[Transcript edited for clarity, flow and length]
Right after Democrats routed Republicans in last week’s midterm elections, Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, brought articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth. I can’t think of any cabinet official more deserving of impeachment than the incompetent, cruel, bigoted Hegseth.
You would think that after getting routed, Republicans would recognize what is happening in this country. Read the room, guys. Instead, all eight articles of impeachment were voted down, in part because 11 Democrats got stuck in a traffic jam, which is not exactly how you want your party to come out swinging after the greatest midterm election in decades. So to those Democrats who missed the vote, I also say read the room. Nobody in this deserving cabinet is more deserving of impeachment and removal, and I would argue prison, than Pete Hegseth. Not only is he incompetent, and through that incompetence destroying the very fabric of our military, but he is also a deep misogynist who essentially settled with the woman who accused him of date raping her.
He is deeply prejudiced against the LGBTQ+ community, especially trans people. He embraces a form of toxic masculinity, which is very, very bad as a role model. And of course, he is a deeply racist Christian nationalist, and it turns out he has absolutely no respect for the military he purports to lead.
On November 3, American voters showed up in historic numbers, not simply because of affordability, but because they desperately want change. This win was so massive that Democrats don’t just have control of Congress. They have massive majorities in both houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate. With that, they are empowered to demand answers, investigate wrongdoing, and hold the people responsible for the horrors we have been facing for over a decade accountable. They have to use that power. To fail to do so would be to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They must be willing to wield the power the American people have given them, and we have to keep demanding that they do.
The United States military has earned its respect worldwide, and through generations of Americans, that respect has been earned through voluntary service, often at enormous personal cost. A service member’s oath is to the Constitution of the United States, not to any particular person in power, not to the person occupying the Oval Office, and not to the Secretary of Defense.
Donald understood that Americans were tired, at least on some level, of foreign wars, and he made a promise in the 2024 campaign. He literally said, “I’m not going to start a war. I’m going to stop wars.” Two years later, we are in an illegal war of his own choosing with Iran, with no clear end in sight. Today, he essentially said, “I’m not going to try to keep negotiating with Iran. I don’t care anymore. We have to shift our focus even though we are still at war, and Iran, if it hasn’t already won definitively, is beating us.”
According to CNN, several Republican lawmakers believe Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed Donald into war, even though he must have heard from every senior military commander that there would be no realistic plan to win or finish such a war.Hegseth is not just unqualified and incompetent. He is depraved and far too enamored with himself. He, like Donald, thinks he knows better than the generals. I don’t want to absolve Donald of any responsibility, of course, because at least theoretically the buck should stop with him. He made the decision. He was the final decision maker. Without his say so, none of this would have happened. Yet Republicans seem far more willing to blame Hegseth than Donald for this egregious and totally avoidable disaster.
Meanwhile, Hegseth has been removing experienced military leaders, attacking women in combat, promoting his religious ideology at the Pentagon, and in the process weakening our military. According to the Washington Post, Pentagon employees produced a video in which Hegseth attacks Democrats and praises Donald, which is, if not illegal, a violation of something called the Hatch Act. Government watchdogs have raised concerns about those possible violations because there are federal restrictions on partisan activity and taxpayer funded propaganda, which is exactly what that video was. The Pentagon confirmed its involvement but, of course, declined to disclose how much the video cost the American taxpayer.
With Massie putting Hegseth on notice that articles of impeachment were about to be presented for a House vote, Hegseth released a video on November 5 defending his record and confronting critics who want him removed. This is what Hegseth said in that video:
As you know, ever since I walked up these very steps nearly two years ago, President Trump’s war department has never been afraid to lead the way. Just like the president, we don’t back down, and that especially applies now. The next few months and years are critical for our department and our republic. This is about the president’s America First agenda. This is about our department’s peace through strength agenda. And in just two short years under the leadership of President Trump, we have restored the Department of War to its core function, war fighting. We ripped out DEI, fired failed leaders, restored deterrence all around the globe, revived recruiting to historic levels, and we are rebuilding our military and defense industrial base, bigger, better, and stronger than ever before.
Oh, the delusional megalomania is strong in that guy. I would say he has been reading Orwell, but I find it hard to believe that Hegseth is literate. What has actually happened in the last two years is that Donald and Hegseth have systematically gutted the Defense Department. And by the way, it is the Defense Department. It is not now, and never will be, the Department of War, no matter how desperately that little man wants it to be, and no matter how desperately he wants to call himself the secretary of war, like a prepubescent boy playing gunfight at the OK Corral in the school playground. He has destroyed our reputation across the world. He has depleted our munitions. He has singlehandedly brought the United States military to its knees, all with Donald’s permission. What was once the greatest fighting force on the planet has been defeated by a much smaller, less equipped nation, Iran, in a very short period of time. Donald has publicly defended Hegseth despite reporting about possible changes in military leadership.
