Republicans quickly turn against Pete Hegseth after midterms rout

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President Donald Trump may have made the decision to launch the war that tanked voters’ support for the GOP and dealt them a midterm shellacking. But the historic losses are accelerating a push for someone else to take the fall: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

And the House could vote as soon as next week to impeach the Pentagon’s top leader.

Many Republican lawmakers and allies alarmed by Tuesday’s wipeout are moving swiftly to pin blame for the election results on Hegseth, arguing behind the scenes that he played a chief role in convincing Trump to attack Iran with no exit strategy — and no plan for managing the inevitable political fallout.

The knives-out campaign comes despite private acknowledgement from House and Senate GOP strategists that the party’s problems extended far beyond the war, triggering 2008-level losses that will take years to reverse. But for now, party leaders – and many in their ranks – remain unwilling to directly blame Trump for their woes.

Even among House Republicans who survived Tuesday’s onslaught, there’s zero expectation they will suddenly break from the president with two years left in his term. Yet that fealty does not extend to Hegseth, the combative defense secretary who has made few friends on Capitol Hill since taking over command of the Pentagon.

House Republicans are expected to vote to directly repudiate the defense secretary in a matter of days. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, the famously anti-Trump GOP lawmaker, told CNN he plans to trigger a vote to impeach Hegseth when Congress returns next week — and multiple GOP sources said they expect it to pass.

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Hegseth, a vocal cheerleader for the war, oversold the US’ ability to win the conflict quickly and easily, multiple Republicans argued to CNN, describing on condition of anonymity why many in their party are now turning against the defense secretary. They accused him of continuing to advocate for escalation despite little sign that continued bombing has brought Iran closer to surrender.

The conflict has since turned into a quagmire, they said, entangling the US in the Middle East indefinitely, worsening the affordability crisis, and triggering voters’ midterm revolt against the GOP. On Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance issued an extraordinary statement that “the reason we lost is the war,” though he did not assign any specific blame for the conflict.

“The pivot is starting” on the war and Hegseth, a former senior Pentagon official said. “This has been primarily a Department of War-led effort because you chose to take military action to resolve a foreign policy matter.”

Still, despite efforts around him to turn up the heat on Hegseth, Trump’s own confidence in his defense secretary hasn’t yet wavered even as he’s continued to survey allies about his performance, multiple White House officials told CNN.

Trump personally likes Hegseth, and has told aides that he believes he should fight back against efforts to impeach him or launch investigations into his decision-making.

“Just two days ago the president was in the room with him, telling him, ‘You’re my best guy. You’re the best guy I have,’” one of the officials said.

Trump may also feel an additional need to keep Hegseth around if he chooses to move forward with additional strikes against Iran, another source familiar with his thinking told CNN, especially with Democrats’ new majority in the Senate likely to complicate any administration efforts to confirm new Cabinet appointees.

Pressed Wednesday on Hegseth’s job status, Trump defended the war effort and denied any plans to fire him, saying he thought the defense secretary was “doing a very good job.”

“If I had it to do again, I’d have to do it again,” Trump said of his decision to go to war.

The White House also decried the prospect of Democratic investigations into the Pentagon, with spokeswoman Lauren Bis arguing in a statement that “if Democrats choose to pursue sham investigations and radical left policies, they are choosing to work against the American people.”

But some Republicans feel it may be only a matter of time before Trump looks for someone to blame for the midterm losses, and they view Hegseth as an obvious target.

“If the president is serious about anyone taking responsibility for it, it’s Pete Hegseth,” one Republican close to the White House said of the electoral thrashing. “Pete has been either dishonest or incorrect — neither of which are acceptable — about timelines, goals and objectives since the beginning.”

Trump has not yet signaled plans to fire any top officials. But in the aftermath of the GOP’s midterm drubbing, allies and advisers widely expect him to eventually oversee some level of changes within the administration.

Within Trump’s orbit, some have seized on Hegseth’s likely impeachment as additional justification for making him the fall guy in the wake of an embarrassing rebuke of Trump’s presidency — contending that he’s bound to become a central target of Democrats’ ire over the war anyway.

Hegseth, for his part, has been defiant about his ability to withstand the forthcoming wave of congressional scrutiny.

While he has at times discussed his potential future ambitions with allies — including possibly running for office in Tennessee — those closest to Trump don’t believe that’s an immediate goal of his, people familiar with the discussions said. (Some Republicans on the Hill, in the meantime, privately bristle at the prospect of Hegseth serving in Congress.)

