During a news conference, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has condemned impeachment efforts against him as “sabotage”.

“It’s a farce, and it’s a stunt,” he said on Tuesday, calling criticism of him and the war on Iran “policy disagreements”.

Republican US Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky introduced a resolution to impeach Hegseth on Monday over the war on Iran, strikes on purported drug boats and other alleged violations of United States laws.

“This is not patriotism, this is sabotage,” Hegseth said on Tuesday.

In a post on Truth Social after Hegseth spoke, US President Donald Trump defended Hegseth and his statements, saying he “gets an ‘A’ PLUS, PLUS, PLUS for his defense against a disgruntled, angry, defeated, former Congressman, Thomas Massie, a TOTAL LOSER!”

The House of Representatives is likely to take an initial vote on the impeachment effort Tuesday, a procedural vote on whether to debate the impeachment resolution.

Republican Mike Johnson, who leads the party’s majority in the House, said on Tuesday that he expected a vote on the impeachment would be defeated.

“I expect that we’re going to defeat that one way or the other, and we’ll get on with the business,” 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.”

Massie’s last attempt to introduce the impeachment resolution against Hegseth in September was thwarted by Johnson, who avoided a vote in the Republican-led Congress by sending lawmakers home early.

On Tuesday, Massie said it was clear Hegseth had broken the law in the case of not obtaining authorization from Congress for the Iran war, which is one of the accusations in his impeachment resolution.

“The law requires our military to withdraw from hostilities within 60 days if Congress does not authorize the activity. Operation Epic Fury has been underway for 256 days. Congress has not authorized it,” Massie wrote on X, referring to the Pentagon’s name for the war. “Hegseth is breaking the law. Not even debatable.”

‘A job well done’

Speaking at his first news conference at the Pentagon in nearly six months, Hegseth defended his role in military actions ordered by President Trump.

Hegseth compared military losses under his tenure with other historic conflicts, saying some 60,000 Americans were killed in the Vietnam War, and 37,000 in the Korean War, while only 18 had died during the US-Israel war against Iran.

He addressed several of the issues raised in the impeachment resolution against him, including the lawfulness of strikes on alleged drug boats and the abduction of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The strikes on purported drug boats, Hegseth said, had been necessary to protect the US against narcotraffickers, and each strike had saved “thousands of American lives”. Maduro, the former president of Venezuela, Hegseth said, “was not kidnapped; he was brought to justice.”

“I stand behind every one of these operations. I was proud to execute them, and I would do it again tomorrow,” Hegseth said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, when asked on Tuesday about the impeachment effort, also defended Hegseth, saying actions including the strikes on drug boats and the Iran war were in response to “imminent threats” to the US.

“The president of the United States is the commander in chief, and he has a right to defend this country and to address imminent threats that pose a threat to the United States, and he’s done so,” Rubio said.

Hegseth, Rubio added, had acted on “a direct order from the commander in chief, who in our constitution is empowered and trusted with the job of keeping Americans safe”.

Impeachment likely to proceed at some point

A majority in the House is needed to take such a step, which then sends the resolution to the Senate, where lawmakers conduct an inquiry akin to a trial that can result in removal from office if two-thirds of the body – 67 lawmakers – support a conviction.

Democratic leaders have said they would support an effort to impeach Hegseth. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is expected to become speaker in January, said over the weekend that he supported Hegseth’s impeachment.

“The so-called secretary of defence has abused his power, undermined our national security, and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran,” Jeffries said.

The Democrats will have a majority in the House starting in January, when new representatives are sworn in after highly successful midterm elections that saw Republicans lose many seats. Democrats in the Senate, however, do not have enough votes on their own to actually remove Hegseth from office.

Although Democrats will hold the majority in the Senate, they are expected to have about 54 seats in the upper chamber of Congress – short of the 67 votes needed to convict and remove Hegseth.

Vice President JD Vance also defended Hegseth in a social media post on Tuesday, stating that the process of impeachment “has become a ridiculous show that stands in for actual policymaking”.

“Congress has so many tools for registering its policy disagreements,” said Vance. “Rather than use them, they’re going to try to impeach Pete Hegseth.”

Speaking on a podcast on Monday, Republican Senator Ted Cruz said it was only a matter of time before Hegseth would leave his job in some way.

“Either Hegseth is gonna step down, either he will resign voluntarily, or Trump will fire him,” Cruz said. “Or if that does not happen, I think it’s extremely likely, if not certain, that the House will impeach him, because on the face of it the votes are there.”