Hegseth plans press conference, says he’s ‘not worried’ about impeachment push

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he plans to hold a press conference at the Pentagon on Tuesday morning and argued that he is “not worried” about the impeachment articles Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) plans to reintroduce against him this week.

“We’re not worried about that,” Hegseth told reporters in Newport, R.I., on Monday when asked about Massie’s impeachment salvo, which he first introduced in September.

“I’ll tell you this. Actually, I hope all of you will join us. We’re going to do a press conference tomorrow morning at the Pentagon on that very topic,” the Pentagon chief added. “So I’ll save my remarks there.”

The Pentagon confirmed the press conference will start at 8 a.m. ET, the first one Hegseth has held in over six months. The last press conference at the Pentagon took place on May 5.

The press conference comes as Massie’s impeachment push is gaining steam on Capitol Hill with even some House Republicans weighing whether to support the resolution following the Democratic Party’s dominant showing during the midterm elections.

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the chair of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Friday on The Hill’s sister network NewsNation that “there’s a lot of questions” in the Republican conference about Hegseth.

“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. “No one’s happy about Iran, and I think the Republican voters are more upset about what’s going on in Iran than the Democrat voters.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who is likely to become the House Speaker come January, said on Sunday that he is a “hard yes” when it comes to impeaching Hegseth.

“I’m a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution. The so-called secretary of Defense has abused his power, undermined our national security and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran,” Jeffries said ABC News’s “This Week.”

President Trump has stood publicly behind Hegseth, but the commander-in-chief has asked advisers and allies about the defense secretary’s standing, The Hill previously reported .

Hegseth lambasted the articles of impeachment on Thursday as being authored by a “disgruntled, defeated congressman.”

“Just like they tried against President Trump twice. You see, their policies don’t work, so their obsession with political theater disguised as power drives them to try to destroy their opponents. It’s all about the politics of personal destruction. Didn’t work against President Trump, and it won’t work with me. You can rest assured of that,” the Pentagon chief said on Thursday.

Massie will hold a press conference himself at 3:30 p.m. ET on Monday to discuss his articles of impeachment.