Hegseth has promoted a vision of military strength centered on his idea of masculinity, which is to say the aforementioned toxic masculinity, and his idea of physical toughness, even though the guy can’t even do a pull up. He also promotes what he calls the “warrior ethos,” about which he knows absolutely nothing. Meanwhile, he is gutting the department in terms of limiting who can serve and going after women and people of color, regardless of their institutional knowledge, regardless of how many decades they may have served this country, and destroying careers along the way.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, more than 80 generals and admirals have been fired or blocked from promotion, with women and Black officers accounting for more than half. Hegseth described his campaign to remake military leadership as “clearing out the debris,” which, if he were actually doing that, I mean, he wouldn’t have a job. Saying that is a slap in the face to the lifelong military officers who have served this country in ways Hegseth and certainly Donald cannot comprehend. Many of those removed received no public explanation whatsoever.
One of them, Vice Admiral Nancy Lacore, was fired in 2025 after serving as chief of the Navy Reserve. In a wonderful bit of poetic justice, on November 3 she was elected to Congress as a Democrat in South Carolina’s first district, flipping a Republican held seat. The woman Hegseth directly removed is now going to help oversee the department that dismissed her. In a November 2024 interview with former Navy SEAL Sean Ryan, Hegseth had this to say about women in combat:
I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated. We’ve all served with women and they’re great. Our institutions don’t have to incentivize that in places where traditionally, not traditionally, over human history, men in those positions are more capable.
In the event you think misogyny doesn’t play a role in Hegseth’s decisions, consider that statement. People who know much, much, much more about the military than that incompetent man will tell you that having women serving in the military, just as having trans people serving in the military, makes the military stronger. Diversity is our strength as a country, and, as it turns out, as a military force.
Seven Democratic senators, including Elissa Slotkin and Kirsten Gillibrand, demanded answers about Hegseth’s interference in military promotions. Senators Cory Booker and Brian Schatz called for an inspector general investigation. The United States military includes Americans of every faith and those who practice none. Every one of them has sworn to defend the Constitution regardless of their personal beliefs, and every one of them is entitled to the same religious freedom and freedom from religion. Hegseth is entitled to his beliefs. However, he is attempting to impose his Christian nationalism on the people serving under him, which is unacceptable. With Democrats preparing to take control of Congress, they can investigate whether religious ideology is influencing Pentagon policies, promotions, command decisions, or the treatment of service members.
Since Hegseth now has open prayer meetings in the Pentagon, I think we know the answer to that question is yes, those things are happening, and they need to stop. In February 2026, Hegseth invited Pastor Doug Wilson to speak at the Pentagon, which had never been done before. Wilson has publicly opposed women’s right to vote and advocated that wives submit to their husbands. Here is Wilson in his own words, answering an interviewer who asked about his call to repeal the 19th Amendment:
Interviewer: Now you’ve called for repealing women’s right to vote, which is protected by the 19th Amendment. Right. Why?
Wilson: Because it’s a good idea. No.
Interviewer: A lot of women wouldn’t think so.
Wilson: A lot of women wouldn’t agree, right? But this is one of my favorite questions now too. This is not an XXY chromosome issue, because I don’t want women voting as individuals, because I don’t want men voting as individuals. So what I envision is a system that we have practiced in our church here for four decades, and that is household voting.
In other words, as far as Doug Wilson is concerned, women just shouldn’t bother their pretty little heads about it. Household voting, by the way, is a system in which the man has the say and is the only one casting a vote. I don’t understand why the National Religious Broadcasters decided to platform this misogynist, but it is even worse to know that he has access to and influence over the Secretary of Defense. Hegseth is asking Congress to approve a defense budget of approximately $1.5 trillion. That would be a 40 percent increase in military spending, for a military that already gets far too much money. It is unthinkable that Hegseth should be in charge of such vast sums, especially when he has already done so much to degrade our military and insult our service members.
This is Hegseth demonstrating his complete and utter contempt for the people he allegedly leads, and it is on display at the tomb of the unknown soldier on Veterans Day, where he posed with a group of his friends.
FIGHTERS FOR DEMOCRACY OUT FRONT / NEW BLOOD / NEW IDEAS!
ACCOUNTABILITY! ACCOUNTABILITY! ACCOUNTABILITY!
IF WE WANT THE HARD FOUGHT WIN FOR DEMOCRACY, WE GOT’A HAVE BLUE-PEOPLE WITH BACK-BONE, YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO, LET’S TAKE THE FIGHT TO THEM! KEEP YOUR FOOT ON THE FCKING GAS AMERICANS!
Remember last year when Pea-Brain Pete texted sensitive military information on a Signal group chat that included a journalist? Any other administration would have fired his stupid ass then. Well, actually, any other administration would not have appointed his stupid ass to such an important position in the first place.