In the immediate aftermath of Tuesday’s midterm election results, one person close to Hegseth told CNN that Trump’s defense secretary still expects to stay in his role and is prepared to fight an impeachment effort.

Hegseth has also communicated to the White House that he’s prepared to own every policy decision and action taken by the Pentagon, the person said, believing that he’s well-equipped to defend those moves in public hearings that would likely grow contentious if Democrats launch them after they take control of Congress in January.

In a statement, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said that Hegseth “will not back down or be deterred by politicians seeking to score partisan points or launch phony investigations where no wrongdoing exists.”

“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,” Parnell said.

Yet once that congressional scrutiny ramps up, Trump advisers and allies have questioned how long Hegseth’s resolve might last. Even before Tuesday, several White House officials, members of the president’s political operation and Trump allies candidly acknowledged the Iran war was — in their view — their biggest liability for the midterms. And Hegseth, one of the biggest proponents of military action in Iran, is intrinsically linked to that liability, they added.

“I think he probably knows he’s dead but would like an exit sufficiently dramatic that it gives him a launching pad to run for POTUS,” one administration official said.

For skeptics of the administration’s open-ended war in Iran, successfully pushing Hegseth out of the Pentagon would mark a critical victory — but only the first step in a broader effort to bring the fight to an end.

After all, Massie noted, Trump has continued to argue for continuing the war in Iran, no matter the political and economic price paid at home.

“You don’t screw up this badly an election with just one issue,” Massie said. “It was completely avoidable if they’d just broken out of the cultish following of Donald Trump.”

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唐纳德·特朗普总统或许做出了发动战争的决定，这场战争导致共和党选民支持率暴跌，并在中期选举中惨败。但这场历史性的失败正在加速将矛头指向他人：国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯。

众议院最早可能在下周就弹劾五角大楼最高领导人进行投票。

周二的惨败令许多共和党议员和盟友感到震惊，他们正迅速将选举结果的责任归咎于赫格塞斯，并在幕后辩称，赫格塞斯在说服特朗普攻击伊朗方面发挥了主要作用，而且没有制定退出战略，也没有计划来应对不可避免的政治后果。

尽管众议院和参议院的共和党策略师私下承认，该党的问题远不止于战争，而是引发了堪比2008年大选的惨败，而且需要数年时间才能扭转局面，但这场内讧仍在继续。目前，共和党领导人及其许多党员仍然不愿直接将困境归咎于特朗普。

即使是那些在周二的猛烈抨击中幸存下来的众议院共和党人，也丝毫没有指望他们会在总统任期还剩两年之际突然与他决裂。然而，这种忠诚并不适用于赫格塞斯，这位好斗的国防部长自接管五角大楼以来，在国会山几乎没什么朋友。

预计众议院共和党人将在几天内投票直接罢免国防部长。肯塔基州众议员托马斯·马西是出了名的反特朗普共和党议员，他告诉CNN，他计划在国会下周复会时启动对赫格塞斯的弹劾投票——多位共和党消息人士称，他们预计弹劾案将会通过。

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多位共和党人士向CNN表示，赫格塞斯曾是这场战争的积极支持者，但他过分夸大了美国迅速轻松赢得冲突的能力。这些共和党人士匿名向CNN解释了为何党内许多人现在开始反对这位国防部长。他们指责赫格塞斯在几乎没有迹象表明持续轰炸使伊朗更接近投降的情况下，仍然继续鼓吹升级冲突。

他们说，这场冲突如今已演变成一场泥潭，使美国无限期地深陷中东泥潭，加剧了住房负担能力危机，并引发了选民在中期选举中对共和党的反抗。周三，副总统约翰·万斯发表了一份非同寻常的声明，称“我们战败的原因是这场战争”，但他并未具体指出冲突的责任方。

一位前五角大楼高级官员表示，关于这场战争和赫格塞斯的“转变已经开始”。“这主要是战争部主导的行动，因为你们选择采取军事行动来解决外交政策问题。”

