, said that Thomas Massie<\/strong> \u2013\u00a0the outgoing Republican who is spearheading the impeachment effort against Pete Hegseth<\/a> \u2013 is a \u201cdisgruntled congressman\u201d.
Johnson called the move to impeach the defense secretary \u201ca political gambit for attention\u201d, and commended Hegseth\u2019s performance at his press conference earlier today, where he blasted the attempt to remove him from office.
\u201cI thought he did very well. I expect that we\u2019re going to defeat that one way or the other, and we\u2019ll get on with the business. The idea that you would impeach the Secretary of War at a time of international conflict sends a terrible message to our enemies and our allies, and we\u2019re not going to play that game,\u201d<\/strong> Johnson said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing that went into this. This is just purely for people to get attention, and it\u2019s shameful.\u201d<\/strong>
Republican lawmakers in the House will hold leadership elections today, ahead of the GOP becoming the minority in the new Congress.
In the House, current Speaker Mike Johnson<\/strong> said he would not run for minority leader, setting up a contest between Representative Steve Scalise<\/strong> (who serves as majority leader) and Congressman Jim Jordan<\/strong>, a hardline conservative.
Speaking to reporters, the outgoing moderate Don Bacon<\/strong> said that it is time for a new leader of the party to step forward. \u201cMike Johnson is my friend, but it was: \u2018Hey, the president and I are in the same party. I want to help deliver his agenda\u2019. I think the founders wanted this to be more of a check and balance,\u201d Bacon added.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, members are discussing the possibility of postponing their leadership elections in order to further discuss the fallout after the Republican bruising in the midterm elections. On Monday, Senator Ron Johnson<\/strong>, of Wisconsin, sent a letter to party leadership calling to delay the vote. As of now, there is no clear challenger to Senator John Thune<\/strong>, who currently serves as majority leader.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz said that the impeachment effort against Pete Hegseth<\/a> will either mean the defense secretary will \u201cstep down voluntarily, or Trump will fire him\u201d.
On an episode of his podcast, Cruz said that it was \u201cextremely likely, if not certain,\u201d that the House will vote to impeach Hegseth.
Today, the House is poised to vote on a procedural motion on Pete Hegseth\u2019s impeachment later today.<\/strong>
As I flagged earlier, that means lower chamber lawmakers will vote on whether to refer Thomas Massie\u2019s resolution to committee for further investigation, or table the measure entirely. If they don\u2019t get enough votes (a simple majority) for either of these options, it will then go to the House floor for a full vote.
If the House were to successfully impeach Hegseth, it will then head to the Senate \u2013\u00a0where the upper chamber would need 67 votes in order to remove the defense secretary from his position.
Nvidia and its chief executive, Jensen Huang, have been accused of misleading shareholders in a lawsuit over the Chinese spying scandal<\/a> engulfing the $4.3tn company.<\/strong>
The legal action came as Donald Trump said the FBI was investigating Huang\u2019s affair<\/a> with an alleged Chinese spy.
According to a complaint<\/a> filed in federal court in \u200bCalifornia, Nvidia and Huang misled shareholders in connection with the executive\u2019s alleged \u200baffair with Alice Huang<\/strong>, a former executive of Singapore-based \u2060Megaspeed, who is not related to him.
The lawsuit claims both parties did \u200bnot disclose that the matter raised national security concerns that threatened the chipmaker\u2019s reputation and business prospects.
The New York Times reported on the alleged relationship last month, and said US authorities had concluded Alice Huang \u200bwas a Chinese intelligence asset.
Nvidia described its executive\u2019s interaction with Alice Huang as \u201cnot unusual or unexpected\u201d in a comment submitted to the New York Times last month, adding that \u201cmeetings with customers are part of a CEO\u2019s job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year\u201d.
On Sunday, Huang admitted he had been \u201cunfaithful\u201d to his wife, without identifying the person involved in the affair.
The lawsuit claims the NYT statement was \u201cmaterially false and misleading at the time it was made because Jensen Huang<\/a> had an affair with Alice Huang.\u201d
Donald Trump is in Washington today.<\/strong>
As of now, the president has no events open to the press on his schedule. While he\u2019ll spend most of the day in closed-door meetings, he\u2019ll take part in signing time at 3.30pm ET, and we\u2019ll let you know if that opens up to reporters.
Following Pete Hegseth\u2019s press conference, Donald Trump issued a brief, and glowing, assessment of his defense secretary\u2019s performance<\/strong>, while blasting the Republican representative who is moving to impeach him.
\u201cPete Hegseth gets an \u2018A\u2019 PLUS, PLUS, PLUS for his defense against a disgruntled, angry, defeated, former Congressman, Thomas Massie, a TOTAL LOSER!\u201d<\/strong> the president wrote<\/a> on Truth Social.
One quick note \u2013\u00a0since Thomas Massie introduced his articles of impeachment on Monday, the House now has until Wednesday to take them up.<\/strong>
The lower chamber can hold a vote on the House floor, decide to send the resolution to committee (for further investigation) or table the measure entirely.
A vote could come as soon as today. We\u2019ll keep you updated.
After several Republicans<\/a>, including vice-president JD Vance<\/strong>, said that the party\u2019s shellacking in the midterm elections was due to the ongoing Iran war and spike in prices as a result of the conflict, Hegseth danced around whether he agreed.
\u201cI respect the vice-president greatly, and I\u2019m certainly not going to exchange in any finger pointing. And thankfully, politics is not really my thing,\u201d<\/strong> the defense secretary said. \u201cBut I agree with what the president said when he said: \u2018hey, if if I had to do this all over again, would we do it again? Absolutely.\u201d<\/strong>
Hegseth referred back to secretary of state Marco Rubio\u2019s sentiment that the war, now in its eighth month, is \u201cnot necessarily popular, but it may have been necessary\u201d<\/strong>.
\u201cThat\u2019s certainly how I feel. It was a necessary undertaking,\u201d Hegseth added.
A point that Hegseth has repeated throughout his briefing is that Thomas Massie\u2019s resolution is merely a \u201cpolicy disagreement\u201d that defense secretary said should be solved by legislation and debate.
Hegseth also used his time today to disparage the media for ignoring military successes. \u201cYou hate the president more than you love our country, or our troops,\u201d<\/strong> he told reporters at the Pentagon.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump\u2019s defense secretary calls impeachment effort \u2018a political spectacle\u2019 as he faces scrutiny; House has until Wednesday to take up articles of impeachmentHere\u2019s what to know about impeachment in the USSign up for the US Breaking News email Vice-president JD Vance has also joined the chorus of top Republicans blasting the impeachment effort against the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":230317,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}