Speaker Johnson Rips Massie's Push to Impeach Hegseth as a 'Political Gambit'
House Speaker Mike Johnson tore into outgoing Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie on Tuesday over his effort to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
Speaking to reporters at the Capitol, Johnson blasted the handful of Republicans willing to join Democrats in what he called a "baseless" push to remove Hegseth.
"Thomas Massie is a disgruntled congressman and the impeachment effort is a political gambit for attention," Johnson said.
"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 are not going to play that game," he added. "I expect that we're going to defeat that, one way or the other, and we'll get on with the business."
READ MORE: Jeffries Says He's a 'Hard Yes' on Impeaching Hegseth as Massie Readies Vote
'The House WILL Work'
Johnson also vowed to keep the House in session so Republicans can pass as much legislation as possible before Democrats take control in January.
"The House WILL work. We will stay here around the clock if necessary, push things over," Johnson said.
"We got things pending over there right now, big things, the farm bill, the NDAA, you got FISA, you have a reconciliation bill that's still sitting there. We have government funding issues. They didn't even pass a single appropriations bill in the Senate," he said.
"The question is what are we going to be able to accomplish in this lame duck, we really have to ask the Senate because the House is willing and able to pass and continue to move legislation," the speaker added.
Hegseth Fires Back
Hegseth pushed back against the impeachment effort in a defiant press conference Tuesday morning, which Trump praised. Trump and his new chief of staff, Stephen Miller, have privately told Hegseth they plan to defend him strongly.
Hegseth said the effort was driven by "policy disagreements, not misdemeanors, not treason, not bribery, not the kinds of offenses the founders intended when they wrote the impeachment clause."
He said he had carried out "lawful military operations" that were "successful," and noted that no previous defense secretary had been impeached for doing so. He said he stands "behind every one" of the operations he carried out on Trump's orders and "would do it again tomorrow," despite bipartisan criticism over his role in the Iran war.
Vance Weighs In
Vice President JD Vance also came to Hegseth's defense. "Has Pete Hegseth committed impeachable crimes? The question is absurd and the answer is: obviously not," Vance wrote on X, calling impeachment "a ridiculous show that stands in for actual policymaking."
"Congress has so many tools for registering its policy disagreements. Rather than use them, they're going to try to impeach Pete Hegseth. They did the same to Donald Trump. Legislation is hard. Impeachments are easy (and ultimately, inconsequential)," Vance added.
Vance, who last week blamed the Iran war for GOP losses, argued that the war is not the main reason lawmakers are targeting Hegseth. "The irony is that legislators are most angry at Pete on the issues where he's most correct: repositioning forces away from Europe/Ukraine and reorganizing the general officer corps," he said.
"This isn't about Iran, this is about the fact that Pete took on the bureaucracy at the Pentagon," Vance said.