尽管特朗普身边的人努力向赫格塞斯施压，但据多位白宫官员向 CNN 透露，特朗普本人对国防部长的信心尚未动摇，尽管他一直在向盟友征询赫格塞斯的表现。

特朗普个人很喜欢赫格塞斯，并告诉助手，他认为赫格塞斯应该反击弹劾他或对他的决策展开调查的努力。

“就在两天前，总统还和他待在同一个房间里，告诉他：‘你是我最得力的人。你是我拥有的最优秀的人才。’”一位官员说道。

另一位熟悉特朗普想法的消息人士告诉 CNN，如果特朗普选择继续对伊朗发动更多打击，他可能还会觉得有必要留住赫格塞斯，尤其是在民主党在参议院获得多数席位可能会使政府确认新内阁成员的努力变得复杂的情况下。

周三，当被问及赫格塞斯的职位状况时，特朗普为战争努力辩护，并否认有任何解雇他的计划，称他认为国防部长“做得非常好”。

“如果让我重新选择，我还是会这么做，”特朗普在谈到他发动战争的决定时说道。

白宫也谴责了民主党对五角大楼展开调查的可能性，发言人劳伦·比斯在一份声明中表示，“如果民主党人选择进行虚假调查和推行激进的左翼政策，他们就是在与美国人民作对。”

但一些共和党人认为，特朗普迟早会找人来为中期选举的失利负责，而他们认为赫格塞斯显然是一个目标。

一位与白宫关系密切的共和党人士谈到选举惨败时说：“如果总统真的想找个人来承担责任，那这个人就是皮特·赫格塞斯。从一开始，皮特在时间表、目标和目的方面就一直不诚实或说错话——这两种情况都不可接受。”

特朗普尚未表示有解雇任何高级官员的计划。但在共和党中期选举惨败之后，他的盟友和顾问普遍预期他最终会在政府内部进行一定程度的调整。

在特朗普的圈子里，有些人抓住赫格塞斯可能被弹劾这件事，作为在特朗普总统任期遭受尴尬打击后让他成为替罪羊的又一理由——他们认为，无论如何，他都注定会成为民主党人对这场战争愤怒的中心目标。

赫格塞斯本人则对能否经受住即将到来的国会审查浪潮表示不屑。

据知情人士透露，虽然他有时会与盟友讨论自己未来的潜在抱负——包括可能在田纳西州竞选公职——但与特朗普关系最密切的人士认为，这并非他眼下的首要目标。（与此同时，一些国会山的共和党人私下里对赫格塞斯可能进入国会任职感到不满。）

周二中期选举结果公布后，一位与赫格塞斯关系密切的人士告诉 CNN，特朗普的国防部长仍然希望继续留任，并准备对抗弹劾。

这位知情人士还表示，赫格塞斯已向白宫表示，他准备对五角大楼的每一项政策决定和行动负责，并相信自己有能力在公开听证会上捍卫这些举措。如果民主党在1月份掌控国会后发起听证会，这些听证会可能会变得充满争议。

五角大楼首席发言人肖恩·帕内尔在一份声明中表示，赫格塞斯“不会退缩，也不会被那些试图捞取党派利益或在根本不存在不当行为的情况下发起虚假调查的政客吓倒”。

帕内尔说：“尽管民主党人威胁要进行虚假的政治迫害，我们仍将继续在战争部推进特朗普总统的议程，赫格塞斯部长百分之百致力于领导该部，直到特朗普总统任期结束。”

然而，一旦国会的审查力度加大，特朗普的顾问和盟友就质疑赫格塞斯的决心能坚持多久。甚至在周二之前，几位白宫官员、总统政治团队成员和特朗普的盟友就坦率地承认，在他们看来，伊朗战争是他们在中期选举中最大的软肋。他们补充说，赫格塞斯是伊朗军事行动最坚定的支持者之一，因此他与这一软肋有着千丝万缕的联系。

一位政府官员表示：“我认为他可能知道自己已经死了，但他希望以一种足够戏剧性的方式离开，以便为竞选美国总统铺路。”

对于对政府在伊朗发动无休止战争持怀疑态度的人来说，成功地将赫格塞斯赶出五角大楼将标志着一次关键的胜利——但这仅仅是结束这场战争的更广泛努力的第一步。

马西指出，毕竟，无论在国内付出怎样的政治和经济代价，特朗普都一直主张继续对伊朗发动战争。

“仅仅一个问题就把选举搞得这么糟糕，这简直不可思议，”马西说。“如果他们当初能摆脱对唐纳德·特朗普的盲目追随，这一切本来是可以避免的。”