Republicans are increasingly turning on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after the party’s midterm wipeout, with several lawmakers questioning his leadership and one warning he has a reckoning coming as the House prepares for a potential impeachment vote next week.
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) suggested Friday that Hegseth could need to be replaced, warning there are “a lot of questions” about his leadership and the administration’s strategy in Iran.
“That’s going to be a decision that President Trump’s going to have to make,” Comer said to News Nation when asked if he wanted to see someone new in Hegseth’s position.
“But I can tell you with a high level of confidence that there’s a lot of questions about Hegseth. We have no idea what the strategy is moving forward in Iran.”
Comer said that Republican voters were even angrier about the war than Democrats, pointing to frustrations with gas prices, and the administration’s handling of the conflict as some reasons why GOP supporters stayed home on Election Day.
“People that have been MAGA for the last 12 years, they had MAGA flags in their yard, wore MAGA caps. I mean, they are mad that we’re in this situation in Iran. They’re mad over gas prices, and a lot of them stayed home.”
Comer said he did not believe that Trump supporters necessarily crossed party lines when voting, but simply sat the election out — leaving Republicans with the task of winning back their trust.
“Secretary Hegseth will not back down or be deterred by politicians seeking to score partisan points or launch phony investigations where no wrongdoing exists,” Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told The Post. “The Department of War has followed the law and our Secretary will continue to stand and fight every single day to support and defend the Constitution, lead our troops, and protect America.
We will continue to drive President Trump’s agenda at the Department of War — despite threats of sham witch hunts from Democrats — and Secretary Hegseth is 100% committed to leading the Department until the end of President Trump’s term in office.”
Yet more Republicans are piling on.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a prominent House war hawk, said Thursday that Hegseth should not be leading the Pentagon, questioning his judgment and what he described as the secretary’s lack of a moral compass.
“I don’t think he was a good choice to begin with,” Bacon told Fox News Digital. “I wouldn’t have voted to confirm him.”
Bacon also questioned Hegseth’s handling of the controversy surrounding the administration’s use of the Signal messaging app to discuss sensitive military operations, arguing that the defense secretary failed to take responsibility.
“Anybody that got caught having affairs would’ve gotten fired,” Bacon said, adding that Hegseth’s conduct bothered military veterans who had spent their careers taking responsibility for their actions.
“Hegseth doesn’t have a lot of friends on the Hill,” Bacon added, suggesting that there were “more qualified leaders” who could run the Pentagon.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC.), another longtime critic of Hegseth, warned Wednesday that the defense secretary has “a reckoning” coming.
Tillis said Hegseth’s strained relationship with lawmakers has become a liability as the administration attempts to secure support for its proposed $1.5 trillion defense spending package.
“He is one of the reasons why we don’t have the funding or guarantee for defense that we need,” Tillis said to CBS.
“The secretary’s job is to build alliances at home and abroad to protect America,” Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) said to The Washington Post. “Had he done this, this war would already be over.”
The growing Republican backlash comes as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) prepares to force a vote on articles of impeachment against Hegseth when lawmakers return to the Capitol next week.
Massie has accused the defense of war of abusing his office by pursuing military action against Iran without congressional authorization. He previously introduced eight articles of impeachment and has vowed to reintroduce them unless Hegseth resigns.
“There is one contingency in which I won’t reintroduce the articles of impeachment: Hegseth resigns,” Massie wrote on X.
Multiple House Republicans have privately told CNN that they can foresee the impeachment effort passing, with another lawmaker bluntly telling Fox, “He’s screwed.”
Criticism also extended to military leadership overseeing the conflict.
Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command and a key player in the Iran war, launched a new podcast Thursday, as Trump weighs whether to resume military strikes against Tehran.
In the episode, he joked about his retirement plans, following scrutiny from officials close to the White House, with one administration source describing him as “awful” and a “total neocon,” while another criticized the military’s approach to the conflict as overly restrained.
The internal finger-pointing increasingly centered around Hegseth, who reportedly gave Trump overly optimistic assessments of how quickly the military campaign could defeat Iran, and has faced questions about the administration’s failure to secure a lasting victory.
Hegseth, however, has shown little indication that he intends to leave.
In a defiant video posted Thursday from outside the Pentagon, the defense secretary blasted his critics and dismissed the impeachment effort as “political theater.”
“A disgruntled, defeated congressman along with all his Democrat allies has also dropped sham articles of impeachment against yours truly,” Hegseth said, taking aim at Massie, who lost his Republican primary earlier this year.
“It’s all about the politics of personal destruction. It didn’t work against President Trump, and it won’t work with me.”
Hegseth also defended the Iran war as a “courageous and historic effort” and urged lawmakers to approve the administration’s massive defense spending request.
Trump has continued to publicly back his Pentagon chief, saying Thursday that Hegseth has done a “fantastic job” and suggesting that his critics are unhappy with his decision to remove senior military leaders.
But the president’s support may do little to ease the growing frustration in the Capitol, as Republicans face the harsh reality of having handed both chambers of Congress to Democrats after their historic midterm losses.
The Post reached out to Massie’s office and did not receive an immediate response.
