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In the run-up<\/span> to the midterm election, seen by many as a referendum on the Iran war, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth unveiled FORTRESS America \u2014 a project to allow U.S. military bases to survive a 90-day siege. But following the landslide Democratic victory, it\u2019s Hegseth who finds himself increasingly besieged within his own fortress, the Pentagon, and on Capitol Hill where he stands on the brink of bipartisan impeachment.<\/p>\n In the wake of an election rout<\/a> that handed Democrats firm control of the House and the Senate, Hegseth is in the crosshairs of lawmakers whom he has treated with contempt for two years, as he has withheld basic information from Congress and purged bipartisan-backed senior military leaders. \u201cOne of the first things we\u2019re going to do in the majority, we\u2019re going to run Pete Hegseth out of town,\u201d Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who is now in line to be speaker of the House, announced at a campaign rally<\/a> just before Election Day. Asked about the self-styled War Secretary on Wednesday, Jeffries replied<\/a>: \u201cIs Pete Hegseth still around?\u201d<\/p>\n As the blue wave<\/a> crested on Tuesday, storm clouds stacked up on Hegseth\u2019s horizon. \u201cWe\u2019re going to go after Hegseth,\u201d Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., in line to return to the helm of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, announced<\/a> after cruising to victory on Tuesday. \u201cLAWYER UP,\u201d Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, posted on X<\/a>. Both will be joined in the House by Democrat Nancy Lacore, a former Navy admiral who was fired by Hegseth, who declared victory in a traditionally red district in South Carolina.<\/p>\n By Wednesday evening, sentiment within the Pentagon suggested that Hegseth\u2019s days are numbered, with names of potential replacements already being bandied about. \u201cDead man walking,\u201d said one official. A former defense official agreed: \u201cThey pinned the failure in Iran on him. Now it\u2019s only a matter of time.\u201d\u00a0Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, with support from Democrats, is slated to take aim at Hegseth as soon as next week with eight articles of impeachment<\/a> for high crimes and misdemeanors.<\/p>\n With Hegseth increasingly under fire within the ranks, at the Pentagon, and on Capitol Hill, and with rumors swirling that the White House may cut him loose in the face of the staggering electoral defeat, The Intercept spoke with six current and former defense officials as well as additional sources on Capitol Hill, most on the condition of anonymity in order to speak freely. Hegseth has, they said, undermined the rule of law; irreparably harmed the U.S. military through purges of top commanders and those who refuse to pledge fealty; pursued relentless leak investigations; spurred religious extremism; and diminished the department he leads due to an almost endless raft of scandals, culture-war clownishness, and senseless policies.<\/p>\n Hegseth \u201cis 100 percent a war criminal. He needs to be prosecuted.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n One of the officials, Wes J. Bryant \u2014\u00a0until last year a senior targeting adviser and policy analyst at the Pentagon \u2014 gave voice to Massie\u2019s more technical articles of impeachment which indict Hegseth for extrajudicial killings<\/a> and waging unlawful war, among other crimes. \u201cHe is conducting state terrorism. He is 100 percent a war criminal. He needs to be prosecuted,\u201d said Bryant, who was pushed out of his Pentagon job for blowing the whistle on Hegseth\u2019s efforts to undermine protections for civilians<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hegseth \u2014 a former Army National Guard officer turned Fox News host turned secretary of war \u2014 came into office amid a firestorm of scandal<\/a> from his confirmation process, including a swirl of allegations of financial mismanagement<\/a> at veterans\u2019 nonprofits where he once worked, excessive drinking<\/a> and public drunkenness<\/a>, marital infidelity<\/a>, and sexual assault<\/a>.<\/p>\n His reign at the Pentagon has been no less tumultuous and marked by a string of appalling episodes of both major importance and more symbolic disgrace, beginning with Signal-gate<\/a> \u2014 the texting of secret war plans that put troops in harm\u2019s way \u2014 and follow-on digital security<\/a> lapses<\/a>. The Pentagon\u2019s own inspector general concluded last December that \u201cHegseth violated security protocols and endangered U.S. troops and objectives by using a personal device to share sensitive operational details on the unclassified messaging app Signal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Those scandals, however, turned out to be the high point of his tenure. Since then, Hegseth has been under perpetual fire for his purge of top military leaders<\/a> \u2014 many of them women<\/a> and minorities<\/a>; an inability to defeat Yemen\u2019s Houthis in 2025 or win the Iran war in 2026; a strike on an elementary school<\/a> in Minab, Iran, that killed more than 150 