Pete Hegseth gives press briefing amid possible impeachment

Breaking news right now. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is giving his first press briefing from the Pentagon in six months, and it comes as Republican Congressman Thomas Massie has filed articles of impeachment against him. That's right. Massey wants to impeach Hegseth over his role in the Iran conflict. We can see he's speaking now. Let's go to it. War powers resolution or not, not under Reagan in Lebanon, not under Clinton in Kosovo, not under Obama in Iraq and Syria, not under Biden in Iraq and Syria. That's the standard. The history is clear and it's very straightforward. And one disgruntled congressman wants to shred it over policy disagreements. That's what it is, policy disagreements. Not high crimes, not misdemeanors, not treason, not bribery, not the kinds of offenses the founders intended when they wrote the impeachment clause. The proper remedy for a policy disagreement, it's legislation, it's debate. It's the next presidential election. It's not handing the House and Senate floor to the Democrats so that they can run a show trial against the president and the secretary of war, while Republicans still control Congress and should be delivering wins for the American people. You see, we've seen this show before. They impeached President Trump over a perfect phone call. They impeached him again in his final week in office. Both times they failed. Both times he came back stronger. And the American people sent him back to the White House. Now they're trying a third time. This time against a member of his cabinet. They will fail again. And if standing with President Trump puts me in that company, I'll take that company every day of the week. Let's be clear about what this resolution actually does. It tells our enemies, Iran, the cartels, every adversary watching that the United States will actually punish its own warriors and its own civilian leadership for successfully executing lawful military operations. It tells them that a single rogue legislator loaded with personal animus for the president can attempt to veto national security decisions made by the duly It puts a target on the backs of American warriors. By signaling that Congress will undermine their missions in real time. This is not patriotism. This is sabotage. You know, five years ago, America was humiliated in Kabul, Afghanistan. And every enemy on earth took notice. But somehow, as the president pointed out yesterday, no impeachment vote for Lloyd Austin for that terrible withdrawal. Not even one vote. Or no impeachment vote for when he went AWOL for over a week. No impeachment vote for when he let a Chinese spy balloon fly over the country for over a week. See, President Trump ended that kind of wokeness and weakness, peace through strength, not as a slogan, but as a way of war. The Houthis found out first. They fired on American ships. Biden had let it happen. President Trump said no more. Operation Rough Rider hit them more than a thousand times. They cried uncle and they stopped shooting at our ships to this day. Iran found out next. Operation Midnight Hammer, B-2s from the heartland, halfway around the world, straight into Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. Flawless. The largest and most successful B-2 strike in American history. Nuclear sites obliterated. Later in Operation Epic Fury, by every measure, we achieved a historic military victory. Under 40 days of sustained combat, more than 13,000 targets struck, their Navy sunk, their Air Force grounded, their defense industrial base gone, more than 80% of their nuclear industrial base gone, their military in ruin, the ironclad blockade unbroken. We control the Strait of Hormuz. Crazy Islamists in Tehran will never, ever have a nuclear weapon. A historic effort. Only made possible by a courageous commander-in-chief. History will judge the Iran war quite differently than conventional wisdom right now. We didn't start this war. Iran did 47 years ago. But President Trump is willing to do what no other president would. He did the tough, right thing. Not for politics, but for the safety and the security of the American people. That's leadership. He did not kick the can. He kicked their teeth in. My generation fought other Middle Eastern wars that dragged on for years, for decades. We lost thousands, thousands of Americans. I wear the bracelet of one of them on my left wrist every single day. It reminds me. And may I remind you, for perspective, we lost 60,000 Americans in Vietnam over 20 years. We lost 37,000 in Korea. In just three years, that many humans are lost on the front lines of Ukraine and Russia every month. This epic fury has never been that and it never will be. The media can just never admit the military success because they you hate the president more than you love our country or our troops. Then in our own hemisphere, we started at home. From day one, President Trump made homeland security national security. We sent American troops to lock down the southwest border and choked off the cartel pipeline of human smuggling of drugs and death. And then we took the fight to them. The cartels thought they could just poison the American people and hide from justice. So we formed a counter cartel coalition, designated them terrorists and hunted them at sea. And now on land. More than 70 narco vessels sunk, 218 narco terrorists dead where they should be, maritime smuggling down at least 65% and dropping even further. Thousands of American lives saved with every drug boat sunk and every shipment prevented. Indicted and wanted, Nicolas Maduro thought he was untouchable. He was not kidnapped. He was brought to justice by America's best. Victory in one night. Victory in 48 minutes, to be precise. And today he sits in front of an American judge in New York City. Flawless success. Panama kicked China's Belt and Road Initiative to the curb, and we, along with them, control the canal. The message is simple. This is our hemisphere. Act accordingly. Our NATO allies, after decades of riding on the American taxpayer in Europe, Committed to 5% of GDP for their own defense. Our allies are finally stepping up. Out with being a burden, in with burden sharing. Why? Because President Trump demanded it. America is the only country on earth and this military the only one that could successfully execute and lead all of these operations and efforts. Sheer success, victories in both Venezuela and Iran. Energy security. We have been listening to Defense Secretary Pete He Gseth there defending what is happening in Iran and what he's had to do there and also lashing out at Representative Thomas Massie who brought those articles of impeachment. Yesterday he says this is based on policy disagreements. Calling Massey a rogue legislator who is committing sabotage. But the resolution accuses the defense secretary of waging war in Iran without congressional approval, among other things, including carrying out extrajudicial killings. And this is going to be addressed likely this week. Now, we'll continue following this developing story. But for now, we'll be right back.