US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's future in question after midterms setback

Joining me on set is our international affairs editor, Philip Turrell. Hello to you, Philip. One of the people within the Republican Party feeling the most heat is Pete Hegseth, the secretary of war. I think there's been a question over the future of Pete Hegseth raised ever since the start of the campaign for the midterm elections began. And that has now. Come even closer as whether or not he's going to be impeached. Now, what's interesting here is that Republican Thomas Massie has said that he is going to trigger a vote next week in the House of Representatives to impeach Pete Hegseth when Congress returns because of his involvement in the war in Iran and because he pushed Donald Trump to launch that war, which was an illegal war because they didn't seek. The approval from Congress before declaring war in Iran, and that is something that goes against the Constitution of the United States. What is interesting here is it's not the Democrats pushing. It's the Republicans themselves. You have to beat except is a Republican. He was nominated by Donald Trump. So this is how it works in the House of Representatives. You need a simple majority to be able to launch. Those impeachment proceedings, if that is obtained, then it goes over to Congress and in Congress, you need a two thirds majority for those impeachment proceedings then to go ahead for a trial to be held. Pete Hegseth has reacted to all of this saying, well, of course, this is never going to happen and that you tried to get Donald Trump impeached twice during his last mandate and both. of those impeachment proceedings failed because there was no two-thirds majority. That is going to happen again this time round. It's not sure that is going to happen because the difference to that is back in the last mandate that Donald Trump had, the last term when he was president, they didn't get the Democrats the support of the Republicans to push through these impeachment proceedings. This time round, there are many Republicans who are unhappy with the way that the war in Iran has been conducted, the fact that it's led to such a huge routing for the Republican Party. And that's why they are more inclined to join forces with the Democrats to make sure that Pete Hegseth pays the price for what he did. You have to remember that Pete Hegseth has survived quite a lot of scandals since he became minister of Secretary of State for Defense and now the so-called minister for war in the United States. He has always received the backing of Donald Trump. Donald Trump has again thrown his weight behind Pete Hegseth. But Donald Trump has also said that. It was the war in Iran that led to this poor showing in the midterm elections. And that is why I think that for the moment, Donald Trump is supporting Pete Hegseth. But Donald Trump can change his mind quite quickly. And Donald Trump could quite easily throw Pete Hegseth under the bus if he thinks that it would give him more clout afterwards. So that, I think, is something that Pete Hegseth has got to bear in mind. And I suspect he's not feeling too happy at the moment and rather worried about the fact that these Impeachment proceedings could well go ahead. What is Trump doing at the moment? Well, Donald Trump, having lost the election, even though he said that he didn't, he wouldn't have lost it if his face had been on the ballots, the Republicans that lost it. But Donald Trump is president of the United States. Well, he can still remain president for the next two years, but he's going to be a lame duck president during that period. He can use his veto power, but the Democrats can also announce investigations into all sorts of corruption charges and into the Epstein files, which, of course, wouldn't have happened up until now. Trump is walking a very fine line. What has he been doing over the past few hours? Well, he has been signing a proclamation that he will prevent future changes to the Oval Office, where he has all these gold trimmings, and to the Cabinet Room, both of which he redesigned. This is the third day running that he has been delivering remarks on his construction projects, including... The White House ballroom, the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, and also on the proposed construction of a helipad in the White House. So this all looks far removed from the main concerns of the American people over rising prices and the cost of living. All right, Philip, thank you very much. Philip Turrell, our international affairs editor.