civilians, most of them children<\/a>; his campaign of extrajudicial killings<\/a> in attacks on so-called drug boats; overlapping efforts to weaken transparency, scuttle accountability, hobble military justice, and undercut protections for civilians in conflict; openly advocating for offering enemies \u201cno quarter,\u201d a war crime; his installation of a Pentagon makeup studio\u00a0<\/a>at taxpayer expense; an unnatural and immature fixation with violence; an obsession with troops\u2019 testosterone<\/a> levels, a censorship campaign that replaced the Pentagon press corps<\/a> with cheerleading influencers<\/a>, among other distractions<\/a>, dysfunctions<\/a>, and tantrums<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson and other top spokespersons did not respond to detailed questions and repeated requests for comment.<\/p>\n In April, Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., filed six articles of impeachment<\/a> against Hegseth, including violations of the law of armed conflict and targeting of civilians, abuse of power, and obstructing congressional oversight. \u201cImpeach Pete Hegseth,\u201d Ansari wrote<\/a> in a quote tweet of a Hegseth post on X on Wednesday.<\/p>\n In September, Massie was poised to force a vote to impeach Hegseth on eight charges<\/a>. As the initiative gained bipartisan momentum, House Speaker Mike Johnson decided to punt and dismissed members of the House before the scheduled vote. But Massie, who was defeated in a GOP primary in May \u2014 the most expensive<\/a> House primary in history \u2014 remains committed to ousting Hegseth and plans to force a vote on the measure.<\/p>\n \u201cI give it better than a 50 percent chance of passing,\u201d Massie told Roll Call<\/a> just prior to Election Day, expressing confidence that all Democrats and some Republicans would join his effort. On Wednesday night, Massie took to X to double down on his commitment. \u201cThere is one contingency in which I won\u2019t reintroduce the articles of impeachment,\u201d he wrote. \u201cHegseth resigns.\u201d<\/p>\n Massie\u2019s office did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n In the wake of Tuesday\u2019s stunning electoral landslide, a senior Hill staffer told The Intercept that he believed mounting anger might cause top outgoing Republicans to vote to impeach Hegseth. \u201cThere are very angry senior Republicans in the national security space who honestly pin a lot of their election losses on him. They are furious,\u201d he said. \u201cThey need some place to put their anger. So they\u2019re asking themselves, \u2018What is even the harm in voting to impeach Hegseth?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDemocratic leadership wants to focus on people\u2019s everyday lives and affordability, not impeaching Hegseth. But here we are. We are going to vote on impeachment because of Tom Massie. It\u2019s happening,\u201d said the senior staffer. \u201cThis reckoning is coming whether we want it or not. So why not?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n California Democrat Ro Khanna, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee and has repeatedly sparred with Hegseth during hearings, told The Intercept that he supports impeachment and thinks its odds of succeeding are \u201cdecent.\u201d Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on that committee, vowed on Wednesday to conduct aggressive Pentagon oversight and backed efforts to impeach Hegseth. \u201cGoing after the corruption, and going after the lack of transparency,\u201d Smith told<\/a> the Seattle Times of his plans to hold the department accountable while expressing support for Massie\u2019s impeachment push.<\/p>\n In 250 years, the House has impeached just two Cabinet secretaries: William Belknap, the secretary of war, in 1876; and Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, in 2024. In both cases, the Senate did not convict. Should Massie\u2019s impeachment measure succeed in the House, it would likely die in the Senate, where Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., would have no incentive to bring it to a vote, said a congressional staffer for a member on the Armed Services Committee.<\/p>\n But some pundits predict<\/a> Hegseth may not survive next week, much less the month or the year.<\/p>\n The president \u201calways loves you right up until he throws you under the bus.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Trump was asked Wednesday afternoon whether he was considering replacing Hegseth, and he told reporters, \u201cNo, I think he\u2019s doing a very good job.\u201d One former Pentagon official called such public support from Trump \u201cthe kiss of death.\u201d Another current defense official agreed. \u201cHe may lose his top cover,\u201d said that official, using military slang for protection from above.\u00a0The president, the official said, \u201calways loves you right up until he throws you under the bus.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n As Republicans make sense of their loss, many are pointing to the Iran war, including Vice President JD Vance. \u201cThe reason we lost is the war,\u201d he wrote on X<\/a>.\u00a0A Republican staffer on Capitol Hill said Hegseth \u201ccould easily become the president\u2019s fall guy.\u201d\u00a0The senior staffer agreed, saying Hegseth \u201cmight be purged, himself, to avoid additional embarrassment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf Hegseth does stay and he survives this moment, Oversight is going to come crashing down on his head,\u201d said the senior staffer on Wednesday. \u201cWill Hegseth continue to obstruct? Yes. But wait until the subpoenas start.\u201d<\/p>\n Congressional committees have broad investigative powers, including the authority to subpoena administration officials to testify under oath and compel them to turn over documents. Smith said Hegseth and Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg<\/a> would be first on the list to testify. \u201cWe haven\u2019t gotten a report back from the Minab girls\u2019 school strike. How come we haven\u2019t gotten clarity on the strike in Kuwait that killed six service members? How come they haven\u2019t told us what the true cost is that\u2019s been absorbed by all of our bases that have been destroyed in the Middle East?\u201d Smith said<\/a> to the Seattle Times. \u201cThere\u2019s a host of issues we could dive into.\u201d<\/p>\n Another staffer said renewed scrutiny of abuses of war powers like the boat strikes, especially the initial double-tap attack first disclosed<\/a> by The Intercept; the secret memorandum<\/a> by the Office of Legal Counsel laying out the legal rationale for the strikes; and the hidden costs, U.S. casualties<\/a>, civilian casualties<\/a>, and destruction of U.S. bases<\/a> during the Iran war, would open a Pandora\u2019s box for Hegseth.<\/p>\n In the Senate, Democrats have floated Hegseth\u2019s removal as the price for cooperation on key legislation in the lame-duck session. Their Republican colleagues have also increasingly soured on Hegseth as he has purged top military commanders with whom they have strong ties. \u201cThey see Hegseth as the next Kristi Noem,\u201d said one Capitol Hill source, referencing the former secretary of homeland security<\/a> who was demoted this year to special envoy<\/a> for the newly founded Shield of the Americas<\/a> coalition after influential Republican senators turned against her.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a Republican who is retiring, warned<\/a> Hegseth of a coming \u201creckoning\u201d in the lame-duck session. \u201cHe is one of the reasons why we don\u2019t have the funding or guarantee for defense that we need,\u201d he said. \u201cI think after the election, we need to determine whether or not he\u2019s the best person to bring those needs to Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n Antipathy to Hegseth also extends far beyond the Beltway. Just 32 percent of voters approve of the way he is handling his job, while 57 percent disapprove, according to a Quinnipiac University poll<\/a> in September. It was his lowest approval ever and historically dismal. (Fifty percent approved<\/a> and only 13 percent disapproved of Trump\u2019s first Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, late in his tenure in 2018.) Hegseth is even less popular in military circles. Sixty-four percent of active-duty service members, veterans, and military families disapprove of Hegseth, according to a recent poll<\/a> conducted by Common Defense, a\u00a0grassroots veterans organization. Last month, a Politico poll<\/a> found that 63 percent of Democratic midterm voters would support impeaching the Pentagon chief.<\/p>\n The war secretary is also under withering fire within the Pentagon, according to the current and former officials. They say Hegseth is reviled across the building by officers biding their time, waiting for him to flame out or be pushed out.<\/p>\n Derided in the Pentagon and the ranks by a variety of monikers such as \u201cNo Tab Pete,\u201d a reference to his lack of prestigious military qualification patches such as the Ranger tab;\u00a0\u201cWhiskey Pete\u201d; and \u201cDumb McNamara,\u201d a reference to the Vietnam War-era Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, responsible for unfathomable death and suffering; Hegseth has been excoriated within his department for unhinged behavior \u2014 especially his relentless purge of top brass and high-ranking officials, which insiders see as an attempt to root out dissenting viewpoints, racial minorities, and women.\u00a0<\/p>\n To enforce strict discipline, tamp down scandals, keep basic information from the American people and cow dissent, Hegseth has unleashed unrelenting polygraph tests of officials, even senior leaders. Several officials would not respond to questions citing this reason. One likened their situation to life under a totalitarian regime. Hegseth\u2019s minions have also engaged in browbeating \u201cleaky\u201d offices. These efforts have generated further ill will throughout the Pentagon and the wider defense establishment. \u201cThe more good people he forces out of the military, the more the resentment grows,\u201d said a current official.<\/p>\n Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia \u2014 who served as director for strategy, plans and policy on the Joint Staff assisting Joint Chiefs chair Gen. Dan Caine \u2014 was recently ousted. \u201cShe\u2019s gonna have big problems, said Trump, who apparently thought the male general was a woman<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re very much looking for leakers.\u201d Sylvia replaced Lt. Gen. Joseph McGee, whom Hegseth forced out last year. While not naming Sylvia, Pentagon mouthpiece Sean Parnell issued a social media broadside. \u201cFollowing an extensive Air Force OSI investigation, the Department took necessary personnel action to protect sensitive information,\u201d he crowed on X<\/a>. \u201cWe vowed to find you, and we meant it.\u201d<\/p>\n Other casualties of Hegseth\u2019s campaign include Gen. Charles \u201cCQ\u201d Brown Jr. (chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), Adm. Lisa Franchetti (chief of Naval Operations), Gen. David Allvin (Air Force chief of staff), Adm. Linda Fagan (commandant of the Coast Guard), Lt. Gen. Jennifer Short (senior military assistant to the Secretary of Defense), Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield (U.S. military representative to the NATO Military Committee), and Lacore, the former vice admiral and Navy Reserve chief, now likely representative-elect, among others.<\/p>\n The officials said that Hegseth\u2019s efforts to remake the military have done grave damage to the armed forces. \u201cWhen you put people on polygraphs and fire a bunch of people who question the status quo and consistently shut down the conversation, then you absolutely lose the best leaders,\u201d said a former field grade officer who served in Hegseth\u2019s Pentagon. \u201cYou\u2019re strangling initiative and creating a culture of yes men and yes women.\u201d<\/p>\n Officials repeatedly lamented long-term harm to the Pentagon, whenever Hegseth leaves the helm. \u201cHe\u2019s purging a generation of great leaders of the military, and it\u2019s going to take a generation to recover from it,\u201d said<\/a> Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a former Navy combat pilot who has been targeted by Hegseth<\/a>. The former field grade officer echoed this. \u201cIf you\u2019re doing it right, the talent selection is being done ten years out,\u201d the source said, noting that promotions are a long-term process. \u201cIt\u2019s about years down the road. And these people are being fired and forced out. We\u2019re losing them. That\u2019s generational impact that\u2019s harming the force.\u201d<\/p>\n In his September \u201cstate of the force\u201d address to more than 500 junior officers and enlisted troops, Hegseth announced, \u201cWe are no longer the Woke Department or the Weak Department.\u00a0Simple translation of that:\u00a0No fatties. No trannies. No beardos. No weirdos.\u00a0No wimps. No radicals.\u201d He added, \u201cThe ideological clowns are out. The patriotic cowboys are in \u2014 with testosterone testing on top.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Several officials drew connections between Hegseth\u2019s fixation on manliness and testosterone with his childish fixation on \u201clethality,\u201d his glorification of violence, and bloodlust. \u201c\u2018Maximum lethality, not tepid legality,\u2019\u201d said one official quoting a Hegseth line. \u201cThat kind of language and the very, very real killing of civilians \u2014 and the posting online of what are outright snuff films, the narco-boat strikes, is evidence of a sickness of his mind.\u201d<\/p>\n The real-world effects of Hegseth\u2019s lethality obsession have been devastating. His Pentagon has gutted its premier center<\/a> devoted to preventing civilian casualties in war zones. He also removed constraints on military commanders, \u201cletting his preferred generals do anything they want,\u201d said one of the former defense officials. This resulted, for example, in significantly more civilian casualties<\/a> during attacks on Yemen\u2019s Houthi government in 2025, while failing to achieve military objectives. The Pentagon\u2019s own accounting of civilian casualties found that U.S. attacks killed 153 civilians and wounded almost 250 during the campaign of air and naval strikes, code-named Operation Rough Rider. A current official told The Intercept these were \u201clowball numbers.\u201d At least 238 civilians were killed and 467 injured, according to the\u00a0Yemen Data Project.<\/p>\n \u201cThis obsession with performative violence is a hallmark of fascist dictatorships.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Several sources drew special attention to Hegseth\u2019s effort \u2014 ultimately blocked by Trump \u2014 to livestream the firing squad execution<\/a> of Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people when he opened fire at Fort Hood in 2009. \u201cThis obsession with performative violence is a hallmark of fascist dictatorships,\u201d said Bryant. Hegseth\u2019s lethality doctrine, he continued, \u201cis not only in line with the glorification of and reveling in violence and killing that defines him but is juvenile and ignorant from an operational and policy standpoint, as killing and lethality is only one relatively small aspect of what the military does.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The Heat on Hegseth<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Enemies Within<\/h2>\n
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